Tigercat in Person

falcon409

falcon409

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Staff member
Ok. . .I can't always have my camera with me when these things happen ok, lol. Yesterday, as I was eating lunch near the airport, I saw an airplane landing that wasn't the usual GA type we see out here most often. I finished eating and drove back to the hangar to find a pristine F7F Tigercat on the ramp. . .flown by Steve Hinton.

Man if I could have made it to the house and back before he left I would have done it just to get my camera and document the event.. So in the past 3 months we've had Glacier Girl flown by Steve Hinton, a B-17 and B-25 flown by Stewart Dawson and his wife Avril and an F-7f Tigercat flown by Steve Hinton. I'm keeping my camera in my tool box in the hangar from now on, lol.
 
Must have been the former Kalamazoo 'Air Zoo' Tigercat heading down to San Antonio for Rod Lewis, the new owner.
 
Bomber_12th said:
Must have been the former Kalamazoo 'Air Zoo' Tigercat heading down to San Antonio for Rod Lewis, the new owner.
Click to expand...
Very probable John. Steve had quite an entourage with him. There was a Thunderbolt (not sure who was flying that) and then a PC-12 with half a dozen folks in that airplane as well. All took off together.
 
when i was growing up..they were using the F7F for air tankers here in northern california..sisqu airtankers of something.....but i saw alot of them..most kids and people in general didnt pay much attention,same as now,..but i must have known even then i was seeing something specail....my dad was a volunteer fireman and i was into that..and we live on the top of a ridge with a 1000 foot drop into a deep canyon..weve seen alot of fire over the years and alot of airtanker types...B17s,avengers,AF gaurdians,C119s,DC4s,DC6s,PBY,the F7Fs,(the F7Fs were based at grass Valley ,im 29 miles south so i saw them on inital attack)
now we see a DC7 out of chico,P3,and the grumman S2Ts of calfire

but back to my point...i feel lucky that i took the time to stop and watch the F7Fs when i had the chance when i was growing up....we also got to go to GV one time..my nieghbor was running the air base at the time..it was USFS at the time and not CDF....the F7Fs would come in "hot"..would run more than half the length of the runway with the nose wheel in the air...that memory will never leave me....they could take off loaded 800 gallons..but they had to jettison the load on return if canceled because the gear couldnt take the wieght.....im babling
 
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