E Fighter Productions

E Fighter Productions proudly present "The Corsair Experience"
An in depth look at the F4U Corsair and the people who flew, built and restore this one of a kind fighter from World War II and Korea.

The Corsair Experience Newsletter December 2004

Remember Us?

Hello Corsair Fans!

After several months of preparation and hurry-up-and-wait, our long awaited trip to Quantico, VA, home of the USMC, is wrapped up. This was the final piece in the material gathering phase. Associate John Steele and I spent 3 days in the archives scanning, copying, and capturing 16mm and 35mm film (some of the cans required a screwdriver to open them!).

We were rewarded with color WWII footage of the Corsair, as well as camp life, training, air to air, the whole ball of wax. This material completes our 8 hour 4 DVD set which is scheduled for pre-sale soon! I know many of you have been patient, staying on as loyal followers as far back as September of 2002 when the Gathering of Corsair and Legends was our springboard for this project.

USMC Archives

16mm Movieola Machine

Here is a link to the website where the pre-sale and ordering will take place: www.thecorsairexperience.com. Currently, there is nothing at the site but a splash page and a link to sign up for this newsletter. If you received this email, then you are already on the mailing list. The DVD promo is also there, which is available for download in Quicktime or Windows Media Player. You will get a notice when the pre-sale begins. Keep an eye on AIR CLASSICS, as well.

THANK YOU all for hanging in there with us. I guarantee that this project has been created with respect and honor for the men who serviced and flew it. A genuine love for the Corsair itself makes this documentary unlike any you’ve seen before.

    Archie Donahue VMF-112
    Glenn Bowers VMF-214
    Roger Conant VMF-215
    Jim Swett VMF-221
    Bob Keller VMF-223
    "Red" Truex VMF-224
    MO Chance VMF-312

    Plus Many Many More!

FG-1D	Ray Dieckman / Ray Dieckman	Marines Dream
F4U-4	Max Chapman / John Muszala	#11LF
F4U-4	Jim and Joe Tobul / Jim and Joe Tobul	Korean War Hero
F4U-4	Gerald Beck / Gerald Beck	#310C
F4U-5NL	Ray Thompson / Steve Bakke	#12NP
F4U-5	Jim Read / Dale Snodgrass / Jim Read	#5WR
F4U-5N	Mike George / Mike George	#14WF
F4U-1A	Steve Hinton / Planes Of Fame	#799

Including many never before published photos of Corsairs in Action in WWII and Korea.

The Corsair Experience Newsletter June 2003
E Fighter Productions www.f4ucorsair.com

It’s time for the June update from us here at E Fighter Productions. With only one more stop on the schedule, post production will soon be in full swing. The DVD may run over the 90 minutes planned, as we have gathered many excellent first-hand accounts of air battles and island life, as well as off-duty stories.

“E Fighter Productions” visited with VMF-224 when they held their reunion in Pensacola, FL in May. We captured over 10 hours of additional interviews with Marine pilots, ordinance men, and ground crew from WWII and Korea. The reunion was organized by Red Truex of Pensacola, and E Fighter Productions were guests of the Naval Air Station, which included invitations to the reunion ceremonies. One particular story involves pilots and ground crew members recounting the Japanese crash landing assault troops on Yontan airstrip, where Japanese soldiers dropped grenades into parked Corsairs.

Our last scheduled shoot before completion of the DVD has been set. E Fighter Productions will attend the Thunder Over Michigan Air Display 2003 held by the Yankee Air Museum in Willow Run, Michigan, August 9^th and 10^th. Several Corsairs are scheduled to attend, including Bob Odegaard’s F2G #57 Super Corsair, Chino’s Planes of Fame #799 F4U-1A, Mike George’s F4U-5N Flying Nightmare, and the Collings Foundation F4U-5NL NP5. This show is expected to be one of the biggest Warbird shows this year, so come on out and say hello! Plans include more in-flight footage and current owner/pilot interviews.

This is just a reminder about the 4-minute Promo online in Quicktime format. A majority of the footage came from the Gathering of Corsairs and Legends that took place in Indy last September

Thanks to all the folks offering a hand, like Jeff Handwerk, Mark Morris, Mark Mandreky, John Steele, James Kirley and all the other folks we forgot to mention.

Most of all, THANK YOU to all the veterans who have been so gracious with their personal items, stories and abundant generosity.

It’s time for the August update from us here at E Fighter Productions. What an adventure at the Yankee Air Museum!

E Fighter wraps up Thunder Over Michigan 2003 – Willow Run Yankee Air Museum

Greg, Richard Brown, and I made the trek from Atlanta, Ga. to Ypsilanti, Mi. on Thursday the 7^th to prepare for 3 days of intense shooting. We stopped by Willow Run Thursday night to orientate ourselves with the layout of the airport and pick up our ramp passes and welcome packages. We were greeted by the lovely Michelle Moore and soon tracked down her husband Mint who had his head stuck in the number one engine of the Planes of Fame P-38 “Porky II”. Mint welcomed us in and told us where we could setup camp the next day.

The early sunrise shot planned for the Planes of Fame F4U-1A was a bust as we had severe overcast and a lovely backdrop of porta-johns to contend with. Greg did some “walk-ups” and angle shots as Richard and I walked out to visit the 3 B-17’s sitting on the ramp. Late morning lent itself to a broken sky and some maintenance on the Planes of Fame F4U-1A and the F6F-5 Hellcat, which gave us a chance to shoot the Pratt and Whitney R-2800.

