Warbird Information Exchange

Would they need to train another crew for this? It was my understanding that the Doc crew IS the FIFI crew.

We have enough trained crews to fly both airplanes.

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Brad

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Jim C.

I heartily second the above comment.

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Cheers, Zac in NZ

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid

Why wouldn’t they get their own crew trained and familiar with flying Doc?
Otherwise, if it’s just CAF folks flying the thing, why don’t they just turn it over to the CAF and call it the CAF’s SECOND Superfort?
Generally speaking, any group that goes through all the work to get something like that flying is eventually going to want to do their own flying and not have to rely on someone else for that.
Let’s face it, there aren’t THAT many people in the world who are good to fly a B-29, right? At least not too many that many of us would trust to do so (I mean the WW2 vets, who are all in their 90s now).
It’s a given that when Doc was ready to fly, someone B-29-rated in the CAF would say, “Sure, I’ll take her up,” but I do wonder why the group that restored Doc doesn’t apparently have a trained crew at this point. I mean, it’s not like they didn’t see the need from a very long time ago.
Can anyone answer for if/when Doc is going to have her own non-CAF flight crew?
Just wondering.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
1944 Willys MB #366014, MVPA
REMF

Patience, grasshopper

Doc will get its own crews once training them is complete I'm sure, but it's also important to get the plane flying in the meantime to complete its testing and to get it out there making appearances (and thus some revenue) in the meantime. I think it's a great show of community that the CAF crews and the FAA have worked together with the Doc team to get the plane flying while the new Doc crews train and get certified (since the FAA is requiring them to have a certified Flight Engineer, which adds a layer of challenge).

Can't wait to see the pics of the first formation flight myself since FiFi is back in the air after winter maintenance and on the road soon!

DOC training starts next weekend.
Highly experienced crewmembers from several other museums/organizations that can checkout quickly will help this season.

In an email update, Doc is/was at an airshow (Barksdale) this weekend. Here is a link to Doc's Friends page:

http://www.b-29doc.com/2017/05/07/docs- ... how-day-1/

And a link to their photo album where we can enjoy a B-17, B-52 and B-29 Doc in flight together!!! :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/b29doc/se ... 399910371/

Absolutely awesome...!!!

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

On Facebook I saw a photo of the formation. It made my weekend!

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Cheers, Zac in NZ

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid

Yeah Zac, a few formation shots can be seen in one of the links above (https://www.flickr.com/photos/b29doc/se ... 399910371/)

This shot in particular I think is just awesome: https://www.flickr.com/photos/b29doc/34 ... 399910371/

And a really great shot of the B-17/B-29/B-52 from another photographer (with just a focus on Boeing bombers): https://www.flickr.com/photos/78271477@N04/34509795985/

Also some neat air-to-air photos of the B-17, B-25, and B-52 taken from on-board "Doc": https://www.flickr.com/photos/b29doc/al ... 1347473571

Those are SWEEEET! Congrats to the DOC crew on what looks like a great show

Tom P.

More and more great "Doc" photos if you just follow/scroll through their Flickr photostream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/b29doc/

DOC and FIFI flying together!

https://youtu.be/6ma_8rVJins

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