There's a B25 in Penticton !!!!!

Money comes and goes. The pinch will soon be gone, but the experience is forever. I spent $250 to fly a Stearman for a half hour at Fantasy of Flight, in Florida.

Got to do some mild aerobatics and had a great chat with the plane's owner. My first experience with an open cockpit and landing a tail dragger. I took some pictures and videos while up there. I still enjoy looking at them from time to time.

PA180140.jpg
 
purple said:
I took my ride this morning and, as we used to say, it was "swell". There is a lot of power and noise in those Wright Cyclone engines with 1700 hp each. I took along my ear defenders which was a smart move as the engine noise is deafening. The weather was clear and sunny and it was a nice tour of the Okanagan valley up around Summerland, over Penticton and the lakes and south to Kaleden. Got to ride in the tail gunner's seat for a spell which offered outstanding visibility. A smooth takeoff after revving up the engines to max RPM, a great tour around with some nice turns and banks followed by an equally smooth landing. Time and money well spent for a unique experience and I finally found out how it felt after watching the air reserves tool around in their Mitchells more than 55 yrs ago!
Click to expand...

So where are the PIC'S & Video ?
 
#1bcshooter said:
So where are the PIC'S & Video ?
Click to expand...

I didn't take a camera up with me, only the ear defenders out of my range box.:eek: A lot of my memorable experiences in life were not captured on film, and this was one of them. I prefer to be "in" the experience, rather than being a spectator at it. My wife came along and took some taxiing/take-off pictures as well as some before and after shots around the aircraft, the big difference being the sh$t- eating grin on my face in the "after" pictures.:) She admitted to being a bit worried on hearing the engines popping and backfiring at slow speed, but they smoothed right out once the throttles were opened. There are some good photos of the aircraft itself on the Commemorative Air Force website, one of which I believe was posted earlier in this thread.

I'm going to pop the 1944 vintage "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" into the old VCR and enjoy the afterglow that way. This movie contains some of the best and most authentic B-25 flying sequences to be found anywhere.
 
Had our flight today just before 11am. Great time and what a great group of people to deal with. They took 28 years to finish the rebuild working mostly in the winter months as they told us it is just too hot in the summer. My son put a GoPro up front and we both took lots of photos.

The pilots did a great job of showing us around the area from Summerland to Okanagan Falls. The plane cruised at a indicated 200 mph airspeed at 1,700 RPM. The flights are not cheap but that old bird goes thru gas and oil and a pretty scary rate.

The have hearing protection but we took our own which IMO was a good choice.

From here the plane is going to Victoria for around a week then Boundary Bay Airport in Delta.

Good chance for a ride if you live close to those places.
 
I saw your flight going over the house this AM as I was putzing around in the yard. No mistaking the beat of those Wright Cyclones. Maid in the Shade came over again this afternoon and looked very nice as the sun illuminated the blue trim. It seemed to be a bit of a WW2 day in the air today as there was a Harvard trainer tooling around the valley for most of the day.
 
I'm dating myself, but I remember seeing Lancasters flying out of Cold Lake in the 1960 timeframe on photo and mapping duties. The air museum in Nanton, AB has a complete, but non-flying Lancaster. They do an engine run-up on it a couple of times a year for those who want to hear what 4 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines sound like.
 
The B17 apparently will be in the west in 2015 and on their home site it lists events for each year. Google the Arizona wing and keep checking and when things are finalized for sure they will post the schedule.

The B17 rides this year are 425.00 for a waist seat and 850.00 for up front so more than for the B25.

They did not charge more in Canada for the B25 rides as they are the same price in the US so we did get a deal.

Hats were 22.00 and T shirts 26 to 27.00 IIRC.
 
#1bcshooter said:
The guys with the B25 also have a B17 touring Canada this summer
B25 touring the west & the B17 is touring the east
I'd much rather fly in a B17 than a Lancaster
Click to expand...

there's many more b25's and b17's then Lancaster's 2 left that are flyable and 17 left complete the yanks kept them in service longer most as lend lease most of what came back was saved. id much rather fly in a Lancaster in my eyes it was one of the best bombers of the war and there is not sound like 4 Rolls Royce merlin engines firing up and idling
 
enfield303t said:
The B17 apparently will be in the west in 2015 and on their home site it lists events for each year. Google the Arizona wing and keep checking and when things are finalized for sure they will post the schedule.

