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Lex’s wish listOther blogger’s put wish lists up. Things from Amazon, DVDs and the like. Widgets. Gewgaws. Me? I want the same thing I wanted when I was a little boy: I want a jet. In fact, I want an A-4 Skyhawk. And you, gentle reader, can buy one for me. For around $149k from EBay, unless you want to go through the high drama of the actual auction. Which, you know: Be my guest, if that’s the way you’d prefer to handle it. Oh, and the seller says that I’ll need around ~$750k to make her airworthy. Maybe you can all pitch in on that. He also says that he “has a line” on a TA-4J cockpit that can be used to “convert a single.” Which is just enough to queer me on the whole enterprise, because that makes it clear that he has no idea what he’s talking about. You don’t just slap a -J cockpit into -C and call it a day. Wouldn’t fit. *sigh* So. DVD? 20 comments to Lex’s wish list |
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Copyright © 2009 Neptunus Lex - All Rights Reserved |
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I told my wife a few days ago that the first $50K check we get from anyone I’m buying that Corvette I’ve always wanted.She rolled her eyes and we moved on…
Good luck finding parts for your J65 engine, Auto zone is probably missing most of them. It would be fun tho….
That is plain weird.
Taking your “friends and family” for a fly? I’ll bet there are no ejection seats for starters. Or ones that have been maintained anyway.
My hubby took me for a fly in a working A-4 before we got married. I loved the take-off and the landing and threw up everywhere in between.
That’ll do for me.
And just think, for an additional fee they will even disassemble this baby and ship it to you. Of course they will also be happy to take your $75k and do the refubishment for you. Whatever’s your pleasure, we only aim to please
Either way something tells me you’e gonna pay a lot more than that steal price of $149k. Perhaps a toy plane to go along with the DVD??
Lex,
A shipmate like you, social skills, talent, an officer and a gentleman, could just befriend one of those rich fat cats who can afford such a toy, and fly it for ‘em. Cold mike, of course.
Sandman
“I want it all and I want it delivered!”
Might one say, “some assembly required, batteries extra”?
Ozwitch, what a thrill that must have been (not the throwing up part)! My hubby was a little more gentle with me. He won my heart after a jaunt in a little helicopter, a Robinson, I think it was. He then sealed the deal by taking me up in a glider. We were dropped off at 3000 ft and managed to climb to 7000. None of my other suitors could give me a HIGH like that : )
Ozwitch – my father-in-law is a small craft pilot. About 15 years ago he invited us to take a ride in a vintage Steerman – bi-plane, 2 seater, open cockpit. I said no, no, no – even when I was putting my foot on the wingstep to get in. He took it easy with me until I motioned to him to ramp things up. Wingstands over his house. Best. Experience. Ever.
Lex – $149K down, $750K balloon payment? Sounds like a lease deal to me…
Ok Lex. Let’s go:
http://www.skyhawk.org/common/start-em-up.wav
Wait a minute.
Are you sure you want to go out single engine, J-52 to boot (same as on the Prowler….)?
Ahhhh WTF?. Let’s walk.
B2
I loved watching A-4s fly around Cherry Point back in the day.
Is it possible they could swap the forward section of the fuselages (everything infront of the intakes)? Maybe that is what they meant??
There was a MiG-21 for sale on EBAY a few months back…
I’ll save my money for a Tomcat or ‘Sader on EBAY.
Ozwitch, were you in the service on that ride or a civilian? The reason I asked is that many years ago some fellows I knew decided to take their non military, except by marriage, wives for a ride in their new TA-4. It was well planned. The guys landed at NAS North Island where the wives awaited. OPS was informed they were going to go on a couple of 0.5 fam flights before going back to Lemoore. The gals had their flight gear and no one was ever the wiser. Thank God they had no problems.
They sure had fun..
Which reminds me, Bill, of a story I heard about many years ago that went not quite so well. Turns out a recruiter had access to a T-34B which he used to take local kids interested in naval aviation flying. Turned out he also used it to ferry his non-spousal girlfriend – rather informally, from his spouse’s standpoint – down to Harris Ranch for fine dining on the 5.
He landed there one evening gear up. He got his baggage going on the run while waiting for crash and salvage to show up, because it simply wouldn’t do to have a gear up landing with that kind of pax on board. At so many levels.
Sadly (for him) several of the witnesses told the AMB about the rogue runner when the time came to take testimony.
Never did hear what happened to that guy. Pretty sure he didn’t make CNO.
Bob,
Listened to the “Starts” .wav. I got chills which I thought was a bit of nostalgia kicking in until I realized that it was a night launch – it was that other kind of chills.
Nose
You know Nose, I was thinking the exact same thing?
Wow.
Lex- If you’d like, I will share email address (offline) of a guy in Texas who has several A-4s (ex Israeli AF birds, as I recall). Also some H-34 helos if you have nostalgic rotorhead friends.
Doing a search for military a/c for sale and turn up some intresting birds:
http://www.pilotmarket.com/aircrafts/Aircraft_For_Sale/War_Birds_and_Classic/Northrop/listing-12587-75816444.html
f-5s, mig23…even a freakin MiG-29m!!!!
Lex,
In fact we did just that back in 1975. I started the Fleet Adversary Program at VA-127 at Lemoore then. We also were responsible for training the Singapore Air Force which had purchased A-4S aircraft which were rebuilt C’s by Gruman Aircraft Services. They were really nifty little bombers with angle rate bombing system and a 30MM Aden cannon.
Anyway, in order to facilitate training, Gruman chopped the nose off of two of the aircraft and tacked on a front cockpit so we could have a T type trainer. It really flew kinda funky, and our skipper Ron Shields and I took it out for an unauthorized spin test on Friday afternoon, which we also filmed.
Needless to say, our message to AIRPAC re the spin recovery characteristics was not well recieved, and we both were invited down to North Island by the quickest means available.
As far as I know, the SAF took the aircraft home, and flew them for many years. There are a few pictures still around. Very unusual looking, and matching flight characteristics. We quickly went back to training them in the TA-4!!
Keep up the good work!
Rusty
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/zeptepi
Bill, I was a Navy Midshipman at the time, or I’d just got my first stripe – can’t remember. Anyway civilian backseaters were a definite no-no in the RAN too. Of course that didn’t stop the squadron CO from taking up the Commodore’s young, leggy, attractive secretary.
Who never threw up once. Cow.
I see Warbucks 1 checking in, a man I had to lobby to stay in Pcola for “retread” jet training!
Small world.
B2