Abilene Reporter-News from Abilene, Texas • 9

ABILENE reporter-news Friday May 25 2012 9A mo journal SWEETWATER The annual WASP Homecoming will Saturday at the National WASP World War II Museum 210 Avenger Field Events begin at 9 ajn and Indude an honor parade a car and motorcyde show and free airplane rides for kids ages 8 -17 former WASP pilots will be available for photos and autographs Call the museum at 325-235-0099 for more Information BUFFALO GAP Dance under the stars Saturday night at Abilene State Park Muddy Creek will play for the dance from 7i30-10pjn Tickets are $5 for adults and free for children under 12 and there will be a concession stand COMANCHE COUNTY On Saturday the sixth annual Rodeo RunWalk 5K will be In Gustine as part of the Homecoming Celebration Registration Is at 7 ajn with the runwalk beginning at 8 ajn at the Main Street Pavilion FOr nonrunners a large cake and pie auction win begin at noon at the pavilion Cali Kate Denning at 325-330-0860 WWW s' ij "o' '-y r' training plane soars in Sweetwater ByGngKandaD-Ball tendaMaUgCwporttintwiycnni 325-67M7Z1 SWEETWATER She looks pretty good for a 68-year-old Her skin is still smooth and taut Sure her tail might drag a bit but she can still get up and move with the speed and grace she exhibited in the 1940s She looks radiant in yellow and blue sitting there waiting for Bill Johnson to come along and take her out which he does about once a week Johnson cleans her up and takes her out about five hours each month a lot of fun he says but she does make a heck of a racket likely because she is an airplane a 1944 Fairchild PT-19A to be precise and powered by a 200-horsepower inverted 440-cubic-inch six-cylinder engine had more fun flying this plane the last five or six years than any flying ever done" said Johnson try to fly it as much as I can but a little bit harder in the wintertime because no heater and you exactly close the The Fairchild one of the models used to train fe- male pilots in the Woman Airforce Service Pilots program at Avenger Field during World War is an open-cockpit design And because a -wheel attached to the tail known colloquially as a Johnson president of Texas Na- tional Bank first got his license when he was 19 but had not kept it 1 i current over the years As a member of the Chamber of Commerce JohnsOny was tasked with shuttling former WASPs and other guests from the hotel to the museum during the first WASP Homecoming in 2006 A group that had flown in for the homecam-' ing event in a World War I-era plane invited Johnson to go up for a little sight- seeing and Johnson said he caught the bug again As a member of the board of directors Johnson said he was looking for a plane to put on display He nearly purchased an AT-6 trainer from California but the Elane was incapable of eing restored to flying condition 2008 1 looking through Trade-a- filane which is sort of ike Autoloader but for -aircraft and spotted this Fairchild in Mineola which was in pretty good shape and practically the same price as the Johnson said The plane was being offered by the widow of i man who col- lected old warbirds and the Fairchild was the-last plane to be sold So Johnson and a friend drove to East Texas and flew her back to Sweetwater Bill Johnson uses a duster to clean his Fairchild PT-19A inside the the women pilots at Avenger Field In the 1940s WASP World War II museum In MOlWWOKGnnMMIIUWWIDHKIK Sweetwater The plane is the same model as the ones used by nil E-s Will Hllll1 II 111 Hl sr Fifinella the mascot of the Army Air Force Flying lYainlng Detachment flies on the engine cowling of Bill PT-19A The women of the Women Airforce Service Pilots used the character adapted from a Roald Dahl story about gremlins who cause problems with airplanes as their squadron logo Fifinellai Johnson said was a female gremlin who actually aided pilots and fixed the problems the other gremlins caused Editor's Note: With Ron Erdrich taking extended time off ReporteMHews multimedia journalist Greg Kendall-Ball offered to take over for a week It may have been just to get out of the office but Kendall-Ball all this week takes his writing and photo skills on the road to provide more stories about the folks who live in the Big Country tanx 1 MllcM Ttjtor Cola house or something the numbers would be large enough to read from the ground and the pilot could be But surely none of the upstanding young women stationed at Avenger Field those women daring enough to volunteer to move to the middle of nowhere to learn the art of flying at a time when women were far from treated as equals surely none of those women would ever dream of buzzing a home or building would they? With a knowing look that perhaps suggested otherwise Johnson answered not" LEFft Johnson cleans the tail rudder of his 1944 Fairchild PT-19A at the WASP World War II museum in Sweetwater PT-19A which is on loan to the National WASP World War II museum actually fly at Avenger Field It was tariff in 1944 in Ohio and ferried to Thompson-Robbins Field in Helena Aik where it was used to train male pilots But women training in thie WASP program used dozens of planes just like it in primary flight training what the InPT-19 Astands for training is just that A lot of the cadets who came out here1 had never even ridden in a plane before they went up in lone of these Fairchilds- or a Johnson said they were expected to solo in largely still underappreciated as a group Johnson said hard to put an exact value on the WASPs contribution But how many male pilots did they free up to go fight overseas who otherwise would have been stuck here ferrying planes around or training Johnson said don't think you can overstate what they meant to the war plane features a painting of Fifinella a helpful female who aided pilots on one side of the engine cowling and a large number on the other the Johnson explained any cadet decided to fly low and buzz his girl Fairchilds and Stearmans built in the 1930s and Stearmans outnumber the Fairchild about 10 to think about 7000 of each kind of plane were made but the Stearman was used for crop-dusting after the war There was no real use for the Fairch- ild and since mostly wooden if han-gared it deteriorated Johnson said There may be as few as 250 of the old trainers in existence today As time marches on the number of remaining WASPs dwindles too Thanks to efforts like the WASP museum the role' they played in war effort is starting to be recognized but it after just eight hours of From the Fairchild the women progressed to flying the BT (or planes and then to the AT craft up the planesgot a littl faster a little more complicated a little more maneuverable" Johnson said Flying his Fairchild which has been restored to a prewar Army trainer paint scheme is akin to riding an old Harley he said lots of engine noise lots of wind noise but a silky smooth ride It made a forgiving vehicle in which young pilot trainees could earn their wings Although there were equal numbers of both GREG KENDALL-BALL will be making stops In 7 COLORADO CITY RULE and SWEETWATER this week WANTED: STORIES FROM THE BIG COUNTRY The Big Country Journal will represent more than 250 pages of additional local area news for our readers In 2012 Ron and the Abilene Reporter-News are looking for the stories that need to be told in the 23-county area we call home If you are Interested correspondent and for the dally news please email us your in becoming a helping us report news digest we have planned information oxen rc f1 ti.