OFMC Tribute..

[DaveB]

Back in the day when I were a lad in short trousers with a ZX9R Kissmasnatchy, I was a member of OFMC's Tiger Squadron.. their supporters club. Mark had been tragically killed in the Bouchon but Ray was still an active display pilot with Nigel Lamb, Ray Proudfoot (edit: make that Lee Proudfoot.. Ray was his dad!) and a couple of others who's names I can't recall at present. The opportunity arose for Tiger Squadron members to do a 'Spring Clean' of the aircraft prior to their first display at Southend and as I responded to the email first, the day I chose was the day chosen At the time, they were running ZDB, a P51, a Corsair, a Harvard and a Lavochkin LA9.. the latter purchased at great expense to fill the gap left by RayH's beloved P40 which had been sold and was being prepared for shipment to NZ in one of the hangars. I think the LA9 overstretched their resources and got sold on in short order (they paid in excess of £3m for it!!)
Anyhoo.. me and Helen (she was only a tiddler then) had a great day at Duxford.. rubbin' and a cleanin' along with the other volunteers. It was the first time I'd up close'n'personal with a Corsair and I couldn't believe just how darned big they are. For sure.. that one took longer to clean than all the others These days, OFMC only operate ZDB and (at the moment) Ferocious Frankie although they have other aircraft on their books (not warbirds though if I remember right).

Here's a quick 3 of how they were back in the day.. notwithstanding the incorrect paint on the P40..



ZDB's paint on the RAS Spit is probably my fave model/paint combination of all time. I just love it to bits. The Corsair is from AF.. the P40 is the old Iris model and Ferocious Frankie is one of JY's AI models. Sadly.. it didn't last the display This said.. I blew the RA Spit up first time out.. been a long time since I've seen oil all over the armoured glass

Footnote.. the landing lights on the P40 and Corsair are one of the probs DaveG highlighted with this FX prog. If you use bonafide AI.. this doesn't happen much but with 'full' models, it most certainly can

ATB
DaveB

[Paul K]

Yep, those were the days. Somewhere I have a photo of all four looping together when they formed the original Breitling Fighters display team.

RIP Ray and Mark

[DaveB]

Indeed mate.. RIP to them both.

You mention the Breitling Fighters.. my memory of the time is a big bu99ered but I seem to remember one of the 'possible' factors in the LA9 going sooner rather than later was when Breitlings sponsorship ended.. I thought prematurely though it may have been 'contract run its course'. The day we went to do the spring clean.. they'd not had it long. Lee Proudfoot showed us around the hangar to their aircraft and explained what needed to be done. He was asked about the LA9.. what was it like to fly e t c and he said he'd not flown it yet but was due to give it a run in the afternoon.. and he did. You'd not have known looking at his shakedown flight that he'd not flown one before!

ATB
DaveB

[Paul K]

Now you mention it, I can remember the La-9 having the Breitling Fighter's logo on the nose, but I'm not sure I ever saw it fly as part of the display. I always remember the formation being a P-40, P-51, F-4U and Spitfire. I also remember Ed Walters ( of Plane Design ) pointing out, as we watched them at Duxford, that dissimilar types present a problem in formation aerobatics in that they all decelerate at different rates. It wouldn't have occurred to me if he hadn't mentioned it.

Thinking back to the La-9, and all the other warbirds that we used to see, the current warbird scene in Britain seems a bit sparse. Somewhere I have a photo of the Flying Legends 'balbo' which shows something like 30 aircraft. You don't get that now.

[DaveB]

Yes mate.. the Spit, P51 and P40 would, in the grand scale of things, have been quite similar but the F4 is a different ball game. They always impressed the cr@p out of me.. it was almost like seeing one BIG aircraft displaying rather than 4 small ones

Are you saying that the balbo doesn't happen any more or that it's a tad 'thinner' than it was? Having been an ardent fan going 4 times a year for some 12 years.. I ducked out of one show, then the next and that was that. I've not been since

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DaveB

[DaveB]

Looking back over what's available on the web.. it may well have been Shoreham not Southend airshow we did the cleaning for.. a lot of things tie up with this including..

Review - Highlight of the 2003 Shoreham Airshow was a scintillating display by Ray Hanna in the Old Flying Machine Company's Lavochkin La-9 ZK-LIX making one of its few air display appearances in the UK. The aircraft was restored in New Zealand, returning to the air on March 1st 2003, and was shipped to the UK in time to debut at that years Flying Legends. The La-9 was issued with a temporary exemption by the CAA and therefore had to return to New Zealand at the end of the year and was also joined by OFMC's Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk ZK-RMH, and Vought FG-1D Corsair G-BXUL, which has since been sold to a private owner in New Zealand.

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DaveB

[Paul K]

Are you saying that the balbo doesn't happen any more or that it's a tad 'thinner' than it was? Having been an ardent fan going 4 times a year for some 12 years.. I ducked out of one show, then the next and that was that. I've not been since

It still happens at the end of the show, but its not as impressive as it once was. Stephen Grey has sold a lot of the Fighter Collection - both P-47s, the F7F, the Pearl Harbor veteran P-40, the P-39 Airacobra- all gone west, so to speak- and there just doesn't seem to be the number of visiting aircraft there once was. I didn't go this year, but over the past few years before that, the display seems to have diminished somewhat.

[DaveB]

Hi Paul

Thanks for that. I feared they'd stopped it altogether

Looking back through some of my old shots, the Balbo had 26 aircraft in 2005 and the following year, this went up to 30. I can't seem to find any shots after '08 so maybe that was the last year I went. It doesn't seem like 6 years but a great deal has happened since then.

ATB
DaveB

[DaveB]

Took a little digging but I now have the correct paints..




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DaveB

[Paul K]

Lovely stuff, thats how I remember them