China ClipperHooks Hurricane / Houston
steve,
freezing in Canada already? Come on down… It’s 95 here…
They plan to put this one on the show circuit.
I wager you will see it! Stay tuned. : )
China ClipperDodge one hurricane and paint another
Houston dodged a real hurricane this week, and this Hurricane got its wings painted yesterday.
In the overhead shot you can see the top right of one finished roundel. The markings should be striking in contrast to the desert tan and brown…
Touch up today and over the weekend on leading edges, etc. and then hopefully Monday, pushed out and over to another hanger belonging to the LSFM chief pilot, for finish work. Also some trim/balance work to be done in some shakedown flights…
(no towing on the Hurricane, as previous attempts showed the tail wheel not up to it)
On another note, the LSFM gang is scurrying to get an engine back on their B17G in time for the early October “Wings Over Houston” airshow at Ellington Field, near Johnson Space Center. They have some paying customers to give rides to. 🙂
Have a good weekend, ya’all!
China Clipperavon park bomb range
Guess Avon Park is not far from the old Sebring airfields of WW2 that were later used for auto racing (and still are?)…
I ck’d out google earth and found the range. it is marked, a bit NE of Avon Park AFB. Looks like a variety of old jets… A4? F100?
near n27 42 18 W81 17 42
just spotted what looks like an old grumman tracker at
81°14’11.07″W 27°34’22.37″N
just north of it up the “runway” is what’s left of an F4 with a few craters, up from that, lots of craters around another F4… And there is a T33/F80, but I won’t say where that is… Wow, just look around this google earth site area… interesting stuff… some mock up migs…
and some sites that look like they may have been mock up SAM sites..
This is very interesting…
Found what looks like another mockup runway that goes by a live homestead and it had a HUGE crater in it… but carater looks old, I HOPE! haha!!!! if not, it would have blown their windows out probably.
I just emailed my dad (in St Pete) who flew as B17 instructor pilot in Sebring after his tour in Europe, if he ever used Avon Park range… I should hear soon…
I would be interested in someone elses guess on those aircraft targets on the old range…
China Clipperflat hurricane
I agree. The flat paint looks much more serious! War ready…
When the paint is done, she will be moved over to another hangar for finish work…
The underside blue looks best in the sunlight… but is correct. John took GREAT pains on the insignia… which we will see soon! (he takes great pains in all his work. his hangar is full of lots of airplanes and helicopters that will be beautiful when done.)
China ClipperTexas Hurricane Season Update, paint
The Hurricane got some desert camo paint on it last Friday afternoon. In some pics, the paint is still wet! Fuselage only as of Saturday.
The insignia are on, but masked and only have to be uncovered… stencils are on hand for the finish work, but no where NEAR as extensive as the Spitfire MK959 was.
More pictures soon…
China ClipperMustang long distance, over North Pole
A page or so back in postings, someone asked the last time someone flew a P51 across the Atlantic…
Here is one that is not too well known.
Capt Charles Blair flew his personal P51C razorback over the North Pole non-stop in record speed in 1951, after flying from NY to London Heathrow. (He was married to Maureen O’Hara, yes, the movie star) My dad used to fly with him in PAA.
His P51, ExcaliberIII, is at the Smithsonian Air Museum.
His aviation accomplishments are a very good read…
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/cfblair.htm
http://www.speakeasy.org/~beck/blair.html —–
On January 31, 1951, Captain Blair flew his Mustang – which he had named “Excalibur III’ non-stop from “New York to London’s Heathrow Airport. One objective of the flight was to test the effects of the then-relatively unknown high-altitude phenomenon called the “jet stream.” Captain Blair encountered the high-velocity westerly winds at 37,000 feet precisely as he had planned, and the resulting tail wind, in his words, “blew me to London.” He covered the 3,478 statute miles at an average speed of 446 miles an hour. His elapsed time of seven hours and 48 minutes set a record for a transatlantic crossing by a piston engine plane that still stands.
Four months later, on May 29, Captain Blair took off in this same Mustang from Bardutoss, Norway and headed for Fairbanks, Alaska. It was the first solo flight over the Arctic and the North Pole, and the first by a single-engine aircraft. On this 3,260 mile nonstop flight, which took ten hours and 27 minutes, he proved the accuracy and practicability of a system of navigation that he had developed for flying in polar regions. (He also took care of a personal errand. As he flew over the Pole, he dropped from the cockpit window a letter from his young son Chris, addressed to “Santa Claus.”)
