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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2010 18:12:41 GMT 8
Thanks, EXO I will keep the "in-topic" reminder in mind, too! If I were to fly a WWII warbird as a last wish, my choices would quickly distill down to two: a Catalina, and a B-17. I grew up on a steady diet of 'Twelve O'Clock High' TV episodes, and when I saw the B-17 'Nine-O-Nine' two months ago when the airplane and I happened to be at the same airfield near San Francisco, it was like seeing the true cross. I must have spent 2 hours inside that airplane, just letting all my childhood dreams and memories wash through. And you flew in both of them. Geez! Re the 20-foot lawn mower runs -- no fear. My precious pilot's license is my most unlikely childhood dream come true, so I certainly wouldn't risk it for a 10-second thrill. That photo on the blog was a low approach over the runway at my home field. "Low approach" is a euphemism for flying to landing height but not actually touching down on the runway. Since it's over a runway environment, it doesn't put me or anyone at risk. I've also trained for an aerobatic rating, and I can tell you that reading about Saburo Sakai whipping his Zero through a snap roll to evade a Hellcat's machine guns over Iwo Jima is a million miles away from actually flying a snap roll in an aerobatic Decathlon over Luzon. A snap roll is a horizontal spin -- 5 seconds of pure aerodynamic violence. To think that young kids in WWII learned to fly like that for their lives, in airplanes with 10 times the horsepower, while someone was shooting at them ... Wow! I'm serious about taking folks on photo runs. Corregidor, Subic, Zambales, the battlesites of Central Luzon, Bataan. Kindley: I actually donated the last windsock there. Now you tell me it's gone again My home field has a 600-meter runway, so I'm okay with that. The winds are the thing. They are strong, and they are across the runway, and that cliff on on side of the runway creates eddies and windshear that don't help. But what an experience to land where those Beech 18 and P-40 pilots landed, in those dark nights of 1942!
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Post by fots2 on Jul 9, 2010 18:19:08 GMT 8
Hi tonet, Welcome to the board. Thanks for the links to your photos. I will check them out soon. The windsock is still there, full of holes, but it is there. The last time I was at Kindley Field was about a month and a half ago. Grass is still being cut around the airstrip and the terminal building. The field is unmanned but I expect you could still land there. I have not heard of an airplane using Kindley Field for a long time. In front of the terminal building is a sign with two cell phone numbers you can call if you do choose to drop in someday. Note that there were hazards along the field, loosely tied goats and horses (some not tied at all). That may be of concern to you.
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Post by fots2 on Jul 9, 2010 19:06:32 GMT 8
Hi tonet, I just checked my GPS for two waypoints that I took at each end of the airfield. The distance between them is 695 meters but note that these waypoints were taken at the tree lines. The actual airstrip is considerably shorter than this. Here is a current view of your windsock.
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Post by EXO on Jul 9, 2010 22:27:11 GMT 8
OFF TOPIC WARNING Off topic - but nice! The story about the Catalina is at: corregidor.org/archives/weber/html/09_05.htmlAbout the "off topic" issue - the reason I like people to be aware is more to keep threads relatively close to the topics they started on, because otherwise we might get some really great topics begin unnanounced at the end of somewhere else - and almost unfindable. Thus, its almost impossible to start any thread which can be considered "off-topic" - though we did have some problems with chinese game spammers a while back - so many it almost became like a shooting gallery. There's no way a couple of hundred links to world of warcraft websites are on topic in this forum. Your first post certainly deserves a fresh thread, because I suspect there's hardly anyone who visits this site who isn't deeply interested in aspects of WWII aviation and the stories which follow from it. I invite you to start a thread with it. Over the years I have been fortunate to get flights in some of the less common aircraft - two B-17's, three or four B-25's, a B-23, a Ju-52, a Lockheed P-2, some T-6's, and a P-51. Tried hard to get on the B-29, but only made it to being "extinguisher man" for the engine start-ups during which Paul Tibbets re-qualified his rating. Have stories, but not for the tail end of what is a good thread on Philippine Airfields. Looks like your sock needs some darning...darn!! I also happen to know a barn in Kansas where there's two WWII BT-13's just awaiting a potential new owner. But that's another story.... Just wait until Batteryboy gets downwind of this thread and smells it in the air! He's our local resident airfield aficionado. exo
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Post by okla on Jul 9, 2010 22:57:29 GMT 8
Hey Tonet....I would love to view any photos, aerial or otherwise, that you might have of the site of the POW Camp at Cabanatuan. My nephew's wife's (niece in law???) grandfather was a prisoner there for a time before being transferred to Bilibid where he was liberated in early 1945. While at Cabanatuan he did forced labor at Clark Field. I understand that now, except for a monument to the prisoners,etc, that the site is unrecognizable as a former POW camp. Thanks for your new stuff. Cheers.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2010 10:25:17 GMT 8
