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Airport bumming @ KOCF (Ocala FL)


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The first three are actor John Travolta's Quantas 707b. He owns a home near here and he and several neighbors share a private 9,000 ft. runway. He normally parks this aircraft and his Gulfstream (not sure if it's a IV or a V) next to his house.

N707JT-1A.jpg

N707JT-2A.jpg

N707JT-3A.jpg

You don't see these all up and down the block. This appears to be decaying. It was recently towed here from another location on the field, where it's been for quite some time. Appears to be a 2-seater. I think it's some variant of a MIG 17. Former Yugoslavian AF?

MIGA.jpg

I believe the aircraft remains in the last two photos are from planes damaged in a windstorm here some time ago. Probably waiting for the insurance people to speak as to their disposition.

WreckA.jpg

WrecksA.jpg

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Sorry about all the white space. All but the last shot were cropped. Evidently what I saved included all the white space too. Bear with me, I'll get this figured out. At least I didn't get a thumbnail this time.

John

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OUCHl!!! Australian types, I apologize for the incorrect spelling of Qantas. It's not like I would have had to go anywhere to look it up or anything. It was right in front of me.

John

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Yes, there's something particularly sad about a broken airplane, even if you're pretty sure no one got hurt. Ditto the MIG. Most small airports I've visited have one or more decrepit planes sitting around slowly rotting away and you wonder what would make someone just abandon one.

Have you ever seen the photos of the boneyards at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona, where the US military disposes of the no-longer-needed or the no-longer-servicable? It's a sad, sad thing. I've seen video of them being cut up. They use a steel blade about 30 ft. long and raise it up on a huge crane. They drop it and slice off a wing, or section up a fuselage in the blink of an eye. When I see that, I like to think the scrap is going to wind up at Lockheed or Boeing or Grumman, but truth is most of it probably ends up at Miller or Anhueser-Busch. Not that beer is bad, it's just that airplanes are better.

John

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