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We have been very fortunate over the years to fly with a ton of warbirds for the aerial photomissions. Countless times we have been lucky and privileged to fly with rare WW I and WW II aircraft, combined with a fantastic scenery as the Arizona desert, snowcapped Mount Baker or the White Cliffs along the English coast. To fly a warbird project that would be even better would require a lot of factors to be in place, at the same time! But that is exactly what happened to our very first dedicated warbird project in the USA. We got to visit the famous Erickson collection at their home airfield of Madras in Oregon. The main purpose of this flying museum is to preserve the aviation legacy. What they have in their hangar – in flying condition – makes the Erickson collection one of thé best flying museums in the entire world. And we arrived in August under the most ideal conditions!! Weather forecast: a steel blue sky and tropical temperatures, all around us the most phenomenal scenery with a desert landscape, deep canyons with a river and of course the well-known snowcapped mountains. |
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Waking up at 4 am does come with benefits, as our first flight of the day was planned just before sunrise. We took off with the Skyvan photoship right after the B-17 for what was already a mind-blowing experience… Golden light on the classic bomber and clean and crisp mountains in the background. You might think it could not get any better, but a chance to fly with the rare ‘Duck’ was just as memorable. The light was simply in the category ‘too good to be true’, a truly epic start of our day. | |
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| For the second flight we got the two Navy warbirds together. First we welcomed the Skyraider, a giant among the fighter birds. All our photo wishes came true when she was joined by the even bigger Avenger. Our Skyvan pilot Vince took the 2-ship formation a bit closer to Mount Hood for the spectacular pictures you can see in this report. Photomissions like these do make us feel very lucky. |  |
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During the day it got hot in Madras, very hot. That is
not too ideal to fly with WW II aircraft, but none of the photographers
onboard the Skyvan thought it was a bad idea to catch up on some sleep
and return in the late afternoon for the grand finale. We had another
3 aircraft in the line-up awaiting us. Timewise we planned to fly in the
‘golden hour’ before sunset, and yes that weather was absolutely
100% perfect. First we got to enjoy the P-40, nicely matching the colors
of the desert with its own paint. After the photo join-up we overflew
the airfield for some cool photos with the runway in view, where the Dauntless
was already waiting to take off for us. With an open cockpit and the giant
speed brakes open it was another highlight for the photographers. |
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| Our final aircraft – perfectly into the sunset – was the Bearcat. At this moment of the day you can see the propeller really well lit up with the sun, it’s one of those aircraft that do have a huge propeller. We also took the Bearcat overhead the airfield for a few passes to end an absolutely memorable first warbird project in the USA. | |||
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For sure we love to be back in a few years, at this moment they have a genuine FW-190 and Me-109 in restoration, both are on the target list!! A big thank you goes out to Mike Oliver and his entire team for putting such a fantastic day together and being the perfect host for us. |
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