The Dixie Dispatch DIXIE WING, COMMEMORATIVE AIR FORCE, PEACHTREE CITY, GA Col Frank Kalinowski, Editor - [email protected]
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The Dixie Dispatch DIXIE WING, COMMEMORATIVE AIR FORCE, PEACHTREE CITY, GA www.dixiewing.org Col Frank Kalinowski, Editor - [email protected] November 2016 Education through living history. Keep 'em flying. Dixie Wing Staff Realizing that most of you will Officers /Contacts be reading this after a busy and festive Thanksgiving day, the Wing Leader staff of the Dixie Dispatch Col Jay Bess sends wishes that the [email protected] remainder of the year is both productive and interesting. Executive Officer Col Larry Combs [email protected] We look forward to a successful 2017, which should bring Adjutant having all of our aircraft in Col Malcolm Lelliott flying condition, an increased [email protected] membership, an expanded Finance Officer WWII Heritage Days, and an Col Paul Zampol even better Atlanta Warbird [email protected] Weekend. Maintenance Officer Col Bob Heath [email protected] Operations Officer Col Jim Buckley [email protected] WHAT'S INSIDE? Recruiting Officer Col Gerhard Frenz 2 ..... From the Left Seat [email protected] 3 ..... From Some Other Seat; What’s That? Public Information Officer 4 ..... Finance Report; New Colonels Col Steve Forsyth 5 ..... Maintenance Report [email protected] 6 ..... Talk About Safety; PLANE CRAZY Marketing Officer Trivia Time Quiz Col Moreno "Mo" Aguiari 7 ..... Scenes From The Hangar; [email protected] 8 ..... Bookmaster Safety Officer 9 ..... Supermarine Spitfire– Part Three Col Rodney Higginbotham 10-11 Wright Master Pilot Awards Rodneyhigginbotham @gmail.com 12-14 Hell Broke Loose In Hawaii Air Show Scheduling 15 ..... Gone West Col Phillip Beegle 16 ..... WWII HERITAGE DAYS - 2017 [email protected] 17 ..... Christmas Party Aircraft Rides Officer Col Jerry Robinette 18 ..... Answer to Trivia Time Quiz and What’s That? [email protected] 19 ..... On The Horizon Angel Squad 20 ..... THE TAILPIECE Merikay Franklin [email protected] November 2016 The Dixie Dispatch Page 2 From the Left Seat: Col Jay Bess, Wing Leader It’s the Holiday Season and we have many things comes to Warbirds – to be thankful for as 2016 winds down. The P-63 they want to see Kingcobra has moved under its own power for the them in action! first time in over 40 years with Dixie Wing pilot, (…with pyrotech- Craig Hutain conducting a successful high speed nics!) A collabora- taxi test run. It won’t be long until it returns to the tion with the West skies and we’ll be broadcasting it live on Texas Wing’s Hell- Facebook. We’ll keep you “in the loop” when the diver and Alan big day arrives. Another project that will take Armstrong’s Kate will hopefully give us greater flight literally any day is our T-34 Mentor. The opportunity to differentiate ourselves from other crew has almost been working around the clock to Warbird and aerobatic acts available. Add the get her back in the air and on its way to Delta for a famous “Red Nose” P-51 and the newly restored beautiful new paint scheme. P-63 and it’s an exciting line-up! Our successful Living History Series has a new Finally, we lost a great friend to many and the program director for 2017. Dixie Wing member, Dixie Wing. Ron Alexander perished doing what Rick Ector is creating a great line-up for 2017 and he loved best, flying. This article from AOPA is a will be able to announce the schedule in the great tribute to someone who will be missed upcoming month. We also have two new crew greatly: chiefs that Maintenance Officer Bob Heath will https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all- make the introductions. As a hint, one’s a newly news/2016/november/18/ron-alexander-quiet- minted A&P and the other is one of our youngest giant-of-aviation-dies-in-jenny-crash A&Ps – but both with years of experience. Congratulations! Please keep Ron’s family in your prayers over the Holiday Season. The Dixie Wing “Wall of Fame” is making progress as both Gerhard Frenz and Charles I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with Burcher are digging into the history of the Wing family and friends! and preparing the area for a walk down memory lane of the early days. Keep ‘em Flying! Shortly after Thanksgiving is the ICAS (International Council of Air Shows) Convention. This annual event is where air shows organizers and performers attend to book acts for the 2017/2018 years. The Dixie Wing attends to promote our aircraft and we are heavily promoting our “Prowlers of the Pacific” act. Airshow audiences already have the opportunity to see so many