WIX Archives
Owner, pilot, restorer, enthusiast, & general nuisance!
Posted by bdk on Mon Jan 19, 2004 12:00:07 AM
In reply top WIX er WARBIRD PARTICPIATION posted by JACK COOK on Fri Jan 16, 2004 06:31:15 PM
First exposure: Oshkosh and DuPage County Airshow with my dad. Then I started riding my bike to the Victory Air Museum (Paul Polidori & Earl Reinert) in Illinois. It was a fifteen mile ride, so my mom sometimes picked me up in the evenings. I was an avid reader of Air Classics and built plastic models.
Once in college (Northrop University A&P School then BS in Aerospace Engineering at Cal-Poly, Pomona) I started to take flying lessons. I started volunteering at Planes of Fame, doing most of the steel fabrication for repairs on the centersection of the N9M and helping to re-skin the wings (i.e. bucking rivets) of the SBD. Eventually Ed Maloney hired me to work on a few museum projects, then I started working for Steve Hinton at Fighter Rebuilders. Worked on Stephen Grey's P-47, a couple of P-51's, Bob Pond's P-40, Kay Eckhart's T-33, as well as some of the museum's aircraft. I also did a significant amount of work on the Super Corsair and Tsunami prior to first flight.
Once I graduated with my engineering degree, I hired on at Douglas in Long Beach on the C-17 program during the initial design phase. I got my private license and purchased a Luscombe 8A , then a Stinson L-5 project, a Stearman, and a Cessna 195 (which I flew to Oshkosh). I flew everything except the L-5 which I sold prior to completion. Oh, and I had a 1928 Curtiss Robin project too. Now a T-6 project and a Culver Cadet occupy my hangar at Chino. I'm hoping to finish the T-6 within the next two years.
I have had the opportunity to fly a few different warbirds- my Stearman, a couple of T-6's, Bob Pond's dual control P-40 (from the rear seat), a T-28A, and right seat in a B-25. I have also ridden in a P-47, a couple of different Sea Furies and a few 51's.
I currently hold a Commercial Single and Commercial Multi-Engine Landplane license, but haven't flown much since I sold the 195 (and bought a house and got married...).
: WHAT I'M WONDERING IS WHAT IS YOUR INVOLVEMENT?