Amazing photos!

These photos are absolutely amazing.One thing that is obvious is that your father had a quite nice camera, if he was infact the photographer.Are these taken by him or by official R.A.F. photogs? thanks for sharing them with us and also send my thanks to your father for allowing us to view them.What an adventure ! (and i’m sure he experienced more than just a little bit of hell mixed in as well.what with that being the military and there being a war on and all)
Thanks again, Tim

midway was a really bad movie,period.bad story line.bad stock footage usage(heston flaming a panther is only 1 example).recycled some Tora,Tora ,Tora footage that all fans of TTT recognized immediately and added to dislike of midway.laughable chatter on various Japanese ships and their bridges or CIC equilavent etc.etc.etc. it was a real let down for me but hey,Thats only me!if ya like it,more power to ya! (we cant all be right,Right?)

I dont think they were accurate enough to use.I believe that they came out of an old Air Classics magazine.probably 1980’s vintage. Tim

Old Mitsubishi employee

In the late 1980’s/early 1990’s I was employed as a mechanic at the Mitsubishi
auto dealership in Cerritos,California.I had a set of Mitsu Zero blueprints/technical drawings taped to the side of one of my toolboxes.at the time Mitsubishi was using the slogan”Mitsubishi,suddenly the obvious choice”
I modified this slogan a little and placed it under the drawings. It read ,
“Mitsubishi,suddenly the obvious choice, again!”.Anyway,due to this dealerships proximity to the Mitsu America headquarters in nearby Cypress,California,The powers that be at headquarters would bus japanese compatriots to visit us ,in order to see a “typical”Mitsubishi dealership.One day as a group of Japanese business types were visiting,I glanced over at my toolbox and spyed an older gentleman who appeared to be in his 80’s checking out my zero drawings.He soon waved me over to him and had a young english speaking co-worker ask me “What do you mean by these drawings?” or something to that effect.I answered
“Thats my tribute to the greatest product ever built by Mitsubishi,Its a true work of art”After the translation,the old mans eyes lit up and he smiled at me and bowed and said”Hai!” Then he shook my hand and left.I smiled too.Tim.

A great man passes

Your father and others like him have been my heros all of my life.It saddens me to no end to see them all dying off.A fate we all share.All that I can do is to take my hat off to them and to say thanks for all that they have done for us/me>You have my sincerest condolences and I salute your father.may he rest in peace Tim

the sound of silence

Having had the great late Mark Hanna come towards me flat out and fly over my head at an estimated 15-25 feet for a group of us snappers when the OFMC had their Fury a little while ago, you will never convince me that any other single piston warbird either looks as good or more importantly sounds as good as a Fury with a Centuras fitted
You know what sound those centaurus engines make,listen*………………..
……………………………………….what do you hear?nothing?why is that?
I’m guessing that it is due to the lack of spares,maybe thats why they are reengined.I am a big fan of Bristol sleeve valved engines.however the lack of spare parts means that the R-3350 conversion looks mighty tempting especially if you want to fly your plane for more than a handfull of hours a year.This past summer I was at the Camarillo airshow when I spyed a Fury with a 5 bladed prop.COOL! a Centaurus engined bird!I couldnt wait for it to fly.It took off and immediately returned and landed.didnt see 1 flyby.Why?a Centaurus problem of course.Par for the course.time 4 an R-3350. Tim

Reno 2001

Reno 2001 was a real bummer,Why? oh a little event occured on(9/11/2001 or oops I forgot 11/9/2001) in New york City.All flying in the U.S. was verboten.Since we were already there ,we got to sit in the box seats and pretend the races were happening. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!So thats the worst in my book.anyone care to agree?.also getting home was quite fun.

A guy by the name of Watson ran the outfit that rounded up the German planes and sent them to the U.S. They called themselves”Watson’s wizzards”