Peru, Illinois 4/26/14

a reply to: IamAbeliever

Hah! That's where we sat and watched them. They were flying out of the airport beside the interstate, on the opposite side from the Sapp Brothers.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Hell, we were probably there at the same time.

a reply to: IamAbeliever

I was just laughing about that. Small world some days.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That it is.

originally posted by: KawRider9

originally posted by: ScientiaFortisDefendit
Nice. The last one looks like a Stearman.

There's a club that stops by here all the time and offer rides. I sooooooo want to go for a ride in a Stearman! One of the coolest planes ever! However, I think it's 250.00 for a ride... It's very tempting!

My uncle has a Navy Stearman he just finished restoring, with a little help in the engine department by yours truly, first time I got to play with a radial engine, been a while but I had the pleasure of taking it up a few times, so amazing to have those birds still going strong.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I cant see them. I used to date a girl from Peru so ive visited it a few times (Peru/LaSalle).

a reply to: BigDave-AR

I knew a guy years ago that was taking an A&P course from a local college. They had an old biplane that they had to fix the problems that were put into the engine and then do an engine run on. The only thing is, and the instructor made sure no one told them to see if they noticed, the firewall had been removed. So he jumps in after they fix the engine, and cranks it up. He says suddenly his legs are getting warm, he looks down, and there's flame to either side of his feet.

He damn near jumped back out faster than he jumped in.

originally posted by: BigDave-AR

originally posted by: KawRider9

originally posted by: ScientiaFortisDefendit

Nice. The last one looks like a Stearman.

There's a club that stops by here all the time and offer rides. I sooooooo want to go for a ride in a Stearman! One of the coolest planes ever! However, I think it's 250.00 for a ride... It's very tempting!

My uncle has a Navy Stearman he just finished restoring, with a little help in the engine department by yours truly, first time I got to play with a radial engine, been a while but I had the pleasure of taking it up a few times, so amazing to have those birds still going strong.

It's a beast... Steve my IE boss in Crystal Lake a couple decades ago said
the Stears were used for trainers at Pensacola up until the Vietnam era.
You can prune oak trees with them, and flop in carrier-style; they just
grunt and smile. Don't turn down $250 a ride, they're getting scarce.
Afterhought : I hope Olson's still got his-- red as the Baron all over and
from accounts a little souped up.


A B-25 with a couple of Wasps, and good gas? *tears*. Billy Mitchell picked
the right bomber to get out of town on 300 feet....

a reply to: derfreebie

The Corsair was my favorite. We watched one day as he took off and headed back to Barbers Point, and that just was going like a bat out of hell on takeoff and climb out.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: IamAbeliever



Hah! That's where we sat and watched them. They were flying out of the airport beside the interstate, on the opposite side from the Sapp Brothers.

Brings up a kind of scary story from '94.... the trio of us guys were on
our way west past Sandwich to Tony's track (LaSalle) and it appeared a
diver was corkscrewing in with his main tangled up. He made it ok after
loosing his granny knot and pulling out the emergency.. but I'll bet a set
of bare Brodix heads he got at least sore ankles until Wednesday.

Back strictly to the thread, I have seen a lot of hang gliders and ultralights
out in those parts that could not have been designed by humans.
Half of them vould get the weasel vhiskers twitching on Von Braun...

a reply to: Zaphod58

I believe I may have seen this airshow on tour last summer here at ABE. Did you happen to see any jet aircraft? When I saw them, they were touring with the non-military Black Diamonds.

a reply to: parad0x122

All we saw were these. I don't think the airport they were at could handle anything bigger than them. It's a tiny little airport.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ahh, got ya. Still very cool! I loved watching the single prop stunt pilots the most, especially Rob Holland...man can that guy make the plane just do some SILLY maneuvers!

i live in that general area and tend to see strange craft in the skies quite often. everywhere from Hennepin as far north as Mendota.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That looks rather like an F4F Wildcat, not an F6F.

a reply to: KwazyWabbit

I've always had problems with those two. I don't know why. I can tell you an F-16A from an F-16C just by looking at the canopy, but the Wildcat and Hellcat always give me problems.

Oh, and thanks for the correction.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It gave the Japanese problems too. That's how they lost one of their aces in WWII.