Some photos from today's Mid-South Fly-In

[jmowreader]

My office is next to the Lumberton Regional Airport. In Lumberton they have two big springtime civic festivals. One is the Parks Commission's "Rumba on the Lumber." (No, they don't go to Lowe's, throw all the wood on the floor and dance on it. The Lumber is the river that runs through town.) The other is the Mid-South Fly-In, which was started and is still run by the local aero club. The Fly-In is much more popular. Events include every single-piston-engine plane in North and South Carolina flying to Lumberton, aerobatic displays, and probably lots of dancing and potluck dining next to the planes late at night. (I have a strange feeling that, by mutual consent, no one with a turboprop or jet airplane is allowed to participate. One of my company's best friends owns a King Air, which is a turboprop. His plane wasn't at the Fly-In, and he's been president of the Lumberton Aero Club twice.

That notwithstanding, here are a few pictures of the event. I have two more rolls to develop, and they contain things like the Osprey that was on static display.



Ercoupe seems to have been founded in the immediate post-WWII era. They sold safety (the Ercoupe was billed as being absolutely unspinnable) and operating ease (the airplanes didn't have rudder pedals; the intent was to make the plane as easy to fly as a car was to drive) in hopes of putting lots of veterans in the cockpit. The company failed before 1950, so this approach didn't work. There were a lot of really old airplanes in exceptional condition at the Fly-In; this was one of the nicer Ercoupes and there were several. The inscription reads "Little Baron."



Same plane, just the other end. Yes, that is Snoopy on his Sopwith Camel.



This picture, and the two following, are airplanes of the "Commemorative Air Force." This was once called the "Confederate Air Force" until someone decided "Confederate" might be construed as racist and someone else realized that if they really wanted to reenact the air operations of the Civil War--yes, there were air operations in the Civil War--everyone would have to trade in their airplanes for hot air balloons. But the planes are pristine and fun to look at.



This is probably an old Royal Navy plane. The CAF tends to keep planes in their original livery.



This plane may not have been in its original livery, but it's close enough. It started out life as a C-47, workhorse of World War II. After the war, the ones that weren't completely shot to shit went to work for airlines as the DC-3. By the time the CAF got it, it had the Army Air Corps paint job, plus probably three airline paint jobs, before coming to rest in the desert with its tail painted black. Now it looks like a C-47 again.



They tell me Cirrus sells more new airplanes than any other manufacturer. This may explain why, of all the dozens of airplanes at the Fly-In, only one person came in a Cirrus. If it was me, I wouldn't buy one. I really don't like the idea of needing a parachute on an airframe.



What's an airshow without aerobatics? This one is an Extra 300. This plane sounded like the ignition timing was way off...but there's always the chance it has to be screwed-up on the ground so it will be correct in the air because once airborne the plane performed well.



This plane belongs to the only female wingwalker in Canada. She gave a great performance, which was severely marred by the freeper asshole of an announcer. Lots of honeys and babys, plenty of comments about her size (she's not tall), and even a gratuitous Hillary Clinton slam! Oh, and he even managed to get in a dig at the FAA--"the FAA's motto is 'they're not happy until you're not happy.'" And then he got worse...



They call this plane "Russian Thunder." It's a Yakovlev Yak-54--the only Yak-54 in the United States. When this plane was airborne, freeper asshole announcer adopted a very bad Slavic accent with which he called the plane's entire performance. Ugh.

More photos coming soon!

[Heidi]

1. Kick for Oedi, CMW and Parche.

:kick:

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. Thanks, Heidi

:*



I learned something: I always thought it was "Air Coupe." :silly:

[jmowreader]

7. It was at one time

I looked up Ercoupes...according to the Ercoupe Owners Club (http://www.ercoupe.org), four manufacturers made these planes:

ERCO made 5,080 Ercoupe 415 models between 1939 (the source I was using only referred to post-WWII manufacture, probably because their pre-war manufacture was only 112 specimens) and 1950. I also learned the reason ERCO collapsed: in the post-WWII environment the multitudes of military-trained pilots wanted planes they could take their families up in--which means four-place airplanes were what sold. Ercoupes didn't have back seats.

Forney bought the Ercoupe type certificate but not the name, and produced 166 Aircoupe F-1 models between 1958 and 1962. The plane remained a two-place vehicle in a market that demanded four-place airplanes.

Alon bought the type certificate, and made 241 Aircoupe A-2 models between 1965 and 1967. You guessed it: still no back seat.

Mooney bought the type certificate so they could make 46 Aircoupe A-2A in 1968, and 58 Mooney Cadet M-10s in 1969 and 1970. The Cadet had a different tail, rudder pedals, and the ability to be spun--which basically ruined the whole point of the airplane.

The certificate was then purchased by Univair, a manufacturer of parts for out-of-production airplanes.

[krispos42]

3. We had one here in Minnesota today as well:

One of the 3 B-25s there:


Another B-25:


A P-38, "Tuff Stuff":


In flight:


A Yak-52:


Flybys of various training aircraft:




Biplanes:

[Heidi]

4. I _love_ flyins!

:)

[trof]

5. I actually have 9 hrs. logged C-47 co-pilot time

in my USAF form DD Form whatever it was.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. I wanted to go to the one we had here in MN yesterday

:hi: krispos42

But I had a college graduation to go to. We saw the planes flying around, though.

I flew a Cirrus once -- it's really a pretty cool airplane. It doesn't need the parachute, but they installed it as an extra safety feature, and it's saved some lives. I think the reason you saw only one is that they are really, really expensive.

[jmowreader]

8. I actually saw two...

One of them (the SR-22 in the picture) belongs to a Lumberton resident. The other one was an SR-20 that came in from out of area.

There were some fairly expensive airplanes in attendance...three Socata Trinidads, for instance. But at least a third of the airplanes there had FAA-mandated "the person who built this airplane is sitting next to you" signs on the dashboard.