Mastering the Bent-Wing Bird, A Lifetime of Warbird Experience: Winged Victory Ep 34

Rob and Scott sit down with Warbird and newest Corsair Pilot Philippe Barker.  Philippe flies out of Houston and has flown our museum TBM and is now piloting the Brewster F3A Corsair.  We talk about where he came from and what is it like to strap into one of the most iconic WWII fighters ever built!

#warbirds #museum #flying      #podcast  #planes  #history #aviation  #family    #nationalmuseumofwwiiaviation #corsair #brewster 


If you would like to support the museum and "Keep 'em flying!" please consider donating to The National Museum of WWII Aviation in Colorado Springs CO. Website: Worldwariiaviation.org

You can support the National Museum of World War II Aviation just by shopping at any Kroger store, King Soopers or City Market in Colorado, or at any other Kroger brand such as Ralphs, Fry's, Fred Meyer, Smith’s, Food 4 Less, or Harris Teeter!

To support the museum, shop online or at your local store, swipe your Loyalty Card, and funds will be donated to the museum at no added cost to you.

Sign up today to transform your everyday shopping into museum support:

1) Visit https://www.kingsoopers.com/signin or https://www.citymarket.com/signin
2) Sign in if you have an account, or click “Create an Account” and enter your name, email, and password. If you have an existing loyalty card, enter your card number or “Alt ID” (usually a phone number)
3) Once logged in, go to the user icon toward the top right corner of the window. From the drop-down menu, click “My Account”
4) Scroll the menu options and select “View Community Rewards”
5) When prompted to “Find an Organization,” use the search bar to look up "National Museum of World War II Aviation" or "BH543."
6) When the "National Museum of World War II Aviation" option appears, click “Enroll."

It's that easy!
 
Please do not hesitate to call the museum at 719.637.7559 if you need any help linking your shopper's card.

Thank you for taking the time to register and support the museum! Help us keep them flying.

Listen to this episode on most podcast platforms such as Apple and Spotify.

The museums next fly day will be held at the National Museum of WWII Aviation in Colorado Springs on Saturday May 23rd and will feature the P-47 Thunderbolt flying!  All for the normal price of admission!  Museum opens at 8am and Presentation starts at 9am.

Get your tickets now for the Pikes Peak Regional Airshow here in Colorado Springs, CO. at  PPRAirshow.org

We would like to thank Concordebattery.com for their amazing support throughout the years!  If you own a plane you should really consider having one of their batteries in it.  They are worth every penny for the ease and piece of mind they bring.  Tell them you heard about them on The Winged Victory Podcast!

Thank you to Blazingaviation.com Airplaneoil.com for supporting the museum and this Podcast!

Our socials:

Rob Gale: Mewe@robertgale.69

Scott Klaers: @scottklaers Insta/Facebook

William Stephenson: lilboots_2of4 Insta

National Museum of WWII Aviation on Facebook

As always leave some comments, like and subscribe and share the show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Hello everyone, and welcome to Winged Victory with Rob and Scott, a podcast by the National Museum of World War II Aviation here in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Welcome to another episode. I'm Scott Claire's, and here once again my esteemed co-host, Rob Gale. Oh, esteemed. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

How about that?

SPEAKER_02 1:27

So today we're doing a bit of a redo. Um, we did a podcast with him back in September, and we had some technical difficulties, so we're sitting down with him again today. We have a esteemed war bird pilot, Philippe Barker. Well, you're esteemed too. I got a couple of esteemed people to my right. So uh Philippe is uh well not newly now, but back in September, he was a newly minted Corsair pilot.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Still our newest Corsair pilot. Our newest, yeah. Yours, yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Yes. So you actually got to go out and fly the uh Corsair again today. You're actually out here to do our fly day tomorrow, as this is being taped. Yeah. And so you get to take it around the pattern a few times. Is it still as thrilling as it was the first time?

SPEAKER_03 2:14

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It's uh the rush of a lifetime, and uh but felt right at home.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yeah, I mean it looked like you hadn't you been flying it every day since September, it looked like pretty much. I wish.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

I wish it would be the case, but yes, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

More of that 487 a gallon Avgas.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

That's it. That's it. No, it felt it felt great, and uh I would say it's just huge rush. Uh absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

So tell us a little bit about yourself. Where where did you come from?

