Another Wingman quiz

[wingman]

Airframes seem to differ in odd ways. Tom Kelly and John Dilley raced two different Mustangs as "Lou IV". John lavished all his tender care and long experience with P-51s onto the restoration of the new one, and they found that the super clean and detailed new airplane was significantly slower at all power settings than the getting scruffy well worn old one. John said he had no idea why this should be so, and it was frustrating. Cuttshall got the first airplane later and it was fast for him too. Lots of Black Magic happening in the building up of these things, I guess.

[Racer 18]

Randy,
I hope you are well. That race in 94 will be forever etched in my memory. I didn't realize that was your last one.
That weekend in Abbotsford (1991) was a good time. The flight home was really cool. Departing CYXX under the overcast layer with Eddie in the lead looking for towers. Down the coast low over the islands. I think you said it was your first night landing in 10 years. Most impressive of all was the formation takeoff out of Auburn's 60 foot wide runway the next morning. I'd love to have a video of that. Seems like you were at my very first demo race in Shafter in our Yellow Air Plane also.

Neil, I 2nd the favorite paint job comment. In fact, I lobbied Ken to paint KP the same as Thunderbolt. He went with a variation of it that matched an airplane he flew in the Air Force. I think Thunderbolt wore a P-47 paint job from WW2 and my Great Uncle flew P-47's in WW2, so it all goes around in aviation, I guess.
TJ

TJ,

Feel free to e-mail me at t6pilot@aol.com and we can catch up.

Randy

PS Thunderbolt's paint scheme was copied from a Flying Colors book of a blue camo P-47, (painted by Dennis Buehn in '84).

[wingman]

AAFO lost a post --I hope this doesn't turn up twice. As commented on already, Thunderbolt was a wonderful paint scheme for a T-6 -- my all time favourite T-6 look. In light of Tom's comments I've put up a shot of Kitchen Pass too.

Neal

[AAFO_WSagar]

AAFO lost a post --I hope this doesn't turn up twice. As commented on already, Thunderbolt was a wonderful paint scheme for a T-6 -- my all time favourite T-6 look. In light of Tom's comments I've put up a shot of Kitchen Pass too.

Neal

I have issues sometimes doubling posts and or forgetting to post them... And, software and computers being what they are.... ya just never know! Hopefully not a trend!

[wingman]

This is the only instance I've seen, and I suspect I hit a wrong button or forgot to hit a button or.... No need for concern here -- I just hate double posts and wanted that not to happen.

[AAFO_WSagar]

This is the only instance I've seen, and I suspect I hit a wrong button or forgot to hit a button or.... No need for concern here -- I just hate double posts and wanted that not to happen.

I appreciate it when folks let me know about issues. Mostly, the message board system, takes care of itself or notifies me if there's a problem... I have had the shakiest hands over the past few years and sometimes my twitch hits the post button twice so fast I don't notice it.. happened a few days ago actually.. the board software automatically deleted the double, and told me so...

LOL, I remember the first software we used back when Mark Kallio and I ran the site together.... it was, well... free and primitive! I actually think I archived it somewhere...

OK, back on ntopic!!

[Fence Sence]

Thank you, gentlemen, for the awesome stories and pics in this thread. Priceless. I always loved Tinker Toy’s paint scheme but damn, Thunderbolt is rad. Kitchen Pass is right there too actually.

TJ- Can’t wait to CM in a new suit. I’m sure it’ll be gorgeous.
PS- Picked up drum kit since last we met.

[Shawn Aro]

The other quiz was fun, so here's another. I have removed the pilot's name, for obvious reasons. This was an interesting airplane. It was owned by a group of lawyers (so imagine what team meetings must have been like!). Thus the names Legal Eagle and Class Action that it carried over the years. It raced off and on for a decade or so, usually flown by another pilot. One year the regular pilot could not race so this guy was asked. The airplane was very far from a stock Pitts, and was constantly being worked on and changed considerably during its time racing. It never quite rose to the top, though this pilot got it over 200mph and once again into a Gold.

But this quiz is to ask who is this man? He was between Championships at the time, having won Reno twice and an airplane he built having won 3 more with another owner. He was one of the very best stick and rudder pilots ever to race at Reno, and was a great fabricator and designer, and was a veteran of 30 years (off and on) of Reno racing. Another top pick for any Air Racing Hall of Fame. He was also a very decent and well liked man, who helped out many fellow racers over the years.

Unfortunately, he was in a class followed by about 3 or 4 fans, and so when this shot was taken was pretty unknown outside his racing class.

So who is this?? This should be easy (maybe too easy) with all these clues -- we'll see.

Neal

my dad took this picture at Portiville 1980

[Reever]

Airframes seem to differ in odd ways. Tom Kelly and John Dilley raced two different Mustangs as "Lou IV". John lavished all his tender care and long experience with P-51s onto the restoration of the new one, and they found that the super clean and detailed new airplane was significantly slower at all power settings than the getting scruffy well worn old one. John said he had no idea why this should be so, and it was frustrating. Cuttshall got the first airplane later and it was fast for him too. Lots of Black Magic happening in the building up of these things, I guess.

I'm sure John Dilly has gone over every detail trying to figure out what would be the difference. It escapes all logic.