B-17 Gathering Grimes Field Urbana, OH May 14-15 2018

[bmoran]

Any plausible rumors on how many & which B-17s are attending?

[BK]

Any plausible rumors on how many & which B-17s are attending?

The Grimes Field FB page posted today that there currently is not going to be a B-17 gathering:
"Currently we have one B-17 coming in in May. Do not believe the stories you hear about a big gathering, currently it is not happening. Grimes field airport is hosting the Yankee lady here Monday and Tuesday, May 14 and 15th and again Saturday and Sunday, May 19 and 20th., so far I have yet to see anyone put up any money claiming they’re sponsoring."

As stated Yankee Lady will be at Grimes. The only other B-17 to announce they will be in Dayton that week is Aluminum Overcast on May 19-20 and at Wright Brothers Airport, which is about 60 miles south of Urbana. A couple of B-17s that won't be there are Texas Raiders that is scheduled to be in Albuquerque May 14-17 and Amarillo May 18-20 and 909 that will be in CA at Santa Ana May 13 and Mountain View May 18-26. None of the other B-17s have put out their 2018 schedules.

[bmoran]

Wow - thanks for the reality check - the Champaign Aviation Museum website with flier and Randy Kemp's words "I'm gonna have four to six B-17s hopping rides out here for two to three days." paints a much different expectation and picture.

https://youtu.be/KzDcDC2b8O8?t=2792

[kalamazookid]

Wow. That's a big difference from information that has been teased by other pages and sources related to this event. At one point, one page I saw was touting 4-6 B-17s and a handful of P-51s. Perhaps that wasn't the "official" page and it's my fault for not realizing that.

Either way, it sounds like a far cry from what the name of the event implies.

[WIXerGreg]

I tried finding it last night when this thread was posted, but around a month ago I swore I even saw a list of four B-17's that were coming.

[BK]

I tried finding it last night when this thread was posted, but around a month ago I swore I even saw a list of four B-17's that were coming.

The FB fanpage posted that on Dec 30 - "We have received word that the possible B-17’s attending the gathering at Grimes Field Urbana Municipal Airport as of today are:

Movie Memphis Belle
Aluminum Overcast
Yankee Lady
Madras Maiden"

These 4 had been rumored to attend prior to this post for a while. I started getting concerned when Yankee Lady announced they would be at Grimes and were selling rides themselves. This was not how it was done at the B-25 gatherings in the past. Then all rides were sold on site to give each plane a fair share in revenue. By being first Yankee Lady would get all the early sales. Then yesterday I found out Aluminum Overcast would be at Wright Brothers Airport south of Dayton instead of Grimes. At one point it was said one plane might be selling rides out of Springfield, OH with the other three at Grimes. I can no longer find that post. It seems it's every plane for themselves.

A few weeks ago the fan page started posting disclaimers on every post the host made after the Air Force contacted them about wanting to stop rumors. "All information is only published as the best of what we have heard or learned as media from credible sources about the coming events in May 2018. The Gathering of B-17’s: Urbana May 2018 Event FACEBOOK page is for FANS and not published by the Champaign Aviation Museum or U.S. Air Force Museum."

[WIXerGreg]

Thanks, BK. I swore I remembered Madras Maiden being on the list I saw. Too bad it's not happening.

[kalamazookid]

Per NMUSAF, Aluminum Overcast and Yankee Lady are confirmed to be on display at the main event at NMUSAF. I haven't seen any indication that Aluminum Overcast will at Urbana however.

[BK]

Per NMUSAF, Aluminum Overcast and Yankee Lady are confirmed to be on display at the main event at NMUSAF. I haven't seen any indication that Aluminum Overcast will at Urbana however.

Aluminum Overcast is scheduled to be at the Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport south of the city on May 19-20 selling rides. I hear the reason being Aluminum Overcast operating rules require a 5,000ft runway and Grimes is 4,400ft.

[bmoran]

The Champaign Aviation Museum has updated their website to match the posted information above

May 14th and 15th B-17 Yankee Lady will be selling rides at Grimes Field.

May 16th, 17th, 18th,-- B-17 events at the National Museum of the US Air Force. (Click link above)

May 19th and 20th B-17 Aluminum Overcast will be selling rides at Dayton-Wright Brothers.

B-17 Gathering at Grimes Field May 2018
The costs associated with getting a single B-17 to come to Grimes will be $12,000 to $15,000. Please help get more of them here. All donations welcome. Please consider a sponsorship of $1,000.

http://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org/

[Chuck Giese]

Well, that should put a spike in all those rumors.