So... We Bought an Airport

[Music] check good all [Music] right Aviation has always been a core part of my family I was born with it in my blood and it has automatically become a passion of mine for any person that loves Aviation there's no better way to live than on the side of an Airport's [Music] Runway 2 years ago I found an airport up the road from our racetrack I tried several Avenues of contacting the owners but couldn't get anyone on the phone as fate would have it one day at a freedom Factory event I was talking to a guy I had just met and he mentioned he was the owner of the airport you're going to see in today's video I immediately inquired about buying it and after nearly a year of discussion his family agreed to sell it the property I'm showing you today is the ultimate slice of Aviation Heaven a private air strip on 50 acres of beautiful Florida land this airport was built nearly 40 Years Ago by a man named Marvin Taylor and has lived on to be one of the nicest grass runways in the country I'll tell you right now it's the smoothest grass Runway I've ever landed on and I feel extremely lucky to tell you all that I was able to purchase it from Marvin's children one crucial note is that this is an FAA recognized airst strip which isn't easy to get these days to be honest I had to spend nearly every I have to make this purchase happen but I just couldn't let this place go when I first came here I got the same feeling as when I walked into the freedom Factory there's a vibe in the air that I just can't describe when you're on this [Music] property it might be the history the Vintage planes hanging out or the tractors sitting in the woods but something about this place puts a smile on my face every time I arrive I can't wait to tell you about our plans for the airport including the construction of my home that will be on the side of the runway it's unbelievable we get to do this series we bought an airport I mean that's just ridiculous thank you guys so much for making all of this possible lastly this airport has always been named myah head and I don't plan to change that part of it history but I am going to add to it so without further Ado welcome to Myaka head comma bald eagle Airfield happing I hear it I can hear oh there he is there he is up top oh yeah oh look how fast all right so guys part of the video we had to have a P-51 come so you saw that opening clip he's pulling up right now this is going to be I love P-51 so we had to get this organized and uh fast Florida Aviation made this happen this should be awesome oh my [Music] gosh oh my God holy crap [Applause] [Music] dude he that sound yeah dude oh my gosh what a all right brother you killed it we're ready to see you land puppy a that was sick here he comes in for a landing what do you think of that Brad the sound of that engine is amazing oh my gosh it's insane this guy knows what he's doing oh [Applause] definitely butter oh my [Music] gosh butter absolutely abute butter we got ourselves a professional for this not a problem holy CRA beautiful Landing there Scott let's freaking go let's go that was nothing P51 at our airport look at the propeller on it [Music] humongous woo oh my gosh dude so being that this is the video about you know just some land for now we wanted to add some excitement to it but that's where our friends with the P-51 come in I'm going to be honest you know our Runway 3,400 ft I talked to several P-51 people they said nah Too Short Scott says Nah no problem I was like I heard like this guy I sent him a picture of it he goes yeah I'm landing that's what I like to hear we need the thumbnail picture with the P-51 for sure Scott yeah man pleasure nice to meet you hey thanks so much man uh for being here if you've been to air shows around the country you might have seen this plane Quicksilver P-51 air shows right here obviously the guy knows what he's doing just just crushing what do you think of that Papa that's great wonderful that was pretty good Landing that was a super Landing super what year is this playing this is a 194 4 when we we restored it in 2007 finished the restation 1945 how many horsepower this one's just under 1700 horsepower just under 1700 horsepower we saw you cruising at 300 mph yeah how you feel bud I don't think I can own a P-51 your head's sticking outp my head would stick out well the bubble maybe no you're well you can I mean the seat is somewhat adjustable not very much but I'll mount it on the floor yeah there I got you you got air conditioning in this obviously yeah it's called 10,000 ft how much does this puppy weigh so it maxes out just over 10,000 lb and its current configuration it's about 7100 lb right now it's very very light all right so guys we're just going to do a quick tour now we uh obviously can't believe the P-51 deal but I'll just give you a general overview of the