Douglas A-26B Invader - First Test Flight - Chino Airport, CA
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- OK, Gang, while at Chino recently, checking on the A-26 Invader, I learned there was some cockpit GoPro footage of the first test flight!
So, combined with some inclusion of someone else's phone footage from the outside, Phil(mer) and I put this clip together to put you RIGHT THERE with Steve Hinton and Mark Moodie for this somewhat short, exciting, and successful first flight!
Many thanks to Steve, Mark, and Aero Trader, and I hope you all enjoy everyone’s efforts!
Kermit Weeks
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Kermit Weeks
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, Complete the test card, bring the aircraft back, and report the issues? This was some skilled flying.
My father flew this bird in France late in WW2. His squadron was based near Lyon. Later he flew night reconnaissance with the same a/c in Korea. It was fitted with a carbon arc search light. He flew out of Taegu, Korea at night looking for troop movements and trains supporting the Chinese. Earned the DFC. There is a restored A26 at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. Same place the Spruce Goose is located.
I really appreciate all the people that persevered to restore this old beauty, especially you Kermit.
"Beauty" 😂👌
@@roteroktober360cope
I was there a day after Andrew. So glad to see her flying, thanks Kermit. We here in Florida and the world appreciate what you have done for aviation. We salute you!
This has to be the best test flight video I've ever seen. Even better than when FlightChops captured test pilot Dave Carrick's first flight in my RV-8, which experienced severe canopy skirt vibration. The camera angle was perfect, audio was clear and video quality was excellent. No better person to have in the left seat than Steve Hinton, and Mark Moodie was right on point. I'll watch this one many times; thanks so much to all for sharing this episode... and keeping it uncut!
Steve's the perfect guy to have at the controls on an infighting emergency like that.
Great achievement. Steve Hinton shows how a testpilot should act: stay calm and keep on flying no matter what. Top video, showing even if not everything goes as planned you finish the first flight successfully. Congrats to a restoration finished with a nearly perfect result- she looks absolutely gorgeous!
WOW!! I think I would have needed... a quick change of Flightsuit!! WELL DONE, Mr. Hinton!
nice and cool under pressure.... nice flying
Lovely! I've been playing 'IL-2' and have gone all out adding rudder controls, a throttle quadrant for controlling mixture, pitch, and flaps along with a stick for flying the Invader's earlier cousin the A20. Douglas built some very innovative yet forgiving to fly airplanes and it's great seeing them back in the air.
During the early 50’s our Unit had P-51’s and we also had an A-26 used to pull gunnery targets for the 51’s. My Dad told me about taking ride in maybe a jump seat on the Invader and he said it was really fast and nimble ! Beautiful job on the restoration !
Well done, guys! From a haunter of Planes of Fame since I was a kid when it was near Cable Airport, when it moved to Ontario IA and then to Chino. See you at Flo's.
Excited to see this A/C fly again. She looks great.
Nice to see this old lady back in the sky! 🎉
Finally back in the skies! Love that you restore your planes to airworthy! Also love seeing Steve and Mark at the helm! Met Steve many times at reno and planes of fame and mark at palm springs air museum when i lived out west.
Excellent job of staying in the saddle and flying the airplane instead of messing with a problem that wasn't critical to the aircraft's operation
Flo’s Airport Cafe at Chino airport has the best biscuits and gravy!!! YUM
My Grandfather flew one of these in Korea (B-24s in WW2 / Italy)
Thanks for the upload. Not the most popular plane, but LOTS of history
Gotta love working the bugs out of a new restoration. Great job guys!
Ah, great footage from my old "stomping grounds." I learned to fly at Riverside and later parked my Cessna 172 at Chino, home of the Planes Of Fame. What a great place to hang out.
Used to see the PoF A-26 years ago. Awesome plane. Thanks Kermit for restoring it. And you had the Right Stuff in the cockpit. None better than these two. Cool and calm and kept flying. That's how you do it.
My mother worked in the Douglas factory inLong Beach during WWII. She helped build the A-26. Dad later called her Rosie the Riveter.
Steve is cool as a cucumber! Great guy and an even greater pilot. Thanks for sharing this and I’m glad everyone got home safe!
Thank you Kermit and EVERYONE who contributed their labour and skills from Steve to the guy sweeping out the hanger.
The Invader is one of my all time favourites. So good to see another one returned to the air. Your test flight crew were pretty awesome. They treated the snags like another day at the office. Congratulations on the milestone.
