Waving to the adoring fans

[QuietOne]

JC Paul waving to the crowd after his last flight of the day.

[Mad Aussie]

Who is JC Paul? An aviator of some description obviously.

[Bambi]

Nice shot! I like the expression you caught- he sure looks happy

[QuietOne]

Actually, Bambi, he was hamming it up just for me. That's actually one of the more natural looking smiles I caught. Some of the other pilots jokingly refer to him as Elvis, but not when he's around.

MA, Mike put together a brief bio for JC. He wouldn't be a household name by any stretch of the imagination, but anyone in the warbird community will have heard of him. So if it sounds like one of those dreadful official bios, it's all Mike's fault.

John Curtiss Paul is the son of John Paul and Sue Paul, the founders of the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho. His middle name is in honor of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk.

He is an accomplished warbird pilot. He is also the only person to win in the unlimited class at the Reno Air Races with a P-40.

This year they plan to field three aircraft, two P-40s and their recently completed P-51C Mustang “Boise Bee” one of only about 10 or 12 P-51B/C Mustangs in the world.

“JC” was also the bass guitarist for the rock group “Motorflower” and has toured with this and other musical groups.

[Mad Aussie]

Ah huh. I knew he was someone to somebody

[JAS_Photo]

That's a great shot, regardless.

[QuietOne]

Thanks, JAS. He's a nice guy, even if he does play to the camera.

[corporallouis]

Funny I didn't run across him on Mustang Air to Air forum. With a new Mustang in the air, he'll be photographed for sure. These guys lead an exciting life on these circuits.

[Marko]

he does play well for the camera and looks like he's done this before, and you've captured that; well done.

[QuietOne]

Thanks, Marko.

corprallouise, the Bee's first flight was only last October. There was the usual fine tuning after that. She flew in the show the museum put on last weekend, but so far as I know, she hasn't been in other venues. I took a quick look at Jim Raeder's Smugmug stream (he does the museum's photography), but he doesn't have anything up for her yet. I know he shot the first test flight. There are photos from the volunteers on the museum's Facebook page and website, and there's at least 1 video out on youtube. But I expect the first glut of pictures will happen after Reno.