The B17 rides this year are 425.00 for a waist seat and 850.00 for up front so more than for the B25.

They did not charge more in Canada for the B25 rides as they are the same price in the US so we did get a deal.

Hats were 22.00 and T shirts 26 to 27.00 IIRC.
Click to expand...


Awesome! did you hear this from people from the organization? I looked on the web sight and it didn't have anything listed for next year yet. I positively HATE flying but I could not turn down the opportunity to fly in a B17.
 
purple said:
I'm dating myself, but I remember seeing Lancasters flying out of Cold Lake in the 1960 timeframe on photo and mapping duties. The air museum in Nanton, AB has a complete, but non-flying Lancaster. They do an engine run-up on it a couple of times a year for those who want to hear what 4 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines sound like.[/QUOT
E

I crawled around in that Lancaster. I can't believe how small men were back in those days. It is super tiny spaces.
Click to expand...
 
antiqueguy said:
there's many more b25's and b17's then Lancaster's 2 left that are flyable and 17 left complete the yanks kept them in service longer most as lend lease most of what came back was saved. id much rather fly in a Lancaster in my eyes it was one of the best bombers of the war and there is not sound like 4 Rolls Royce merlin engines firing up and idling
Click to expand...

It was one of the best but there were 4 good heavy bombers in ww2 .
The Lancaster first flew in 1941 & they made 7373 of them
The B17 first flew in 1936 & they made 12,731 of them
Don't forget the B24 first flew in 1939 & thanks to Henry Ford there were 18,482 of them built
IMO the best bomber of ww2 was the B29 they only made 3970 of them and it's first flight was only 1 year after the Lancaster first took to the air .
Even the Russians liked the B29 & since the US wouldn't give them any during ww2 the Russians reversed engineered the ones they seized that made emergency landings in Russia and came up with the TU4 a direct copy of the B29 ;)
 
"Maid in the Shade" flew out of Penticton this AM on the way to it's next stop in Victoria. The B-25 was here for a week and was up giving rides every day. Besides going for a ride it was great to see and hear it tooling around as it passed near or over my house on every flight.

Those old reciprocating engines have a very distinctive sound in comparison to the usual clag of jets and turboprops. It reminded me of a day in the summer of 1968 when I was playing a round of golf at CFB Trenton. We were on the fairway right next to the main runway when I heard something very different from the usual C-130 and Yukon activity on the base. On looking up, surprise, surprise, there was a B-24 coming in on final after being returned from India to Canada as a gift of the Indian Air Force. We went over to the ramp afterwards to check it out. It was like a time capsule out of 1945. The Indians flew it on coastal patrols and kept it in totally original condition, right down to the turrets and guns. That B-24 has been in the National Aviation Museum at Ottawa/Rockcliffe since that time and is well worth a visit.
 
One plane a person should take a ride in is the de Havilland Dragon Rapide. Took a flight in one while in the UK and what a great bi-plane, small and the first one was built in the early 30's.
 
I logged just under 300 free falls from one of the DeHavilland Rapides owned by the British Army Sport Parachute Association. Her name was officially "Rhinegold" as she was hangered at Detmold in Germany for use by the Rhine Army Parachute Association, but we called her "Ringo" for the Beattle. Her livery was the blue & white of the Rothman's cigarette company, the 'angel' donor. Her twin was based at Netheravon in Britain.

I had 60+ jumps in Canada before I met Ringo, but she was the best! A class act all the way and babied as befitting her status. We refueled her by hand as necessary using those squareish Brit tin cans and a funnel with a very fine filter to keep out debris. A circle of jumpers kept curious German smokers at bay during this process.

Our DZ was the huge sports field at Sennelager - 18 hole golf course, soccer pitches, cricket pitches, polo pitches, track field and even a couple of baseball diamonds for the Yanks and Canucks.

Ringo was built in 1948 and there was always a line up of pilots wanting to fly her - RAF, BEA, British Army, etc. Her engines were maintained by a ticketed civilian engineer working for Hawker-Siddley in Germany.

One of my students (when I was a rookie instructor) stood up as we came in on our jump run and put his head through the fabric that covered the hole where a perspex navigation dome/escape hatch had once been. As I had a car, I was sent to RAF Station Gutersloh for fabric and dope to make the repair. The RAF still had it inventory to cover gun ports on jet fighters and avionics hatches.

I often wonder if she is still flying ......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom