Warbird Information Exchange

Bombs away at PDK
Atlanta Business Chronicle - 10:25 AM EDT Friday, June 1, 2007by Rachel Tobin RamosStaff Writer
If you want to feel like you've gone back in time about 60 years, climb aboard a B-17 Bomber.

And at this year's Good Neighbor Day at DeKalb Peachtree Airport on Sat. June 2, Atlantans will get a chance to do that in a World War II era B-17 Bomber.
The plane -- dubbed the Liberty Belle -- is owned by Georgian Don Brooks, who bought the plane in the early 2000s and with an organization called the Liberty Foundation spent more than $3.5 million getting the plane back into working and show condition.

The foundation now has the plane touring the United States, and it is working on plans to tour Europe.

The plane has imitation guns mounted to the fuselage and visitors can climb into the bombadier and gunner positions in the nose and even stick their head out of an opening in the plane during flight. Just hold onto your hat.

This will be the plane's second visit to Atlanta since it started flying again (after a 38 year hiatus) in late 2004.

It costs about $1 million dollars a year to operate the plane, according to Ray Fowler, a commercial pilot based in Atlanta who volunteers to pilot the B-17.

The foundation charges $430 for a 45-minute flight aboard the historic aircraft that was built during 1944-45. The fee offsets the plane's operational costs. Foundation members will get a discount.

Rides and tours of the plane at PDK will be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 2.

There are currently only about a dozen B-17s flying today, according to Ron Gause, a volunteer and co-pilot of the Liberty Belle.

The Liberty Belle never saw combat, but was sold multiple times after the war and once was nearly destroyed by a tornado before Brooks bought it.

Good Neighbor Day at PDK, one of the nation's 10 busiest general aviation airfields, will include an air show that starts at noon. Parking is $3 for the event, and there is no other admission fee.

One feature of the air show will be an acrobatic flight by Pat Epps, the owner and founder of Epps Aviation, a fixed-base operator at PDK. Epps will be flying a red, white and blue Bonanza and doing aerobatic maneuvers. His part in the show will begin around 2 p.m
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Come on out if you are in the Atlanta area.
Robbie

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