AviationDiscuss Annual Chino Airshow in the World War II - Aviation forums; Next weekend is our annual airshow at Chino, California. We have been preparing for it since about January, but much ...
Next weekend is our annual airshow at Chino, California. We have been preparing for it since about January, but much more intently in the last month. Yesterday, in the midst of preparing for the airshow, we had an unusual event.
A Japanese magazine wanted to do an article on two of our aircraft, the flyanle Mistubishi Zero and the unrestored Mitsubishi J2M Raiden. I have been a volunteer at the Planes of Fame for more than 6 years now, and I have never seen the Raiden moved, but we took it out of the hangar and into the sun for a photo shoot with the Zero next to it. I must say, the two planes are impressive. The film crew recorded the move, put cameras on booms down into the fuselages and even removed the cowlings from the Zero to film the engine. It was pretty nest to see them both together.
Meanwhile, we are putting some finishing touches on our Yokosuka D4Y Judy and are making a couple of bobs to go into the internal bomb bay. Naturally, these are fiberglass replicas and we made the fins for the bombs yesterday and got them looking ready to install.
Concerning the airshow, our Curtiss P-47G (basically a P-47B made by Curtiss), which has been “away” fior two years flew back and will participate in the show this year. We ran up the freshly-overhauled left-hand Allison in the P-38J and both of our P-51’s are getting some work. “Wee Willy” is sporting a freshly-overhauled Marlin and the cowling will probably go on today. “Spam Can” has a new paint scheme and was being polished. The part not painted is now polished Aluminum.
The famous “Horsemem” act will consist of Ed Shipley and Dan Freidken in the two P-51’s, and Steve Hinton will fly in the middle in our P-38. This is basically a one-time act as none of the regular Horsemen are signed off in our P-38. Should be a good sow! Practice looks great.
My own project is the Bell YP-59A Airacomet and we buttoned it up for the airshow yesterday. We completed the sliding canopy some time back and are now completing the front windscreen area and, though not finished, it will look pretty goof for the display in the airshow. The only areas where it doesn’t look complete now are on the wings. We have the ailerons removed and have drilled off the wing skins just in front of the ailerons to get to the gap seal mounts and aileron mounts. We attached the skin pieces with clecos but the ailerons are not mounted. Other than that, it looks pretty complete, though unpainted.
So basically we’ll have a pretty good list of our own aircraft flying:
1) Two North American P-51D’s
2) Lockheed P-38J-5
3) North American B-25
4) Curtiss P-47G
5) Douglas Dauntless
6) Vought F4U-1 Corsair
7) Grumman TBM Avenger
8] Curtiss P-40N
9) North American P-5A
10) Yakovlev Yak-3
11) Mitsubishi A6M5 Model 52 Zero
12) North American F-86F
13) Mikoyan-Gurevivh MiG-15bis
14) Canadair CT-133 (Canadian T-33)
15) Northrop N9MB Flying Wing
16) We might fly the Seversky AT-12 Guardsman ... depends on the staff
17) We’ll also fly the replica Focke-Wulf Fw 190F owned by Rudy Frasca
18] Other planes are flying in and we should have 40+ WWII aircraft flying in addition to Sean Tucker, Rob Harrison, and a Heritage flight including a private F-4 Phantom!
The list of static diplay birds will include our newly almost finished Yokusuka D4Y Judy and ehe Bell YP-59 along with other interesting birds from around Chino and the area.
You are all certainly invited if you are in the area and several Forum members will be there including WheelsUpCavu, who is now a volunteer at the Museum along with the rest of us airplane nuts. C'mon to Chino and join us next weekend!
Thanks WheelsUpCavu, but I really need the inside ball without the external race. The downlock for the Hispano already has the spherical form, and all I need is the ball end. It is about 12.5 mm or so.
Anyway, thatnk you for your effort and I'll look at it hard later thios evening.
Currently in Lancaster working. Got my girlfriend coming out on thurs. May head out that way if the weather is bad at the beach. Where do you think you"ll be hanging out?
I'll be at Chino airport. it would be much better if we meet at specific place and time, like 9:00 am at Flo's Airport Cafe out front of the door ... but maybe you can let me know sometime before Thursday evening in here. If not, I'll be in the restoration hangar after the airshow with about 400 other people ... come on over and wd cna ask about and find each other.
One of the more unique features of this years airshow that I just found out about is that there will be three Zero's there this weekend. Two Zero's from the Commemorative Airforce and the Planes of Fame Zero. I saw both of the CAF planes in the restoration hangar today and the PoF website confirms that they will be at the show.
Here are some highlights from last years show and some of what can be expected to be seen at this years airshow.
The Planes of Fame 2012 Air Show, "1942 Turning the Tide" will be held May 5th and 6th at the Chino Airport. Clay Lacy and his Lear Jet are scheduled to perform.
Here is a sample of Clay Lacy in action at last years air show.
Tickets available online and or at the gate.
This footage is the Clay Lacy segment of the Planes of Fame 2011 Air Show DVD, which is available online from the giftshop.
The Planes of Fame 2012 Air Show, "1942 Turning the Tide" will be held May 5th and 6th at the Chino Airport. Some of the featured aircraft of the era are included here as a sample of the rare warbirds that will take to the skies over Chino.
Tickets available online.
The Planes of Fame 2012 Air Show, "1942 Turning the Tide" will be held May 5th and 6th at the Chino Airport. Some of the featured aircraft of the era are included here as a sample of the rare warbirds that will take to the skies over Chino.
Tickets available online.
Find more videos of rare planes being flown and shown at the Planes of Fame YouTube channel.
Planes of Fame's YouTube channel: POFmuseum - YouTube
It's 4:25 AM in California and I am getting my stuff together for today. I'll be heading out about 6 AM to be there about 7:30. Looks to be a good day today, and I should be able to get up in the morning to fly with the RV guys.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo Da Vinci
Almost 200 miles of driving, about 10 miles of walking and over 2000 photos later, I'm sunburned, sore and tired, yet very satisfied. Great show yesterday. I met Merv, Wheels and Syscom briefly, but was running all over the place trying to get many things done at once. I will have some show photos soon, but first, here are some shots from the pre-show flight with the RVs. It was a great flight. Twelve aircraft in three different formation setups. Great station keeping and safe flying.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo Da Vinci
You know Eric, in another life I don't want to be Sean Connery, I don't want to be the President of the USA, I don't want to be Bill Gates.......I want to be YOU!!! D@mn nice pics!!!! I hope you got some with the other guys.
I just looked over the video's I took. They came out fairly good and some were quite spectacular on my HDTV. I need to edit them and get them uploaded.
NJACO ..... you like FW190's? Be patient my friend .... be patient!
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Originally Posted by GregP 
Great show yesterday. I met Merv, Wheels and Syscom briefly, but was running all over the place trying to get many things done at once. I will have some show photos soon, but first, here are some shots from the pre-show flight with the RVs. It was a great flight. Twelve aircraft in three different formation setups. Great station keeping and safe flying. 
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