B-17. Missed him.

After flying for 2.5 hours on bee yoooo ti fulllll day full of white puffy clouds; I was in the garage fixing up a lawn mower for Trish's girlfriend.

I heard it first..... This was no Piper Cub coming up from the south. I put the tools down and went to the driveway just in time to see this bigass B-17 moving along at about 4,000 feet. It moved so slowly through the air!

I watched it disappear and then went to get my camera, thin king it may take the same course back. The newspaper aid they were giving rides from the Albany International Airport.

Wish you could have seen it.

I believe this was the ship: http://www.timesunion.com/default/media/WWII-era-B-17-at-SA-Airport-83249.php

Yup, those are super cool to see. It's really nice how they fly them nice and low and slow.

There has been a guy around me lately that had been getting a lot of time in his P-51. He have seen him orbiting around houses (common practice for pilots, doing a circle around your house) in my area. Must be a new toy!

I actually have seen them in flight. Grew up loving planes. I would work the Air Show every year starting when I was 13 . I also use to make regular visits to the Evergreen Air Museum and the Tillamook Air Museum.

The day I turned 15 was the very first time I had ever been in an airplane and I was flying it! Just a little Cessna but man was it fun. Friend of my dad's was a flight instructor. I really wished I had finished my training and got my license I just got bummed out when I realized how much it would cost me to actually fly, even not owning my own plane.

The B-17 Aluminum Overcast came to Spartanburg years ago. I went to see it at the airport and I was amazed how small it was up close. I never saw it flying, but they were selling rides.

I thought a huge loud truck was about to rear end me in the Miata. Nothing behind me! Look up and there is a B-17 above me! Awesome!

In the pre-9/11 days, a friend of mine who used to be the FAA tower chief at the local airport had us out for a tower tour. "Just by coincidence", a B-17 & B-24 were arriving for one of the tour the plane/take a flight events. He gave them permission to make a "high speed" (probably all of about 250mph), low-level formation pass over the tower since the field wasn't busy when they arrived. It . . .was . . . awesome! They were literally rattling the windows in the tower. Pretty sure the fun police at the FAA wouldn't have approved even then, but he had already given notice on his retirement.

The Confederate Air Force (think they've changed their name since) was at Galveston when I was there. They had some interesting stuff fly over. Seeing a P38 fly was pretty cool.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

I believe they are the Commemorative Air Force (or something like that) now.

B-17's and B24's were fast for their day... they could cruise ~300mph with top speeds in the mid 300's unloaded. In fact, in the mid-late 30's the B-17 was faster than the fastest US fighter plane.

I remember many many many many many years ago when they finished refurbing the MEmphis Belle they had all the remaining flyable B-17's do an airshow where they all flew together. IIRC that was 11 at the time. The noise of 11 (44 P&W Radials) flying overhead at the same time was absolutely amazing.

kazoospec wrote: Pretty sure the fun police at the FAA wouldn't have approved even then, but he had already given notice on his retirement.

Pre 9/11 they very likely didn't care. Hell last airshow I went to one of the blue angels came by the tower with the "halo". I kept chanting to myself just a little more, just a little more. I love sonic booms!

I've had it happen several times. You don't forget them.

I watched two B-24s circling Willow Run Airport on Saturday. That was pretty neat to see. Best flight of the day for me was seeing a P-51 Mustang, F-86 Sabre and an F-100 lapping the area together in a three wide pattern.

I've seen B-17s around here on several occasions. Last summer, purely by dumb luck, I happened to see both a B-24 (presumably on one of the paid flight hops) relatively low over the Hudson River as well as the only flying B-29 in the world (AFAIK) as it transited from somewhere in MA to Buffalo, NY.

A month or so ago at an Ohio Valley autocross event, there was a B-17 and Ford Tri-Motor just circling around. It was pretty cool.