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Joined: Aug 2007
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 19,495 |
When Aluminum Overcast came to Lebanon Tennessee in 1997, the family pooled our funds and bought Dad a ride- - - -first time he'd been in one in 52 years. He was scheduled for a 1-hour flight on Saturday morning- - - - -$600.00 back then. I went out to the airfield on Friday afternoon and happened to get into a conversation with one of the ground crew. He was into restoring military jeeps and staff cars from the WW II era. I had a bunch of Ford flathead V8 parts that he needed for one of his restoration projects. We drove to my shop and I gave them to him. That got me an invite to share a meal with the crew. Later that evening someone mentioned that the tug they needed to move some of the planes wouldn't move- - - -transmission trouble! The tug had a flathead Chrysler 6 cylinder engine and a Torqueflite transmission- - - - -long story short, I got the transmission fixed around 2:00 AM.
Went home, showered, no sleep, and loaded up Dad and the family for his ride. When we arrived, I found that my repair work had bought me a free ride! All six of us passengers on the plane got to do a little left seat time. Getting to fly the plane was great- - - -watching Dad relive his days as a command pilot for a little while- - - - -PRICELESS!
Jerry
Outstanding!
Retired cat herder.
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 19,495
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 19,495 |
The early word on another board from someone who flys warbirds and knows people at the Collins Foundation is that somehow or another it got a load of JP instead of high octane. Holy cow!
Retired cat herder.
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Joined: Feb 2008
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2008
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,845 Likes: 6
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,845 Likes: 6 |
yeah, I am an ass...
my first reaction was to be upset over the loss of a B17, instead of the casualties...
So I publicly apologize for that... but hate to see another B 17 lost..
its nice to see them flying, but being over 70 years old, maybe its time the FAA grounds the last of them
and leave them for static display....
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 17,983 Likes: 17
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 17,983 Likes: 17 |
The early word on another board from someone who flys warbirds and knows people at the Collins Foundation is that somehow or another it got a load of JP instead of high octane. If so, the same error cost a medevac flight out of Las Cruces NM back in 2014. https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20140827X25654&key=1Unbelievable tragedy. My heart goes out to everyone involved.
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 3,239
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 3,239 |
Collins Foundation was in town a few years ago and I went on a whim intending on viewing the planes on the ground, a B17 and a B24. After viewing them I was fortunate to have the chance to book a ride, and went up in the B24.
Truly an eye opening experience, that illustrated beyond any book you could ever read of how it must have been to fly into combat in one of these machines.
Recenty the CAF was in town bringing a B24 and a B29 that I went and viewed on the ground.
While this incident is tragic, both in the loss of lives and the loss of a historic airplane, it would be more tragic if this event prevented Collins and CAF from doing these type of events in the future.
They are doing outreach with tangible flying pieces of history, reaching so many more people by being to fly to their towns, rather than waiting for the people to come to them in a mueseum.
Kind of like comparing the experience of letting a non shooter look at a safe queen rifle and admire the pretty wood, or taking that same non shooter out and letting them shoot one, smell the gun powder, feel the recoil.
"Put none but Americans on guard tonight."
-George Washington
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 685
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 685 |
I was shocked to hear the news. That plane has been in the area for over a week flying over the house at 1500 feet. What a shame. It was a thrill seeing it and tracking it on Flightradar24.
You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 17,140 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 17,140 Likes: 2 |
its nice to see them flying, but being over 70 years old, maybe its time the FAA grounds the last of them
and leave them for static display.... There are plenty in museums. Overall the warbirds offering rides have a very good safety record, far better than when they were operational, and there is no experience like hearing and seeing them in flight and going flying if you choose for touching and understanding history. I'm all for keeping them operating as they are. As Joe Bob says, early word (always a worry!) is JP instead of 100LL. How can someone make that mistake in a B-17?
If something on the internet makes you angry the odds are you're being manipulated
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