Warbird expert Taigh Ramey spoke at EAA Chapter 1541’s April meeting, recounting the nine months he spent on the set of Apple TV’s Masters of the Air miniseries.

Chapter 1541 president Scott Thompson said the event drew about 75 participants, more than usual for the organization based at the Lincoln Regional Airport.

Ramey said that his goal was to get as much Hollywood out of the series as he could. Initially asked to spend a few weeks on the set in England, Ramey was soon asked to stay on throughout the production, he said.

“I got a lot of it out,” Ramey said of the inaccurate special effects. “Not all of it, but a lot of it.”

Some of the things Ramey helped with for the series were teaching the actors how to use the WWII era equipment correctly, advising the special effects team on how to accurately create battle damage, and even the physics of aircraft. 

The crew had plans to build an elaborate set designed to rotate a full scale section of a B-17 fuselage for a scene calling for the bomber in a spin, Ramey said. 

“When a plane is in a spin, do you think the actors are like socks in a tumble dryer, they’re just bouncing around?,” Ramey said he asked the crew. “No, that’s not the way it works.”

The scene was eventually cut from the movie, he said, but Ramey continued advising the crew on other aspects of historic aviation.

Ramey also serves as president of the Stockton Field Aviation Museum and owner of Vintage Aviation, also based in Stockton. He organizes an annual bomber camp for historic aviation enthusiasts and veterans where participants fly an actual bomber mission in a B-17 Flying Fortress.  

He said his love of historic aviation comes from his father who was a navigator during WWII, and his mother who also contributed to the war effort. He built model aircraft in his youth but struggled with academics. 

“When I was in high school, I wasn’t doing so good grade wise,” he said. “My dad came up with an incentive program, he said ‘if you can make a B grade point average, then I’ll let you have flying lessons. Best deal I ever made.”

Flying with his father at first, Ramey eventually became a flight instructor and acquired a Beech 18 that he used to give rides. Rather than move on to the airlines, Ramey said he chose to focus on keeping up the Beech 18, something he jokingly called a “vow of poverty” that has led to some great opportunities.

“It’s been great,” he said. “It’s led to amazing opportunities like this.”