The C.U.R.E. (Contest Underwater Remedy Evaluation)

[wwwarbird]

As most Midwestern contest goers already know, the 2010 Sig C/L Championships were canceled for this weekend because the field was unusable as a result of recent heavy rains in the Montezuma area. Mike Gretz and the gang did everything they could, but it just didn't work out. I had planned to take a lot of pictures and get them posted here but, well...

 Since I already had the weekend off of work and wasn't about to tell the boss about the cancellation, I needed a new plan for the weekend. It really needed to be some sort of aviation "fix". At the last minute, I remembered that the Blue Angels were doing an airshow in St. Cloud, MN Saturday and Sunday. I believe this was the first large airshow ever for St. Cloud. The schedule was the same for both days. St. Cloud is actually slightly closer to home for me than Montezuma is, just north instead of south. I decided to go up Friday afternoon, take in the airshow on Saturday, then come back down to Minneapolis to spend the night and do some flying at the club field on Sunday before going the rest of the way home.

 A bunch of storms came through the St. Cloud area on Friday evening leaving behind a very heavy fog that was still lingering at 9:00 Saturday morning with the airshow scheduled to start at 11:00. The ceiling was less than 500ft, definitely not airshow weather!
 We got lucky though, it finally broke around 11:00 and the show got started a little after noon.

 They had a real good lineup of performers too, here's what 25 bucks and a lot of walking got you:

 U.S. Navy Blue Angels
 F-22 Raptor Demo Team
 Aeroshell AT-6 Team
 "Tuskegee Airmen" P-51C Redtail Mustang
 "Miss Mitchell" B-25
 Kyle and Amanda Franklin "Pirated Skies" Waco UPF7 wingwalking act
 John Mohr Stearman Barnstorming (an incredible extremely low level performance with a bone stock Stearman)
 Gary Ward MX2
 Bryan Jensen and "The Beast" (Barret M14P?-think Pitts Special with a 412 hp radial!)
 C.C. Gerner (Extra300?)
 Mike Wiskus Lucas Oil Pitts
 Bill Leff AT-6 solo
 "Flash Fire" 375 mph jet truck
 Many other static aircraft and displays

 All in all it was a good weekend, but at the end of the day I would have much rather been at Sig. Hopefully we'll all be back there next year!
 

[wwwarbird]

 "Miss Mitchell" B-25 and "Duggy" DC-3...

[wwwarbird]

 Kyle and Amanda Franklin's Waco and Gary Ward's MX2...

[wwwarbird]

 The Aeroshell AT-6 team and a C-47 "Spooky" Gunship...

[wwwarbird]

 Quite possibly the worlds nicest Albatross...

[wwwarbird]

 John Mohr's Stearman and Mike Wiskus' Pitts...

[wwwarbird]

 "Flash Fire" jet truck... (I know, it's a TRUCK but the logo on the hood was cool)

[wwwarbird]

 Bill Leff's AT-6 and the Albatross right before an Aeroshell T-6 slammed into it...

[wwwarbird]

 Firing up the B-25 as the Mustang taxies in...

[wwwarbird]

 And the Blues...

[Mark Scarborough]

Bill Leff's AT-6 and the Albatross right before the T-6 slammed into it...

uh say what? the AT-6 slammed into the Albatross? whats up there WW

[wwwarbird]

 Just kidding Mark, just using a little camera angle there.

 I wrapped up the weekend then with a little flying at the Piston Popper field...
 

[afml]

Thanks for sharing the great pics Wayne!
Love the airshows!
My favorite hangout is the NMUSAF.
MANY pics fer sure!

"Tight lines!"

Wes

[Ward Van Duzer]

"Duggy" is priceless! I love it...


W.

[Tom Niebuhr]

Wayne,

Ref. Kyle and Amanda Franklin's Waco. Is that the late Jim Franklin's Waco? Sounds like Kyle and Amanda are related.

[Dan McEntee]

Wayne,

Ref. Kyle and Amanda Franklin's Waco. Is that the late Jim Franklin's Waco? Sounds like Kyle and Amanda are related.

    Jimmy Franklin was killed along with Bobby Younkin when they collided during a performance of their "Masters of Disaster" airshow up north a few years ago. Judging from the video and photos of the tragic event, I doubt that the jet assisted Waco would have been rebuilt. Kyle and Amanda are husband and wife, and Amanda is Bobby Younkin's daughter, I believe. The Pirate show is based on a character he calls Kaptain Kairo, starts of with a neat narration about how pirates, after they had conquered all the oceans of the earth, turned their wooden tall ships into wooden and fabric aircraft to conquer the skies. It is very cool and very old school airshow with kyle and Amanda both doing a great job. Kyle also does a solo act in a Super Cub that is kind of a Hillbilly Willie thing with everything taking place no higher than 500 to 600 feet. He has strips of metal on the wing tips so they spark and smoke when they drag the ground. Several times during the act he cuts the power and is low enough that you can hear him yell for "Help!" Very cool, and he is definitely a chip off the old block.
   John Mohr does an excellent low level act in a bone stock Stearman PT-17, as Wayne said. No inverted fuel system, and when ever the plane gets inverted or rolls, it belches out a lick of flame that goes all the way back to the tail. Very smooth flying and he is the only pilot I have seen do a falling leaf during his act if the wind is right. Not the hardest maneuver in the book, but very cool if done well.
   If you ever get the chance to check these acts out, by all means do so, you will be entertained. I hope they are both at Oshkosh this year again.
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Tom Niebuhr]

