There's a chapter on Zamperini in a book I just finished.

Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors

Here are a couple of oldies!
While not back country I think they are pretty cool.
Scanned from old slides.
My Dad was a flight engineer on a P2 Neptune.
He shot the photo of the Mig out the window sometime in the early 60's.
They "may or may not" have been in Russian airspace at the time.
But they did get escorted for a while. Dad said he could see the whites of the pilots eyes.
Everyone on board was pretty nervous for a while.

It was 1999 with my little boy at Oshkosh. What a wonderful day. I was way too busy in those days to fully appreciate it at the time. A lot of life has happened since that day. Most of it I never saw coming. What I'd give to live that day all over again.

Here are some oldies from my dad's slides--he numbered all of his slides and when he died we started looking back through the collection and these were among the first 50. The mounts were almost dust but the colors were just fantastic with this old Kodachrome. These were taken at an airshow in Avenal, spring of 1941.
Ercoupe:

Culver Cadet:

Stinson Reliant:

Stinson 105:

Taylorcraft:

Here are some other oldies he had in the collection. He was a geologist in Ethiopia in 1949 and these 3 shots were taken when H.I.M. Haile Selassie came to visit the oil field:

These last 3 were taken at Mesa Del Rey Airport in King City, CA, where I grew up, probably sometime in the '60s:

Tip tanks on a P-51, trying to look like a bonanza?? (Not the manly look I would be trying for).

50Tango wrote:Here are some other oldies he had in the collection. He was a geologist in Ethiopia in 1949 and these 3 shots were taken when H.I.M. Haile Selassie came to visit the oil field:

Wow, that's an amazing shot. Can't believe no one got bonked in the head on that take-off.

Selassie led a fascinating life also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie

50 tango, Tankers 68 and 65 caught my eye. They were still flying retardant out of Redmond OR in the late 60s and early 70s. Here's the rest of the story of 65, from http://www.air-and-space.com/Boeing%20B ... ankers.htm

B-17G-95-DL, N5237V tanker 65 at the Goleta tanker station on November 28, 1980. It was delivered to the U. S. Army Air Corps as 44-83868. It was transferred to the U. S. Navy as PB-1W, BuNo 77233. American Compressed Steel Corporation of Dallas, Texas acquired it in December 1957 and gave it its curent registration. It sat unconverted at the Dallas-Love Airport for two years. Carstedt Air of Long Beach, California made an unsuccessful bid to purchase it, reserving the registration N6466D for it, but never taking it up. Aero Union Corporation of Chico, California bought it in 1960. Butler Farm Air (later Butler Aircraft Company) of Redmond, Oregon acquired it in 1963 and flew it as tanker e15, f15, and #65. TBM Incorporated of Sequoia, California bought it in 1979. It was restored to stock configuration at Sequoia and flown to Royal Air Force Bize Norton England in 1983. It arrived at the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, England on December 9, 1983. It is now named Mary Alice carries serial 44-83868. It is on static display at the American Air Museum in England at Duxford.

patrol guy wrote:Tip tanks on a P-51, trying to look like a bonanza?? (Not the manly look I would be trying for).

That's a post war conversion of an H model, done by a FL company. They built Mustangs as counter insurgency fighters. Can't recall the company name right now. That one was undoubtedly flying lead for the tankers.

When I was in college in Missoula, the airport ramp in the fall looked like a WW II air base in England. Johnson's Flying Service used B17s, TBMs, and B 25 for borate and Mustangs for lead. They also used two Ford Tri Motors for jump and para cargo.

Evergreen got most of those planes when they bought Johnson's at fire sale prices, and many are now in their OR museum.

MTV

Green Valley Ranch in 2002 is about as far back as I got. Feels like a long time ago, and it will be vintage before we know it, the way things seem to go.

Here's my poor man's slide scanner. An old styrofoam ice chest with a square hole cut in one end. The hole is larger than the film but smaller than the slide frame. Placed the ice chest on a table with the top pointing out the window for light. A professional photographer friend gave me this idea. He said he uses a 100 watt clamp light for light. I had better luck with the natural light from the window.

I hand held a cannon powershot A7 to take the digital picture which I then cropped as you can see. Most any digital camera that has a macro feature should work. My wife has a high dollar digital camera that I plan to make a stand for that will hold the camera the right distance from the slide. It should be a quick way to digitize our slides.

Edit: Looking closer at these pictures I see I need to trim the slide hole a little larger on the right.





