Last evening as I drove down County Road 28, heading into the setting sun, I noticed an interesting airplane on the ramp at KIBM.
It's a North American T-28B Trojan, still dressed in the livery she wore in naval service with VT-27 at Corpus Christi.
She has a Lycoming-built R-1820-86 of 1,425 hp and appears to sport the shorter, C-model prop, though I could be mistaken.
The Trojan is owned by Lee Griffin of North Pole, Alaska. A former USAF maintenance officer, Lee appears to have quite a story.
I stopped and took a lot of pics last evening, then stopped and took more this morning, and finally returned to take even more as Lee and his pilot were saddling up for a flight to Rock Springs, Wyoming.
They're on their way to Sacramento after spending the week at Oshkosh.
They were obviously busy and had a long day of flying ahead so I only bothered them enough to say thanks for stopping at Kimball.
I could go on and on about what it felt like to see this aircraft on the ramp just across the county road from the ranch, but I won't. Not sure it would be anything other than gobbledygook to those who've never been on the ramp in the hot Florida sun watching fledgling Naval Aviators learning to master the mighty Trojan.
However you slice it, last evening and this morning were wonderful.
So, just the pics and some video. Vids first. You can click on the pics for larger.
Aviation isn't all rainbows and unicorns though. Just a couple of weeks ago the younger sister of this aircraft crashed up at Cold Lake. The owner and pilot, Bruce Evans, perished.
Great videos and great pics of a sweet lookin' bird!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shaun!
Thanks Sarge. I was obviously gonna be there anyway, so...
Deletegreat that you got to capture some old Navy sweetness...
ReplyDeleteThanks Brig. Sweetness is the right word. :)
DeleteDid The Brain help Pinky paint it, do you think? NARF!
ReplyDeleteNarf, narf, narf.
DeleteNaval Air Rework Facility.
:)
I know that, but Naval Air Rework Facility isn't amusing, and Pinky is!
DeleteWe once got a jet back from NARF with misconnected bleed air ducting. It passed PMCF and caught fire on t/o next flight; ended up burning on the runway with myself and the pilot pleased to not be statistics. Only real gripe I ever had with NARF. Other than the overpaid civilian workers.
DeleteThis Pinky thing, I'm aware of a telebishun cartoon called Pinky and the Brain but know nothing about it other than my niece found it delightful. But she also found mac 'n cheese with green olives delightful. Guess I'm not the sorefisticated man of the world I thought I were.
Did (NROTC) Midshipman aviation summer there (the other half at Little Creek learning to be a Marine) way back in the day. We were taught in T-34s-- T-28s were there --but having to manage pitch and throttle was apparently too much to be expected from us. Neat times--particularly weekend liberty in Nuevo Laredo--before the cartels and drug wars.
ReplyDeleteThose were neat times. Don't recall (not even sure I knew at the time) all the training schemes and aircraft. T-34C's were taking over primary in the late 70's with T-28's the follow-on ride for some but not all. T-34C with the turboprop was more jet-like and a lot of jet pipe guys went to the Buckeye and TA-4 while the multi and helo guys went T-28. IIRC, and I probably don't.
DeleteI was there mid-60's so we were still flying piston T-34s.I was informed that my knee to hip length was such that if I ejected from a jet, I'd break both legs. Went Black shoe.Fun learning to fly though.
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