Dyess AFB Heritage Flight

I participated in the Heritage Flight at Dyess AFB this past weekend, again with Tarheel Hal.  The P-47 flew with an A-10C Thunderbolt II from Davis-Monthan AFB.  It was very cool, seeing the two generations of Thunderbolts flying in front of the crowd together.

Barksdale AFB Heritage

Had a blast this past weekend supporting the USAF Heritage Flight at Barksdale AFB.  Tuna in the P-47, coupled with Bluto and Holy in the QF-4s from Tyndall, put on a wonderful show for the crowd.  Weather was great, for the most part.

Thunderbird came up from Galveston and put on a spirited show for the crowd.

We Remember

This is the song that plays during each and every USAF Heritage Flight.

Gal and Hal do the Heritage Flight

Lone Star Flight Museum's Galveston Gal and Tarheel Hal both flew Heritage Flights at Randolph AFB during their show on the last weekend of October. Gumby flew the P-51 and the P-47 (not at the same time, obviously) with Rider, in his Shaw AFB based F-16.

Beautiful weekend, great weather, very large crowd, the only negative points were lots of engine oil and antifreeze to deal with. Most excellent fun!

Photo Credits - yours truly

USAF Heritage Flight Foundation

Those of you who have seen a USAF Heritage flight at an airshow know how moving and impressive it is. What you may not know is that the USAF is not funding this program anymore - they dropped official funding before this year's show season started. Although the Air Force does still participate in the program in the form of aircraft and pilots for demonstration flights, funding for the warbirds comes from the Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation, a non-profit established solely to keep this program going. I encourage you to visit their website and see what they are doing, and how you can help.

http://www.airforceheritageflight.org/home

Without private and corporate sponsorship, the future of this program beyond this year is not assured.

Here is their intro video. Cousin Gumby makes an appearance, sitting on Galveston Gal. What you can't see is me and Outlaw13 just off camera doing our best to make him bust out laughing. Very professional of Gumby to keep a straight face, I must say!

Tarheel Hal Visits Sheppard AFB

Cousin Gumby brought Tarheel Hal to Sheppard AFB for their airshow a couple of weekends ago. The massive Thunderbolt is one of a handful of this WWII veteran fighter in the world that are still flying. This airshow found Gumby horsing it around in the company of Rider, flying a 20th Fighter Wing F-16C from Shaw AFB, performing the USAF Heritage Flight.

I had the priviledge of spending a lot of time underneath the P-47 over the weekend, cleaning oil from the massive radial engine off the belly.

Thanks to aztec01 and Outlaw13 for use of the photos...

Heritage Phantoms

The Barksdale AFB airshow a couple of weekends ago featured two QF-4E Phantoms. They were from 82ATS, Det.1, based at Holloman AFB, NM. Both aircraft are painted in 'Heritage' paint schemes, a program the Air Force undertook a few years ago to paint up select QF-4s in paint schemes representing F-4s in USAF service over the years. 72-1140 is painted in Vietnam style camoflage, while 72-1485 carries the SEA wraparound scheme (no white belly).

72-1140 performed a spirited demo on each day of the show, flown by Bluto. Afterwards, it joined an A-10C from D-M AFB and P-51D Galveston Gal for a Heritage Flight demonstration. Seeing a Phantom fly these days is a very rare treat. To see one flown in a demo just doesn't happen very often.

The only remaining Phantoms in US service have been converted into target drones. They are used to test weapons systems and provide aircrew training. Based at Holloman AFB and Tyndall AFB, they are routinely flown several times with a pilot before being sent off on an unmanned mission that ends with the aircraft being shot down.

Spending the weekend in close proximity with the pilots and ground crew members for these jets was a treat. The loving care with which they treated the old girls was impressive - you would have thought that they were brand new aircraft, not ones that had been built 39 years ago.

The number of QF-4s left will ensure the aircraft is flying for a few more years. Current 'expentiture' estimates show the last shootdown happening sometime between 2014 and 2017. The last F-4 drone conversion contract was just signed, meaning there will be no more drone conversions after this small group passes through. QF-16 Lawn Darts will take their place on the shootdown line.

Galveston Gal - Up And At 'Em

Lone Star Flight Museum's long awaited return to the ranks of Mustang ownership has been completed with the purchase and restoration of 'Galveston Gal'.

After a lengthy restoration and repaint, the aircraft made its airshow debut at NAS Corpus Christi, followed by a weekend at NAS Ft. Worth participating in the USAF Heritage Flight with an A-10C Thunderbolt II.



N4151D is actually a TF-51D, a true dual control Mustang, one of 12 built to this standard. Originally built as a normal P-51D, it was converted to dual controls while in service with the El Salvador Air Force. To my knowledge, it is the only survivor of these conversions. Once owned by Lone Star, they purchased the aircraft back from owner William Hane in 2009, and had it rebuilt by Ezell Aviation in Breckenridge, TX.

'Galveston Gal' is a faithful recreation of the P-51D that was flown by Lt. Ray Lancaster in the 370th Fighter Squadron, 359th Fighter Group. Now 90 years old, Lt. Lancaster was present in Galveston at LSFM when Tom Gregory brought the aircraft in on its delivery flight from Breckenridge.



The original 'Galveston Gal' was not named for a particular lady, but for the song made famous by Gene Autry.

These photos were shot in Ft. Worth during the airshow. The Heritage Flight was flown by Cousin Gumby in the Mustang, with General Tommy in his backseat, while Rifle was driving the Hawg.