From my front porch this afternoon...

[Kraschenbirn]

Looks like the guys in Frasca's shop finally completed the annual on the Spitfire...

[runfiverun]

now there's something you don't see every day,,,right there.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I am gonna have to sit on your front porch when I get up to Danville in June.
Mike in Peru

[RugerFan]

Awesome!

[Lefthandshooter]

Great!

All I ever see from my yard is the life flight helo's, some small private planes, and the occasional Goodyear blimp flying over.

I really dislike hearing those life-flight's fly over, especially the one from Akron Children's Hospital.

[missionary5155]

[QUOTE=Lefthandshooter;1707874]Great!

All I ever see from my yard is the life flight helo's, some small private planes, and the occasional Goodyear blimp flying over.

Down here I get to see a Mirage fly around ever Wednesday. Then there are all sorts of Russian and European rotory wings air slapping. One Huey still gets about but not often. There are no private aircraft as that is restricted tighter than magnum revolvers.
Mike in Peru

[Dennis Eugene]

Great pics, but how do them planes land with out floats? Dennis

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Once in a while a biplane circles Glencoe,
otherwise it's just ultra-lites and the Air-ambulance Chopper.
Jon

[HollandNut]

saweet

[lbaize3]

Takes me back to the 50's when all kids built wood or, later, plastic replicas of WWII war planes. One of my favorites was the Spitfire. The Merlin engine and then the supercharger made it a force to be reckoned with early in the war....

[MtGun44]

My Dad knows Rudy Frasca and I have gotten the full tour inside his shop. They were about
98% done with the restoration on that Griffon Spitfire when I was there. I saw some
amazing details. Like the last 18" of each wingtip is made about like a model airplane
with very fine wooden ribs and edges joined with very thin aluminum joining pieces and
then screwed onto the last aluminum rib. I never saw what it would be covered with, probably
very, very thin aluminum but maybe fabric like the control surfaces. If you measure the
wing thickness about 12" inboard of the tip it is only about 1/2-3/4" thick.

Very beautiful aircraft and the Griffon sounds even better than the Merlin, IMO.

Bill

[Kraschenbirn]

My Dad knows Rudy Frasca and I have gotten the full tour inside his shop. They were about
98% done with the restoration on that Griffon Spitfire when I was there...

You should have seen it when it arrived from India. I was fortunate enough to be present when they started unpacking the sea-freight containers. It was in pretty sad shape...literally, dug out from an Indian AF boneyard...but Rudy's guy in India had not only got the Spit that was to be restored but also major subassemblies salvaged from a couple more wrecks.


Very beautiful aircraft and the Griffon sounds even better than the Merlin, IMO.

Among all other warbirds/military trainers in Rudy's collection (all flyable, btw), once you've heard it, it's impossible to mistake the sound of that big Griffon with its 5-bladed Rotol prop...I've flown, crewed, and just hung around airplanes going on 50 years and have never heard anything quite like it.

Bill

[ammohead]

When I was younger I lived north of Reno NV in a little town called Stead. It still is the location for the Reno Air Races. It was during that time that I fell in love with the sound of a p51 mustang making it's rounds. Later I lived in Smith Valley 70 miles south of Reno and a fellow resident and civil engineering contractor Harvey Honewill had a P51 that he rebuilt and flew to jobsites around the state. He named it "Hurry Home Honey". He would fly about the valley weekend mornings and I will never forget the sound. He put it in the ground canopy first doing a barrel roll over John
Asquaga's annual cattle drive near the Sweetwater Ranch. "Lo I have slipped the surly bonds of earth"

[waksupi]

Great pics, but how do them planes land with out floats? Dennis

I couldn't see a ball hitch to tow the boat with, either.

[HeavyMetal]

Saw a B17 and a B24 in flight last week headed for the chino air show.

They had a P 51 as escort.

Nice view close to ground

[bob208]

one time at work in york pa. a f6f hellcat flew over. that big radial trobocharged engine really sounded great.

our farm is a fly over for low level runs throught the mountians around here. air gaurd
a10's and f16's. also get alot of low transports they are flying under the radar. i think they come out of md, to york airport turn west over us then another turn to go back home. there is a guy in gettysburg that has a stearman biplane in the summer he takes it up and puts on a show.