Planes of Fame pilot Chris Fahey was kind enough to give us an interview, telling us how much fun he has flying the Corsair. Chris spent a lot of time with us and gave us some excellent insight. Aircraft started arriving throughout the day, but really picked up towards late afternoon. The most important of these to us was Bob Odegaard and his F2G-1D Super Corsair. As many of you recall, this is one of the Corsairs that was supposed to have attended the Gathering of Corsairs and Legends but, due to engine trouble, was not able to attend. Mint, Greg and I felt it was very important that this machine be included, so this is part of the reason the release of the DVD will be later than expected. Bob, always gracious, let us inspect this beautiful bird for camera placement which would be done early Saturday morning. The weather that had been threatening us all afternoon finally struck with a vengeance! Soon the ramp and flight line were underwater! At one point, the Commemorative Air Force SB2C Helldiver was up to its wheel hub in water -- remember this was on the ramp, flat concrete! That pretty much cleared out the airport, but we hung around a bit to steal a sunset shot of the Planes of Fame F4U-1A. It was worth the wait.

More overcast weather, but the report called for no rain. We carted our equipment out to the Super Corsair and Bob showed up shortly after to open her up and let us install the cameras.

We put one camera straight out the nose, mounted on the instrument panel deck, and one behind him pointing out the right side to encompass some of the wing and fuselage. The air race portion of the airshow was scheduled for roughly 1o:clock, and we finished up installation with about an hour to spare. Bob ran the “race” with the Hawker Sea Fury Number 99 Riff Raff with Mike Keenum at the controls and Jimmy Leeward’s polished chrome P51D Number 9 “Cloud Dancer.” This provided us with some great out-of-the-cockpit footage and very colorful aircraft zooming in and out of the frames. Later that day Mike George with his F4U-5N Flying Nightmares flew over and, as he pulled onto the ramp, we were able to get some excellent shots of him taxiing up, folding the wings and shutting his -5 down.

Post air show and with the crowds departing, Greg strapped himself with camera into the Commemorative Air Force SB2C Helldiver. Thanks to John, Ted and Sharon! If you ever get to meet these folks at an airshow, please let them know what a wonderful job they do and what a first rate aircraft they have! John put the SB2C through preflight as I helped Ted remove the guns from the rear turret. Ted then got Greg strapped in as I held the 40-pound camera which Greg was to shoot with. I told him to keep it out of the slipstream or we might have a problem!

With the sun setting, Greg shot the F2G-1D Super Corsair and the Planes of Fame F4U-1A over the southern Michigan landscape from the back of the SB2C, an experience I’m sure he will never forget.

Eric Dumigan took this photo as we readied the video equipment and positioned the lights. We finally broke the set and attempted to leave the airport around midnight, only to find we had been locked in. It took a bit to find someone with a key to open the gate and let us off airport property.

We readied our cameras for more in-flight footage with Bob and his Red and White beauty. I cannot tell you how many folks approached us while we adjusted the cameras and double-checked our wiring, asking all sorts of different questions about the plane. We met several friends we knew from online but hadn’t met in person, as well as my bud from high school, Mark, who leant a helping hand. Soon after the air race was over, the weather turned poor and we had only a quick chance to interview Bob before he was off for home. Greg took some parting shots as the rest of the remaining corsairs ran up and got ready to fly home.

Release of The Corsair Experience DVD will be a bit delayed as we add this great footage into the documentary. Please be patient and I can assure you it will be worth the wait.

Thanks to all the folks offering a hand, like Lesa Schneider who took care of us as we ran around on Saturday. The gracious offer to use her house as home base will not be forgotten. Richard Brown for the time and equipment including his van! Paul Hart, visit Hart AviationVideo, Eric Dumigan, Jim Church, Michael Oleary form Air Classics Magazine and all the other folks we forgot to mention.

Most of all, THANK YOU to all the veterans who have been so gracious with their personal items, stories and abundant generosity.

It’s time for another update from us here at E Fighter Productions. I know all of you have been eagerly expecting the release of “The Corsair Experience” and I can assure you that while we are behind schedule for the original release date, work is progressing at a steady rate and before you know it, we will have a program that will raise the bar for the genre. At the time we undertook this endeavor, a one-year timeline for completion not only seemed feasible to me, but ample time for such a project. As I spend more time in this field, I have come to realize the enormous undertaking upon which the three of us have embarked. Please know that it will be done, it will be complete, and it will be worth the wait! I am sorry to say that the documentary will not be released in time for Christmas 2003. Many of you have inquired about it, as Christmas is right around the corner. “Just in time for Christmas” was my goal, but that will not be the case. Hang in there folks -- you will be the first to know when the documentary is available.

Paul Hart at Hart Aviation Video has provided E Fighter Productions with some fantastic footage to be included in the DVD, including corsairs not currently flying, such as Kalamazoo’s FG-1D, and corsairs we were not able to video ourselves, like Skyboss. Paul has many videos available online, so stop by and check out his work.

Look for Mint Moore III, me, and many of our friends in this month’s edition of Air Classics. Michael O’leary and his camera were never far away as he captured the action at this first rate airshow. If you ever get a chance to go the the Yankee Air Musem’s Thunder Over Michigan show held at Willow Run outside of Detroit, do it. The warbird display was incredible!

Thanks for all the emails and support. Again, we won’t let you down; the documentary is on the way!

Most of all, THANK YOU to all the veterans who have been so gracious with their personal items, stories and abundant generosity.