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Well, I came from up north where the snow came, that snow that's coming down right now.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

I know we actually finally got winter and it's only you know the middle of April.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Uh came from Canada. Was born and raised, uh you can hear it, Montreal on the east side. Yes. Uh learned to fly up there, and then uh flew the bush a little bit up there, and then moved down to the U.S. to uh find a job. Bigger and better. Yeah. And now you're down in Houston, Texas? Down in Houston, flying corporate and warbird as much as possible.

SPEAKER_04 3:17

Well, because you you got a lot of T6 time.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

I got a little bit, yes. Yeah, yeah. A little bit of T6 time down in Houston, and then I did some over here and came up for a while. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

So how did you get uh into the warbirds? I know you weren't really born into it like some of us were, and you kind of had to to work your way into it.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Yeah. Uh obvious no, I was not born into it. It's too much snow up north, so uh through friends, you know, down in Houston. Uh I had some friends, uh some of them that you know, Charlie, Chris, and and they were flying at the museum, the Little Star Flight Museum down in Houston. And flying war birds. And uh one day they asked me if I felt like flying Warbirds and give rides. And I said absolutely yes. Yeah, those are friends. They're great friends, yeah. It's who you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Well, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

It's who you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

But it's also not just who you know, it's what you know and what you're being able to show people. Of course. You know, that you have the ability to take training and you're not a wild card out there that's gonna hurt some of their equipment or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

So and have some tailwheel time. That was the majority. Have some tailwheel time and then go fly with the chief pilot, you know, Charlie and Yarenae after that.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

So how was that the first time you got to go out and start? Oh, the first time I was very nervous. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Basically never flown a steerman and then just go fly with them.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Oh, so you you checked out was Charlie and a steerman, not a T6, huh?

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Initially. Initially, yes. And uh yeah, I was nervous the first time. You're trying to impress the person, and that person's gonna determine if you're gonna fly warbirds or not.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

So anyway, it went well and hit it off, and it was it was great.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

No. That's really something. So your primary was primary. Primary was primary, yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Wow. And a steerman, yeah. And then obviously the T6, and we have a you know, PT-19, just like here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

And that's an easy airplane to fly, though. That's not like a T6. That is, no.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Absolutely correct. Anyone can fly that. Anybody can fly.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

Well, I'm not sure I could fly it, but it would take a day like this for that little uh six six banger to haul my chubby carcass into the air.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

Oh, yeah, to perform. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Yeah, well, out here at altitude, especially. Yeah, yeah, we can't fly that thing even above 50 degrees turn right.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Yeah, I bet. I bet. It's a dog at sea level, so I can only imagine.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, it's it could be a little hairy sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

You take off and you go, I really think I just need to turn around and go back. Yep. And hope it's downhill. And then we're done. And then we're done because it yeah, it it runs out of uh like full stop. I need a little bit more. Give me a little bit more of that. There is no more. Yeah. So T6 time, what else we got? What else you've been flying?

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Uh well, T6, uh B25, TBM, uh obviously Corsair. Yeah. And uh working on more. Working on more.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

So what is it like? I mean, let's lock us. I know it was back in September, but you know, to walk you uh walk us through the process of like even what is the process of even getting from start to finish into a new bird like the Corsair.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Like the Corsair. Uh initially you have to get a letter of authorization, but prior to that you have to get a recommendation. So obviously the examiner cannot train you and give you a check right. So somebody else that's already rated. So two sets of eyes. Two sets of eyes. So uh obviously the Corsair is a one-seater, so can't put two people in it. So you have to fly into an airplane that is similar to the Corsair, as closest as possible. So I flew in a T6 with uh an instructor that's rated on a Corsair and did all the maneuvers and obviously gave me a oral, a practice oral ground school, and then sign me off. And then you get a LOA issued by the FA, a letter of authorization to do some training flights.

