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Phoenix-Mesa-Falcon Field, AZ, USA - 23/01/2009

Our first morning in Phoenix was rather grey and was spent at the very interesting airport of Mesa-Falcon Field. Aside from a bristling GA community, Falcon Field is also home to a branch of the Commemorative Air Force and several other interesting operators.

First port of call was Marsh Aviation who've performed countless conversions of Trackers and Broncos into fire-fighters and drug-busters, but sadly no-one was at home, so we carried on around the block and ended up at Air West, where we were introduced to the Wings of Flight Foundation and the various aircraft at their disposal.

The Dakota (N53ST) is their newest acquisition and it's spent much of its life in a VIP fit. Interestingly, this airframe visited the then International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in 1985!

Sharing the ramp was this Beech E18S, N2069C, complete with nice nose-art.

We then moved on to some of the Foundation's hangars, where a trio of Texans were present. The first hangar contained AT-6B N3198G, looking absolutely stunning in a South African Air Force colourscheme.

The next hangar contained a pristine bare metal example that was under restoration. It had used the belong to the late father of our host.

The final example was this cracking desert camo schemed machine, wearing RAF markings. N4968S is ex USAAF 41-33784.

Further down the line was an operation who were performing maintenance on "Barbie III", North American B-25H Mitchell, N5548N ex-43-4106. We were told that she's the last airworthy hard-nosed Mitchell in the world and were given free rein inside her!

Resting outside their hangar was another TBM-3 Avenger - N3967A, ex-BuNo 53835.

Back down the line was a large compound holding more than 20 UH-1s, the vast majority of which were still sporting their AMARG codes. After asking at the frontdesk we were given permission to photograph them.

In another corner of the airfield lurks the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force.

The collection comprises two hangars, one of which houses non-flying assets, while the other is very much active. The aircraft are in quite sublime condition and are obviously very well looked after. Outside there are additional airframes, however, most of these had there canopies covered during our visit, and as you would expect of aircraft exposed to the elements, they weren't in quite such good shape.