EXO -- Excellent point re new thread. Wilco! And you were in a P-51! Wow! They had one at Moffet Field, along with the B-17, when I was in San Francisco last May. I was willing to pay $400 for a ride in the B-17 (but nobody else was flying that day), but the $3,000 for half an hour in the P-51 could have bought a new prop for my Cessna... Fots -- I read that post on the trek around the area immediately north of Kindley Field. From the old maps, I think perhaps Kindley was a bit wider than it is now. I also saw some really old maps that indicate a former blimp facility there. And of course that's where the Japanese landings took place. So I've always been curious about the area. Your post satisfied that curiosity, especially after I read about the snakes. I'm deathly afraid of them, so I think my curiosity is fully sated now and will look forward instead to your next post about the area. My logbooks are in Manila, and I'm in Bangkok, but the last pictures I have of a flight to Corregidor are from 2007. On a previous flight, the windsock was gone, and I had a heck of a time sussing out which direction the wind was coming from. I promised the security guard on duty at the terminal that I would bring a windsock next time, and I did. Not sure if that is the same one as in your current photo. If I can fly in again I'll bring another one (I get them at the San Carlos airport pilot shop in the Bay area, south of San Francisco). And you are right -- goats, horses and tricycles on the runway would be a major concern. Photos from 2006-07. Tactical pilotage chart, Manila Bay area Looking for windsock, Kindley Field, Corregidor. Battery Grubbs? Help! Another low pass. Just to make sure the field is clear. Turning downwind. After the rainy season. Final approach. Runways shrink as the winds get stronger. Pilots sweat. There isn't a single hostile left at Corregidor. All friendlies. The airplane misses Corregidor. One day we'll be back. Okla, I'll start a new thread on the Cabanatuan pictures! .
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Post by fots2 on Jul 10, 2010 15:07:24 GMT 8
Very interesting ride you had there tonet. Yes that is Battery Grubbs. As you say, batteries are difficult to see from the air. Battery Way is damn near invisible.
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Post by batteryboy on Jul 11, 2010 7:23:10 GMT 8
Tonet,
Welcome aboard!. I have viewed your travels and your photos in your blogs about a year or two ago and am glad that other than me someone elsse has an interest in Philippine airfields. I have tabulated close to 280 plus airfields, emergency air strips and sea plane bases but still deducing them as some of them were called with two or three different general names. I might reduce them to around 180-200 but I am getting there.
I have exchanged some correspondences with Bill Bartsch's and the past and Bert Anido was a good friend of mine before he passed away. Bert and I would spend time just talking about WWII aircraft and airfields. He is the authority on the PAF while my forte is Japanese Army and Naval air units that were stationed in the P.I. We both share the same interest in US and allied aircraft that were stationed here up to the obscure aircraft types that flew here from 1909 to the present day. Alas, Bert passed away before we can even put it in wrting. we planned to make a definitive book in three volumes.
I travel a lot on business and my wfe losses me at least a week or two each year for the hobby. If I am not in Corregidor, I am wandering off some far away location in search of the airfields. I have travelled from north to south (Batanes_ to Tawi Tawi. I don't claim to have visied all 200+ airfields but at least I know where most of them are located to near. My recent trips were the Davao areas and have plotted the location of 5 airfields used by the Japanese in 44.
In my mother's province in Negros, I have tabulated at least more than a dozen airfields and one emergency strip near our farm. When I was a 7 year old boy, I was lucky to have seen a crashed Ki-43 Oscar in our farm. Alas, nothing of it remains to this day.
Just a comment: Technically Basa Airifeld was not Del Carmen. Del Carmen airfield was sugar cane plantation not far from Floridablanca (Basa) that was used as a sattelitte field to house the 34th PS when it arrived in the P.I. in late 41. Basa airfield now lies on the former Floridablanca Airfield near sittio Palakol which the American thought was Del Carmen. The SWPA (Southwest Pacific Area) intel reports eventually termed this as Del Carmen no. 2 initially until they found that this was a separated tactical airfield. The Japanese had used Del Carmen and Floridablanca separately in late 44 and early 45. Upon occupation the Americans used Floridablanca and nearby Porac fields for fighters and attack aicraft and would sometimes accomodate heavy and medium bomber aircraft when nearby Clark was congested. In fact the runway at Porac was even 1000 feet longer than the two parallel runways at Clark.
Again, welcome to the boards and if you need any information on the location of other airfields of your interest, let me know.
Cheers, Tony
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Post by okla on Jul 11, 2010 23:20:18 GMT 8
Hey Battery....Any progress in determining the approximate number of Japanese aircraft that can be credited to the AA gunners on Corregidor? I am confident that if anyone can dig up the info, that person would be you. With all the wildly differing numbers, it has to be a formidable task. That range of 5 shot down in one day to only 5 for the whole campaign certainly leaves a lot of room to maneuver does it not??? I certainly appreciate what you do on this website. Cheers.
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Post by batteryboy on Jul 13, 2010 21:33:31 GMT 8
Hi Okla,
Will post some figures when I get home. Am just on the road right now and alas, no airfields in sight.
Cheers, Tony
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