'FIXED' WING AIRCRAFT VOLUNTEERS REHABILITATE VINTAGE WWII PLANES.

Byline: Michael Gougis Staff Writer

When Pride of the Yanks was built in 1945, the B-25 bomber was a cutting-edge weapon of war, a tool America cranked out in the thousands in pursuit of victory over the Axis powers.

But in the ensuing decades, this proud war bird - whose cousins dropped the first U.S. bombs on Tokyo - was treated like a circus freak. At one point, she was gutted and turned into a flying toy for executives. Later, she was used to promote beer.

After years of neglect, abuse and disrespect, Pride of the Yanks is among the vintage war planes at the Camarillo Airport getting the loving care they deserve at the hands of volunteers who are, in most cases, older than the planes they restore.

``B-25s are my favorite planes, their history, their character,'' Iran Ausley, 63, of West Hills said recently as he fabricated brackets for the B-25 being restored by the Commemorative Air Force.

Like everyone else in the hangar that day, Ausley donates his time and expertise in the pursuit of keeping World War II-era planes in the air. As air show season starts in earnest, they keep the old birds spotless, in better shape than they were a half-century ago.

The planes may be historic artifacts. But stand next to a screaming-yellow North American SNJ-5 trainer as it fires up - air-cooled radial engine roaring through open exhausts, oil dripping, massive propeller slicing the air - and it is more than a museum piece. It is a flying time machine that transports the observer back to a long-gone era of military aviation.

Keeping that era from slipping into the mists of history is the mission of the Commemorative Air Force, a nationwide, nonprofit organization devoted to keeping World War II planes in the air.

``It's a flying museum - it's history,'' said Alex Ferrasci, 77, of Sherman Oaks, one of the crew chiefs on that SNJ-5 trainer.

The Southern California wing operates a museum at the Camarillo Airport, where beautifully restored fighter planes from Russia, Japan, England and the U.S. are on display.

But the real action takes place in the restoration hangar next door, where volunteer mechanics and craftsmen painstakingly maintain and rebuild planes, sometimes from the frame up.

The volunteers come from all walks of life, but most are veterans and retired. And most have been aviation buffs their entire lives.

Ferrasci was an MP in World War II, guarding German prisoners of war captured from Rommel's famed Afrika Corps. After a career in cattle and real estate, he was visiting family in Nevada when he went out to the famous Reno Air Races and saw the CAF - then called the Confederate Air Force - display.

It was hard to miss.

The planes were parked on Reno's main boulevard.

``I got to talking with the people there, and I joined up,'' he said. ``I didn't know I'd be working on planes. I thought we'd be fishing.''

Ausley was an aerospace software engineer who built and raced Super Vee cars in the 1970s. Shortly after his retirement, just for fun, he took a tour of the CAF facility.

``When I saw that they were restoring this, I said, where do I sign up?'' he said. ``I'm a gadget guy. You don't buy parts for these planes. You make them.

``I've done a lot of modeling, and this is like a big model. You just have to build it strong enough that it won't fall out of the sky.''

The obsession with the planes spans oceans. Earlier this month, Ken Nishimura spent his vacation from his job as a commercial airline pilot - based in Funabashi, Japan - spray-painting a frame part for one of the restorations.

``Every kid loves planes, cars, motorcycles,'' said Nishimura, 50. ``I didn't think I could join, but I talked to a crew member on one of my flights about seven years ago, and. ...''

Each plane carries its own history.

Pride of the Yanks came off the production line and went straight to the Navy. After the war, it was used to train pilots for Continental Airlines before being converted to an executive transport for Oilfield Aviation Corp. in Texas.

Then it bounced from owner to owner, at one point being used for flight testing for Texas Instruments Co. before being abandoned. It was reported derelict in Fort Lauderdale for several years, restored, flown by a brewery as ``Big Ole Brew'n Little Ole You.''

From this ignominious fate the CAF rescued the plane, although it sat on an airfield in Texas until the group could begin restoring it.

The rescue began, appropriately enough, with the Camarillo group loading a spare B-25 wing into their vintage Army Air Corps Curtis C-46, nicknamed China Doll, and heading for Texas. There, the crew bolted on the good wing, flew the pair of vintage planes back to Camarillo and started tearing the B-25 down to its frame.

Ferrasci's SNJ-5 trainer had its own twist of fate. Pilots who earned their wings in SNJ-5s spent their war careers fighting Japanese aircraft made by Mitsubishi. Yet in the 1990s, that SNJ-5 that now resides in Camarillo spent years in Japan. A plate affixed to the engine block says - in Japanese - that the motor was overhauled by Mitsubishi while overseas.

It is the sense of history and a love of these aircraft that brings people like Russ Drosendahl, 81, of Woodland Hills out three times a week to the pair of huge, sometimes chilly hangars in Camarillo.

Drosendahl trained pilots to fly the four-engined B-24 Liberators, and then spent 34 years as a pilot with TWA after the war.

He no longer pilots solo, but occasionally, he'll take the reins once in the air, just to experience the joy of flight once again.

``I get to come here, look at these planes, touch them. And if I want to fly in one, someone will take me up for a ride, and maybe I'll take the controls for a bit. I'm blessed.''

Michael Gougis, [phone]

michael.gougis(at)dailynews.com

AIR SHOWS

Members of the Commemorative Air Force will appear March 27 at the Riverside Air Show and at an air show scheduled April 24-25 at March Air Force Base in Riverside County. For more information, see www.orgsites.com/ca/caf-socal/

CAPTION(S):

8 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Alex Ferrasci, above, reflects on the 1944 SNJ-5 on the tarmac at the Camarillo Airport. Meanwhile, volunteer Dino Dellanina, 73, of Camarillo, works on the wing of the C-46 China Doll.

(3 -- color) Pilot Alex Ferrasci of Sherman Oaks works on the wing of a 1944 SNJ-5.

(4 -- color) This patch represents the many volunteers who help to restore historic aircraft.

(5 -- 6 -- color) Several planes, above, sit in various stages of restoration in a hangar at Camarillo Airport. Volunteers, right, prepare the China Doll for a trip to an Arizona air show.

(7 -- 8 -- color) Volunteer Gil Brice, far left, of Camarillo cuts a swatch of fabric for a B-25. Other volunteers, left, enjoy a lunch break on the tarmac.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

Box:

AIR SHOWS (see text)