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Re: Corsairs In Cancun??

Posted by Rob Mears on Thu Feb 27, 2003 01:49:51 AM

In reply top Corsairs In Cancun?? posted by B Darnell on Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:53:55 AM

This is actually quite possible, though it would have to have been December of 1979. There were no more than six F4U's in the air at any time during the ferry flights from Honduras though. I'll bet it would have 'struck' me as a dozen had I seen them lined up though ;)

Cancun is not that far from Tegucigalpa where the flights originated, and is along the general flight path taken for the recovery flights. I see no reason why they would have needed to stop as a group so close to their departure point though. I can think of worse places than Cancun to take a pit stop! :D

Shortly after the initial recovery flight, Ed Real flew back down to recover one of the two Corsairs that still remained to be flown out. He had a hydraulic failure and had to belly land the plane at Belize City. As a mark for the Corsairs resilience, let it be known that the plane flew out shortly thereafter with nothing more than a change of the prop :) While waiting for the prop I believe the plane was forced to sit there for a week or two.

Any chance your father might be remembering a sight that he saw while actually visiting nearby Honduras (Tegucigalpa)? He could definately have seen a dozen Corsairs there around that time. Couldn't have been too hard to spot a bunch of gringos charging around in the sky doing test flights ;)

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