This is as close as my little cannon Powershot could be held to the slide


Cropped picture. This Stinson sat out in the sagebrush at the Lexington OR Airport for about 15 years. Someone finally saw it and bought it to restore.

mtv wrote:

patrol guy wrote:Tip tanks on a P-51, trying to look like a bonanza?? (Not the manly look I would be trying for).

That's a post war conversion of an H model, done by a FL company. They built Mustangs as counter insurgency fighters. Can't recall the company name right now. That one was undoubtedly flying lead for the tankers.

When I was in college in Missoula, the airport ramp in the fall looked like a WW II air base in England. Johnson's Flying Service used B17s, TBMs, and B 25 for borate and Mustangs for lead. They also used two Ford Tri Motors for jump and para cargo.

Evergreen got most of those planes when they bought Johnson's at fire sale prices, and many are now in their OR museum.

MTV

The conversion was called the Cavalier Mustang, done by Trans Florida Aviation. They later changed their name to Cavalier Aircraft Corp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_Mustang

Alan

This a fascinating thread, thanks to all for posting. A special mention for 50Tango who joined in 2007 and has 5 posts, the last one having a rastafarian god walking down aircraft steps, incredible. Love this internet thingy.

ozy wrote:This a fascinating thread, thanks to all for posting. A special mention for 50Tango who joined in 2007 and has 5 posts, the last one having a rastafarian god walking down aircraft steps, incredible. Love this internet thingy.

wheres your photos mate? there would have to be a few good ones out there of your dad atleast?

mtv wrote:

patrol guy wrote:Tip tanks on a P-51, trying to look like a bonanza?? (Not the manly look I would be trying for).

That's a post war conversion of an H model, done by a FL company. They built Mustangs as counter insurgency fighters. Can't recall the company name right now. That one was undoubtedly flying lead for the tankers.

When I was in college in Missoula, the airport ramp in the fall looked like a WW II air base in England. Johnson's Flying Service used B17s, TBMs, and B 25 for borate and Mustangs for lead. They also used two Ford Tri Motors for jump and para cargo.

Evergreen got most of those planes when they bought Johnson's at fire sale prices, and many are now in their OR museum.

MTV

Now you did it, you are bringing back memories from a previous life. When people used to show slides, the question;"Do you want to see my slides"? was followed by a nap. Sleep away.

Some of the Johnson Flying Service fleet-60's

Beware the moving prop-everyone was tougher

My early fueling days

Wrecked later, not Johnson's. Crew survived

DC3 landing Moose Creek ranch. The USFS bought, burned buildings down and closed airstrip

Hauling hay to the Moose Creek ranch in the DC2

I can't even pick up one now!

The Johnson DC2 and one of their Bell 47's at the Moose Creek Ranger statikon.

The last two of the Johnson Fords


Leaving the DC2

Para cargo


This should go in the Three point or wheel landing thread. Now if I just could find a picture of a canyon turn.

Lots more photos in a box someplace.

It doesn't get much more vintage then this:the pre war section of my book collection, that'd be the FIRST World War! My oldest is "How to build a bi-plane glider", 1909. Many from the War era, but before the US was involved. Then the War era, then I move on up to the 20's and the 30's, my favorite, truly the golden age of aviation.

The old Popular Mechanics and Popular Science covers are from 1918 to 1929. I like the one of the hunters blasting the geese from above in the float biplane, this was pre Fish & Game I'm guessing?


I just had these illustrations I printed out (I wanted to frame and mount them, but didn't want to trash the book by ripping the pages out, I was surprised at how well they turned out) from the book "Riders of the Winds", by Edward Shelton, 1929. The author's illustrations are very striking, and a little googling turns up that he was a respected artist, no surprise there. My favorite is the one on the bottom row, second from the right. It is captioned "the mountain was rising faster then the plane could climb". We can all relate to that.


All these books and many more are kept where the direct sun never hits them, but where I walk by a lot, so I can gloat that I own them. They are also very near the house main entrance so can be quickly removed in case of fire, screw everything else it's all insured, not these, irreplaceable anyways. All of these were purchased on the cheap in the last 25 years, in junk stores or thrift shops not high dollar book stores, while on xc's and in various towns throughout the west, usually while killing time waiting on the weather. The folding bike was indispensable once I got my first 18 years ago. At one point I realized I had a book collecting sickness, but also realized the collection was quite valuable, maybe.

What's going on here?
Edit: never mind, I think I figured it out. At first thought the static line was snagged in the corner of the door.

robertc wrote:
Lots more photos in a box someplace.

The brilliance of that film is amazing. Those are slides, right?

Didn't somebody here have some pics of being parked at Tunnel Meadows or Monache Meadows from the 60's? Or maybe I'm thinking of the FAA density altitude video with Harry Bliss.