Warbirds – what’s not to love?

The gallery of photos below looks like they were taken at an airshow.  They weren’t.  They’re all my photos taken on different days and times, of the many beautiful and interesting warbirds that have passed through my little airport, KDIJ. 

For 30+ years, I owned and flew a Cessna 182, and later a CessnaT337, based out of my hangar here at KDIJ (which used to be designated U59).  When I first came to Teton Valley, Fred Reed, for whom the airport is named, owned the FBO.  Later it was owned by Eric Soyland.  Both were friends.  But then Dr. Rich Sugden—a physician from Jackson Hole, and retired Navy Flight Surgeon—bought the FBO, and everything changed.  ‘Doc,’ or ‘Rich’, owns the most amazing collection of aircraft I’ve ever seen: all of which are current and flyable, and all of which Doc himself flies!

For example, years ago Doc had a beautiful Grumman HU-16 Albatross that he flew from Driggs to Sydney, Australia.  I  still remember seeing pictures of him water-taxiing the Albatross in front of the Sydney Opera House!  Doc’s love for flying, and his vast knowledge of aviation and airplanes—especially warbirds—is evident everywhere around KDIJ.  And  it’s not just Doc and his airplanes, it’s also all his friends and colleagues and their airplanes, who always seem to be stopping by enroute to or from Oshkosh or Edwards TPS or some other equally interesting place.  

I’m not sure I have all the aircraft photos identified properly, so if you see a mistake, please let me know.  I’ve since sold my hangar and airplane, so my PIC days are done, and I don’t expect to be adding to this gallery unless I find some photos on my hard drive that I missed.  

If interested, here are some Wiki-links to the aircraft shown below in the photos: the T-28 Trojan, the T-33 Trainer, the BAC Jet Provost, the A-1 Skyraider, the T-6 Texan, the L-39 Albatross, the P-38 Lightning, the F4U Corsair, and the Daussalt/Dornier Alpha Jet.  The mil-spec version of my T337 was the normally aspirated O-2A and O-2B used for FAC missions in Vietnam.

If you enjoy flying photos, my other flying pages on this site are: Flying the Bahamas and Flying to Alaska.  

You can click on any photo below to launch a slide-show starting at that point.  If you have any questions, or problems with the website, or if you just want to chat about flying, Contact Me.