EAA Sport Aviation - March 2009

www.AirVenture.org/videos/ AirVenture/2007/P-38NoseArt P38 Nose Art Painting

can about the airplane and its operating systems. He explores their history and talks to the veterans who flew them in combat. “It means a lot to me to stand under the wing of one of these old warbirds and listen to an elderly gentleman take me back to when he was just a kid. You can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voice when they talk about flying these airplanes— they were very special to all of them.”

Phil High

Stephan Hokuf applies the nose art to match the original Ruff Stuff that saw service against the Japanese in the Pacific.

Steve introduced Kevin to Ron Fagen and his crew at
Warhawks Inc., and he says without hesitation that it is
a first-class operation. “I was very impressed with their
craftsmanship when I went to their shop in mid-July
(2007) to test-fly the P- 38.”
Kevin made some taxi tests and engine run-ups with
no problems. On July 12, he took the P- 38 up for some
air work and found everything working like it should. He
noted that this P- 38 has a couple of unique features that
make it an elite model of the Lightning. “For one, it has
hydraulically boosted ailerons, which make the roll rate
twice that of an earlier model P- 38. The other feature that
immediately caught my attention was the constant whin-
ing sound of the spinning turbos. It took me a couple of
flights to get used to the sound of them spinning up, but
after a while I hardly noticed it at all.”
He typically operates the Lightning at 55 percent
power, which equates to 30 inches of manifold pressure
and 2000 rpm. At that setting it indicates 230 mph and
burns 100 gallons an hour. “With 400 gallons of fuel on
board that gives me pretty good range. Add some 300-gal-
lon drop tanks and it’s more flying than I want to do in
a day!”
Kevin feels privileged to fly all the different warbirds
he has. Before he flies a particular model he reads all he

The Painter: Stephan Hokuf

If you were lucky, you saw Ron Fagen’s P- 38 arrive at AirVenture 2007, but an added treat was if you saw a young man clad in World War II-era clothing hunched over the front section of the Lightning hand painting the nose art of Ruff Stuff.

Stephan Hokuf works as an architect by trade and dabbles in pin-striping hot rods. His brother, Erik, supplied the opportunity to take his painting to another level by re-creating the nose art on Ruff Stuff. “This was such a great opportunity to replicate the feeling of what it was like in World War II for the crowds at Oshkosh. It was better than any T-shirt or book you could bring home from the air show,” he said.

The young painter thought it would be more authentic
and unique to dress the part of a ground crew member
while painting the P- 38. He did some research and hit a
bunch of Army surplus stores before coming up with the
right uniform. “It put me in the element and made paint-
ing the nose art a living diorama for the onlookers. About
the only thing missing was a bunch of palm trees and a
nice sandy beach.”
Before painting the art work, Hokuf took “a lot of
measurements off the cowling of the airplane” to create
a template to replicate the name Ruff Stuff as close to the
original as he possibly could.

“The comments I heard from the people in the crowd made it all worthwhile for me as I played a part—small as it was—in re-creating some long-lost history. It was humbling to see families with small children watching and asking questions. The enthusiasm from the crowd made me realize that people are hungry to learn about our history, not necessarily just World War II airplanes, but all types of aviation in general. This was a great honor for me to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime event at AirVenture.”