Airfield and there's a ton of details we're not going to get into today ton of hidden gems that we're going to get into as this process goes on it's basically the Freedom Factory of airfields airports whatever you want to call it and uh so we'll cruise around let's go down here a little way this is the north side of the runway she's 3400 ft long and there is trees and power lines on either ends so that right there takes out like 400 ft of your Runway and uh that's something I definitely want to work on you see we got the KB doodle just chilling over here chilling looking good on our floats got James gyro plane you just bought yep you ride a Taco Bell we're going to get into the hangers here in a second but there is a lot of land that's still just covered in trees here which is great you know the nice trees down the whole Runway they kind of block wind and then this area right over here is where my house is going to be and we're going to build a really cool custom hanger for all our stuff as well as you know race cars we have some lifts in there things like that but we won't let James in there because it's going to be nice and clean yeah can I have one of the cows and then I got those cows for you George sweet so that's a good chunk of land right there and my house won't take up all of it so I might sell a piece to my friends or whatever so that we can you know get more people to live out here on the Sam's raising his hand back here oh I'll take Sam's house then you know ideally this is a kind of a a strip with several cool homes on it one day I'm not sure how it's going to look now we'll go to the triple hangers all right so right now we're standing in front of the trip triple hangers and a couple of guys store their planes out here and they've been here for years way longer than me turns out they're the coolest guys ever like these guys are awesome to talk to and hang out with and we're going to walk over to Brad's hanger which is open right now chat with him about his Planes nice set uping good how are you doing doing great you mind if we interview you real quick yeah good go good to see you pleasure pleasure to see you so let's check out your planes real quick what do we got here well this uh this is is a British tiger moth 1930s primary trainer for the Air Force tiger moth the tiger moth this is a replica which is a smaller 80% size and what are you doing today doing a radio SW I've had a radio sitting on the shelf for two years I decided i' go ahead and put it in and I wanted to reorganize all the rest of the electronics at the same time cool and what do you have over here that's an RB 6A it's called a bands aircraft yep y we're familiar it's a much faster airplane and I just love flying both of them been flying since I was 15 I think really and I understand you're a Navy pilot I would had 24 years in a Navy as a pilot aircraft carrier flying off aircraft carriers flying off of aircraft carriers that's the coolest thing ever now I also understand you were a prisoner of war yeah I I flew 77 combat missions in Vietnam wow got shot had a lot of time got hit a few times managed to make it back to the carrier but uh on my 77th Mission I wasn't so lucky so I got hit on a bombing Target over North Vietnam that blew the tail off the airplane oh my go fly an A4 Skyhawk which is a single engine single seat airplane had just rolled in on the target I was number four in the flight and uh never saw what hit me but whatever it was it took the controls took controls off the airplane pretty dire and I I remember saying to myself as I reached from here to my ejection seat handle we have one in between your KN between your legs and one over here it's too late to get out because the run the ground was just looked like I was right there and when I went out to tore my helmet off mask and everything and yeah I didn't knock me cold I don't remember anything I remember fill in a tug and I was still yeah have my eyes closed and the next thing I woke up 10 ft underwater and River up in North Vietnam wow holy smok and it went downhill from there yeah Jesus seven years in prison 6 years 11 months 7 years is close enough yeah wow well you don't count at that point in time well that's an unbelievable story I came back in 73 on the first flight out of Hanoi and uh I was the first P to return to the State of Florida so were you really I still wanted to fly still wanted to stay in the Navy so I was uh they went through a week of interrogation and you know whatever intelligence people and wow every test known to mankind medically that's unbelievable so anyway I was fortunate enough that uh I was still fit to fly and uh I you kept flying I kept I had to take three months R andr leave oh three months leave that's not too bad and anyway long story short I went back uh at about about 3 months of uh refresher training in Jets and I