aerobatic aircraft, that when it November 2016 The Dixie Dispatch Page 3 From Some Other Seat: Operations Col Jim Buckley, Operations Officer Welcome to the end of our extended flying season. Dry, warm and beautiful weather allowed us to complete our last few events of the year. The P-51 had a great visit to its former base at Page Field, Fort Meyers Florida at the end of October. The following weekend it traveled to Cullman Alabama where nine rides were sold! The same weekend our Corsair and SBD were scheduled to fly to Homestead Air Reserve Base, but neither was operational. Fortunately for us, Thom Richard was able to bail us out again by using the P-40 accompanied by the Collings Foundation P-51B to serve our customer. Veterans at Delta Airlines were honored by their company on that special day, November 11th, by our attendance with the SBD, LT-6 and PT-19. The Red Tail Squadron event at False River Louisiana was attended by our P-51, Red Nose, during the week of November 10-13, for it's last scheduled event of the year. Even with all the bad luck we've had, it's been a great year for the Dixie Wing. On Saturday a former Dixie Wing Cadet, Craig Marchant, dropped by taking some time off his Navy career. I was very surprised when he told me he was having radiation therapy in town. He was having problems with his right eye and had been to several Doctors, but to no avail. Finally, someone listened and got him an MRI scan. Two days later, Doctors removed a tennis ball size tumor from his brain! I wish Craig a speedy recovery. Blue Skies, Jim Buckley WHAT’S THAT? Col Frank Kalinowski A few hints: • First flown in 1937, it was intended to be a “bomber destroyer,” capable of intercepting bombers beyond the range of single-place pursuit aircraft. • Pusher engines allowed it to carry a forward firing 37 mm M4 cannon in each of the two engine nacelles. • One was displayed at the 1940 World’s Fair (motto: The world of tomorrow.) in New York. • I don’t know, but its name rings a Bell. WHAT’S THAT? Find the answer on page 18. November 2016 The Dixie Dispatch Page 4 Focus On Finance Col Paul Zampol, Finance Officer Our balance sheet as of November 18 shows At a meeting our total bank accounts at $185,000 and total on November current assets of $519,285, little changed from 17, the Wing last month. These numbers do not yet include staff discussed the case for raising our $48 the very successful P51 rides event at annual Wing dues. Dues have stayed at this Cullman, Alabama November 4 and 5. So, no level for several years; there was some debate more Alabama jokes (well, for a while over just how long, but clearly it’s been long anyway). The P&L surprisingly shows a enough that memories have gotten blurred. positive tally of $12,324 for the year so far. As We feel that Wing members receive good I have noted before, however, these numbers value for paying dues; some other CAF units alone do not accurately reflect the heavy charge more. Given the positive results noted investments we’ve made in two new engines above, and a number of revenue-generating this year. initiatives that are in the pipeline, we felt that dues should stay at $48 for now. We will send AWW results are continuing to trickle in, but I an email to all members soon requesting expect that the final result will be about a payment of 2017 Dixie Wing dues. As with $20,000 contribution to our bottom line. the holiday party, we will look at an online Again, thanks to all you hard workers for a payment option using PayPal. unique aviation event for the Atlanta area. WELCOME NEW COLONELS James Archer Mark Klone Richard Taylor Steven Barcoft William Rook Keni Thomas Tom Faulkner Robyn Rosenzweig Jim Wilder David Flemning Gregg Scott James Wright Thomas Henegar John Southwick November 2016 The Dixie Dispatch Page 5 Maintenance Report: Col Bob Heath, Maintenance Officer I am pleased to announce the appointments of 2 I’ll soon be new crew chiefs for the Dixie Wing! Larry Combs coordinating with is stepping up to assume crew chief duties for the the crew chiefs on Mustang, Red Nose. Larry has worked very hard the inspection on the Mustang for the last 3 years under Lonnie schedule that will Webster’s watchful eye and Lonnie says it’s time be published for Larry to take the stick. Of course, Lonnie is still when it’s set. providing the Wing with his expertise and now will be able to spread it around a bit more on some The work on the of the other aircraft, too. Corsair is already underway and the engine delivered to Kissimmee. The Mustang is currently Chad Marvin has taken over as crew chief for the running well, as is the LT-6 and PT-19.