OT B-17 Flew in yesterday

Ross in Ventura

My brother took a ride in it on Sunday












Ross

Marc from IL

WOW!! Thats cool. I dont think I wood want to be a guuner down in the tail

Cpt'n Cook

Nice pics, what a great plane. It makes me think of my great friend Nate Menkow. Navigator on "Pistol Packin Mama" the second B17 to complete 25 missions in WW2. Nate passed on three years ago, a great friend and a real hero. Got his masters degree at 87.

DrZaius

Every time I see a B17 I think of the movie "Heavy Metal". A classic.

"Sparky"

That's awesome Ross.I've been wanting to fly in one for years,but keep missing the opportunity :pinch: Maybe next time I'll even fly in the tailgunner seat :P It's probably the safest place to be in a crash,but the worst place to be if the plane was on fire :blink: :pinch: Great pics buddy :woohoo:

stike

i went up in a B24 a little over a year ago. was amazing, but spendy. you could also go up in the B17, but they wouldn't let you get to the tail position. there was a bulkhead wall at the waist windows, and from there down to the tail position was about a 20foot+ crouch and crawl. the flight would be over by the time you got there and back....

it's unsafe. i guess they don't let you because you'd never get out in an emergency. most tail gunners never made it out for that reason. they didn't even bother wearing a chute. wouldn't fit with one on anyway.

in the B24 they allow you to go everywhere. the warning they give when you walk along the 4" wide keel beam in the bomb bay is that if you fall off it, you'll go right through the breakaway bomb bay doors. that was a little nerve wracking. frigging balance beam of death

"Sparky"

Dude,that sounds awesome :woohoo: I wanna try the balance beam(without the death part) I was just thinkin that,in a crash,I would rather be in the back of the plane,unless the plane is flying in reverse :P :laugh: What the hell do I know,I'm just a simple electrician :pinch: I still wanna fly in one :woohoo:

NibbleMeThis

Great pictures and what an amazing experience for your brother! I wanted to fly on the one that came here a few years ago but it was somewhere around $500 for a 20 minute ride at the time.

Thanks for sharing!

AZRP

Cool, they're are coming here next, they want $3500 for an hour ride in the p-51, and I thought about it. -RP

Carbonizer

Randy; Thats the plane I want to ride in too!!
Except, maybe the Global Express that Hardwood fly's.
I think he lost my number and e-mail address :(

AZRP

I live in an airpark and had a Global Express buzz the field the other day, wow what an impressive aircraft. Oprah owns one. -RP

stike

if you get the chance, it's pretty amazing. flights are usually "only" a half hour from take-off to landing, but it is pretty cool.

bit of living history

stike

that's on my to-do list.

in kissimee florida, they let you fly it (it's the only trainer with the glass bubble) for an hour or so for about the same fee. ground school for an hour or so, then they take you up. there are plenty of youtube videos of flights people have taken. they record it for you.


my parents are three hours away from the place. i have been thinking about booking a flight, but not this year....


a bit extravagant, but what the hell. do it!

i "belong" to the collings foundation (only by virtue of paying for a flight in the B24) and get their newsletter. they are now flying an ME-262..... yep, the german (and first) jet fighter that could have won them the war you can go up in it for the low low price of eleventy bajillion dollars.

aber, mann muss ein sauberes Paar Hosen mitbringen

Cpt'n Cook

"The War Lover" by John Hersey is a great B17 book and also a pretty good Steve McQueen movie.

Nate told me that the captain of "Pistol packin Mama" was the model for the Captain in the book. "Pistol packin Mama" was generally the first or second lead group heading to Germany. I think the whole crew made it through in one piece. History channel did an hour show about them, ggod take!

stike

i rented my first apartment from a guy that was a bombardier on a b-24. he would tell stories that were just harrowing.

he went 35 missions or so. when i asked how it was that they could last that long, i mean, what were the odds, right? he said "well, toward the end of it, we were losing so many crews that they would rush folks a little through training. plus, some guy figured that not painting the planes (the silver b-24s) saved a few hundred pounds of weight, saved fuel, made the range longer, etc. So the new crews were put into shiney metal planes, and we'd sit there in the lead position, watching the ME109s fly right by us, not wanting to mess with seasoned crews, and they'd head straiht for the new crews, in the new planes"

>shudder<

talked about d-day. stuff you read about in books. said the briefing was electric, but then they get up there, and it's cloudy, can't see a thing. so much for "you'll tell your grandkids about this". just to be safe, they dropped the bombs inland "a little bit". and of course, you read the accounts of the invasion troops and they were all pissed because the beaches were untouched. nothing taken out and no craters for cover. was eerie hearing it first hand. and he'd never really told anyone, either.

those guys are dying at a rate worse than the damn war took them.

i read the obits, and all it says is "served in the army in world war 2". yikes. four or five years of hell, and it gets a one line mention

Cpt'n Cook

I think you are right, it was 35 missions and not 25.

stike

well. i actually think you are right too. the Memphis belle was the first to reach 25, which was the cut-off. if the Pistol Packin Mama was the second to reach that milestone, it would have been withindays (there were a lot of crews at 24 missions and counting) they would have gone home at 25 too. the thing is, the number kept getting raised. 25 became 30, then 35, then it was eliminated altogether.

at the end of the war, there was no limit for the number of missions.