SALUTE TO LEFTY & WHITE LIGHTNIN'

[wingman]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY & WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Yes, Lefty's was an act I would just about always take a few minutes to watch, no matter what I was doing at the time. I must have watched it more than 40 times, and never got tired of it. More than a few conversations over the years were ended prematurely because White Lightning was taking off.

Ditto for Robert A. "Bob" flying pretty much anything, but especially that yellow Mustang...

Neal

[BuckyD]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY & WHITE LIGHTNIN\'

Does anyone (Bucky D, Wingman) have any photos of Thunderbird in it\'s 1976-79 scheme? It had a beautiful dark blue tinted canopy, no stars & bars, and the race number was white in a big blue square.

One of the best looking \'stocker\' paint jobs ever.

Big Jim -

Too early for me - didn't shoot too much 35mm at the races until Reno '80. My ole' Wingman - Neal Nurmi has some superb photographic coverage from that specific timeframe of air racing subjects.

Hey Neal - My favorite shot of yours of Lefty's P-51D THUNDERBIRD from this period is the wonderful B&W we used while designing your first business cards (Ref. your B&W Neg. Index# MI-79-7-7A). Any chance you could share a scan of this great ground-to-air photo of Lefty's Mustang racing at '79 Miami/Homestead?

Another super archive shot of yours I'd absolutely love to see posted here to enhance this Lefty Gardner tribute thread, is your Reno '80 B&W of Lefty's #13 White Lightnin' racing w/Gary Levitz's then-natural metal P-38 #38 Double Trouble (Ref. your B&W Neg. Index # R-80-18-7 - the shot of them tight together w/hill in backgnd at lower rt.). Think this shot was from Sat. 9/13/80 Bronze Heat #2.

(Please consider this a late post-Xmas wish!!!) DBD

[wingman]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY & WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Well Buck...

No black and white scans right now because I don't have a flatbed scanner. I've been planning to pick a good one up for a while, but now I think I'll wait for a few months to see whether my retirement savings recover a bit <---- snip ---->

[BuckyD]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Well Buck...

No black and white scans right now because I don't have a flatbed scanner. I've been planning to pick a good one up for a while, but now I think I'll wait for a few months to see whether my retirement savings recover a bit from the damage caused by good ol' boy President shrub and his very nasty banker buddies. What a bunch of incompetent crooks and clowns...

But I digress. How about a color shot from 1980??

Works for Me - BIG Thanks, Neal!

(Surprised your 35mm film scanner doesn't do negatives )

DBD

[wingman]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

It's supposed to but I've never had much luck with negs at all. Plus I put a LOT of work into my B and W prints in the darkroom doing stuff I can't do in photoshop. So they're just gonna have to wait to be digitalised...

I shot several nice portraits of Lefty over the years but this rather unconventional "portrait" is my favourite. Just the man, the airplane, and the smile...

Neal

[Hawker Driver]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Back to the main story, Lefty's funeral services were held yesterday in Kerrville, Texas and there were many stories told about Lefty to a full house. After the services there was a four ship missing man fly over led by Kevin Raulie in Lew Shaw's Mustang (Lefty's Thunderbird) and Red Bull's P-38 (again Lefty's P-38) and two other P-51's. He will be missed by all....

Lynn


Now you all can go back to your mindless mud slinging.......

[Lance]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Back to the main story, Lefty's funeral services were held yesterday in Kerrville, Texas and there were many stories told about Lefty to a full house. After the services there was a four ship missing man fly over led by Kevin Raulie in Lew Shaw's (Lefty's Thunderbird) and Red Bull's P-38 (again Lefty's P-38) and two other P-51's. He will be missed by all....

Lynn


Now you all can go back to your mindless mud slinging.......

Thanks for the report HawkerDriver. In the missing man which aircraft pulled up out of the formation and symbolically headed towards the heavens?

[Hawker Driver]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Thanks for the report HawkerDriver. In the missing man which aircraft pulled up out of the formation and symbolically headed towards the heavens?

The best one, Lefty's P-38.....

Lynn

[Lance]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

The best one, Lefty's P-38.....

Lynn

Very appropriate. That is what I was hoping to hear.

[Big_Jim]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN\'

This has all gotten me to thinking...another one of the old guard has taken his final post.

