Vintage Thunderbird film from 1979

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takeone
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Vintage Thunderbird film from 1979

Post by takeone » Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:05 pm

Well, well, well.

Look what I found in the back of a closet ! I had an old 3/4" tape of this "documentary" done by Don and Helen Flagg in 1979.
Shot on 16mm film...it has some great footage. Some that a group of you Thunderbird fans have probably never seen !

Peter Hansen (a Marine pilot during WWII) and famous actor in the 70's on ABC's General Hospital....got to ride with the team. And I do mean ride WITH the team...during a training sorte.

Amazing stuff ! Great comm chatter. It's 23 minutes long. I cut out the few commercials that were in it...except the Penzoil ad in the beginning. Very funny.

BonJobie - you'll appreciate this because of your time in the Talon. I get chills knowing that I sat in that Thunderbird #1 when I see this. Very cool.

I've turned the film into a .wmv file. It's about 183 meg. in size.

Enjoy...and remember a time gone by in Thunderbird history.

http://www.takeoneprod.com/tb/film/Thunderbirds.wmv
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:22 pm

Fixed the broken link.

Downloading it now and looking forward to seeing it. Thanks for sharing TakeOne! :D
Atlas
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Post by Atlas » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:41 pm

Thanks for sharing the movie Takeone. Being an Arizona native, it was neat seeing footage of them flying at Luke AFB while they were stationed and originated from here.
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Thumper
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Post by Thumper » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:03 pm

That was awesome!! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
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STRIKER
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Post by STRIKER » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:33 pm

Takeone,

Outstanding find my friend and thanks for contributing. Some of those maneuvers I surely do miss like the Rollback to Arrowhead, etc etc. And yes, I'm sure Boss Jobe will love that video! :wink:
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takeone
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Post by takeone » Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:54 pm

Thanks guys...glad to share it !

Yeah...fun to watch some old manuevers. Pretty cool that someone actually got to fly with the team...and not just a fam flight....

Plus the historic stuff is cool...like Sabertooth said...the footage from Luke is really neat and not often seen.

Glad you all are enjoying it !
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BonJobie
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Post by BonJobie » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:37 am

Sa-weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!! The Talon rides again!! Man, talk about flashbacks! I haven't seen anyone go through "strapping in" with that detail since......well, we'll leave it at that!! :shock: And the egress training for the -38 hasn't changed from the late 70's. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing. For those Thunderdorks like us, a sad note to that whole movie was the up close and personal stuff with Boss D.L. Smith. He was killed in a mishap leaving Cleveland after what is clearly acknowledged by Thunderbird experts as the "best show ever flown". Never met him, but as you can clearly see he was a great Boss and a great guy. This kind of stuff is a great tribute to his memory. Thanks again, Takeone.

Boss Bon
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takeone
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Post by takeone » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:21 am

Bon...

Knew you would love that....glad it brought back memories..as it did for me.

I did meet D.L. and got to know him very well. The photos I posted some time ago...in this forum..are from one of the shows in Reading, PA.

He was...no question...and amazing man, and completely "unassuming".
Being able to sit in that bird...and talk with him...the crew chiefs and the entire team was amazing.

I have some 8mm film footage from those days...maybe I'll post that too...
naaa...you guys would want to see old stuff like that ...right ? !

Anyhow...glad you all enjoyed that show...it does have some humorous points for sure !
HALEN
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Post by HALEN » Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:14 pm

What a great find. As a kid I had the chance to see the TB's fly the 38. One of my fav aircraft.

Thanks for the movie

**Salute**

HALEN
What is understood doesn't need to be discussed
Racer
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Post by Racer » Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:19 am

Yes, That T-38 is a great looking sleek show performer.
We need to get these guys out of this F-16 and into that T-38. :wink:
Now that would be one sweet looking demo.
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Post by WCD-01/WILDCAT » Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:22 am

Is there any way to get this re-uploaded pleassseeeee???

the link didn't work.
Joker
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Post by Joker » Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:28 pm

Yes, I would love it if someone could upload this. :) And is this when they had the Sabres?
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:33 am

1979 would be the T-38 Talons as the original post indicates. 8)
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