Only 20 of these WWII planes are still flying. One lives in Grand Junction.

Just because someone has a pilot’s license doesn’t mean they can hop in and fly a plane like the Avenger, said Bob Thompson, Rocky Mountain Wing operations officer. It’s difficult to maneuver on the ground, and the flight stick and rudder pedals are directly connected to the plane with no hydraulic assistance like a car without power steering.

One of the reasons the plane has survived for so long, Thompson said, was that it was built in 1945 as the war was ending.

“Most of the warbirds that you see today from the era are non-combat airplanes, because when they were in combat, they were either destroyed or shot down or when the war ended, they were thrown away,” he said.

In the CAF hangar near Grand Junction Regional Airport, the TBM fills the space, even with its wings folded for storage. Only a few inches are left in front of the nose when the giant hangar doors are shut. With the wings open, it has a wingspan of 54 feet, 2 inches. The cockpit is about 15 feet off the ground, its canopy stretching across much of the fuselage to accommodate a crew of three.

In late May, Jim Korber, an operations officer in training, and mechanic G. Marsh crawled around the plane, repairing items on a “squawk list,” small issues noted on the last flight. They ducked under the propeller as they worked, each 6-foot blade sheathed in pink pool noodles.