PILOT SPIN
Pilot Zone => Pilot Zone => Topic started by: Becky (My pronouns are Assigned/By/God) on August 26, 2023, 06:40:04 AM
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This week one of our local Commemorative Air Force chapter pilots flew a PT-23 from Dallas, Texas to Richland, Washington, where it will reside. This morning my husband is going over to see it. I was interested to note that it is an open-cockpit plane, and the flight took five days or so. Of course I thought about his wife who must have been saying constant rosaries, as the plane was made in 1943.
I know, blah blah mechanics overhauled it meticulously, blah blah.
I’m really glad he made it. And desperately hope my husband doesn’t want a ride in it.
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One of the airports I was based, New Garden, N57, had a Fairchild specialty shop that restored these planes, so I'd see PT-19s, PT-23s, etc., in the pattern all the time. Very cool. There as safe as anything else.
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I’m just a scaredy cat girl. When Patty Wagstaff invited us down to party and fly (not necessarily in that order) with her and Snort Snodgrass I chose not to go up in the warbirds and instead flew with Phil Knight in his Extra. Somehow I felt safer doing aerobatics in a newer airframe. But like I said, I’m chicken shit.
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Becky, I wouldn’t worry about your husband in that. I have 110 hours in a CAF 1943 Fairchild PT-26, and they are good airplanes. The PT-26 is the closed cockpit version of the PT-19, and the PT-23 is the radial engine variant of the PT-19.
This is me flying over Holy Hill in Wisconsin. They are solid aircraft and a blast to fly. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230826/3085676f8dbdeb82b154dbfa4dd5c97d.jpg)
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They have cathedrals like that in Wisconsin? You'd think you were flying over somewhere in Europe.
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I’m not comforted. My husband just sent a picture. Here is the very plane. The thing looks likes it has sticks of dynamite behind the prop.
(http://)
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They have cathedrals like that in Wisconsin? You'd think you were flying over somewhere in Europe.
We do, and they all came from European influence.
The Basilica of St Josaphat in Milwaukee is one example. We go to Christmas Mass there whenever possible.
It was built by polish immigrants using whatever materials were available. For example, the giant “marble” pillars are wood and plaster surrounding a steel substructure, painted to look like marble.
The giant doors and brass hardware came from an old post office in Chicago, and the knobs have USPS on them. These immigrants were not wealthy, but they did what they had to do. It’s beautiful.
https://www.thebasilicafoundation.org/
Sorry for borrowing your thread, Becky!
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I’m not comforted. My husband just sent a picture. Here is the very plane. The thing looks likes it has sticks of dynamite behind the prop.
(http://)
I don’t know anything about that engine. If it’s a CAF airplane, it should be maintained better than your average A&P, because most A&Ps don’t have familiarity with old engines and wood and fabric airplanes.
I’ll IM you a video.