 Dan.
Kyle's Waco sure shows the influence of Jim's Waco.

I saw Matt Younkin perform in the Beech 18 last year in Austin Tx. A really impressive act.

Wayne,
How does your Curtiss Hell Diver fly?

[john e. holliday]

Wayne, glad that things worked out for you.  Great pictures.  Last airshow I went to, we couldn't get close to the planes.    And I still say the Blue Angels are the best.

[Dan McEntee]

Dan.
Kyle's Waco sure shows the influence of Jim's Waco.

I saw Matt Younkin perform in the Beech 18 last year in Austin Tx. A really impressive act.

Wayne,
How does your Curtiss Hell Diver fly?

       Oh yeah, Kyle is definitely his father's son! I just have to wonder if he ever plans to put the jet engine on his plane. Matt puts on a great show in the Beech and in the Travel Air Mystery Ship also.
    Now I'm starting to get pumped up for Oshkosh!
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Michael Boucher]

I hope Kyle never puts the jet engine in the WACO. Its fine just the way it is.

[wwwarbird]

 Dan has the Franklin/Younkin details all correct. I talked to Kyle and Amanda for a few minutes after their peformance and thanked them for keeping it all going after their terrible loss a few years ago. Kyle responded with "I've been around all of this so long it's all I would know how to do." Kyle and Amanda make a great couple and are very nice people.

 As far as adding a jet engine to this Waco, I didn't ask Kyle about it but if you ever saw Jimmy fly his it was absolutely unreal. I saw it perform 3 or 4 times. I've seen most every type of airshow performance out there in the last 30 years or so, and that Waco was the only thing that ever made me giggle out loud through practically the whole peformance. Have you ever seen a Waco accelerate vertically? It was like watching the old cartoons where the old biplane is flying way faster than ever possible, except this was real, and happening right in front of you. Visually it was an absolute trip, it just didn't look "right" at all. He would manipulate both throttles at all times and when the jet power would come in you could hear the radial wanting to overrev quite often. I kept waiting for Pratt and Whitney round motor parts to start scattering about!

 At the other end of that spectrum is John Mohr and his Stearman. All I can say is that if you ever get a chance to see him perform with it, do so. You won't believe what can be done with a 220 hp Stearman.

 I did put one flight (the first) on the Helldiver yesterday. Brand new engine and airplane. I broke in the FP.35 by adjusting the needle valve for a minute or so before launch. It was pretty windy, plus I knew it was going to be borderline tailheavy. Not wise to try an initial flight but I did anyway. It took off real nicely and flew wings level but it was real touchy on the controls because of the balance. As soon as I got it in the air I couldn't wait for it to quit and get back down, it was quite a nailbiter! Combined with the wind I had all I could do to just fly out level laps and get it back on the ground in one piece. It's basically there though, I just have to play with the balance a bit and it will be fine.

[Brian Browning]

Wayne,

Thanks for the pictures.  How does the Shark 402 fly?  I'm finishing up a stock one powered with either a .25LA or an Enya .29.  Also, tell us about the Bf 109.  Brodak kit?  Does it have dihedral?  Why did you build it with external controls?

Your planes are all works of art.

Thanks,
Brian

[wwwarbird]

 Thanks for the nice comments Brian. The Shark 402 is a great flying sport model. Mine has quite a few updates from stock but is dimensionally a stock Shark. If you look back a little ways I've got a bunch of posts from the build on this forum.

 The Messerschmidt isn't mine. It's one that Tony Kubes picked up from someone at the recent Brodak contest. It's appears to just be a one-off model with a straight foam wing that is also removeable.

[Michael Boucher]

Hi Wayne, Do you know if the ME 109 wing was first painted and then covered?  Thanks, Mike

[Bryan Higgins]

Wayne

Looks like you had a good time.  Thanks for sharing those great pics.
Your new warbird sure looks great.

[wwwarbird]

 Mike,

 I don't know much at all about the ME109, but it does have some kind of plastic film on the wing over the paint. It's all nice and wrinkly too.

 Tony Kubes is the current owner and is on the forums, but he didn't build it.