SPEAKER_04 7:33

And do you still have to do a cockpit check? I mean be able to reach all the technically no.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

They give you the LOA and you go fly the airplane, you go practice, and then you do a check write.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

Well, because I saw you up there checking checking the whereabouts. Of all these stations.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Always want to remember exactly where everything's at.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

You do, yeah. If something happens or hydraulic fluid or smoke, you have to remember where the switches are, where the landing gear is. The the basics, so you can do it with your eyes closed, you know, blind. And then we fly different, you know, all of us fly different airplanes. So one day it's in a B-25, one day it's in a Corsair. Well, things are different.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Well, even from Corsair to Corsair or Corsair to Corsair, T6, everything's always different. There's always something that's off.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Absolutely. So after the LOA, after you do practice flight, you sit down with an examiner, and the examiner gives you an all. And that's the time that he sits you in a cockpit and asks you questions about flip switches and gear and limitations. And the examiner sits on the ground and listens on the radio and watches you do your profile. That's a plan on a profile. Steep turns, stall.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

So you've got a certain routine. If you're talking about profile, you have to do this maneuver, that maneuver. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:59

Yes, and obviously it's all on ADSB, so it's basically normal takeoff, steep turns, stalls, all the stall series, um missed approaches, stuff like that. Yeah, configuration changes, gear flap, slow down, and then come back and do normal landings, uh missed approach, normal, flap, stop landing, and then the examiner's right there looking and grading you. How many bounces was that? Yeah. One landing, three bounces, yeah. And then you debrief with the examiner, and it's either you pass or fail.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Well, it was it was pretty heady stuff to watch you climb out of that airplane in September. We were all just thrilled.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

Probably not as much as I was. Probably not.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

That's almost like a mixture of just happiness and relief all at the same time. Because I mean that's a lot of work that goes into just getting to that point. Yes. And then to have everything go. And then I mean, not only that, but you're stepping into a kind of a strange airplane that you know, you're you're you got other people that are doing the work on it that you're banking on, you know, because you're putting your butt in the thing, and then you know, for all of it to come together, and especially after the week of flying we did, because you were out here flying the TBM for the series that we were filming. So it wasn't like you just came out and this was the sole purpose, you know. There was a lot going on, and then it was like, okay, now it's your turn. Let's see.

SPEAKER_04 10:25

We got our pound of flesh for that check ride. Oh, it was great. It was great.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

I enjoyed the whole week. Well, yeah, it was a I I admit it, it was a relief. A relief that uh all went as planned. Yeah, and especially this Corsair. This Corsair is very special to me and to everybody, I think. It's the Corsair of all Corsair, the only one, you know, only Brewster Corsair.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah, which most people don't know. Brewster made Corsairs for finding out that even ATC often doesn't know.

SPEAKER_04 10:54

Yes, matter of fact.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

That was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

Although I just heard a rumor today that there was one or maybe is one at Duxford, just not airworthy. But I I gotta run that to ground.

unknown 11:06

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

I don't know, but all I know is it's the only one flying. We have it. So it's here at our shop. Yep. And you got to fly it.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

I mean, you're one of what four different five different people that have flown that very, very fine.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

That's a pretty extensive list, actually. Robbie, Jim? Yeah. Um Stu Dawson did the test flying in it. Robbie Patterson, Alan, Charlie Hainline, and Felipe Barker. That's quite the list of the attitude, pal. Well, that's some company to be in. Yeah, I got some big shoes to fill. Those are some pilots. So um obviously, this has always been an iconic airplane, anyways, for most people that are into the warbird industry. And even not, you know, I mean, it's it's a visually recognizable airplane. So, I mean, on your list of airplanes you wanted to fly, where does that rank? Number one. Number one, number one.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

She's she's so distinctive. I was I was at the doctor's office before my shift. Is that a corsair on your shirt? Yeah. Yeah. And and you can watch one fly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

Tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 12:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

So uh it being number one, you're you're done now, right? There's nothing. Oh no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

There's a long list of wishes.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah, a long list of wishes. Yeah, and what's next on the docket? Because I know you got some stuff lined up, possibly. And what are you looking to do next?

