Tag Archives: pungo

C-46 Commando

wpid13604-C59F9601.jpgEven people how aren’t particularly into aviation have a reasonable chance of having heard of the Douglas DC-3, also known as the C-47 and the Dakota. Not only was it a hugely important aircraft in WWI but it also continued to provide the post war commercial services and, even today, to fill a niche in air transportation. Far less attention is given to one of its counterparts in the war, the Curtiss C-46 Commando. The C-46 never stuck in the public conscience in the same way and its use post war was a lot more limited.

wpid13612-C59F9800.jpgHowever, they didn’t all disappear and one fine example still flies at a lot of air shows. I got to see it at Pungo in Virginia a few years back at an ISAP event. The symposium was being held in Virginia Beach and we spent a couple of days at Pungo. One was the day before their annual air show. We got to look around the collection and see the aircraft in action. The C-46 put on a few great low passes and I was at one end of the field and got a great view head on.

wpid13606-C59F9606.jpgOn the day of the show, the weather was not cooperating and the train came down heavily at various times throughout the day. The C-46 did fly in the gaps provided by the not so awful weather. They were not conditions conducive to good photos but I still got some of it. However, the practice day proved to be the better day for seeing this fine machine in the air.

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Curtis Commando

I took a couple of trips to Pungo in Virginia recently to the Warbirds Museum.  The first visit was part of the ISAP field trip while the second trip was for the airshow on the day after the ISAP symposium had wrapped up.  The field trip was on the Friday when they were preparing for the show.  The sun was out but the wind was gusting pretty high so none of the aircraft were flying.

The Sunday was a lot worse.  The rain was pretty constant and the cloud base was low.  There was still some wind although it was a little lower.  However, any chance of a display was gone.  The only aircraft that performed on both days was the C-46 Commando.  It showed up on the Friday to check out whether the wind was within limits.  it did a low pass and determined that it wasn’t landing and off it went.  Fortunately, I was in the right place for the first pass, even if a slightly longer lens would have been helpful.

On the Sunday it appeared again out of the murk.  It did one pass (slightly higher than Friday) and then came in to land.  I was further down the field this time and with a longer lens so was better placed for the landing.  Conditions were not good since it was raining a lot but I still got a few shots.

The Commando is not a common aircraft so I was glad to get to shoot it, even if the circumstances were not ideal.  It was a shame to miss some of the more unusual flying items but there you go.  Make the best of what you get!

Pungo

Continuing my theme of items related to the ISAP symposium, we took a trip to the Museum of Military Aviation at Pungo south of Virginia Beach.  Actually, we took two trips to be accurate.  The first was part of the symposium field trip and the second was after the symposium had concluded and was for the air show at the museum.  Since they were preparing for the air show on the Friday of the field trip, I think it is fair to combine the two events into one posting.

Friday was a great day from a weather perspective except that it was quite windy and, more importantly from an aviating perspective, the wind was directly across the runway.  This meant that not too much flying was going on.  With a great collection of vintage military aircraft available, this was a shame.  However, they were all laid out along the field to take a look at so we were able to get up close and personal with a bunch of cool aircraft.

One of the planned attendees for the show did appear but that is something I am going to save for another post.  The show also included a lot of reenactors who had set up encampments around the site.  For a lot of the group, this proved to be a good alternative to go and photograph.  Normally, I am more than willing to photograph anything interesting or unusual but, for some reason, I didn’t get into this topic at all.

It is not that they weren’t worthy of photographing.  If you look at the images that people got you can see some good work.  My friend Jo recently blogged about this very topic here so you can see some of what was there.  However, in this case it just did not seem to work for me so I spent my time wandering around other parts of the museum.

The Sunday of the show arrived with very unfavorable weather.  Apparently the Saturday had been pretty good but Sunday had low clouds and rain when we got there.  It appeared highly unlikely that it was going to improve but we waited it out for a while.  The reenactors were out again so there was much for people to see but, since I was more bothered about the aircraft, I focused on them.  A few extra aircraft had arrived since we had been there on Friday, my favorite being a Fairey Firefly that had come in from Canada.  They were supposed to depart late morning for their trip home but sadly the weather got too bad to allow even that departure.

I certainly enjoyed seeing the various aircraft at the museum and there for the show.  It was a shame they weren’t granted better weather as I’m sure their ticket sales will have suffered (although a surprising number of people continued to arrive while we were there) but hopefully they will have achieved enough to support the ongoing work of the museum.  They certainly need to be commended for their efforts putting together the event.