Flying the FW-190

Awesome video, Naki! Do you know who the pilot in the video is? He looks familiar, but I can't place him. Great to see that example up and flying problem-free, after the few frustrating problems at last year's Classic Fighters.
 
yeah its Frank Parker...a local warbird pilot with quite a bit of experience in test flying and displaying Kittyhawks. Also owns a L-39 based at Ardmore in Auckland
 
Thank you Naki, that's where I remember seeing him before - I had been watching several clips recently of and within a couple of the P-40's based in New Zealand. ; )
 
The airfields are Omaka (where the aircraft is based, I believe), and Woodbourne, both quite close to each other. I was going to mention that, due to the Real NZ scenery for Marlborough in FS9 and FSX, I feel quite familiar with the area. ; )
 
Bomber_12th said:
...I feel quite familiar with the area. ; )
Click to expand...
Yes...I love taking Gavin's stills and videos to the sim:[YOUTUBE]SmGyu7-8-Xo&list=UUO1vQGj8WGqdIRbfGPtbE4g&index=1&feature=plcp[/YOUTUBE]
and as you say, it makes it all somehow better when you already know where he's flying!
 
Its been wonderful to watch as more of these become operational, after having required a substantial amount of time and work for each individual 'kit' to be completed by various rebuild/warbird shops around the globe, contracted by the various owners (the NZ example is the original prototype, though has since incorporated into it updates that have been developed since original production). I think I can count 7 that are currently finished/operational, with another ever so close to taking its first flight soon, down in Arizona. I feel very fortunate to have seen Rudy Frasca's example last summer (which is the only one not powered by an Ash82 engine, and rather a P&W R-2800 (yes, that's correct)).

There are also a few "Dora" variants out there, produced by Flugwerk, in various stages of build/rebuild. These were originally designed to use Allison engines, but there are rumors of at least two possibly being built-up with operational Jumo engines, as per the originals.
 
Speaking of the Rudy Frasca example, here is a recent video shot from the wing-tip of the aircraft, at a recent display at Chino, California (where it housed/loaned-to over the winter months, before going home to Illinois during the summer).

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This is the next example which will be flying, owned by Dan Kirkland. It is said to be one of the most original to the Focke-Wulf Fw-190, as all of the internal rigging, cockpit hardware, etc., has been done to original Focke-Wulf spec - the paint scheme is excellent as well, and accurate. The building of this aircraft was handled by GossHawk Unlimited, the same company that restored the airwrothy (but not flown) original Fw-190D now owned by the Flying Heritage Collection, as well as handled the final work on the airworthy and flown original Fw-190A-5 owned by the Flying Heritage Collection (though the vast majority of the restoration of that aircraft was done in England).

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These two are operational in Europe right now:

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Here's a video of the example that was built in Germany, owned by the Military Aviation Museum and now based/flown in Virginia Beach, Virginia (the aircraft now too, has a three-bladed prop - when the video was taken, there were some items that were being looked at/corrected with the three-blade prop unit, after the French example ditched due to the prop failing). The paint scheme on this example, I think, is my favorite of all of those currently finished/flying, though I very much liked the Eagle-head scheme on the French example (which is now being rebuilt after its ditching, for a new owner).

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There is also the example which is seen in the second video posted to this thread, which is based in Louisiana, and another also based in the U.S., though I forget by who/and where, which has a four-blade prop, Ash82 engine, and cowl, off of a Russian TU-2.
 
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