Tag Archives: Grumman

End of the Line at Abbotsford

My first trip to Abbotsford for the airshow got me there pretty early.  I was hanging around prior to meeting up with my friend and I saw a couple of old S-2 Trackers that were sitting in a field.  These were clearly waterbombers in days gone by but they have reached the end of the road as far as their flying career is concerned.  I understand that they were due to be heading off soon.  I was glad to see them before they went.  Seeing them flying would have been better of course.

Buzzed By A Bearcat

We were standing out to the east of the runway at Klamath Falls when the Erickson team was practicing their display ahead of the show at Sentry Eagle.  I was looking in the wrong direction when someone called out that the Bearcat was diving in on us.  I swung around and pulled the camera up at the last minute.  Needless to say, I did not get the greatest shots of the plane but it was coming right at me so I will go with the best I could get.  It was pretty cool having a Bearcat buzz right over my head!

Kenosha Hangar Visit

Back when we lived in Chicago, I went to Kenosha to photograph the Grumman Wildcat that had recently been lifted from Lake Michigan.  While I was there, I also got to have a look around the hangar which housed the collection of Chuck Greenhill.  His airworthy planes were stored in the hangar but it was also busy working on restorations of some Grumman amphibians.

His Duck was in the hangar and it was a great looking example.  I was disappointed that I never got to see it fly.  It looked immaculate.  I understand it has been sold and is now in Texas.  There were also two Mustangs parked in there.  One of them, Geraldine, they claimed to be the most authentic Mustang example in the world.  I don’t know how you would measure such things but they seemed very confident claiming this.  It even included a full, working armament so you could head up and shoot someone down if you were so inclined.

The amphibian restorations were very interesting.  Bare metal fuselages and the wings off while they were in work.  It would have been good to make regular visits to see how things progressed but I was not able to go back again so couldn’t do that.  Even so, pretty cool to see the workmanship on these airframes.

Widgeons at the Splash In

I found myself looking through some old photos (as I have done a lot in the last ten months) and came to the Clear Lake Splash In that takes place in California.  I only made one trip up to this event and, while I was told that it was a quieter year than previous events, it was still a pretty cool thing to experience.  Three Grumman Widgeons showed up at the event.  The classic Grumman amphibian look was cool to see in action.

They landed on the lake and then dropped the undercarriage to allow them to power up the steel plate ramp that had been laid to provide access to the parking field.  The three of them were parked together over near the trees.  One went out to do some flying during the course of the day and then they all headed home when things wrapped up.

Watching something of this size transition from the water to the land was most impressive.  Similarly, the trip back down the ramp and in to the water was cool to witness.  The Widgeon sits pretty low in the water when it is not at speed but, once it is up on the step, it is a very different beast.  Since they were operating parallel to the shore, it was possible for them to be quite close while they were at speed which was great.

Wildcat Has Looked Better

In 2012, A Grumman Wildcat was raised from the bottom of Lake Michigan.  The lake has numerous wrecks scattered across it as a result of the training that was undertaken during the Second World War with students ditching their aircraft.  Many have been raised over the years with some being restored to flight and others ending up in museums.  The one that was raised in 2012 was the subject of a piece I put together for Global Aviation Magazine.

The airframe was moved to a hangar under the control of Chuck Greenhill (who had financed the recovery) at Kenosha Airport after it was raised from the water and this was where I got to see it.  Opening the hangar door was quite a shock because the smell was pretty overpowering.  The airframe was covered in various creatures that had attached themselves over the years and they were not doing well in the air of the hangar.  It was a tough smell initially.  You got used to it a bit and having the hangar door open helped to get some fresh air in there.

The airframe was in several parts.  The wings were laid out in place and the tail section, which had separated at some point during the accident, was laid out behind it all.  Obviously, there was lots of damage to the aircraft given that it originally had crashed and then spent decades underwater.  The recovery process was delicate to avoid inflicting any further damage.

The airframe remains the property of the US Navy.  It was originally going to go to Pensacola for restoration but ended up going to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo MI in the end.  It is currently undergoing restoration there.

B-2 At Fairford

I was thinking back to previous RIAT shows when I was putting together the 2006 post here.  RIAT was my first encounter with the B-2.  I recall it showing up to a show one year for a flyby without landing.  It flew through accompanied by a pair of F-15Cs, one on each wing.  Then, another year – maybe the next but I don’t recall for sure – one was actually deployed to the show.  It was parked up so close to everyone on the flight line.  I took quite a few pictures of it because it was so new and interesting.  (A few pictures in the film days was a let less than it became in the digital days!)  Even now, I think a show would consider it quite a coup to have a B-2 on the ground.

A Turboprop Goose

While on the terrace at Future of Flight, I saw a Goose parked up over near the FBO.  I had mixed feelings since it was interesting that it was there but I was disappointed I didn’t know it had come in and had missed the arrival.  You can imagine how happy I was to see it taxi out a short while later.  It made a mid flight departure so was still reasonably low as it came past.  The dark paint might have Ben a problem on a cloudy northwest day but we had sun so it showed up nicely.  Only as I looked at the shots afterwards did I realize that it was a turboprop conversion rather than a piston-engined plane.  Oh to see it on the water!

Bye Bye Prowlers

I should probably have planned this post better and timed it to coincide with the actual event but that didn’t happen.  The Marine Corps recently retired their last EA-6B Prowlers and the web was full of shots of Prowlers to celebrate the event.  I like the Prowler a lot so I thought I would get in on the act.  I have shot Prowlers a bunch of times over the years whether it was on flight lines, on exercise, during training or at an air show.  Here is a selection of some of my favorite Prowler shots.

Hellcat Surprise Pattern Work

I had gone to Paine Field for an Antonov arrival that has its own post here.  We got a nice bonus while there.  A Hellcat was up for a Check flight of some sort which I didn’t even know about until it flew a pattern overhead.  I had figured it was just another light aircraft making a midfield departure.  The overhead was nice to see but a bit distant.

However, whatever the check flight was for was obviously done quite quickly as they called for an approach.  As they came down final, another light aircraft was ahead of them and was not going to vacate in time so they were told to go around.  Two approaches!  Thank you.  The first had been straight in but the second was a nice curving approach with a good top side view.  That will do nicely.

 

Pinal Air Park

AE7I6148-Pano.jpgPinal Air Park is located northwest of Tucson.  A number of business operate there.  It used to be a location for Evergreen International.  They carried out a number of programs of a spooky nature which meant there was strict security controlling access to the area.  Evergreen have gone bust so now the airport is a lot less restricted.  The hangars and ramp areas are still controlled but the roads around the field are now freely accessible.

AE7I6139.jpgThe airport is used for active operators but also for storage of airframes.  Some of these are planes that are clearly not going to be making it back into the air again.  They are either old enough to not be in demand or of a type that has more value in the spare parts they contain than as a complete airframe.  That isn’t the case for all of them though.  Many of them are stored awaiting another operator finding a use for them.  Consequently, you see a variety of aircraft from old TWA 747s to unmarked A330s.

AE7I6150.jpgWhile I was there, a Pratt and Whitney 747SP engine testbed was visible on one ramp while the Global Supertanker 747-400 was not far away.  There were also some stored Grumman Goose aircraft (should that be Geese?) that looked like they weren’t moving for a while.  A turbine Caribou was on the ramp obscured by a CASA 212.  Plenty of variety.  This would certainly be a fun place to tour with someone that has good access.