Tree Burning by Runway 27

Despite all the on and off rain that we got today, the tree burning is moving right alone. 

Photo's by Don Cook

Posted 5-16-2018

Whiteplains Announcements List - Seabee recovery

 Hello all,

As Jack Fastnaught said, "It was a day in the life of the movie 
Flight of the Phoenix". Dust flying, digging dirt, lifting, prodding 

anything to get this monster out of the ditch. The Seabee recovery went extremely well. We started at 10:00 AM at Whiteplains. We were at Pellion at 10:45 and, even with a lunch break, were on our way out the Pellion gate at 2:45. Remarkable! The 15 mile ride home was uneventful thanks to Greg's mastery of the huge trailer and Ed's eagle eye watching for trees and wires (we left the tail surfaces on the Seabee). with a 12-foot horizontal stabilizer and a  13+ foot vertical fin, driving down the road was intense, at least for me. You should have seen the look on the faces of the people as they passed 
the Seabee, funny.

Thanks to all that helped me (again) and I surely couldn't do it without you all. I don't know who took all the photos but I thank you. I have attached a couple of them.

We had the wings off in about an hour and parts on the trailer in another hour. A very special thanks to Greg Wicker for his indispensable flat bed trailer and truck that worked perfectly for a Seabee. Thank you Greg. As usual, Dennis was the "muscle man". Ed 
Fisher guided us through the wing removal and was a big help in keeping a watchful eye on low flying wires on the way home. Thanks to Don for his use of the trailer that brought one of the wing panels back and Jason that did the same. Jack, as tall as he is, was in the baggage compartment removing the floor and aileron cables. Not an easy task even for an average guy. It is very tight back there. Jim 
Franklin was our safety guy, thanks Jim. Rob, Doug and Ken were always in the right spot at the right time, thank you!

Whiteplains is an amazing place and I thank you all. A special thanks to the "significant others" that allowed their spouses to help me out. You don't often get the recognition you deserve and I thank you.

I have assisted in Seabee recoveries before a couple of times and I know we broke the record!

Fraternally,
Steve Mestler

P.S. The "Marty B" will fly again.  

Historic Hangar Gets New Life

Great to see that this Hangar was saved. Part of our history as a nation.

Now you know the rest of the story...

On October 30, 1935, at Wright Air Field in Dayton , Ohio , the U.S. Army Air Corps held a flight competition for airplane manufacturers vying to build its next-generation long-range bomber.  It wasn't supposed to be much of a competition.  In early evaluations, the Boeing Corporation's gleaming aluminum-alloy Model 299 had trounced the designs of Martin and Douglas.  Boeing's plane could carry five times as many bombs as the Army had requested; it could fly faster than previous bombers, and almost twice as far. A Seattle newspaperman who had glimpsed the plane called it the "flying fortress," and the name stuck.  The flight "competition," according to the military historian Phillip Meilinger, was regarded as a mere formality.  The Army planned to order at least sixty-five of the aircraft.   A small crowd of Army brass and manufacturing executives watched as the Model 299 test plane taxied onto the runway.  It was sleek and impressive, with a hundred-and-three-foot wingspan and four engines jutting out from the wings, rather than the usual two.  The plane roared down the tarmac, lifted off smoothly and climbed sharply to three hundred feet.  Then it stalled, turned on one wing and crashed in a fiery explosion.  Two of the five crew members died, including the pilot, Major Ployer P. Hill (thus Hill AFB , Ogden , UT ).