A few gallons of Nuvite and you would have a beauty to take to the airshows.

http://www.barnstormers.com/listing_ima ... ?id=945411

i will go for the t-6, minimal maintenance, make sure the spar mods and tail mods are done, join the NATA and go have fun, if you are lucky you will get to do fly overs and missing man formations etc for fuel, plan to take it to oshkosh.
the only proviso is to get an instructor for the first 30 hrs, as they say if you have not ground looped a t-6 you will do it next.
Great engine, no hydraulics to maintain, simple, lasts forever
T-28 nightmare of systems engines unreliable, lots of engine failures, never hear a PW 1340 fail, almost as good as a PT-6, insurance is accesible depending on your experience. I got 800 hrs on mine and still going after 30 years. Came from Pensacola. Still got the original log books from there. really an snj-5

How did I ever survive 130 hours in the T-28? I can't speak for the maintenance cost, thanks to my fellow taxpayers, but grabbing 54 inches down on the deck makes for one hell of an airshow demonstration. (Don't ask )

Oh, man, I'd have loved to fly my 28 with someone else buying the gas!!!

Tell us more about your T28 days... I really enoyed my 28. Just couldn't afford to fly it as much as I wanted....

T-6 no doubt!!! It is the best for everything.... And when you master it, you are an Aviator....

It will provide a challenge, and you will meet a whole new group of lifelong friends...

BTW, I've been flying them for 25 years, and when I get the T-6 mastered, I'll report it here....

It does have a way of sneaking up and slapping you upside the head, doesn't it????

I love reading about radials, especially details like a T-6/R-1340 taking 12 GALLONS of oil, or roughly a quarter of a drum. That's insane/awesome.

I think Stan's nailed it. For a sole owner, a T6 or T34 is the way to go, and a T6 is just a hell of a lot cooler.

I'm in a partnership with 2 T28s and it is a great deal for a part time warbird guy like me. I get to fly the airplanes whenever I want, fly formation, etc, and if the plane's broken I just call up our crew chief and he solves the problem.

We also fly airshows (Trojan Phlyers) and do a two ship formation acro routine. I don't fly in the airshows, but I'll ferry a plane to a show occasionally. The air show income helps defer our out of pocket costs as well.

I think the guys who own T28s individually are slightly nuts, but I respect their dedication to the plane (in both time and money). They are easy airplanes to fly and work on, but as Stan mentioned the systems are fairly complex.

The T28 is a delight to fly. Relatively light and harmonious controls, lots of power, and a large (by warbird standards) cockpit. Yeah, it's loud and they barf oil, but that's half the fun.

Note that the T28B & C require a checkride to solo - It's a "Vintage Airplane Authorization" which used to be the LOA program. The checkride is somewhat like a VFR type rating, and most DPEs will make sure that you understand the complex systems and how/if your particular airplane differs from a stock airplane.

FYI, for anyone in the Dallas area, we do have spots open in the Trojan Phlyers partnership.

Robert

Yup, we add oil by the gallon in a T28. None of those sissy quart bottles for us.

For a real oil hog, try flying the Skyraider. I've forgotten the oil capacity there, but I think I put less gas in a Cub per hour than we were burning oil coming back from Oshkosh this year in Cavanaugh's A1!

Robert

Stan, just imagine the cost of 115/145 Avgas if it were even available today. I had no idea I'd end up an old fart calculating my flying budget on $5/gal 100LL. Practical-not hardly, but fun-hell yes!

I was a pure jet guy detailed to a staff tour in the DC area, early '70s, and we had T-33s and T-28Bs at our disposal for proficiency flying. The T Bird was better for XCs but I wasn't that fond of the ejection seat for a tall guy and it wasn't all that great to fly, in my opinion. I was a little hesitant to get checked out in a prop but, from the first flight, I just loved that damned Trojan.

In those days you could get cleared into one of the warning areas surrounding the Pax River test center, troll through, doing a little acro, keeping your eyes open, and entice some of their JP4 fueled test platforms into jumping you. If the guy in the jet were any good, he'd win, but every now and then one would try to grovel in a slow flight with you and you could earn a little respect.

We were always dual, taking turns at the controls and swapping seats on XCs. I had the front seat on a return leg from Wright Patterson once and we were holding short an awful long time watching B-52s do their lumbering takeoffs. To save wear and tear, we were supposed to only use 48" on takeoff and throttle back to cruise climb at 36"/2400 right away but I used all 54" on that run, hit about 200 Kts just past midfield, pitched up 30 degrees, then rolled past 90, pulling the nose down to level out on our assigned heading and altitude back toward Andrews. We were talking to departure and they passed along a message from the tower: " Thanks for the expedited takeoff, we never realized those things were so loud". Made our day.

And don't get me started on all the stuff you could carry around in the aft hell hole. Of course I flew the T-34B back in Primary but I would hardly call myself an expert and I have no experience with the AT6/SNJ, but if money weren't the object, I'd get a T-28.

There are only 2 problems with a T-28..

It violates Warbird Rule #1, Never fly a single engine Wright powered airplane.

And it has a nose gear... And "Real Warbird Pilots" don't (admit to anyway) fly nose draggers...

Serously on rule #1, search the NTSB database and you can find tons of engine failures do to master rod failure. This is primarily due to throttle jockeying during formation flying. A big Wright has very low tolerance for reverse loading the master rod... In B-25's and TBMs they do pretty well, but in the T-28, where people do lots of formation work it requires very strong discipline to overshoot rather than pull the power back abruptly... And if you dont respect the throttle handle, you end up in a Cornfield... If you're lucky....

Excellent idea. For the $125K the CJ could be had with an M14P (360HP) but even better get a Yak52TW (think Aerostar Team). I and many other owners are convinced that the M14 is one of the best, if not the best, small radial engines ever made. The Yak will aerobatically outfly the other candidates mentioned.
Charles

Excellent idea. For the $125K the CJ could be had with an M14P (360HP) but even better get a Yak52TW (think Aerostar Team). I and many other owners are convinced that the M14 is one of the best, if not the best, small radial engines ever made. The Yak will aerobatically outfly the other candidates mentioned.
Charles

I remember a guy who went through the T-28 program in Basic telling me they would dump the prop when they wanted to slow closure rate in formation. Maybe that was to avoid the rod failure issue?