Fokker Fly-in's

[Dave_Watts]

Hey Brad,

Wolfenbill is correct about the next event being in 2003. Our last event was in 2000. We've been holding our meet bi-annualy, but with the one-hundreth anniversary of flight coming up in 2003, we pushed the event to then.

The event is held at the U.S.A.F.M. Museum in Dayton, Ohio. This is really neat, we fly off of the grass strip immediately in front of the museum. So, when you need a break from the action, you can stroll into the air-conditioned museum and take in the great displays. 8)

One point of interest is the United States Air Force has a lot of things planned for 2003. I have heard rumor that they will be setting new aviation records for every month of the year, (at first I heard it was going to be every week!, but I don't see how that would be possible). Rumor has it they may pull out the SR-71 and let it strech its legs. That would be sweet! :P

Best,
Dave W.

i remember last year there was the Saratoma Airshow down here in Lafayette Louisiana, (wolfenbill should know that aera pretty well ) and they had this guy with a replica Se5a. it was 3/4 scale i beleive. it was beautiful. I was eyeing that plane all day over there and at one point he left to go do sumtin and he made the local CAP ROTC kids look after it for him, they ended up goin look at another a/c down the line and i went up to the Se5a and quickly hopped into the cockpit. tight spaced it is but i fitted well in it. but i didnt stay in there no longer than 2 minutes for fear of the lil ROTC crew or the owner himself!!! i forgot his name. i beleive that there 2 minutes broke out my desire to wanna build one!!! but i want the Dr.1 for now . but that Se5a was amazing. i cant wait til this years airshow if there will be another one hopefully.. WolfenBill, will there be another one this year or will it be next year?? the last one before last years had a B-17, P-51, corsair, zero, and sum other stuff. the blue angels was at last years!!!


The Legend

[wolfenbill]

Voss, I don't know about the airshow this year in Lafayette. I'll have to check around. You may want to attend the Wings Over Houston airshow the last weekend in October. Lots of WWII stuff. Little or no WWI stuff. Once in a great while someone shows up with a WWI plane but usually not. That will change when we get a few planes flying from the Kingsbury Aerodrome, but that's 2-3 years off. The 3/4 scale SE5a is a nice little airplane. It is very tight in the cockpit, but then the full scale SE5a cockpit is tight around my shoulders. The 3/4 scale are a hoot to fly, use a modern engine and are modest in price. I believe the plans come out of Canada and have been around for 20+ years.

Not sure who is is interested but I work in the same hanger at NAS pensacola that the museum uses for restorations and was talking to one of their conservators the other day. She showed me what is suppose to be the largest piece of original D7 fabric in the world and explained to me how they painted the lozenge pattern on it. She also shared with me that they have an original fuselage stored in one of their hangers although it will not be restored anytime soon as in not in my lifetime. Hopefully I will get to see this bad boy very soon and take some photos. If any of you are interested in getting some copies send me an email.

S! G~

[wolfenbill]

If I'm not mistaken I think that the Germans used fabric that had the lozenge pattern printed onto the fabric by the manufacturer after it was woven. How did your museum person say the pattern was painted on? I'm not saying that painting of the pattern was never done, because I'm sure there are exceptions to almost anything.

She said it was for a modern term silk screened on. A pattern was laid across the material and was then painted for that color then another piece of material was used for the next color and so on.

S! G~