[Kraschenbirn]

[QUOTE=bob208;1708444]...our farm is a fly over for low level runs throught the mountians around here. air guard a10's and f16's. also get alot of low transports they are flying under the radar. QUOTE]

I may have seen the same bunch a few years back when the wife and I were camping in a 'primitive area' up towards the north end Monongahela Nat'l Forest. One weekend we were treated to an intermittant parade of Warthogs and C-130s ducking in and out of the mountain passes (well below the ridgelines). I assumed, at the time, it was some sort of NG exercise but sounds like it may be one of their regular training areas.

Bill

[41 mag fan]

Man that would be so cool to watch

[462]

Have yet to see a Spitfire in flight. Have seen B-17's, 24's and 25's, and P-38's and 51's, though, and twice!! got buzzed by a B-26.

Spent two years working on F-100's and another two on F-4's, but my ears (what's left of their hearing) have huge soft spots for the sights and sounds of the WW II birds.

I know it isn't the same and can't compare, but I get excited hearing the frequent passings of Coast Guard and Air Force C-130's.

[Mumblypeg]

We have a skydive outfit at the airport here and and ALL day long on weekends and some weekdays they fly over my place. It gets kinda old after awhile but I try to ignore it. Once in a while they will have a War Birds event in N.C. and I see some cool WWII aircraft come over. Never seen a Spitfire though... sure would like to. Oh, and everyday around 2pm and 8pm two or three C-130's fly over the house. You can almost set your watch by them.

[Lefthandshooter]

The family farm is about 2 1/2-3 miles in direct line with the Mansfield Lahm Airpot (Ohio) where the Air National Guard is (for now at least) based.

I remember the F-100's, then the C-130's. They flew directly over the buildings taking off and landing.

Dad was a firman with the City, and they had a station at the airport they shared with the Guard. We would go visit him there, and then walk over to the hanger, or just out to the planes. The F-100's always seemed to have at least one with the cockpit open and we would just climb up and in. A Sargent for ANG was a good friend and made certain we was never yelled at and we knew not to mess with anything.

When we was on a family vacation many years ago we was at the Kennedy Space Center in Floriday, and saw the Enterprise Space Shuttle on top of the 747 it had just landed with, in prep for it's first flight.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Back in the 50`s we could be enterained every now and again by mock dog fights in the skies over and around our family farm. We also were ticked off when the Air Force would do "chaff" drops to test jamming of radar stations. That stuff was a royal pain in the hay fields we were baling up for feed. We found some small bundles of the stuff that failed to open in air when it was dropped. In later years we had 3 or more C-130`s do a low level milk run from Detroit up to the tip of the thumb and back again. Then 1 day 1 of the flight had a problem and crashed about 20 miles from the farm. Flying at 1500 feet doesn`t leave a lot of room for having a malfunction.Robert

[Got-R-Did]

When our Father finally got a stateside assignment after his tour in Vietnam, we were stationed at Ft. Knox. My Dad got a job as a Master Gunner instructor in Heavy Armor (19Kilo) after years in Field Companies all over Europe. We lived in Prichard Place which was the primary approach for both Rotorcraft and Fixed-wing aircraft for Godman Field. UH1 Hueys and AH1 Cobras were the seranade to sleep for us on many nights as they trained for night fire on outbound flights and return to the airfield. We were the host for an All Services Air Show in '75 and the Navy sent an SV3A Viking for static display. The Air Force sent a couple of F4 Phantoms from the ANG Unit in Lousiville for flybys, and the Golden Knights jumped from their dedicated C130. The Marines brought a huge Sikorsky they used for Carrier Rescue Operations. As Army JROTC cadets we were charged with suplementing security of the aircraft and surrounding areas during their arrival. We were treated as equals and peers of the Staff of each of the Crews and we were beaming with pride to be included among such elite corps.
Still gives me chills to see, and hear these classic beautys.
Got-R-Did.

[1bluehorse]

You guys are soooo lucky to have all that. Occasionally, and I mean like MAYBE once a year, a couple jets of some kind fly over really low but all you get is the booomming sound, scares the bejeesus outa the horses, never see em', gone to fast. Other than that just Buzzards and Ravens mostley. Oh, once in a while in late summer the drug boys may fly over the hills in their helo's looking for a green spot....