Today we say goodbye to our dear friend Lloyd McAfee.
A long time, beloved member of our wing, Lloyd was active to the very end.
If there was something he saw that needed doing, from welding some rogue piece or watering the plants out front, he would get it done!
Fair Winds and Blue Skies our friend.
Beale Air Force base held their first airshow in seven years and CAFSoCal was part of the demonstration teams with the PBJ, Hellcat and YAK3.
Our warbirds stood out in stark contrast to the cutting edge demonstrations by the F-22 Raptor team and the U2 aircraft and were really appreciated by the crowd as well as the Air Force personnel.
Below are a few pictures from the airshow and some of the transit flights.
Some videos
P-51 Rides at the Jacqueline Cochran Air Show may be available. Please check with the rides desk at the show. If available they will be on a first come first ride basis.
Join us at the Jacqueline Cochran airshow at Thermal for the weekend of May 4th and 6th and grab an warbird ride experience on Saturday the 6th after the show.
We are offering rides aboard the PT19, SNJ, and the B25/PBJ.
Seats are limited, blook your ride using the warbirdride link in the menu.
The Trainers presentation video is posted below.
The presentation was one of our best attended in the series.
Don’t miss the next one:
Living History Presentation:
Pacific Air War
June 9, 2018
11AM-2PM
CAF SoCal Hangars at Camarillo Airport
On Saturday April 14th, CAF SoCal hosted an event focused on the PT-19 Cornell and including several other pivotal military trainers from the WWII era. We had a group of our pilots talk about their training experiences in the PT-17 Stearman, the PT-19 Cornell, and the AT-6/SNJ Texan and our unit Historian, Ron Fleishmann, outlined the history of CAF SoCal’s Fairchild PT-19 Cornell.
We had a very successful airshow at March AFB, April 7-8 . This mission was a “maximum effort” with almost all of our aircraft participating in the event.
With the tragic events that led to the loss of the performance by the Thunderbirds, our fighters stepped in and were the stars of the show.
It turned out to be a great show with a lot of fun thrown in for all the participants, as these selected few images by John Cutright well illustrate.
Happy to report that the museum will be open again on Sundays, starting Sunday April 15th from 12:00-4:00P
we love getting stuff like this in the inbox and thought it appropriate to share on the website:
…some pictures of my daughter Cindy, her husband Steve and their PT-19 rides with CAF Col Fogel who provided an outstanding experience for them to enjoy, and I thank him on behalf of our entire group. Obviously they enjoyed the experience, in fact its been almost a week, and they’re still grinnin’!…
Recently we had a visitor who came to us all the way from NJ for a ride aboard the PT19. Expecting the usual broad grin of excitement, specially on such a great day for a flight, we were a little puzzled by the slightly pensive mood Dave carried with him. It turned out, he was not a solo rider. Foremost on his mind were thoughts of his father, Lt. Jim Vollmayer a WWII B24 navigator with the 15th Air Force, Italy. We did our best to accommodate Dave’s request of replicating the look of Jim posing with his PT19 in 1943 for Dave. Small events like this are an incredibly power vehicle of putting us in touch with what our flying aircraft represent. Thanks for stopping by, Dave, and thanks for the chat about your family history which was a reminder of what we owe to your father’s generation: citizen soldiers who stepped up, did their bit and quietly went back to a civilian life, leaving the world a better place.
With a deep sense of pride and anticipation we announce the decision by the Commemorative Air Force HQ to entrust the SoCal wing with the restoration of the P47N Thunderbolt, N47TB.
In a 2002 accident, an engine fire in the CAF’s P-47 forced an extremely skilled emergency landing. The pilot walked away with minimal damage and a heck of a story to tell, the P47’s damage was a little more extensive, consisting of collapsed undercarriage, a broken wing and fire damage forward of the cockpit, requiring extensive repair.
In the intervening 12 years, tremendous work has been done towards repairs to the airframe, however much more needs to be done to return the aircraft to flying condition; and the CAF SoCal restoration crews as well as our general membership, are brimming with enthusiasm and justified pride for having been selected as the guardians of this noteworthy aircraft.
The CAF’s P-47 was built at the Republic Aviation Factory in Evansville, Indiana and is powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-2800-59B 2,600HP twin-row radial engine.
According to the Warbird Registry, this P47N S/N 45-53436 has been part of the Commemorative Air Force since 1962, most recently registered as N47TB “Meat Chopper”. The original “Meat Chopper” served with the 464th FS/507th FG in 1945 based on Ie Shima in the Pacific theater.
An interesting account of this aircraft’s history with the Guatemalan Air Force can be found HERE.
The airframe is currently hangared at the CAF facilities in Dallas, TX and will be transferred over to the Camarillo Airport as soon as further arrangements can be made. We will bring you updates to the process as appropriate.
Donate to help this Meat Chopper get back in the air and honor those who sacrificed so much for our freedom!
We’re off to a great start with our first air show of the 2018 season.
ManO’War, the YAK3 and the two Grumman cats made the trip out to NAF El Centro for aerial demonstrations, while the PBJ presented a static display and “290” and the Aircoupe went along to offer rides to VIP personnel.
The folks at the Naval Air Facility were extremely gracious hosts, as has become their tradition, put on a fantastic show for the community and capped it all off with a magnificent fireworks display. Even the mucky weather failed to put a damper on a great airshow.
A big thank you goes out to all our volunteers who made our 2018 air show debut a success – from the pilots who took time from work schedules to ferry aircraft, to the ground crew who made sure the aircraft were ready for the event, and those who came along as support staff – it’s “work” but as you can see it’s a fun kind of work.
We look forward to the remainder of our 2018 season and already anticipating being back to NAF El Centro for 2019 – our home, away from home!
