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Flight of the Phoenix Escadrille

Up coming events:
April 26 & /27 during the East Texas Airshow in Nacadoches, TX our Flight of the Phoenix Escadrille ( www.flightofthephoenix.org ) is participating in a tribute to the Astronauts in the ill fated Columbia Space Shuttle. The show runs both Sat and Sun April 26/27..........from 10 AM til 5 PM

The majority of the Shuttle wreckage fell in and around Nacadoches, TX and NASA operates a recovery center at the Nacadoches airport. Nacadoches is 80 miles south of Gilmer, TX.

At the request of Nacadoches Airshow Director Bob Dunn, Jim Goad in the DFW Wing of the CAF has organized an 8 ship missing man formation flight of WW II Harvards (T-6's) .....

First we make a pass over the crowd in a formation designed to look like the outline of the space shuttle.

Then on the second pass over the crowd, the planes start peeling off, up, and away into the sunset, one at a time, until number one through number seven have peeled off, representing the 7 fallen astronauts.

Then the 8th plane continues on steady course, speed, and altitude, indicating NASA's and this Country's resolve to keep the space program going.

In the attached photo, my 'retired from active duty' South African Air Force Harvard is the plane on the lower right. I will fly the 8th man position and will represent the program continuing on.

The pilot leading our flight, Jim Goad, was a personal friend of the shuttle flight commander Rick Husband.

Safety Officer and Flight Briefer is Mary Case, Dallas retired AF Fighter Pilot and AA Airline Capt; Jim Goad is leading; Tad Foran, 2; Roscoe Armstrong/Sid Snedeker, 3; Carl Best , 4; Steve Afeman, 5; Gerry Morgan, 6; Stuart Milson, 7; and Steve Dean, 8.
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Early 20th century. Via French from Spanish escuadrilla , literally "little squadron,"

The Escadrille performs precision formation flights for patriotic holidays, memorials, dedications, missing-man flights, and ceremonial events. No air-show is complete without the unmistakable sound of round engines and the nostalgia created by vintage T-6’s soldiering proudly in formation above the crowd.

Flight of the Phoenix Escadrille operates out of Flight of the Phoenix Aviation Museum at Fox Stephens Field in Gilmer, Texas. Each of the planes is flown by its owner, unlike in the Confederate Air Force, where the planes are owned by the organization and flown by CAF members. 

North American Trainer Assn. (NATA) is the governing body for operations, safety and training for the WW II North American Aircraft Co. types, including the T-6 Texan, the T-28 Trojan, the B-25 Mitchell, and the P-51 Mustang.

Leader of the Escadrille is Steve Dean of Gilmer, a former Air Force T-38 instructor pilot and A-37 fighter pilot. He is president of a family lumber business and founder of Flight of the Phoenix Aviation Museum at Fox Stephens Field. Steve’s T-6G came directly from active duty in the South African Air Force in 1994.

#2 left wing position is Steve Afeman from McKinney in his baby blue Navy SNJ-5B. Steve flies first officer on Airbus A-320's for a major air-carrier. Steve and his wife Kim, a former flight attendant, have flown her regularly since purchasing her in 1989. Kim is the team social director.

#3 right wing is Carl Best, a commercial insurance executive from Plano. Carl is Element Leader and Deputy Team Leader. This pristine 1943 AT-6C was remanufactured as an AT-6G in 1951. It served the USAF at Georgia training fields until 1951,when it was declared surplus. Flying for owners in Alaska, California, and Michigan, she found a home in the Best family when Carl's Dad Henry bought her in 1966.
Henry often fills the rear cockpit and flies co-pilot with Carl.

#4 position is Roscoe Armstrong from Rhome, Texas is a former U.S. Army Cobra helicopter pilot and Vietnam Veteran. He is president of a Dallas based aviation company, and serves on the City of Decatur Airport Advisory Board at Decatur, Texas. Roscoe’s T6G was completely restored in 1989 to its original and authentic configuration. With his bright yellow Army Air Corps paint scheme, Armstrong is easy to spot in the formation . Normally flown as a trainer, this aircraft also was flown in combat in the 1960’s when it was flown in Algeria.

#5 is Stuart Milson from Midlothian, Texas. Stuart is married and has two boys. He flies a FedEx Boeing 727 and the CAF’s F-4U Corsair WW II Fighter. Stuart’s bright yellow T-6 Texan is a Royal Canadian Air Force Harvard Mark 4, with RCAF markings and the number 244. Stuart purchased his historic 1952 model aircraft in Canada in 1998.

#6 is Dr. Brian Porsch... Bryan has a cosmetic/laser dentistry practice in Richardson, Texas. He and his wife Penny have two children. His AT-6F was built at North American Aviation in Dallas in 1945 and served faithfully her military career at Lackland AFB, TX. Retired into civilian hands in 1954. She is restored in the livery of the 111th Fighter Squadron, Texas Air National Guard based at Ellington Field in Houston, TX. Distinctive with her Texas Lone Star on the forward fuselage and her all-over gray paint scheme, trimmed out in the bright yellow and dark bluecheckerboard design on the engine cowling.

At the outset of WW II, all of Europe and the British Commonwealth, including Canada and South Africa called the T-6 the “Harvard”. Official nickname was “Texan”, derived from the fact that most of planes were built at North American Aviation in Dallas during the war. The South African Air Force was the last Air Force in the world to operate the Harvard. In November1995, SAAF replaced the Harvard with the Swiss Pilatus PC-7.

Escadrille pilots meet the stringent performance standards of FAST, the official international safety and training organization for warbird formation operations. In addition to holding appropriate FAA pilot ratings and medical certificates, each pilot must pass proficiency testing and re-certification annually. The T-6’s, which were the mainstay of pilot training for the Allied Forces in WW II, must also adhere to strict FAA maintenance and safety criteria each year…..silent testimony to the engineering, materials, and craftsmanship that went into the construction of  these marvelous examples of 1937 aviation technology.