cafsocal

Visitors to the museum may have noticed that our beautiful Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero is absent from the CAF hangars.
The aircraft has been grounded at Minter airport near Bakersfield since September after a rough engine report which has turned into a need for an engine overhaul. This is the result of normal wear and tear on the engine – but there’s never a good time for it.

We hope to have it back home as soon as possible but it may be months.

You can help bring the old bird home and back into flying condition by contributing a few dollars to our Mitsubishi Zero maintenance fund.

Every contribution gets us closer to funding the needed repairs and is much appreciated. Banzai!

The 2nd annual Mentor West Fly-In gathering organized a mass flyover of the Santa Barbara Veterans Day Parade on Saturday the 12th.

The mass formation was the largest fly-over for a Veterans Day parade anywhere in the United States and included a P-51 Mustang, multiple T-34’s, Nanchang’s, Yaks, a C47 and our very own B-25 PBJ and Executive Sweet of the AAF.

Launch and recovery of all these aircraft from the Camarillo airport made for an especially exciting day at the museum.

A compilation video from Don Ramm of the T34s and our SNJ doing some join up and formation practice. – Thanks for sharing!

And a compilation video of T34s of the Mentors West group in formation for the flyover of the Santa Barbara Veterans Day Parade, November 12, 2016. Video by Don Ramm

Another compilation video of T34s formation flying practice.
Video by Allan Hughes

Further photos and videos will be added to this news posting as they become available.

Last Saturday was a busy time at the CAFSoCal hangars!

Our ramp was over run by many classic Hot rods for the Roy Pool memorial.

The blue 1965 Comet sure looked good parked next to our Bluebird SNJ.

Bill, an attendees at the Truckee Airshow in 2016 visited our B25-PBJ and sent in the following account of his friend , Captain John Baeta, who was about to celebrate his 96th birthday had had a close call in a B25. A video of the event was taken by an officer at the base where John was flying combat missions during WWII and  was given to John by that officer at a squadron reunion years later. We’re fortunate to present the video and the story here.

Captain John Baeta, 1944

“Captain John Baeta served as a B-25 pilot with the 499th Squadron of the 345th  Bomb Group (The Air Apaches) at San Marcelino, The Philippines. On April 4, 1945, Captain Baeta, flying a B-25-J, had taken a replacement pilot on an orientation flight, which included practice bombing a shipwreck in the San Marcelino harbor. Upon returning to the base, a mechanical malfunction prevented the nose gear from locking down. After several passes by the control tower and trying suggestions from a representative from North American Aviation, the plane’s manufacturer, Captain Baeta decided to make a wheels up landing rather than have everyone on the flight parachute from the airplane. After circling the base for two hours to burn off fuel, Captain Baeta elected to land on a dirt strip beside the runway rather than the steel mat runway which could have caused a fire. The landing was successful, but the aircraft suffered  significant damage and was cannibalized for spare parts. ”

“The wheels up landing was not Captain Baeta’s first close call. On March 11, 1945, he was leading a flight of three B-25’s on a bombing and strafing mission along the Indochina coastline. Flying at 150 feet after completing a strafing pass, Captain Baeta noticed the oil pressure on the right engine was falling steadily. Soon a fire began in the engine and after extinguishing it with CO2 from the emergency extinguisher, Captain Baeta climbed to a higher altitude before feathering the engine. Unable to return to San Marcelino, he headed toward a designated air rescue pick-up point, a barren sand and coral reef about a hundred miles away. Upon reaching  the area, Captain Baeta landed the aircraft in the water just off the reef, and all six crew members were able to wade ashore. The two other B-25’s on the mission had followed the crippled aircraft to the area and dropped life rafts and other supplies to the crew. After several hours on the reef, they saw a Martin PBM Mariner overhead. The Mariner had been searching for a different aircraft lost earlier that day. They were about to abandon their search and return to base when they heard about a B-25 landing at the designated rescue point. Upon seeing the crew’s signal flares, they landed the flying boat nearby and Captain Baeta and his men paddled out to the aircraft. After spending the night aboard a seaplane tender, a PT boat took them to an airbase on shore where a B-25 had flown in to return them to their base at San  Marcelino.

Captain Baeta is currently 96 years old and resides in Sacramento California.”

Thanks Bill, for the video and the story.

It is our mission to ensure that the sacrifices made by countless of our service members do not go forgotten, and you have helped us bring one to light.

On October 22nd, CAFSoCal presented the third installment of the Fighter Plane series at the museum.

Previous presentations had covered the Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero and the Grumman F6F Hellcat aircraft. The latest installment was about the museum’s Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XIV and was by far the best attended event of it’s kind at our facilities – a testament not only to the popularity of this warbird, but also the to the ever improving efforts of the museum’s volunteer staff in organizing and conducting events such as this.

Many thanks to Rob Hertberg to organizing the program, to Steve Barber for his presentation on the flight characteristics of the Spitfire as well as his flight demonstration at the conclusion of the event, and to Ron Fleishman for speaking about the history of the specific aircraft that is part of the Wing’s cadre of warbirds.

Lastly, thanks to all the many tireless volunteers who worked behind the scenes to contribute to the success of this event, with special mention to Gene O’Neal for providing the following video and still shots for those of us who missed it.

The 2nd annual Mentor West Fly-In gathering will take place at CAFSoCal hangars in Camarillo followed by a Veterans Salute flyover in Santa Barbara. The event will take place over four days with aircraft arrivals starting on Thursday November 11, a mass formation fly-over of Santa Barbara for the Veterans Parade on Saturday afternoon and departures on Sunday.

Saturday’s mass formation will be the largest fly-over for a Veterans Day parade anywhere in the United States. Last year over 20 aircraft participated in the event, including Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Helicopters, a P-51 Mustang, an F6F Hellcat, multiple T-34’s, Nanchang’s, Yaks and a B-25.  This year we expect multiple B-25s, C-47s, T-34s, CJs, Yaks as well as other aircraft.

Come by the museum to watch our very busy ramp full of T-34 Mentor and other aircraft departing the airport for this  event.

Our Museum will be closed on Sunday, October 16th, due to a private event being hosted here.

We will resume normal operations on Tuesday October 18th.