By ANN Correspondent Tom "Tex" Griffith

During the "Big O," I had the occasion recently to attend another Warbird Review, similar to the one in which I had participated on the Griffon Spitfire a few days before. Oshkosh AirVenture, continues to amaze and please me with these "bull sessions" about my favorite warbirds.

This time, the warbird was a gorgeous (I'm running out of superlatives, and I think that this is the only one that I haven't worn out yet) F4U-5 Corsair.  This particular Corsair is owned and flown by Jim Read.  Another lucky pilot, Dale Snodgrass, an ex-Navy fighter pilot (he last flew F-14 Tomcats before he retired from the Navy) also gets to fly this big fighter. 

Jim began the review by giving us a short personal history.  His home is in Valparaiso, Indiana.  He had been a Marine pilot in the 1950s, but he never flew a Corsair (which was still flown by the Navy and Marines in the early '50s).  He flew SNJ Texans, the FJ-2 Fury, AD Skyraiders, T-34 Mentors and F9F Cougars to name a few.  He flew a number of these particular aircraft off of carriers during his service to our nation.

This particular Corsair (tail number N179PT), which is now based at the Indiana Aviation Museum, was one of a number that was sold to the Honduran government.  It participated in the so-called "Soccer War" with El Salvador in 1969 - so, it IS a combat veteran, it just does not happen to be a US combat veteran. 

A young man by the name of Chris, a staff member from the museum where the plane is kept was also in attendance.  It is Chris's job to keep the planes clean and polished, and he was busy detailing the big Corsair before the review began.  He also knows a lot about aircraft - he explained the difference between an F4U-5N, which this plane was originally.  The Dash 5N has strakes over the exhaust pipes to help hide the plane's exhaust "fire" by enemy planes that would be flying higher than the Corsair.  It also had a radar dome on the right wing (Chris described it as a "bubble-gum machine").  This plane was restored as a Dash 5, so the strakes and radar equipment are lacking.  I personally like the Dash 5 better because the airflow deflection caused by the radar dome necessitates a right aileron that extends out behind the "line" of the rear of the wing.  These two structural changes make the plane look lop-sided to me.   Many years ago, I built a plastic model of this very type of Corsair, and the two little pieces that composed the radar dome and the aileron extension were left attached to the little plastic "trees" when I finished my Corsair.

Back to the review.  In the 1980's, this Corsair was brought back to the US by Howard Pardue of Breckenridge, Texas.  He had it restored and it flew once again in 1988.  The next owner flew it to England where it lived till December, 1997, when Jim acquired it.  He first flew it in the summer of 1998, and has been flying it since then.

At this point of the review, a microphone was passed around the crowd of perhaps 100 Corsair lovers.  There were several questions and several comments.  The most memorable things to me were the comments from two older gentlemen.  One of them introduced himself and then introduced the gentleman to his right, and told us that the second guy had flown Corsairs in WWII and shot down two Japanese aircraft during the Battle of Okinawa.   We gave him a huge round of applause - I believe that I was the first one to begin clapping - we cannot thank the men of my father's generation enough for the sacrifices that they made and the contributions that they made so that we continue to enjoy our freedom. 

Another elderly gentleman took the microphone and told us that he flew F4U-2s off of the U.S.S. Enterprise and that he was in the first group of pilots to operate Corsairs off carriers.  He had nothing but praise for the famous "Bent-Wing Bird" which was known by another name to the Japanese:  "Whistling Death."

Numerous attendees asked the featured pilots to comment on comparing the Corsair to the P-51 Mustang, the F8F Bearcat, the F6F Hellcat and the AD Skyraider.  Between the two, they had a chance to fly at least one of these other types and their comparisons , including the operational history of each type, were as follows:  The P-51 could beat a Corsair above 15,000 feet, but "down below" the Corsair ruled;  the Bearcat was faster and more nimble because it had the same Pratt & Whitney R-2800 as the Corsair, and the Bearcat weighs hundreds of pounds less; even though the Hellcat also had the same engine, because of its higher weight, the Hellcat was slower and less maneuverable - in spite of that, the 'cat had a higher kill:loss ratio than the Corsair (18 Hellcat "kills" for each Hellcat shot down and 11:1 for the Corsair); the Skyraider, even though it had a bigger, more powerful engine, the Wright R-3350, was a LOT bigger and heavier than any of those mentioned, and it flew accordingly.  Dale added an informative insight:  he has flown the Mustang in mock combat against the Corsair flown by another skilled pilot, and vice versa, swapping planes.   Some guys have all the luck!  Jim Read said that in all truth, the Corsair is "easy to fly, if you're used to flying an SNJ with the controls set to 'light'."  Dale concurred, adding that a P-51 is heavier on the controls than is the Corsair.

Other participants asked about the maintenance of the big Vought fighter, specifically what the Time Between Overhaul (TBO) is on the R-2800.  Dale fielded this question and said it was like "500 to 600 hours" and cost around "$85,000" if you had a good core engine to turn in to the engine shop.  He said that you could easily get more time out of the engine and that the TBO is actually higher, but with a machine that is worth well over a MILLION bucks,  spending $85,000 on an overhaul is small change.  I also would imagine that this warbird, or most other fighter warbirds of this rarity would have to fly quite a few years to accumulate even 500 hours - just a thought.  While we're talking money, here's a tidbit:  the Corsair will burn 60 to 70 gallons of av gas per hour at cruise, but it burns 210 gallons per hour on takeoff.  Since the plane carries only a little more fuel than this latter number, Jim added that they don't run it at this power setting for very long!

I left this warbird review loving the Corsair all the more, and being in the presence of men who flew them during WWII is an experience that I will not soon forget.