was back on an aircraft carrier that's less than a year later unbelievable so I flew another 12 years so well all in all I spent 24 years in the Navy thanks for your service that back on the aircraft carrier and then I I flew all kinds of different Jets over the years wow well I'd be honored trft carrier is a thrill there aren't any thrill rides in the world that like flying f carrier off Carrier particularly landing at night bad weather I bet I'd be honored to go flying with you sometime my pleasure do that okay how long have you been in the hanger I've been here since 2010 so 14 years wow wow well hey brother Marvin the original owner then his daughter and now yourself and wow glad to be glad to be here yeah hey it's your hanger brother you you're here to stay and what was Marvin like just curious I mean Marvin was a real character he was uh everybody knew him in Manatee County yeah he uh we used to call him Barefoot Marvin he never wore shoes to go the bank wow well we're honored to have you thank you I hope you stay here as long as you want tell you some War Stories one of these days well yeah we'd love to sit down and have another conversation with you and we appreciate you showing off the Hang we'll check out your RV appreciate your time thank you very much so much yeah cool all right well appreciate being here you guys taking great care of the Runway and everything else so it's it's only up from here probably the best gr grass strip in 100 miles of the area I think so and I've seen a lot of them and most of them aren't too great yeah this is nice well we got some upgrades coming I wanted to get some fuel out here for you guys that would be fantastic you know we're going to we're going to make things better thank you very much thank you there she is on the floats in the grass C [Music] where is he [Music] going oh maybe he wants to turn it right in here clean [Applause] clean it's so big clean Bud yeah so we're back on day two of shooting the airport video and there's a little party happening there is bunch of folks out here different planes we're really here to talk to Mike oh Mike yeah cool guy he's the greatest oh okay okay how are you hey Mike how are you good jar how you doing we're introducing you to the video today oh me yeah yeah we got to put you on here I don't have my makeup on oh well we'll get that handled for you where is she this is your Cub right that's the cuup take a look at it j3 sure what year is it 46 46 it's uh looks like a 2023 it's a brand new I'm one year old older than my Cub so nice so it's it's ancient but it still flies good it's been restored a couple times it's flies as good as a new airplane yeah when I came through here last week and I saw you had it out I was like once in a while I actually fly it you know not often but I still fly it it's a good little airplane how long have you owned it about 7 years seven years okay this is the plane that thousands of World War II air Pilots got their license in got learned how to fly in this airplane really yeah thousands of them maybe the guy in the P-51 even this is an accident waiting to happen right here dude all said all all said my battery's dead he could roll the Taco Bell I said this is bad news stand get tacos it needs a little bit more for Lending uh some of the superstars can lend in the bag of a peek up truck wow me I need accept it I need a couple of hundred FTS just to feel right the problem is he's going to modify the engine so you can't it's already got a turbo it can be a perfectly good aircraft he's going to modify the already order it's going to crash you have a little bit of a I don't know we need to get the lawn care nut out here yeah talk about some of this these little leaves weeds trees growing a little field of them dude I mean we cut them but I want to get out of the lawn care nut to just maybe get out here throw some fertilizer down we haven't had rain in weeks so it's definitely a lot more Brown out here than I wanted it to be for the first video but you know it's a lot of land I know what we do we get the Bambi bucket on Consuela we come water with some L the helicopter that' be addent yeah man I think your wiring guy needs to come in and put some Runway lights in here that would be cool that would be cool I kind of like the Crab Trap OG markers you see that it's like the CRA it's a buoy a crab pot buoy on top of a little steak little PVC steak if it works it works that's right oh and here we are yeah so here's the big hanger back here he's got his own sprinkler yeah Frank Frank's like I need my grass green but I'm going introduce you to Frank and he's got all kinds of cool back here right on his freshly seated watered grass yeah let me go this way yeah so I want it to be clear we don't own any of these planes the airport did not come with these planes these are these are Franks and his customers