Cessna L-19 and Big Island, Hawaii
Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:58 amI have only seen the Cessna L-19 once in reality. That was in 1986 in Tam Son Nhut, a former airfield of the South Vietnamese Air Force near Saigon, which is now Ho Chi Minh City Airport and the largest airport in Vietnam.
There, in the colors of the South Vietnamese Air Force, she stood in front of a huge pile of "standing" U.S. aircraft. The little thing with its greenhouse cockpit actually looked harmless ... But it wasn't, Since the Korean War and then in South Vietnam, these machines flew with specially trained ground observers as FAC Forward Air Control. If something moved on the ground and looked like the "Viet Cong", they reported it and then the fighter-bombers came in ...
After the Vietnam War, many surplus aircraft were sold not only to foreign air forces but also to private users.
Today there should still be a whole series of these machines.
On this flight over the big island of Hawaii it has proven itself and flew well, From Kaalaiki Airstrip (HI25) but then a weather front with violent thunderstorms came very quickly (I usually fly with real weather) and it didn't seem a good idea to continue flying. So I came in just before the thunderstorm in Waimea-Kohala Airport (PHMU)
There, in the colors of the South Vietnamese Air Force, she stood in front of a huge pile of "standing" U.S. aircraft. The little thing with its greenhouse cockpit actually looked harmless ... But it wasn't, Since the Korean War and then in South Vietnam, these machines flew with specially trained ground observers as FAC Forward Air Control. If something moved on the ground and looked like the "Viet Cong", they reported it and then the fighter-bombers came in ...
After the Vietnam War, many surplus aircraft were sold not only to foreign air forces but also to private users.
Today there should still be a whole series of these machines.
On this flight over the big island of Hawaii it has proven itself and flew well, From Kaalaiki Airstrip (HI25) but then a weather front with violent thunderstorms came very quickly (I usually fly with real weather) and it didn't seem a good idea to continue flying. So I came in just before the thunderstorm in Waimea-Kohala Airport (PHMU)