MUSEUM OFFERS SLICE OF HISTORY.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Inside a weathered office at one end of a decades-old, wood-frame hangar chart boards note pilot rosters, air show schedules and conditions of vintage war birds.

Bookshelves are packed with thick, yellowed manuals for the powerful prop-driven flying machines. Rooms are filled with expensive tools and the nuts, bolts and screws that fasten hand-crafted sheet metal parts and engines.

The all-volunteer Southern California Wing of the Confederate Air Force truly is a flying museum.

``There's a lot of museums where you walk in, they're all dusty and you walk away. With us, we give them the ability to see a living, breathing piece of history,'' said Steve Barber, the wing commander.

Housed in an open-air hangar built when the Air Force opened its Oxnard airstrip for World War II training, the wing boasts a half-dozen airplanes ranging from the large and powerful C-46 Curtiss Commando transport to the stout and fast F8F-2 Grumman Bearcat fighter.

The fleet also features an SNJ-5 North American trainer, a Model H Fairchild transport and a B-25-J North American Mitchell bomber. A Yak-3 Russian fighter is the newest addition, and Barber is negotiating the purchase of an A-26 Invader bomber.

One of the dozens of active members helping keep the war birds in the air is Edward Thomas, who served as a gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber for nearly three years in World War II.

``We like to keep our aircraft flying,'' Thomas said.

``We all work on planes. We all donate time and everyone donates their money to keep these planes flying,'' he said. ``These planes are over 50 years old and if they don't fly, they will deteriorate.''

What the wing needs is more space to both restore and display its fleet, which is one of the largest within the Confederate Air Force, a group that is based in Midland, Texas.

After eight years of planning and fund raising, a complex of hangars and display space has become within reach at Camarillo Airport.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors last week approved a 25-year lease that commits the county to provide three acres for the expansion and requires the wing to tear down the old hangar and build new hangars and parking for visitors within five years. The group will pay $2,860 a month for the ground space.

``The Confederate Air Force has been a longtime, valuable member of the Camarillo Airport family, and its proposed museum will be a landmark improvement for the west-end development of the airport,'' said Rodney Murphy, the county airport's director.

Although the annual rent will add to an annual budget already exceeding some $225,000 in private donations, the wing needs the long-term lease.

``Right now, we're month-to-month. We're putting up a million-dollar facility and we wanted to make sure that we had a place to put it for a while,'' said Barber, a Marine Corps veteran who serviced jets during the Vietnam War.

Actually, the wing has budgeted $1.4 million for two 15,000-square-foot, steel-frame hangars and two acres of concrete display space in front. One hangar will be used for service and storage space, while the other will be set aside for static displays. Also planned is a parking area and formal museum.

Barber said $500,000 has been secured from private sources, and groundbreaking is expected to begin in January with the recent commitment of an additional $250,000.

``Getting it done - that's not the problem,'' Barber said. ``We have the energy, effort and knowledge. It's just the time and money.''

Joe Peppito smiles as he looks over an artist's rendering of the hangars. Wing leaders budgeted enough for a concrete texture coating to give them a vintage look, and Peppito suggested as the model the aviation school in Mineola, N.Y., where he learned his trade as an airplane mechanic.

``You've got to think positive. You've got to have faith,'' said Peppito, the wing's maintenance chief.

A professional aviation mechanic for more than four decades, Peppito recalled how he was lured to the wing 11 years ago to help mount an engine.

``I came out and gave them a hand and I've been here ever since,'' he said.

Peppito continues to be counted on to keep the engines running. ``I only fly when I have to. After I change engines, they make me go up.''

There are plenty of hands for the constant work demanded in restoring and servicing the aging fleet of aluminum war birds.

The wing has about 250 members, mostly from Ventura and Los Angeles counties, but also from Santa Barbara and Orange counties. The wing is the fifth-largest of the 81 wings the Confederate Air Force has across the United States and in two dozen nations.

Many members are former pilots, like Dave Long, who retired after flying passenger jets for TWA for 30 years. Trading in his flight uniform for overalls, Long enjoys climbing in and around the old aircraft to get them looking like new.

``When we get into that new hangar, we're hoping we can work a lot more,'' he said, standing beneath the B-25-J bomber under repair. ``Out here, we're subject to the elements.''

The B-25-J bomber is a true test for the wing.

Photos of the bomber that arrived at the Camarillo Airport in 1993 show a shiny silver war bird outfitted with machine guns in turrets and intact plastic bubble shields. Long said the photos didn't reveal corrosion that ``gets into that aluminum like a cancer'' and eats at the aircraft from the inside out.

Entire sections of the bomber's fuselage have been replaced with grafts of sheet metal. The wings and fuel bays must be remanufactured, and a new electronic instrument board has been designed.

``If you wanted to restore a Corvette, you would want to use all General Motors parts. Well, we can't but parts. We have to make everything,'' Long said.

``In 18 to 24 months, it will be like brand new.''

Wing members work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Members often take up the airplanes on weekends, and people are encouraged to visit the hangar on Aviation Way.

The wing also hosts an annual fly-in each June, featuring demonstrations and tours of its planes and many other war birds from across the country.

Barber said such effort is demanded by the mission of the Confederate Air Force. That mission is to maintain and operate the aircraft to show and educate people about World War II aircraft history and keep alive the memory of those who served.

``It's a lot more fun than reading about it,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--color in SIMI and CONEJO editions only) Bob Gjestrum of the Southern California Wing of the Confederate Air Force works on the firewall of a Curtiss C-46 commando at the Camarillo Airport.

(2--ran in CONEJO and SAC editions only) Marc Russell repairs the wing of a T6G inside the group's old hangar. The group will break ground on a new center in January.

(3) Air Force maintenance chief Joe Peppito, left, and wing commander Steve Barber chat inside the cramped museum quarters.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News