Spent a little time with Kermit Weeks Saturday

Went down to Fantasy of Flight for my birthday. I hadn't been there in 15 years, and it's only been open for 17. Every day he flies one of his toys at 1330 for the patrons. It was awesome hearing his Hellcat roar to life and do mock strafing runs. Anyway, i chatted with him for about 20 minutes afterwords. Heck of a nice guy, very much a visionary for his new concept of using aviation to help kids find their dreams.

BTW, if you haven't been, GO!!! He has his storage hangars open now and you can see all of the planes he will one day restore. He has the B-29 that Neil Armstrong used to fly, an F9F in pieces, a B-17 that hurricane Andrew took for a ride that landed on its wheels, miraculously, etc.

 

Such a fantastic place. I made the entire group of friends I was with on a vacation go and every single one of them loved the place. Why is that interesting? None of them are interested in aviation. That says a lot IMO.

If you are in Florida that place is an absolute must see!

 

When I was there in July 2012, the airplane of the day was the Fieseler Storch. Talk about slow flying!

I wish he'd get the B-26 Marauder back in the air, but it hasn't flown now in at least a decade, and I suspect that it won't anytime soon.

 

Grumman F9F... Panther or Cougar?

I HAVE to get down there... on the list.

Thanks.

 

Panther. In parts. He said he doesn't like jets that much, just up to Korean War.

 

Did you see inside the hangar with the engines in it? There is also a building across the road that's full of stuff.

 

Thanks.

Just incredible.... has more fixed wing planes than the Royal Navy.


Here's the wiki post...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_of_Flight

Scroll down to "Golden Hill"... you can see the Panther on the R side of the pic.

The Panther was the Navy number one during the Korean thing.

(I built model kits of the Panther and Cougar when I was a kid... they were the same except for the wings and horiz. tail.)

 

Yep, that's where the panther, the B29, etc. are stored in pieces.