Endure the brief commercial. Enjoy the rest.
And somebody tell me how you get that job. Not with the Blues, I know how that works.
Flying Bearcats.
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Good Day at the PatchBy lex, on December 10th, 2010
29 comments to Good Day at the Patch |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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My Dad told me that was his favorite – didn’t have the legs of the Corsair or Hellcat, but it was a joy to fly. All engine.
Thanks for posting this, I’ll forward to him. He’ll get a kick out of it I’m sure.
My Dad too!
Just months before he passed,I took him to a local airshow, and he was moved to tears just looking at a Bearcat on the ramp.He couldn’t really watch the demonstration flight,because of the misty eyes.
That was fun, thanks.
Step one: Buy a Bearcat. http://aircrafteasy.com/used-grumman-f8f-2-bearcat-for-sale-usa/32/
Just . . . . WOW!
That…..was awesome. Also, I hope I look as good as Al when I am 90.
That’s a sensational film, Lex, not just because of the beauty of the planes [both the gorgeous Bearcats and the F-18s] but because of the happiness of the aviators. The young Blues are so confident and brilliant, and the older aviators really moved me — and both groups are so respectful of each other and so happy to be there. With all of the ugly infighting going on in Washington right now, this is like a cool gale of beauty and good sense. As long as we have men like these, and planes for them to fly, maybe we’ll survive this after all.
Marianne
Ed started a video production company and produced exercise videos for Richard Simmons. Largest selling videos in the world someone said.
He learned to fly in a Stearman and bought a T6, built a hangar at the airport airport (40N) where we set up shop back in 1992. He soon had a P51 alongside the T6 and a huge american flag behind the fire department hook-and ladder truck helped hang. Hangar also had an incredible sound system and the first flat screen TV I ever saw that he used to show a video of his Mustang’s restoration along with merged clips from WW2. Before long the hangar had a Corsair in it, and he had the opportunity to fly that off a carrier in Hawaii. Have a cool picture of him and one of our Barnstormers (in an F/A-18) flying formation that was taken at the event. Ed also bought a B-25 and an F-86, and started a T6 acro team that later became the Four Horsemen when they started flying ’51s.
So the short answer is the same as many others in aviation: first, get money. Lots of it.
One of my fondest aviation memories is Ed and an other 51 dogfighting high over the field, while I sat on the wing of our first Travel Air one crisp Fall afternoon. The sound was the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard.
So, where does Lex put in his application?
You can take the pilot out of the airplane, but you can’t take the airplane out of the pilot.
Good vid, thanks.
I just love that, “I’m 90 years old, so there’s no way I’m going to fly this, but I can fly it in my head.”
Priceless
[...] Neptunus Lex found a great little video of the legendary Blue Angels teaming up with some Grumman F8F Bearcats for a little formation time. [...]
I think Buy a Bearcat is step two.
Step one is the hard one… obtain access to cash in excess of Croesus’ wildest dreams.
Incredible. Particularly the 90 year old pilot in the cockpit. The look on his face tells a story well beyond words. The rest of the video is awesome, that part is priceless.
Just bumped across this bit of history, too: Amelia Earhart’s finger bone recovered?
“And somebody tell me how you get that job.”
Easy Lex, just enlist as a NAVCAD and finish primary. My Dad was a Naval Aviation Cadet in ’49. After finishing primary and carquals in an SNJ (T-6) he went to Cabaniss Field in Corpus Christi for Advanced. They went directly into F8F’s (single seat) and learned the finer points of aerial gunnery and carrier ops. He was commissioned upon completion of the advanced course and went back to Pensacola for jet transition with JTU-1 flying TO-1′s. Again, single seat transition for low time aviators.
I had the honor of meeting a 92 year old gentleman by the name of Jay last Sunday at Chapin airfield, NY who flew the Avenger off of escort carriers in the Big One. He still flys his Aeronca Chief LSA and made a point to show me his Tailhook membership zap on the left rear window. The other gents in the hangar mentioned to me that he still “had what it takes”. I know of another guy (also a WWII vet, infantry type) who is 85, still passes his Class 3 Med and owns/flys two airplanes where I keep mine for the winter.
Any large recip airplaneand any aviator of that era are ten feet tall to me.
Correction: “has what it takes”.
Please, somebody, give those gents a ride, and let them have the stick awhile. Mr. Taddeo looks pretty fit for 90, and would certainly give a good accounting of himself up there.
I liked the clip where they took a grandfather up that has flown Mustangs in combat, and put him in a dual control Mustang and went flying. Too bad a dual control Bearcat doesn’t exist. I’d bet a lot those guys would line up to go back up.
Wow! Talk about memories. I still remember walking several miles from home to NAF New Orleans, now UNO, to watch the Blues perform in Bearcats in the late 40s. I can still picture in my eye their maneuvers and hear the sound of those engines. I may be getting old but still remember some of the things that excited me as a youngster.
I think Rare Bear might
have an opening, but THAT
is a whole different beast…
John Penny says it’s downright
hostile at speed…
To add some history, particularly for you SE Asian War Games types: “What the Captain Means is…” Oh, strap on your F Bomb filters before clicking play (or not)…There’s some “Chief” spoken in the audio.
“There’s some “Chief” spoken in the audio.”
Finally! Something I can understand….
On the Blues and Bearcats, I remember reading some hilarious stories written by Rear Admiral Dan Gallery several years ago. One has the Blues transiting up the west coast, between cloud layers. They meet a P5M heading south. Blues lead senses an opportunity and inverts the formation. The P5M is being flown by a passenger Navy Captain whilst the PPC is in the head. He thinks he is the one inverted and tries to roll the P5 upright. Adm Gallery tells it much better than I can.
The lead short story in Stand By-y-y to Start Engines (Norton, 1966)
That’s a more refined version of what used to be known as “Army Creole.”
“Chief” was the Navy version.
Not quite the F-8, but a lot more affordable and the next best thing performance-wise. Better hurry before I have to list mine with Courtesey Aircraft.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm1HHCtacKk&feature=related
I don’t use the word “fantastic” very often, but this video WAS fantastic! I’d like to see a longer version without so frequent cuts from scene to scene. Some of us want more time to enjoy the “feel” of the in-plane formation shots, besides longer takes of the pilots themselves describing things.
Ever since the fad (I used to think it was a fad, but it has become too common-place) of very short takes, not letting the eye linger on a scene for more than a second at a time, I have not liked it except for brief exciting effects. I don’t think it helps the viewer in massive doses, especially where there is a lot of detail to be taken in as these flying scenes. I’m sure the majority of the audience for this film would not get bored watching and listening to the pilots talk for more than ten seconds without a cut.
About 1958 a colleague at Convair—San Diego, Mark Tyson, who owned a Bonanza, answered an ad to ferry a Bearcat to New York. He was accepted, and a flight of four took off. Smoke was seen coming from Mark’s F8F, so he was advised to land at Yuma AZ to get it looked at. Mark then flew solo on to NY without further incident.
As a lightplane pilot, I would not think of strapping on a Bearcat! But Mark loved it, and upgraded to a T-6. When Mark took another friend, ex-RAF pilot Pete Plummer, aloft in the T-6, Pete pulled up in a loop, then started a roll, and Mark took control back and told him not to do that!
I really enjoyed being friends with those characters. Mark played a mean accordian, and Pete would recite The Cremation of Sam Magee for us after a few beers. Another era.