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Oh, yeah, you know, maybe maybe a wapcat, maybe a maybe uh a Mustang, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

You're gonna go whatever whatever comes across. It looks like the difficult airplanes to land, huh? The wildcat, that's like gotta be one of the top most difficult warbirds to get it. Or just to get the gear down. Oh the gear up.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Yeah, yeah, it's very narrow. So but yeah, this this one was definitely number one for sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

We're pretty fortunate. Uh so we actually I probably even see him in the background if you're looking at at you right now, but that's actually I believe Lex Crawley, he's the guy that actually pulled that thing out of the swamp in the early 90s. And he's out here for the fly day, so you get to show it off. I haven't met Lexan. Looking forward. You and me both, so we're gonna none of us. And we are looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Waving to the cameras back there.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

So, yeah, I I mean it's just great having you out here. It's great that we, you know, to like you said, experience your first flight and be a part of that. I mean, looking forward to many, many more, of course, and flying with you.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Are you planning on September? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

Took some time off. Hopefully. I mean, even if I don't fly, I'm coming. Just watch the show. Oh no, you're gonna definitely be flying. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

You'll be flying. So, yeah, we need to get you checked out in that helldiver, too.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

Take a little load off of Charlie's sailing. I was amazed uh after all I've read about the Helldiver, and Charlie just loved flying that airplane. He did. And and he's flown the Dauntless, which is you know kind of the sweetheart of that bunch, and he likes the Helldiver. He does. He really does.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Yeah, maybe one day.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Maybe one day. Well, how about multi-engines? Well, you'd got a B25.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

Yeah, there's maybe some other ones uh in line.

SPEAKER_04 14:33

I think there are some twin-engine airplanes here somewhere. I mean, we got a PBY seat that we need filled.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Ready? Yeah, you need to start working on that. I got the al I got the albatross.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

So yeah, well, that's well, there you go. That's just a lateral move.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

That's a lateral move. Yeah. And then there's some tiger cats. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Yeah. Yeah. You just need to get you where you're not flying all over the the world, and that that's the actual real job of yours.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Exactly. Just get you to spend some time around here. Absolutely. We got all kinds of fun stuff for you to fly.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Fine, I appreciate it. I really do. It's a privilege to come here and spend time with you guys. To see, to see how and what you guys do is amazing. To come from small pieces of metal and rivets and end up with pristine airplanes that are back to what they were originally. Yeah. And you guys do outstanding job.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

But it it's fun for us to have guys like you come out and enjoy them and put them up in the air for everybody to see. And I mean it's just a blast. It's really a full circle thing being here because you get to see it all, you know, from start to finish, really. And then get to enjoy it. The the reap the rewards of it as it's out there ripping around the sky. So absolutely. So here at the National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, we have a lot of flying airplanes. Over 25, in fact. In our early years as a fledgling museum, we had like three boundaries a share between all of these airplanes. So you can imagine what it was like whenever we decided to fly something having removed and one of one of these heavy things called since come as a sponsor of the museum. More than a couple of shirts and batteries.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

Every time you want to go for money, if you still need a beautifully conquered batteries, if you still have an approved battery monitor, plug it in and never have to worry about it again.com, just monitor the National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs and be fully endorsed by the Winged Victory Pumpcans. Okay, so out of what you have flown, is this your favorite? Of course.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Hands up. Yeah, that is your favorite.

SPEAKER_04 18:14

And you know, it is an icon. Uh even if even if she wasn't the only one, any Corsair uh would would be that way. But of course, I'm sitting next to uh one of the premier Corsair maintainers ever.

unknown 18:31

I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Jim Toble. Jim Toble told me that you're the only guy he trusts.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Well, no, it's the only shop he trusts, but you know, I yeah, I spend a lot of time on that airplane and you get very intimate with it. And it's a very difficult airplane. It's uh it's got its quirks. It's not an easy airplane to work on sometimes, but once you get to know it, it's it's definitely got its charms.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

What was the worst for you to work on? What was the most difficult part putting this airplane back together?

