L-18 Birddog aerobatics?

[Marten Kemp]

So, writing a story where a bunch of young college-age
women discover some crated L-19s in a corner of a hangar.
I'm planning that they assemble them under the watchful
eye of a semi-retired pilot and A&P who can sign off on
the FAA paperwork.

Once the airplanes are assembled and flying, then what?
I had the thought that the women could dress up as WW II
Wasps and go to air shows. It would be funny as hell to
have them put on a low-horsepower version of a Thunderbird
airshow.

What kind of vaguely aerobatic-like things could a stock
L-19 perform? More than once?

--
-- Marten Kemp (Fix ISP to reply)

[Ron Wanttaja[_2_]]

On 10/6/2013 8:07 AM, Marten Kemp wrote:
> So, writing a story where a bunch of young college-age
> women discover some crated L-19s in a corner of a hangar.
> I'm planning that they assemble them under the watchful
> eye of a semi-retired pilot and A&P who can sign off on
> the FAA paperwork.
>
> Once the airplanes are assembled and flying, then what?
> I had the thought that the women could dress up as WW II
> Wasps and go to air shows. It would be funny as hell to
> have them put on a low-horsepower version of a Thunderbird
> airshow.
>
> What kind of vaguely aerobatic-like things could a stock
> L-19 perform? More than once?

Most aircraft can perform aerobatics...see Bob Hoover. My own checkout
in an L-19 included loops, and if I recall, the Army familiarization
firm also referenced aerobatics.

However, story-wise, keep in mind that the L-19 was NOT a World War II
aircraft, and thus was never associated with the WASPs. First flight
was four years after the war ended. It flew in the Korean War, but the
WASPs had been dissolved years earlier.

Ron Wanttaja

[Marten Kemp]

On 10/6/2013 11:32 AM, Ron Wanttaja wrote:
> On 10/6/2013 8:07 AM, Marten Kemp wrote:
>> So, writing a story where a bunch of young college-age
>> women discover some crated L-19s in a corner of a hangar.
>> I'm planning that they assemble them under the watchful
>> eye of a semi-retired pilot and A&P who can sign off on
>> the FAA paperwork.
>>
>> Once the airplanes are assembled and flying, then what?
>> I had the thought that the women could dress up as WW II
>> Wasps and go to air shows. It would be funny as hell to
>> have them put on a low-horsepower version of a Thunderbird
>> airshow.
>>
>> What kind of vaguely aerobatic-like things could a stock
>> L-19 perform? More than once?
>
> Most aircraft can perform aerobatics...see Bob Hoover. My own checkout
> in an L-19 included loops, and if I recall, the Army familiarization
> firm also referenced aerobatics.
>
> However, story-wise, keep in mind that the L-19 was NOT a World War II
> aircraft, and thus was never associated with the WASPs. First flight
> was four years after the war ended. It flew in the Korean War, but the
> WASPs had been dissolved years earlier.

Thanks for the information.

As far as the story goes, the young women aren't going to be
limited to actual historical facts but are aiming at
verisimilitude - "close enough to be believable by the casual
observer. The aircraft are authentic, the uniforms are authentic,
so what if the timing doesn't quite match up?"

--
-- Marten Kemp (Fix ISP to reply)