come with it can that come with it it's a flying that's Tai right there flying pontoon boat he can land right behind his house I think he's got several flying pontoon boats back here you don't see that every day look at this that one's getting an LS swap hope this one right here ain't got no gas in it no there's a oh yeah is that a banana right there harka oh buddy cool hey I'm no expert but that looks like an expensive clock right there that's a it cool that's the coolest clock hey I got another one if y'all want one I'll drag it down lock it in we want one it is cool it's here with Frank hey Frank good Frank's been out here for a long time he knows his way around here and Frank's been maintaining the property for the last 6 years I guess and it looks great man and you got this is your plane here or yes this is this is pretty sweet it is a a Murphy um Renegade it's a little by-way little trick plan it'll pull about N9 G's that'll Pull N G that's awesome we won't be too invasive in your privacy but Frank's got he's got a repair place for planes here you do mobile repair too I also do yes yes and then he's thinking about doing some lessons out here and some other stuff too so y SE plane guy as well oh nice so tail wheel and SE plane is what I'm focusing on for training so all right so yeah we some lessons out what we need yeah we do a lot of fabric work too and that's kind of a lost kind of art so a lot of fabric we do here okay all right thanks Frank absolutely appreciate you don't keep walking by it what are you doing I know I like it this thing is sick so it's an air boat that then can fly is that like a little Pontoon you flip the gear up you can you can land in water or you can drive land it on land I mean and you can toss on a trailer and put in your garage dude I could fly in formation this thing would be sick I wouldn't even well there's no wings on on it well there's a Wing like that one's got it wing on its Roof oh yeah you just slapped the wing on this baby you're good to go so that is all we're going to show you today I don't want to get you know I can't show every detail of the airport on day one because we got a whole video series we're going to be making at this place it's kind of like the freedom Factory there's hidden gems all over the bald eagle Airfield but for now let's check out Scott taking off in the P-51 thanks brother big guy we'll be in touch appreciate the P Factor on this papusi is serious yeah I don't know if you know that cuz there was a moment where your grandpa told you thator George all right well if you guys remember when CLE got his P-51 and his grandpa told them to put a lot of Rudder in it he didn't got P Factor right right we were just talking about that he said today he's going to do a 3se second throttle Advance instead of you just can't take the throttle and Fire W there's too much torque oh so he will 3 seconds still pretty quick yeah three 3 seconds is more rapid than you normally would do it but he's going to do it that way so he can shorter Runway get all quicker yeah this is Scott we're talking about he's not our boy Scott knows what he's doing he's yeah you will see different oh my god oh yeah [Music] oh man quick silver what a beautiful rig got to be kidding me how is there a P-51 here that thing's going to be screaming when it comes a propeller dude oh my gosh we're all set here we go here we go P51 ripping he's going to be on way like right now oh yeah oh my gosh not even halfway not even close to halfway you guyu that was so awesome I think we might see it fly by we might yeah we better stick around oh he's going to give you one we kept the cameras on in case you do a flyby that's good to know he said he about stay right here don't go any Clos oh baby oh my gosh there you go guys Scott with P51 Quicksilver air shows I mean all we're out here thanks for everything we'll be in touch Hey Brother we'll see you later thank you so much all right guys that's it welcome to the first video here at the Bal dle Airfield many more to come I'm so excited and got to thank you all for making this opportunity possible for us so we're going to make proud make a lot of great content here and have a lot of fun but that's it for now thanks for watching new for Dale wolf in see you later [Music]

Channel: Cleetus McFarland

Views: 2,004,936

Keywords: leroy, 1320video, drag racing, boosted, cleetus McFarland, cleetus, McFarland, Leroy, bald eagles, bald eagle machine, 1320, modified, boost, turbo, twin turbo, precision turbo, Texas speed, Texas speed and performance, Fasterproms, tuning, tuned, burnout, stick shift, six speed, corvette, Leroy Vette, c5 corvette, Chevrolet, unicorn, c5, supercharging Leroy, turbocharging Leroy, freedom factory, ruby, auction corvette

Id: VAtj5B_YGHs

Length: 23min 20sec (1400 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2024