Most of the \'original\' CAF guys are gone now. While the spirit of the organization is still intact, it certainly is not the same.

Lefty first showed up to \'race\' as something of an afterthought in 1970 with N25Y. N25Y, of course, was the old #14 Sky Ranger from the Cleveland races. Interesting to note that Lefty raced it as #25 that year. He never had any intention of running it again after 1970, and in fact wouldn\'t turn a pylon for many years again.

Because of his association with the CAF, Jack Sandberg tapped him to fly his P-63 in 1972. Lefty brought a CAF P-47 to race at Reno in 1974, and his own P-51. The Mustang would ultimately become Thunderbird, but for a couple of years was flown in bare metal by Lefty\'s son-in-law, Joe Henderson.

Reno \'76 was the turning point for Lefty and his association with racing. He had brought the Mustang--which had been repainted as Thunderbird--to race for himself, as well as the P-38 to participate in the airshow. He was also scheduled again to race the Cobra for Jack. Because of a very low turnout of Unlimiteds, Lefty was literally coerced into entering the P-38. I think Levitz was the one who pushed him into it. As a result, Levitz took over the seat of Tipsy Miss so Lefty could fly the P-38. Ed Messick also had his P-39 on hand for the CAF Tora routine and he decided to join in too.

I don\'t remember how they all did, but I do recall that a lot changed after that. Lefty won in the Mustang after all the hotdogs took themselves out. Sandberg got fed up and sold the Cobra. And the crowd fell in love with Lefty racing and performing in the P-38. The rest was history.

Even after winning the gold, Thunderbird became kind of a 2nd-tier plane. The P-38 was \'the\' plane. It also wasn\'t nicknamed \'White Lightnin\' until much later.

I don\'t think Lefty ever got over the personal tragedy with his step-daughter Kim (Darryl Skurich\'s daughter). There were lots of hush-hush rumors about how she was kidnapped as payback for Lefty refusing to cooperate with drug dealers or something. The reason never really justified her disappearance, and I know it haunted him for the rest of his days.

So now Lefty is gone. Gary Levitz is gone. Joe Henderson is gone. Jack Sandberg is gone. Lloyd Nolan, Vernon Thorp, Walt Wooten, and so many other CAF guys (from the time when the organization was limited to 200 Colonels)...all gone. There must be one hell of a lot of hangar flying going on upstairs somewhere.

Rest in peace, my old friend.

[wingman]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Great post Big Jim -- if you have any more thoughts like that please share them.

Here is Lefty in the 1977 Championship Race -- coming, and going...

[Big_Jim]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN\\\'

Great pictures!

[wingman]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Big Jim -- You might like these. There are several folks you mentioned. For folks who didn't know him personally Lefty is the man in the white shirt with the big gap tooth smile...

Neal

[Big_Jim]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN\'

Big Jim -- You might like these. There are several folks you mentioned. For folks who didn\'t know him personally Lefty is the man in the white shirt with the big gap tooth smile...

Neal

Ah yes. Thank you, Neal. Back in the days when people weren\'t so overdrubbed by political correctness and the Colonels all wore their colors proudly. Funny how the CAF never took the Confederate part too seriously, but John Q Public was outraged by it. As I remember, the Japanese were outraged by the B-29 Hiroshima reinactment, but never made a peep about the Pearl Harbor routine.

That looks like Sly Old Fox Vernon Thorp in the blue jumpsuit. Grumpy old man, but a great one. The last time I spoke to him was at an airshow in Texas in 1993. He had flown the CAF B-26. That plane killed him later when it came apart in mid-air during a training flight.

So many friends and so many rare aircraft wasted by some questionable maintenance of the CAF. By then, a lot of the old timers who were left had pretty much distanced themselves from the organization.

I understand that in recent years, along with the politically correct name change, their maintenance and preservation program has seen a significant improvement by some of the new blood infused into the CAF.

Thank you for sharing. I know it sounds like a soapbox. I don\'t intend it that way. These were all just good men who spearheaded the warbird movement and who were responsible for so many of the planes that have graced the skies...and now a lot of both are gone forever.

Its a different world now.

Jim

[Big_Jim]

Re: SALUTE TO LEFTY &amp; WHITE LIGHTNIN\\\'

Oh, of note. The late Lloyd Hamilton in the yellow hat on the far left. Yet another one gone west. Can it really be 10 years already?