Flying a Vampire across the Atlantic
Lee Devlin
past weekend and came away quite impressed. They had the usual static
assortment of military hardware as well as a very nice set of tactical
demonstrations complete with an F16, F18, F117 Stealth, two Ukrainian
Mig 29's and many others which I can't even remember. I am not a
military buff, so please forgive me if I don't go into all the details.
In fact, I usually begin to yawn when a frantic discussion gets going on
the net about details of the of the hydraulic systems of gear actuators
on T33s. But, I guess that turns some of us on.
There were a number of non-military performers there including Bob
Hoover whose performance is an absolute 'pearls before swine'
extravaganza unless you're a pilot. That guy is astonishing! Although
he couldn't wow the crowd like a thundering jet, he really impressed
me with his dead-stick loop, 8 point roll, and landing sequence in a
Shrike which is by no means an aerobatic plane.
Probably the most memorable thing to happen to me there was meeting the
pilots of two de Havilland Vampires. Now, until about a month ago I had
no idea what a Vampire was, nor did I care. But then everyone on the
net started making a fuss about John Travolta owning his own Gulfstream
(or Learjet) as well as a Vampire. So, I decided to go up to one of the
pilots and share a little trivia with him. I approached the fellow and
said "Did you know John Travolta owns one of these?" He said, "Yes,
that guy there sold it to him", as he pointed over to the other Vampire
pilot, and said, "It's all in my book". Well, so much for trying to
impress him with my obscure aviation fact. There were about 100,000
people at the airshow and I am quite sure 99,998 would not have known
this trivia fact. Well, on second thought, there were probably a few
rec.aviators there who might have :-).
So I asked him about his book and he explained that they had purchased
the planes from the Swiss Air Force at an auction and had ferried them
across the Atlantic themselves. Can you imagine flying a fighter jet
across the Atlantic? Well, that's exactly what these guys did. The
pilot's name is Paul McMinn and he wrote a book about the experience
entitled "Vampires and Goblins Across the Atlantic" and had just
received the books from the printer the day before. So,.. guess who
has the _first_ autographed copy ever sold? You guessed it. Me :-).
And yes, he signed it as being the first copy sold!
There's a writer in _Plane_and_Pilot_ who writes frequently about
ferrying planes back and forth to Europe. They are really great columns
and they appear so frequently that I know readers must like them. I
know I certainly do. Well, to make a long story short, this book would
be great for someone who likes to read about these types of aviation
adventures. I read the book in less than a day. I could hardly put it
down!
After meeting Paul, I assumed he must have been an ex-military jock with
a million hours and it was probably a piece of cake for him to fly a
fighter jet. However, I learned from his book that he is a former
dental technician who paid for all of his training and ratings himself
and is currently living a life that quite a few of us rec.aviators would
envy. He is the chief pilot and a product manager for a local company
and he flies their Citation. His company purchased the Vampire as an
investment because the company president, also a pilot, wanted a Swiss
military plane. (Great boss, eh?) Now he gets to take it around to
airshows and to be the center of attention. Unfortunately, he said he
won't be at Oshkosh this year.
The Vampire is a first generation fighter jet designed in the mid 1940's
by de Havilland in England. They were produced throughout the 1950's
and used in a number of countries. It uses a Goblin jet engine which
produces 3500 lbs of thrust and it can fly at Mach .8. It has
side-by-side seating although there was a single place version made as
well. That's what John Travolta has (and yes, I know what he paid for
it). The front of the fuselage is a spruce and balsa composite and the
rear twin-boom fuselage and wings are made of steel and aluminum. I
believe there are only 11 of them in the U.S.
If you're interested in getting a copy of the book, it costs $19.95
and Paul expects that it will eventually be available through Sporty's
as well as other places that handle aviation books. If you wanted to
get one right away, just send me email and I'll give you his phone
number. Sorry, my first edition (first copy, no less) is not for sale.
Lee Devlin | HP Avondale Division | phone: (215) 268-5697
Piper Colt N4986Z | Rt 41 & Starr Road | email:
Spirit of Ukraine :-) | Avondale, PA 19311 | dev...@hpavla.avo.hp.com
sam...@zeus.tamu.edu
..
>I believe there are only 11 of them in the U.S.
>
Wow - now I feel special! About three years ago I saw a very strange
looking airplane in a hangar at the airport in Camden, SC. It turned
out to be a vampire (non-flying, unfortunately, but I was told that
it was in good condition) I wonder if this one was included in the
11 mentioned above...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Steven A. McCluney |"Strange women lying in ponds |
| sam...@zeus.tamu.edu | distributing swords is no basis |
| I'm a grad student, so my opinions | for a system of government!" |
| are worthless anyway | Dennis, to King Arthur |
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Lee Devlin
considering purchasing the book, "Vampires and Goblins Across the
Atlantic", I'm providing a little more information.
I met the author, Paul McMinn, at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA Airshow
which is about 90 nm from my home base, New Garden, PA (N57). As it
turns out, the Vampire resides at Coatesville, PA (40N) which is only 10
nm from New Garden. He keeps the Vampire in the main hangar which is
open during the day so you could stop by and see this unusual bird if
you find yourself in the area. There's even a ladder handy so you could
peek into the cockpit. I don't know about you, but I'm always looking
for reasons to fly to various airports and I think getting a close up
look at a Vampire is a pretty good excuse. After all, there are only 11
of them flying in the U.S. Coatesville/Chester County airport (40N) is
located 30 nm northwest of Philadelphia (PHL).
I have found out that Paul actually published the book himself and his
company is called LouMax Publishing. You can order the book by writing
to:
LouMax Publishing
Box 280A, RD3
Coatesville, PA 19320
Since he doesn't know how many he will sell, he has not yet hired a
distributor and currently intends to ship them to people who order by
mail. If the demand is sufficient he may get an 800 number and take
credit card orders. I am not sure that Sporty's will be handling the
book or not since their normal discounts would require him to sell the
book to them at less than his cost. The price is $19.95 + shipping and
handling which is $5.00 per book in the U.S. PA residents must include
$1.20 sales tax. He's still trying to figure out how to do international
orders.
Paul has discussed doing a book review with the staff at AOPA Pilot magazine.
The book is hard-cover, 128 pages, with numerous photographs, many shot
from the cockpit. It has a very nice jacket with a color photo the two
Vampires on the ramp during a spectacular sunset in Reykjavik, Iceland
and there's several air-to-air color photos of the Vampires on the rear
cover. It's very well written and gives the reader the sense that he's
experiencing the flight first hand. The inside covers have maps that
shows the route of the flight from Sion, Switzerland to Spartanburg,
S.C. and all the stops in between.
He's also working on a video to accompany the book which should be
available in about 6 weeks. He has enlisted the services of a
professional video production company and says that there's a lot of
work to do yet involving narration, editing, and adding music so that it
doesn't look like a home video.
Paul has contacted a few other airshows to see if they'd be interested
in sponsoring him. He specifically mentioned MaGuire and Oceana (sp?).
All he asks for is fuel reimbursement (it burns 300 gal/hr ;-). If
he ends up scheduling any, I'll post them to the net.
Lee Devlin | HP Avondale Division | phone: (215) 268-5697
Piper Colt N4986Z | Rt 41 & Starr Road | email:
Spirit of rec.aviation | Avondale, PA 19311 | dev...@hpavla.avo.hp.com