Tag Archives: grumpy

Heritage Flight Museum Fly Day

Thanks to my friends, Bob and David, I became aware one Saturday morning that a fly day was underway that day up in Skagit County.  The Heritage Flight Museum was going to have a few planes flying so I made a quick change of plans and headed up there.  The conditions were a bit overcast so not ideal but it was still worth a look.  There were a few of the regulars up there too so it was a chance to see some people I hadn’t seen for a while.

Of the various warbirds that they had flying that day, the A-1 Skyraider was the one that was of most interest for me.  It was the only one I hadn’t seen at previous events so I was keen to get a chance to photograph it.  On takeoff, it seemed to be trailing a fair bit of smoke.  Since it was recently off overhaul, this concerned me a bit but it seemed to clean up as they flew for a while so everything seemed to be fine.

There were straight passes across the field from various formations followed by some arcing turns over the museum ramp individually.  I backed up the road a bit to try and get a bit more of an angle on the planes as they ran across.  It would certainly have been nicer to have a bit more light on them but it was still good fun to be shooting something different.  I’m very grateful to the guys for giving me the heads up.

Spirited B-25 Pairing

The two B-25s that live on Paine Field are regular performers.  When they both went up at Skyfair, I have to admit that I was not so excited.  However, I was not anticipating a series of flypasts that were significantly better than I had seen from them before.  They brought them in with a tight formation and some angles that allowed some great topside shots as they curved around on to the runway alignment.

Watching them line up, you could see that they weren’t going to come so close and ruin the photo opportunities.  Instead, we got lots of banking and pulling with far better shots than I had achieved previously.  I was not alone in appreciating the effort.  Everyone around me was most impressed by the performance.

Consequences of a Doolittle Style Takeoff

Grumpy got airborne using the Doolittle technique I posted about here.  During the takeoff, there were some puffs of smoke from one of the engines.  Initially I thought this might just be some oil blowing through but, as they climbed out, the output from the engine was clearly not as it should be and the one engine was clearly not healthy.  They cut short the flight (although not as short as it could have been) and brought the plane back down.  I saw Grumpy fly a few weeks later so I guess they dealt with whatever the issue was.

Doolittle Style Takeoff

Paine Field held an open day which included some flying from the local aircraft.  The Heritage Flight Museum had a number of the aircraft taking part including their B-25, Grumpy.  On one of the takeoffs, they used a technique that was reminiscent of the Doolittle Raid.  They applied power and full back controls to lift the nosewheel from the ground and roll down the runway in a wheelie.  It was quite an interesting thing to see.