RE: WACO YMF
Well, the planes are all gone here at Creve Coeur Airport; well, the ones that came in for the fly-in at any rate. Fly-in is over, people flying out this morning headed for Idaho, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York and other places hundreds of miles away, all in planes built over 60 and 70 years ago, but looking like they rolled off the assembly line yesterday. The entire alphabet soup of WACO's was here, UBA (only three exist, two were here), UBF, UPF, ATO, ASO, QCF, SRE (once owned by Frank Borman), YMF, Taperwings, and several others I can't remember. Only one word to begin to describe it, and it's a poor one : INCREDIBLE
John (skylarkmk1) and I witnessed some history today. Although it's really not part of the WACO info (off-topic) I think you'll enjoy hearing about it. We met a guy named Desmond Penrose, nice English gent almost 80 years old. He was one of the principle pilots at the Shuttleworth Museum in England, and was also a test pilot for deHavilland Aircraft for over 40 years. Today, we were privileged to watch him become only the second still-living pilot to ever fly an original deHavilland DH-4 biplane, and the only living English pilot to ever fly one. He was not born when deHavilland built this plane back in 1920, but has flown almost every type of deHavilland aircraft in his career except this plane..............until this weekend. The restorer (and chief mechanic and pilot) of the DH-4 at CCA put this man in the "driver's seat" and told him to take it around the field (solo), which he proceeded to do after less than 5 minutes of cockpit familiarization. He did four or five take-offs and landings on two separate days and put more than 45 minutes flight time on the aircraft. He handled the plane like he flew it every day, You have to see this thing to believe it. Wingspan of 40 feet, big Liberty V-12 that spins a twelve foot prop. The engine turns a max of 1800 rpm and makes 400 hp. It sounds like a flock of Harley Davidsons flying over when it goes by.
I'm still here in St. Louis, won't have my pics downloaded for a couple of days. Skylarkmk 1 will probably have some up before too long, so get ready.