Had to laugh a little... Naval Aviators have so much precision, really apparent to someone with no experience and mediocre skills (me)...especially during rejoins... first time in formation (wing) for me.. I was like a moth to the flame... slowly drifting closer, and closer until the instructor said 'what the hell are you doing..trying to get us all killed?':o

Ryan, I am not the most knowledgeable airplane shopper, but I hear $79k is the low end buy-in on a maintenance complete L-39 today. I would be more nervous about the hourly operating cost than anything else. You are talking what, a grand an hour to fly one even after your checkout for insurance. It's not an airplane for individuals who have limits on income. A seriously successful trial attorney (John Edwards, etc.) might be able to afford one, but for most of us it is really out of the question. One flight school I know of offers an L-39 by the hour and they have an instructor for it, Western Air at BroomField, CO. Personally, I think I would rather just buy an old WWII piston warbird and be happy with the high g-limits.

Formation becomes second nature. It is a way of life on almost every single flight. Rendezvous can be dangerous and have caused many accidents - which is why we are so hard on the students - but then again - once you get experience with them you become complacent with them and that is when they reach out and bite you. I remember my first time in formation with antoher aircraft. I had a few hunrded hours of flight time prior but had never been close to another aircraft. My IP gave me the controls after she had shown me the position and I might as well have done barrell rolls around my lead! :eek::o I remember coming back into the field at NAS Kingsville one NIGHT in some pretty bad weather, and I could just barely make out the wingtip light of my lead and the turbulence was making it jump around like a firefly. I thought to myself - now this is working for the money! Looking back now (and with more experience), I can't figure out why my lead wanted to drag me through that!
I never minded the formation flying that much - though I never wanted it to be my PRIMARY duty. I look forward to having the opportunity to fly formation again someday.

USMCFLYR

The CJ-6/Yak-52 is a great piston warbird for a lot of people, IMHO... still a challenge to learn all of the weird systems, but a blast to fly... radial engine, dirty... good smell in the cockpit, aerobatic - performance is probably around that of a T-6 (old one), with around 14gph cruise and maybe 20gph for aerobatics. Parts are cheap.... of course every flight it seems like you're putting some new part on it. They are really going up in price.. maybe somewhere around $75k right now.. used to be a lot cheaper. Plus the Red Star Pilot's Association has a lot of fly-in events, formation clinics.. and it's just a whole lot of fun!

Many of us can only dream, USMC. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Ryan: stick in the back of your head, one of my pals has two or three dozen T-34 Mentors he is parting out if you ever need anything like that. I am trying to talk this guy into giving me one, no luck so far. T-34s are pretty good on hourly operating cost.

I'm a lucky guy - I don't dispute that ;)

I take it that these are T-34Bs (pistons) and not the T-34Cs (turbos)?
I imagine the operating costs for the turbo models are pretty expensive to mortals.

USMCFLYR

Yes, I am sure they are all pistons. My understanding is he bought a bunch of the piston airplanes at auction when the military went to turbine on the Mentors. I am more than happy to provide contact info by PM. Not plugging here, but if I were in the market for a deal on a used military airplane, it sounds like a good opportunity.

Sounds good, haven't gotten a chance to fly one... but I've heard they're really fun. Is he only parting them out or selling them whole or mostly whole?

Maybe USMCFLYR could buy a few and open up an air-combat/formation school;):D

Give me a day to see what the story is as far as whole vs. parts, piston vs. turbine and I'll PM you guys. I have to admit is it interesting. My guess is it's parts-only. My pal said they were in hangars somewhere in Texas. If any of them were airworthy it seems like he would have said so. I am basically calling my old friends about jobs right now, not shopping to buy airplanes and this caught me by surprise. I'll check on Monday.

USMC- ever flown one?

No - never flew the T-34B.
Thought I was going to get a few hours in one prior to flight school when I was stashed with MAG-41 at NAS Dallas. The Base Flight Club had one on the line - but it was down and they said they didn't have enough money from the base to get it fixed :(

Ryan1234 -

Someone posted a job from one of those places recently - I think in the Phoenix area. To compete with the companies already out there - you are going to need something more sporty than T-34B. That school was flying the Extra 300s. Now show me a school flying those L-39s for the same job and I'll consider it! :eek:

USMCFLYR