Airspeed GWL RapidCast – Karl Stoltzfus and C-47 Miss Virginia

2013-08-03 014

 

These are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen to the show audio by clicking here:  http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/AirspeedGWLMissVirginia.mp3.  Better yet, subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your other favorite podcatcher. It’s all free!

Karl Stoltzfus of Dynamic Aviation flew this beautiful DC-3/C-47 to Topeka to show her off to this crowd.  His grandson, Gabriel (7) joined him to talk about the aircraft and its renovation.

Airspeed GWL RapidCast – Greg Smith and his Beech 18

photo (39)

These are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen to the show audio by clicking here:  http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/AirspeedGWLBeech18.mp3.  Better yet, subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your other favorite podcatcher. It’s all free!

We ambushed Greg Smith out on the ramp here at Topeka to talk about his Beech 18.

imageGreg uses the 18 as a go-places aircraft.  It’s onfigured for passenger use, much like the executive transport aircraft of the period, as opposed to moving freight, like many of the other Beech 18s on the ramp.

 

Airspeed GWL RapidCast – MSgt (Ret) Robert Yarberry

photo (33)

These are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen to the show audio by clicking here:  http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/AirspeedGWLYarberry.mp3.  Better yet, subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your other favorite podcatcher. It’s all free!

MSgt (Ret) Robert Yarberry is a commemorative paratrooper with the Airborne Heritage Platoon based here in Kansas.  He took a few moments to talk to us about why a guy who could be taking it easy is instead out there doing PLFs under round canopies.

 

Gathering of Warbirds and Legends – Day 1 – Briefing

GWL BriefThese are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen to the show audio by clicking here:  http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/AirspeedGWLBrief.mp3.  Better yet, subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your other favorite podcatcher. It’s all free!

The Gathering of Warbirds and Legends is underway here in Topeka.  I sat in on the briefing this morning.  Lots and lots going on and Dan and others covered everything from parachute deployments to warbird formation sequences.

This might not be the best episode for those who like their podcast material in filtered and summarized form.  There’ll be some of that later, to be sure.  But, for now, you can hear what it’s like to attend the briefing at an utterly unique gathering of old iron.

 

 

L-39 Driver Tim Brutsche


Subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your favorite other podcatcher. It’s all free!

These are the show notes to an audio episode. If you want to listen online, please use the direct link below. http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedBrutsche.mp3.

Many of us go to airshows and love the prop-driven warbirds and the military jet team performances. But there’s a space in there that’s inhabited by a special breed of airplane and pilot. That’s the civilian-owned and operated jet warbird.

One such jet warbird is the L-39 Albatross. It’s a high-performance jet trainer developed in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s to replace the L-29. It was the first of the second-generation jet trainers, and the first turbofan-powered trainer produced.


And the pilot of one such jet warbird is Tim Brutsche, callsign “Dawg.” He has been flying for 34 years, 12 years in jets, and holds an ATP certificate and instrument rating. He has 5,800 hours flying, including 800 hours in jets ,and he is also a certified instructor pilot and a qualified lead formation pilot. He’s also a Lt Col and check airman the Kellogg Senior Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol.


I met Tim several years ago and had the opportunity to talk to him briefly on the ramp at Battle Creek over Independence Day weekend last summer after he gave C/Lt Col Melanie Davis her incentive flight for the Civil Air Patrol’s Spaatz Award. Shortly after ICAS this year, I called Tim to see if I could talk him into sharing some of his experiences flying the L-39 with the Airspeed audience and he generously obliged.

Let’s go to the interview!

[Brutsche Interview]

More information about The Hoppers, the L-39, and other people and organizations we discussed:

The Hoppers

Wikipedia Entry on the L-39

Civil Air Patrol

North American Pride Aviation