————–
After retiring from PAA, he and his wife started and ran Antilles Airways in the Caribbean. He died in a Grumman Goose crash in 1978. Maureen ran the airline for awhile after that.
China ClipperMiss Velma aka Gunfighter
I thought Miss Velma looked familiar….
November 2004 at DW Hooks Airport, Houston, TX.
China ClipperHurri vs Spit insignia painting
I went thru some pictures from Dec 04 through Feb 05. It looks like the main markings (fuselage invasion stripes and main markings and tail) look like they were done first. Can’t really tell on the wing roundels… I was just learning about what to look for in the restorations/Spitfires… Fuselage numbers in front of the invasion striped were finished after the camo.
Smaller insignia was applied later, such as the Free French stork emblem, etc as stencils or with stencils.
Lots of stuff was painted over again til it was perfect.
The painting on MK959 took from Nov 04 til March 05… just the paint. whew!!!
China ClipperMarkings and paint
The markings before the camoflage surprised me also, as this was different than how MK959 was done.
Anyway, it will be in desert camo, in markings for American volunteer pilot Lance Wade. He was killed in Jan 44 in Italy, and had 23 victories.
It is a MkIIB. It was in the RCAF.
That’s what I have picked up from articles.
John Stewart is very particular about his work so this will be another gem when it is done…
China ClipperJuly 3 Hurricane photos hot off the memory chip
Gentlemen,
Here are some pictures as of lunch hour today/Tuesay. Word is, the camo paint will start next week. John paints on this as other work permits and he has a hangar full of work going on.
I plan to head out later next week for another look.
Happy Independence Day! (for those of us on the west side of the Atlantic.)
China ClipperHouston Hurricane
a couple pictures from Nov 06 thru Jan 07… Sorry I had not posted these. I thought I had… Too many senior moments lately. … they just run together.
I was reading “The Few” by Alex Kershaw during the time I was taking this pictures… I had to pinch myself I was standing by this plane that was written up so much in the book….
I was joking with my dad online 2 wks ago… that on Jun 21, he was in Berlin saying “hello” to Adolph, oops, OVER Berlin… in 1944 flying a B17… (along with another 1,233 B17s!!) He replied, “Yes, and the day before I was over Hamburg and watched a friend of mine go down… ”
Those that flew these fighters and bombers day after day were really something…
Oh, one more thing, so far, knock wood, no OTHER hurricanes here in Texas this hurricane season…. This one is enough. 🙂
China ClipperHooks Hurricane update July 2,
Nearly our American Independence Day over here… LOL
I was out at Hooks week before last. The insignia were painted but still covered with masking, tape etc. The good news was that the camoflage was supposed to begin very soon, like last week… So, I am hoping to get out there tomorrow to check…
Here are some shots with the markings but still covered…
Sorry I have not been more frequent with updates but there has not been a lot of action til lately. They were sorting out proper markings and colors.
You may recall, John Stewart, who is refinishing this Hurricane in desert colors, also did Spitfire Mk959 for Rayburn Thompson, here in Houston, a beaut! (the spit not rayburn, sorry rayburn.. 🙂 )
China ClipperHouston Hurricane, status
The Hurricane is still hangared, waiting its turn in the paint hangar.
I don’t know how soon it will be done but will send an update as soon as I hear.
China Clipper.22 and .223/M16
I hope you know the .22 rimfire cited as a survival rifle ain’t the same as the .223… duh. LOL
The M16 problems of VietNam were caused by using the wrong powder from what was specified, causing bad fouling… That is not an issue any more. Fixed long ago, but after a bad time for the GIs using the bad ammo. !!!!!!
Someone in the Pentagon must have tried to save money by using different powder than specified… I forgot the whole old story.
In WW2 some survival arms were in fighter aircraft perhaps and payload was an issue. so .22’s were perfect.
China ClipperCharter Arms? check out their website… I did not think they go back to WW2. They don’t. They were founded in 1964. So … it can’t be WW2 vintage.
charterfirearms.com
i have one of their basic snubnose .38s.
There were lots of survival rifles, some were a combo .410 and .22 or .22 magnum, etc. I don’t know anything about WW2 survival rifles but knew Charter Arms was a relative newcomer to the firearms business.
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