I was hanging out over at Van Nuys Airport, swooning over a new (to him) Beechcraft Duke that a friend of mine recently bought. After leaving, I decided to travel down a road that closely parallels the western boundary fence of the airport. Runway 16R is plainly visible the whole time.
The annual Open House was just letting out, and while I drive down the road I spied a strane tail in the distance. Turned out to be a two-seat MiG-15. He was closely followed by an F-8F Bearcat and an A6M Zero. After a few seconds, a C-46 (China Doll) and two B-25s pulled into view (Executive Sweet and another one with smaller nose art). Followed by big mama B-17 (Miss Angela, I think it was).
I’d seen all these in flight before, except for the Zeke. What a neat thing to see it roll down the runway and take off! Of course, I stayed to watch the rest of them go, too!
Glenn,
Was the Zero Green over Gray? If so, probably the same guy who was at Hill AFB on 6/13. I got some pics of it but they are still on the film (not developed yet). Had to use the 35mm as my poor digital just doesn’t keep up with flying things too well. I did snap one or two with the digital but my son pulled them off the camera and I don’t know where he has hid them.
Once I locate them, I will be posting them on our site (but will make sure to put a pic here for you).
Glenn,
Have to see the tail number on my pics but looks like the same one (can’t be too many of them flying around can there?). He wasn’t parked with the static displays so I didn’t get the opportunity to get any great shots like this (thanks for the link). Just one long distance shot and the aerial ones.
Wow! [:0] I read somewhere that there’s only one Zeke in flying condition in the world left. If that was it- wow.
I could be wrong, though.
Of those, the only I’ve seen in flight is the B-17, and it was a ways away. I had a chance to see a flyable B-25 yesterday, but the place it was at was about two hours away. Blasted gas prices…
the -25 was the only one of the lot that actually did a low pass after he took off. He started a nice, high-speed sweeping right turn from downwind abeam the numbers, leveled off at about 25 feet over the end of the runway. He was haulin’ arse. The top view we got while he was on his turn to final was awesome!
I think there are at least two in the world. Saw one finished in overall grey Zuikaku trim, EII-102 in the book “Aircraft of World War II - A Visual Encyclopedia.” Copyrighted 1999.
Steve