Great job Steve & Moodie! Kermit, I remember you from Wycombe Air Park back in the 80's with the Mosquito. I thought about coming across to see what was going on but was pre - flighting a PA-38 to set off in the murk Lolz! Love your videos, keep them coming.😁👍
Been waiting for this plane along time, I jumped when canopies opened and I'm only watching. Cool pilots.
Kermit. That A-26B is a beautiful bird in flight. Worth the wait Thank you.
Steve is such a smooth operator
I’ve seen several videos of this aircraft. The A-26 is a favorite of mine. So pleased to see her back in the air again.
OMG it's flying!
Geeeesh. That was intense. Well done Steve.
The Invader is one of my favorite warbirds. There were A-26 fire bombers at the local airport in the 1980's. I wish i'd taken pictures of the planes back then. There were also F7F Tigercats fire fighting. An airshow every day!
Goleta?
Steve comes down to NZ frequently to fly our WarBirds....an absolute Living Legend!
That was fun. Thanks. I flew an On Mark conversion for a little while for Trinity Steel out of Dallas.
Oh it was yours they restored? I was stoked to learn there was another A-26 flying. She's a beauty!
Have been following this rebuild, and I knew it was getting close to being finished. I'm glad to see it back in the air. Would be nice to have a freash walk around when she gets back home to Florida.
I worked with a former USAF pilot who was checked out in the A-26 ground attack aircraft during the Vietnam era. He had been flying the EC-47 listening post out of Phu Cat and had plenty of multi-engine radial time. He completed his checkout and almost immediately after, the Air Force cancelled that program due to wings coming off. He said that when he fired the eight 50 cals in the nose, the entire cockpit filled with smoke! Must have been a fun time.
Great to see the A-26 back, Steve did a wonderful job. Thanks for the up-date Mr. Kermit🙃
Total bomb(er)! Big thumbs up from Darmstadt, Germany! 👍👍👍
Thanks for including us in the flight. It was so cool. These machines are so valuable to preserving history good or bad. 🇺🇸
Wow! I am sitting here watching this and ducked, with "Good grief!"
Great job, cool heads...Steve & Mark.
This video has so much clickbait potential but Kermit has kept it simple, honest and not misleading just for the sake of views. This is why you’re the best aviation UA-camr out there mate.
I love that people are preserving these airplanes, returning them to flying condition, and being as original as possible, given how air traffic control has evolved with requirements unknown when they were built.
Wow! Well done guys. And when Steve says the airspeed is fine the airspeed is fine! 😅
Gonna need to change your shorts. LOL
Always loved these A/B-26 Invaders. Hard plane to get in and out of though.
Cool as a cucumber. Nice work 👍🏻
Wow, what a treasure!
There was a lot going on there. The red handle between the canopy glass has the canopy release pins. That would have been a bad day had they released. The early model Invader had a front nose wheel collapse issue. So here he is with the canopy popping open and then the delay in the front gear lights showing it was down and locked and his blood pressure is 90/50. the props are swinging a couple feet from your head with R2800s thumping away. Still he had a picture perfect landing in an unforgiving aircraft. That was a "Right Stuff" adventure right there folks.
This answered a question I had, in-passing: That “most” Invaders had dual controls, but this one originally did not - had wondered about that after watching part 1 🙂.
I guess because it’s an “early” model, yes? 🙂
Great airmanship displayed there, when it goes wrong, look out and fly the aircraft. Great viewing, and a wonderful warbird.
Steve is such a great pilot seen him many times fly warbirds over in UK
Two aces in the plane........Moodie is a P-51 driver and great wrench........
I've been awaiting to see this, thanks Mr. Kermit! I couldn't think a better person to be at the controls than Mr. Steve (other than yourself). He and Mr. Ed Maloney really got a hold of me in the 80's as a young boy and showed me the love. BTW, man has the area changed. All the houses and buildings now where there were hay barns and cattle!
I am worried all those houses will cause the airport to close down. They haven't had the yearly air show for several years now.
@@Airsally I thought that too. It's a similar thing you see when they start building close to racetracks and gun ranges that have been established forever.
Never a Dull moment 👍 I was impressed by how Calm and Clear and Confident the Crew were 👍
Just awesome to see her flying once again!
Great job and what a treat to see those two seasoned pilots dealing with an in-fight SNAFU. Watch and learn young bucks.
I never thought I would see this Bird fly - looks Amazing !!
We had A-26s at Nakhom Phanom RTAFB along with A-1 Skyraiders in 1969. Great to see one back I the air.
What a beautiful aircraft!
Been following this restoration and am thrilled to finally see it fly. Congratulation to everyone involved to make it happen.