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Well, I didn't put this airplane together. We this was actually done down in Azell's Texas. They did the restoration on it and they did a beautiful job. Truly. Um I would say maintaining it the worst thing is taking that damn Y duct off the bottom for the supercharger just to get to the accessory section. And getting it off is easy. Getting it on is like an act of God. An act of yeah. Um that that's always man, you try to avoid that as much as you can. Do we really have to take that off? And fortunately, lately there's a couple other people, Nicole and you know, Bill Dude and Kevin, they've kind of really taken over the maintenance of that thing. So they're the ones I get to walk by and watch them while they're fighting it and sweating and dropping tools and bombs and everything else that goes with it. Um, you know, we did gym's um just even getting the gear synced up correctly, because it's got so many different moving parts to lock and unlock, and there's it's eccentrics and and it moves the gear all over the place, and then it it has to lock at a certain pressure and unlock. And to fine-tune that, I mean, you could spend weeks if you don't know exactly what you're doing. So it's that could be pretty fun. But just even standing on the wing and servicing it, you know, your calves.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

I was I was watching Nicole slide and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Well, that one's even worse because it doesn't have the wing walk on the side, it's it's out.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

It's yeah. It's a weird, it's like, why is it out there? Yeah, I work over here.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

You're trying to find a your footing for it. Yeah, so you you get to work out when you're doing that. It's it's a pretty cool airplane. What would you say is uh probably the best characteristic of it when you're flying it while flying?

SPEAKER_03 20:42

Uh it's very smooth on the controls. It's very it reacts, it's it's very uh sensitive. Sensitive. I thought that was just you. Yeah, I wish. And the uh I would say landing it. It's it's got tall, tall legs. Yeah. And as soon as the main touches and you slow down a little bit, it's done flying.

SPEAKER_05 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

It's not like the T6, which you work at it until it's stopped, which you do with this, but not as much as a T6. Yeah. Really?

SPEAKER_02 21:10

I kind of thought you'd be fighting it for some reason. I don't know if it's a few. T6, you fight it more than this. Really? The whole time. In my opinion. The whole time you're flying a T6. Taxi and a T6, you're fighting. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Well, you're talking about tall legs, and here I am looking at that Avenger over there with about it.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Yes. Well, it's a little different on the Corsairs because you actually the struts are completely compressed when it's sitting on the ground. Like if you look at most of the airplanes, you'll see chrome showing. But in order to get the when the gear goes down, you know, goes down, it extends all the way, and then when it's retracting, you gotta you gotta suck it back up to get it to fit in the wing. But if you have any pressure or or it's over pressurized, it'll break the cable off. Yeah. And so you as it sits, it's sitting fully compressed. So I think, like you were saying, once it settles, it's not It's not doing the bouncy thing. Not like the T D M. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

This one doesn't. It's done.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Yeah, you're just done. So I could see how that would settle. And it's a little bit wider. It's a little bit wider gear than the T BM. A little bit wider. It's not like the Helldiver or the Thunderbolt, but it's it's definitely not a wider stance.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Yeah. But it has a long nose. Yeah. Long barrel. So the your vision is restricted a little bit. So maybe the wider runways like we have here is the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Love the wide runways. We see two nice triangles.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

So Charlie just press ganged you one time and said, I'm taking you to Colorado and fall in with this den of thieves.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

He didn't have to press very hard. No, it was. I mean, I was invited and um Charlie said, Hey, do you have time? Do you want to do it? He said, Absolutely. I'll make the time. And I was very, very fortunate for Charlie to trust me. And for you guys to trust me doing this when we're here.

SPEAKER_04 23:01

So well, I think that's one of those if Charlie trusts you, you're there.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Yeah, you don't want to disappoint him. Charlie's like, I need somebody else to go fly all that time because I don't have the time to fly up there all the time. You go do it, Philippe. Flown that stuff. Uh Corsairs, whatever. Exactly. You know, tiger cats. Eh. Easy.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Helldivers whatever.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Well, he likes that helldiver.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yeah, he does. You know what? He's one of the few people that I've talked to that actually really likes that airport.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

He does.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

And if you watch all the landing.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

Ray Fowler likes it too. I talked to him. He's flown a couple of the other two. Oh, the Dash Fives? Yeah, he's flown both of those and he really enjoys them.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

If you watch all his landings, he greases them all.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Oh man, it's beautiful. Yeah. It's beautiful. It looks like he's landing a PT-19. I I know. I know.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Well, this has been awesome.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

It has been. It's so great to see you again and and to get a chance to revisit uh what we didn't get captured in September.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

You know, we're we were learning back then. We were just still learning young amateurs now. So still learning. We've definitely evolved this quite a bit, and things are this will definitely uh get up and sound good this time. Absolutely. We're really thankful that you came out and sat down with us and uh just love having you out here flying this stuff and really looking forward to years and years of this. And and we'll sit down on every check ride you got. Absolutely. New airplane, we'll sit down and we'll talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Well, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Absolutely, maybe even a little beverage here and there.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Absolutely. We gotta celebrate every single one of them. Absolutely, absolutely, and everything in between. Everything in between. But thank you for having me. Absolutely, for the second time.

