 |
On the back seat in David`s Citabria on
route to Marysville A few minutes ago we departed from Nut Tree Airport in
Vacaville, 32 mi east of San Francisco. |
|
 |
Probably one of the most extreme biplane
designs is Burt Rutan`s "Quickie" from the 70`s. Until today Rutan attracts
attention with some outstanding and also very efficient aircrafts as for example the
world record holding "Voyager". |
|
 |
A Piper Archer with the rest of our
cheerful team. Underneath us the green fields of California. |
|
 |
Some aircraft have a simply timeless
beauty. This Spartan Executive 7W surely belongs to this category.... |
|
 |
By plane the trip from Vacaville to
Marysville takes only around 40 minutes. |
|
 |
...as this Cessna 195 in an execellent
condition. Such a beauty can rarely be seen in Europe. |
|
 |
On final for Marysville Airport. |
|
 |
No more room in the hangar? This excuse
is now no longer suitable.... |
|
 |
After touchdown we were guided to our
parking position between hundreds of other aircrafts. David`s Citabria parked tail
to tail with this piece of art. |
|
 |
Nearly 2000 units of this Taylorcraft L-2
M "Grasshopper" were produced. It was used as a light transport and for
reconnaissance purposes. |
|
 |
Each square inch of this unique
plane was a real work of art... |
|
 |
The chinese Shenyang BT-6 is in service
since 1977 as a trainer. This plane still carries it`s original chinese paint
scheme. |
|
 |
...and the artist seems to be pretty fond
of cats. While taking a closer look around one could have spent some films to cover all of
the details in the paint scheme of this aircraft. |
|
 |
And this is how the BT-6 looks like with
a new paint scheme.... |
|
 |
The Ercoupe is a pre-war design.
Astonishing how many of these planes could be seen at Marysville. |
|
 |
...including a highly imaginative
spaceship noseart. |
|
 |
"Extraterrestrial
brilliant...", would have been the message of the advert. Well, the extraterrestrial
was in fact slightly green in the face. |
|
 |
This polished to perfection De Havilland
"Chipmunk" is also a former military trainer... |
|
 |
Autogyros as this very much resemble
helicopters but the main rotor has no connection to a driveshaft. It only rotates
through the forward motion produced by the rear propeller.
This so called autorotation is responsible for the lift of these autogyros. |
|
 |
...as also this formidable Boeing PT-17
"Stearman". Built in large numbers it was one of the toughest trainers of all
times... |
|
 |
A somehow quite unconventional design is
the "Mini-IMP" kitplane from Molt Taylor. The single-seater with a rear
propeller and a 60hp engine reaches speeds up to 175mph and with a 100hp engine even
200mph!!! |
|
 |
... and this excellently restored Vultee
Bt-13 "Valiant". Of all the around 11.000 planes that were built only a few have
survived. This Bt-13 belongs to a group of owners around our friend Lloyd Tincher and it`s
homebase is at the Nut Tree Airport in Vacaville. |
|
 |
Even the famous Husky was visiting the
Golden West Fly-In. |
|
|
