Simviation Forum - Blue Angels in Florida

Reply #15 - Nov 18^th, 2011 at 8:47am

wahubna Offline
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Elroy13 wrote on Nov 16^th, 2011 at 11:05am:

wahubna wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 8:12pm:

By the way, I saw the F8F Blue Angel #1 at Oshkosh. Stunning bird. I could not help but stand there beside the tail with a deer-in-headlights look. Found out too it was THEE F8F Bearcat that I watched get restored at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo here in Michigan when I was little. Saw it in the museum after it was restored too and on display. So great to see it fly, especially in the colors of the Blue Angels!

I actually helped restore that F8F, it use to belong to Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston. Its a great looking Bearcat here in the Sim...But Im wondering who's model is it? Where do I get it? Cool

The current "Blue Angel #1" F8F? I asked the director of the Kalamazoo Air Zoo if that was their old Bearcat, he said it was..hmm. The Bearcat was a restored racing bird. I should have said it was "restored" to original condition, in other words, changed from a racer to a standard F8F. When the Air Zoo got it maybe 15 years ago it was painted in some USN or USMC squadron colors with dark blue overall. Maybe we are talking about different Bearcats?? OR maybe they were actually the same! The Air Zoo had to sell theirs a couple of years after they finished working on it, they also had to sell their F7F at that time AND their F9F Panther crashed, the Kalamazoo Air Zoo used to have all the cats, now they just have the Wildcat, Hellcat, and Tomcat Cry

‎"At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation."- Igor Sikorsky

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Reply #16 - Nov 18^th, 2011 at 8:51am

wahubna Offline
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DowninFlames wrote on Nov 16^th, 2011 at 4:03pm:

Saw that aircraft at the Jacksonville NAS airshow about 2 weeks ago. Shame the weather was crap though.

Had the same problem at "NAS Oshkosh" this summer. It was really weird being at Oshkosh and NOT seeing dozens and dozens of aircraft over head! This beautiful plane was parked next to the SB2C Helldiver, Fw-190, Spitfire mk 18, F7F, Avenger, SBD, Glacier Girl, the O2 Duck, the Temco Pinto, and a Corsair...obviously this Bearcat stuck out!! God bless aircraft restoration crews for allowing us to see these amazing aircraft!

‎"At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation."- Igor Sikorsky

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Reply #17 - Nov 18^th, 2011 at 10:48am

Elroy13 Offline
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Where'd WHO GO!?!?!
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wahubna wrote on Nov 18^th, 2011 at 8:47am:

Elroy13 wrote on Nov 16^th, 2011 at 11:05am:

wahubna wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 8:12pm:

By the way, I saw the F8F Blue Angel #1 at Oshkosh. Stunning bird. I could not help but stand there beside the tail with a deer-in-headlights look. Found out too it was THEE F8F Bearcat that I watched get restored at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo here in Michigan when I was little. Saw it in the museum after it was restored too and on display. So great to see it fly, especially in the colors of the Blue Angels!

I actually helped restore that F8F, it use to belong to Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston. Its a great looking Bearcat here in the Sim...But Im wondering who's model is it? Where do I get it? Cool

The current "Blue Angel #1" F8F? I asked the director of the Kalamazoo Air Zoo if that was their old Bearcat, he said it was..hmm. The Bearcat was a restored racing bird. I should have said it was "restored" to original condition, in other words, changed from a racer to a standard F8F. When the Air Zoo got it maybe 15 years ago it was painted in some USN or USMC squadron colors with dark blue overall. Maybe we are talking about different Bearcats?? OR maybe they were actually the same! The Air Zoo had to sell theirs a couple of years after they finished working on it, they also had to sell their F7F at that time AND their F9F Panther crashed, the Kalamazoo Air Zoo used to have all the cats, now they just have the Wildcat, Hellcat, and Tomcat Cry

I saw the Air Zoo Bearcat at their museum before they sold it. Im not sure where it ended up. But the current F8F flying in Blue Angel #1 colors came from Lone Star in Galveston. The airframe was a display at USMC Qauntico. The bulk of the restoration was done at Ezell Aviation and then completed at KDWH.

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