SPEAKER_04 24:42

And uh well, hopefully this is just one in a series.

SPEAKER_03 24:47

One in a series, yes.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Philippe. Thank you. So we got a do-over.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Yeah, and I think it's great. You know, I wasn't too worried about it. I was sad when we didn't have that you know emotion of the first flight, but you know, technical stuff happens, and I knew that he would be back out here and and be flying this stuff again. I didn't expect it to be quite so far in between, but yeah, you know, winter's winter, and he's got a life and things going on. We got things going on, but I'm just glad you know he came out, he's flying this thing, it looks great.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

It was so cool to watch.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Really excited for the fly day tomorrow. The weather's gonna be much better than it is today.

SPEAKER_04 25:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

And so we're pretty excited about that. We'll hopefully show a little bit of that maybe on this episode. You get to see a little of the footage.

SPEAKER_05 25:31

Yeah. But yeah, I mean it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

You know, what's really great about his story is like I say, he wasn't born into this. He, you know, he wasn't raised into this, but he still, as there's a will, there's a way to find your way into something like this.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

Well, I think for a lot of aviators, these are really special airplanes. Yeah. I mean, people get grabbed by it. I mean, there were those of us who came into it as children and never left it and may still be children.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Well, I just mean as far as you know, flying them, I mean, there's kind of a couple ways to get into it. You know, you're kind of around it your whole life and you kind of grow up in it, or you accumulate a lot of money and you buy your way into it. Or you do it the way Philippe did, and you know, he's a pilot and he's gonna hang around and you hang around the right people and show them the right stuff, and then they give him the opportunities, and next thing you know, you're flying the world's only Brewster-built F3A Corsair left in the world flying.

SPEAKER_04 26:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

And that's quite something.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

And it is. Uh you know, the the mark of the mark of trust and the qualifications to do that, that's a that's a special group of people.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Yeah, it takes a lot. I mean, think about it. You got you got people that, like you said, you got two people that are signing you off to do it.

SPEAKER_04 26:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Well, one's giving you the recommendation, the other one's gonna sign you off when you're actually flying it, but then you gotta have somebody that you gotta have that trust built up in the word of mouth that somebody's gonna let you get into the airplane. Yeah, to get into the airplane, you know. It's not like, you know, like I said, he he's not a volunteer here or wasn't. He doesn't work here, he doesn't you don't get to know him, but you know, he's got a reputation, and he and a guy like Charlie Hainline, when he says he's good, then everybody goes you're good. Yeah, you know, let's do this thing. And yeah, and you know, we did get to see him fly a bit in the TBM and see you know that he was able to do that and handle himself real well.

SPEAKER_04 27:30

Well, and again, according to Charlie, Charlie doesn't like the TBM as much as uh as some people do. And it's a that's a big airplane to fly.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

It's a big airplane. I I I've never even flown in it, so I don't know, you know, I can't really speak on it, but I could speak of what other people have said. You know, having a pretty heavy aileron control on that thing. Yeah, you know, it's it's not for the faint of heart. And like you said, you know, I mean, if you look at the thing, you you're a million miles in the air when you're landing that thing. I mean, it's gotta feel like you're you're landing a boat.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

I don't know. I I was over the moon when uh when I got to fly with Alan um in the in the TBM. And you know, of course, not being a pilot, I couldn't begin to comment on how it really felt to fly. Yeah. But it it felt solid.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Yeah, and when you're flying with a guy like Alan, you know, you you you don't even like he doesn't put you in a position where you feel you're gonna feel anything weird, you know, it's all gonna be solid, it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_04 28:36

Yeah, and it's it probably felt easier than than it should have. Yeah. Just because Alan.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

He's a hello pilot, and these all these guys that are deflying this stuff, man. They're not they're no jokes.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

No.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Whether they've been around a long time or they're fairly new at it, like Philippe. You know, they they got the skills and they they prove it time and time again.

