B-17 visit, the best of times, the worst of times...

[p51]

Today, "Fuddy Duddy" was in Seattle. I hadn't seen the old gal since I was at Genesseo last time (many years ago), so I had to go down and take a look. She'd been down for work since coming in to Seattle, so it was up and down all day for rides. No tours were avaliable. That bothered me quite a bit (it's over 90 miles to Seattle for me), but there was a little boy there with his Mom, and he was practically heartbroken. He couldn't understand that the only people who could get with 150 feet of it were folks shelling out hundreds of dollars. To me, that didn't seem right either, but I know all too well how much is costs to fly a B-17 and ya gotta pay the bills somehow.
This was the best shot I got:

Of course, I dropped and totally destroyed my camera right after this was taken. But still, considering I'd had it since 1990, I'm surprised I hadn't ruined it before now. Yeah, that bummed me out considering the places I'd been with my Nikon, just to wreck it hopping off my POV waiting for a B-17 to pass overhead.
So, was it a waste of my time? Hell no! Any visit to a B-17, even one I've seen before, is a good use of my time!

[bdk]

There was an opportunity to take a tour, but it looks like you may have missed it...

http://www.museumofflight.org/visit/calendar/display.html?Date=2005-05-31

[p51]

Yeah, they said they were supposed to have been giving tours today, but with all the downtime in maintenance the past two days (even requiring someone to hand-crank the wheel down on an early flight out of Boeing field!), they didn't get her back i the air until today.
Oh well, I missed her yeaterday due to a parade:

YES, that's me. I digitally removed the street signs atop the stop sign, covered up the group sign in the Jeep behind me with a tarp, and then removed a "support our troops" magnet on the cab of the 2 1/2 truck behind me. And I added a signal corps logo like they added to official photos back then...

[jangus]

Don't feel bad, the last time I saw Fuddy Duddy was before it was even Fuddy Duddy. I have photos somewhere of myself (very young at the time) sitting in the cockpit shortly after it was aquired. The yearly airshow at Geneseo is the one thing I miss the most about not living there anymore.

[bdk]

YES, that's me. I digitally removed the street signs atop the stop sign, covered up the group sign in the Jeep behind me with a tarp, and then removed a "support our troops" magnet on the cab of the 2 1/2 truck behind me. And I added a signal corps logo like they added to official photos back then...

By the way, I really adore your nice little friend "Tommy"!

[Ryan Keough]

I realize that you are quite a distance away, but please feel free to come back to the Museum of Flight from July 1-5 for the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour of the B-17 Flying Fortress "Nine O Nine" and B-24 Liberator "Witchcraft". We WILL have walkthrough tours through the middle part of the day and we recommend on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th between 10 AM and 3 PM... donation of $8 for adults and $4 for children under 12.

We invite all WIXers and their families out to the event... a perfect way to spend America's Fourth of July!

See the schedule and other Pacific Northwest visits at: http://www.collingsfoundation.org/cf_schedule-wof.htm

Ryan Keough
Collings Foundation

[p51]

By the way, I really adore your nice little friend "Tommy"!

Thanks, but to be 100% honest, it's non-functional. It has a solid receiver blank built on an M1928A1 parts kit. It looks real, but in Washington state, we cannot own fully-functioning full-auto weapons, nor can we have semi-auto Thompson with the correct barrel length (the legal semi-auto ones have a barrel much longer than an original one) as that's the same legally as a "sawed off" shotgun or shortened barrel which requires registration by the ATF. So, a dummy gun is the only correct-looking Tommy we can own here. Oh well, Thompsons have gone through the freaking roof in the last ten years, and even a dummy like mine is now going for well over a grand. I'm cheap and got mine for much less than that through an extensive deal of trading, though. A real funstioning one like mine would cost in excess of thirty grand! The Jeep is real, though and functions just fine (but only when the proper sacrifices have been made to the Jeep gods). It was used at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton during WW2. As a Army Reserve (IRR) Captain, there was just NO WAY it was going back to Navy paint. The photo doesn't show it well, but my group had 5 WW2 Jeeps, a 1/2 ton truck, a 2 1/2 ton truck and a weapons carrier (all WW2) and everyone in correct period uniform. We'll be at the Olympic Flight Museum fly-in on 17-19 June. If any WIX'ers are going to the show, stop by and say howdy, as we'll have a VERY large display there!
http://www.olympicflightmuseum.com/comi ... ow2005.htm

...please feel free to come back to the Museum of Flight from July 1-5 for the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour of the B-17 Flying Fortress "Nine O Nine" and B-24 Liberator "Witchcraft".

Ryan,
Seattle is a nice hop, but it's not like driving across the state. Heck, for 6 months, I was working PR for a company off of Lake Union, and the commute took up over 4 hours of each day. Oh, I know the Collings planes all too well, having scored more than one "volunteer" ride in each of them when I still lived in Florida. It helped there to be one of the few folks they could count on to show up and help out when they came through Tallahassee:
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... highlight=
I'd drop whatever I was doing every time they came through. And as few people cared there, it was actually easy to get a ride as there were often empty seats to the next display location. I even scored a ride in a P-51 flying in formation with both of them once while going over the Gulf of Mexico to Panama City, Florida. I still sometimes watch the video I got on that trip. Phil Haskel still remembers me (by sight, but I doubt he would recall my name) from the Tallahassee trips back when I still lived there, and that was almost 10 years ago now. I had also made a A-2 USAAF nametape for his A-2, but I've never seen the jacket I made it for. But fear not, as I haven't seen the new paint on the B-24, yes, I'll make my way out to see them in Seattle. Bremerton is a little closer, but it's during the work week, darn it.