Tandem A-10 Takeoff

 

 

"It's a beautiful day for flying," Joseph A. Meinhard.

One of my Father's favorites quotes.

Another day of aircraft training, but not on the A-10s, those these guys were up and about on this day. The HH-65c Dolphin was the aircraft of choice today. The "C" model of the HH-65 has a more powerful power plant in its engines, making it able to hover on one engine alone of the other one fails.

The "Coasties" are top flight guys. Thanks for the classes over the years. We got your back!

DM

Family Heirlooms

Family heirlooms may be rings, furniture, dishes, or even artwork. The following drawings were done by my Dad from 1943 to 1949. These our some of are family heirlooms from Dad.

This is a drawing of my Uncle Paul Meinhard on Iwo Jima. I have never met him and he died in the early 1980s. My Uncle Paul is pictured on the right (I believe). His own comments are in the image (drawing) below, written on the back of Dad's drawing of him. Dad's drawing was done from a photo of this image. Photo to come soon.

The description by my Uncle on the drawing with him in it on Iwo. This was written at a later date, but drawn by my Dad in 1945 during WWII.

This drawing done by Dad is simply called "Fatigue." This has always been a favorite image of mine. It is quite haunting in its look.

TBM Avenger

A P-38 Lightning pulls out of an attack on a Japanese Zero.

Hellcats giving "hell" to a Japanese Destroyer.

The F6F Hellcat

The F6F on deck of a carrier.

The drawings here represent my Father's artistic nature. He also painted, did engineering designs, and sketched and drew in pen and in as well. Let us not forget his wonderful photography. These drawings were done during WWII while he was in high school and also while he was in training to become a Navy aviator on the eve of the Korean War. These are not meant to imply any distaste to any Japanese people, but a look at a creative artist during a historic time of our country.

My Aunt Grace said my Dad was never encourage by my Grandfather on his art. His artistic skills were looked upon as wasted effort. We are fortunate to have these wonderful creations in our family of an excellent artist and a man who we called our Dad.

DM

A-10 Fall Sorties

The "Battle Creek" has been painted over and the MI has been added.

Coast Guard hanger under wing with door open on the west ramp.

Must have been chilly because the pilot closed the canopy while passing by the fire station.

October has been a busy month for flights of A-10s at Selfridge. With new hires in the fire station we have been out on the A-10s getting them used to the aircraft. I am putting the finishing touches on the PowerPoint presentation for our egress training on them. It should be complete by the end of this week. In all there are many images of the aircraft I have taken. This past week I had some nice sunset shots of the A-10 as they taxied back from the de-arming area. I was hoping for better light and color from the sun, but in all the shots are pretty good. This morning had an excellent sunrise, but I was unable to get out and photograph the ramp with the sun coming up over the birds.

In one of the photos above you can see a C-130 an and DHS EC-120 helicopter. The C-130 is going to be displayed at the Selfridge Air Museum sometime in the near future. The C-130 flying squadron has been deactivated at Selfridge. They are now the 171^st Air Refueling Squadron. Lately the A-10s have been doing a lot of flying. I sure like them over the F-16s, for they were so noisey.

Dan

"Well, the Few and the Proud-- the Marines have always exemplified those cardinal virtues of duty to country, honor, and bravery.... And it's because of you that America's future will be big and strong and generous and full of hope and fighting spirit. It's because of you that we can be sure that America will be ``Semper Fidelis'' -- always faithful to her best hopes and highest ideals." Ronald Reagan

Visit my photography sites on the web.

Trunk Line Photography Daniel Meinhard Photography The Michigan Bow Hunter's Cave Daniel Meinhard Photography on Google Sites