SPEAKER_04 28:59

Yep, sure do. Well, this has been a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Um You know, we talked about Philippe flying for the history's greatest aircraft docuseries, and we're all waiting on that.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Yeah, I actually got to see the uh producer's, I guess producer's version, I don't know what the Hollywood speak is for it, of episode one. Director's cut. Director's cut, I guess. No, not the director's cut. It's for the I think they send it out for proof of like. Oh, the rushes. This is what it's kind of the pilot issue, I guess you would say. But uh I actually got to see the preview of it. I got to see the whole 45-minute episode. Um, they're gonna make a few tweaks here and there on it, but I mean, overall, it's it's pretty fantastic. I'm really excited about it. It really kind of shows off, I mean, not just the airplanes in the museum, but the a lot of the personalities of this place. And this place is full of them. We got a lot of personality.

SPEAKER_04 29:58

Yeah, well. Yeah, that that didn't used to be a cut. He's got a great personality.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Yeah, yeah. Well, here it really does mean something. Like they it's it's a lot of fun. Um, they really kind of show a day in the life of the museum somewhat. And I'm excited for it, so I'm not quite sure when it's gonna actually be done and and coming out, but I think they're shooting for Q3 now, quarter three.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

Well, the the aerial sequences that I've seen are just stunning.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Yeah, well, that doesn't stop on this. It's it's pretty phenomenal. Yeah, a lot of work went into that, and I mean you could really see it. These guys are it's almost like they have too much footage to really choose from.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

And well, so it's that's a good position to be in for a filmmaker. We're really happy about it.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

So we got that to look forward to. We got Pikes Peak Regional Air Show, September 19th and 20th. Um, go on PPRAirshow.org and you can get your tickets for that. I would highly recommend it's be pretty war bird-centric. Uh we're gonna have a lot of out, or I should say, planes from out of state coming in. So we're definitely gonna have some different planes than we've had in the past.

SPEAKER_04 31:09

Well, and this will this will drop, of course, after the Corsair fly day, and I think the next fly day is Thunderbolt.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

I think so. Um I'm not sure if we're gonna have a change in that or not yet, but I would anticipate that it'll be the Thunderbolt. And that'll I'm not sure on the date on that, probably the middle of next month, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

So typically third Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

You could always go to the website and check for dates on all of our uh events here. And we'd like to thank Concorde Battery once again for being a big sponsor of this thing and blazing aviation as well. We're uh been leaning on old Jeff over there at Blazing Aviation now because we're starting to run. Yeah, and we all know what the oil's doing right now, so get it while you can and get over to Blazing Aviation and make that deal before it becomes too much to bear.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

You guys are gonna need a bunch more smoke oil for the air show.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Yeah, smoke oil, just regular oil. We always have a pretty good size order for the air show. So it's great that we got guys like that on board to help us with that. And if you'd like to help the museum with donations, we are uh putting shiting on the new building. Yep. And we are still looking for the funds to finish that. But you can always go to our site or you can go to the description page on the podcast, and there's ways to donate. Um, help every every little bit. Even just sign up and your normal purchases at the grocery store, help the museum in every single way. Well, and come on out and see this treasure. Come out here and see it for for real. I mean, we try to show you a little part of it in the background every time we do in one of these, but it doesn't even we haven't even shown you one percent. You know, so get out here, there's a lot to see, you can spend the day, go over to the airplane restaurant and have a lunch, and then come back. I mean, there's just make a whole day of it and enjoy the war bird scene. There you go. And meet all the people that are here. And you've probably seen most of them on our podcast.

SPEAKER_04 33:01

The talented ones. Well, you've you've you're starting to starting to meet some of them, and there's more to come. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

So I think we'll wrap it up from there. So thanks to our guest, Philippe Barker, and hope he has a safe flight tomorrow. I'd like to thank William Stevenson behind the camera, my partner Rob Gale, and myself, Scott Claire. Stay safe out there.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

Please do.