When those canopies both popped open my first thought was that ejection seats were going to go off. Of course, those birds did not have ejection seats. Love seeing the invader back in the air.
Pretty pro even with the canopy issue you seemed to notice all the little squawks too.
It will be great to see her back at FoF
Awesome!! Can't wait to see the next video!!
Maybe it was the B26's. I'm old and can't remember. LOL. I did enjoy the video. Very good quality and informative.
My heart skipped a couple beats when the canopies popped. 🙂
You guys are absolutely phenomenal pilots. ❣️ Great job flying this old warrior.
My dad flew an A26 during world war II. He was stationed in England in early 1945 and took the plate up for a training flight. He and his navigator. We're surprised when the canopy blew open like yours did in your video. They requested clearance to land immediately and did so. Unfortunately they landed at the wrong air base. It was run by RAF. And the Brits we're not happy with visitors.
Jumped out of my chair when the canopies popped! 😳
There is something you don’t see every day! Good job guys….as usual👍👍
Between the Planes of Fame Museum, Aero Traders and Fighter Rebuilders, Chino has become a great resource to the warbird community, as well as one of the best spots in the U.S. to see them.
You can't get any better or have anyone more experienced than Steve Hinton do the test flights!
hopefully no damage! Great flying as usual
Fantastic! Steve Hinton is a legend!
love the sound of the r2800 pratts on takeoff..
Thank you for sharing this.
Awesome flight.
So amazing they returned this old girl back to stock and even put in an original fault with the canopies, great camera angle and great CRM, great vid to watch, will we see more ?
That was a screw up with the original plans, they should have rebuilt the canopies WITH the latch mod added and Steve wouldn't have to go redo this flight test.
Great job guys!
Was wondering about this plane .. having seen updates over the years
What a sweet bird.. Unloaded he could could turn inside a FW-190.. much to the surprise of the FW-190 pilot who suddenly found himself on the receiving end of the Invaders guns!
I remember that A26 back in the 1980s when it was stone stock airplane. Never a tanker, never raced.😎
ATC was perfect, understood that you had a little emergency, couldn't exactly hear what runway you were cleared to land on and made the gyrocopter go around incase your tried landing on their assigned runway.
Bravo, gentlemen, Bravo. Can't wait to see on airshow circuit.
That was very interesting. Thank you!
Used to have a hangar and our plane at CNO…enjoyed seeing the progress on your plane as it was being rebuilt…nice to see this video clip…we’re up in Idaho now, COE…we miss CNO but not CA
Thanks again for letting us go with.
Got to walk around her in the hangar a few years ago. Such an impressive aircraft. Man - good that the canopy panels didn't come off and strike something. You guys have skill, poise, and nerve !
My uncle, Donald Burton Richards (1923-2001) flew as a gunner on A-26s during WWI and Korea and was a line chief for an A-26 unit in Vietnam. He was my inspiration to make the Air Force a career. I retired from the A.F. in 1999 after serving 20 years as an F-16 Avionics technician.
My dad was a gunner at the end of ww2, always a bit sad he did not stay in the field
Perfect Airmanship, Captain !
Many, many years ago, (the 60s), I was a Aircraft Machinist stationed at Shaw AFB, SC. One day I had a job next to the Transit Alert pad. There was the beautiful, I mean shiny polished aluminum, A-26 parked right next to the aircraft I had the job on. After finishing up I walked over to admire the beauty. I wondered what it was doing there at Shaw until I looked in the passenger compartment. There were two airliner type seats and a three star placard on the window. Shaw was HQ for Ninth Air Force so I guess the general had his own aircraft for staff visits
Thx Kermit for an informative and entertaining video glad to see another war bird get her wings back even if it got loud for Steve and Mark. Stay Healthy.
Flew in an A26 in 1975, best carnival ride I have ever had, amazing horsepower. Went fire bombing,,, still a prominent memory.
Love these in flight videos. Great source for my aircraft in development. All of these small details are invaluable...including canopy mishaps.
Don't yah just love ❤️ Aviation.
I lived in miami Kendall area and Andrew was no joke. was this plane at tamiami? beautiful ride, I love it
Great to see the A26 up and back down safely
The TBM I work with has a little plaque that says. Do not open canopy in flight unless you are leaving 😂
Thank you my dad flew this aircraft out of Britain during ww2 he also flew with the pathfinders. He said they called the them flying coffins. I miss my dad.
Glad you got that A-26 back in the air. I noticed, just after they taxied across RWY 26R, there was a Lockheed Constellation off in the distance. I hope that one is either flying, or will soon fly again.