Willow Run

[tom d. friedman]

sounds to me that the real me-109 was the majority favorite, no faux phoney spanish job in luft markings. comments / feedback from the lucky attendees???? best, tom

[Ollie]

Awesome stuff Eric!

You gotta love a sky full of B-17s!

[Aircraft Mech Paul]

Hi All,

my weekend there was supposed to be smooth and free of trouble...ugh !! T'was not the case. I got to town Friday okay, setup in the hotel, and asked for an early wake-up...guess what...NO WAKE-UP....got a very late start, and then ended up in a 5 mile long traffic jamb on I-94...managed to finaly get there by 11:30.

Was thrilled to count all of the B-17's on the ramp as I walked in. And had high hopes of meeting up with some friends there and some of the folks here on the WIX board....drat...THAT didn't happen either. But was absolutely thrilled to see the aircraft that were there. A trully once in a lifetime experiance. Am slowly going through my photo's and will try to post some later here on another thread.

Excellent time no matter what troubles.....

Paul

[Waltz41]

Finally getting settled back home after the trip. I'm very happy I got to go, definitley something I won't forget. Lot's of firsts there for me, the 109, duck, and even just some of the fighters in different markings I've yet to see all made for a fantastic time. And meeting a lot of the WIXer's, some for the first time, some for the second time added a lot to the experience. I made the trip out there by myself, but it honestly didn't feel that way when I was there. Thanks guys!
Here's a few shots to start out, just of the B-17's. All the B-17's as they taxied by and a few of them together. The last one is one of my favorites of the weekend. Quality is not the greatest, I hope one day to get a 'Grown Up' camera!!!

brian

[mrhenniger]

That late afternoon shot of Sentimental Journey from 7 o'clock is great!

Mike

[TimAPNY]

Looks like some body was sitting right next to me

I love the Ball Turret shot. That is great.

[Aircraft Mech Paul]

Brian,

Excellent photo's of all of the B-17's individualy...nicely done.

Paul

[tom d. friedman]

did the duck fly or was she a static display?? if it flew i'd love to see the video!!

[mjanovec]

did the duck fly or was she a static display?? if it flew i'd love to see the video!!

The Duck flew in sometime late Saturday morning or early afternoon. If I recall, it didn't make any passes at that time, but just landed and taxied to the ramp. It didn't fly again until Sunday, when it was ready to depart. After it took off on Sunday, it circled wide and then made one VERY low pass right over our heads (well, right over the heads of the people in the grassy corner along the taxiway). Most people's jaws dropped when they saw that pass. We joked later that we now knew why it was called a "duck" (because that's what you have to do when it flies overhead).

The photo I took came about one second before it roared overhead. It was too close after this photo to capture the whole plane in my lens.



Second prize for low passes goes to Diamond Lil, who also didn't fly during the weekend, except for it's arrival and departure. The pilot made a very steep bank with his wingtip no more than 20-30 feet off of the ground. Another jaw dropping moment.

[krlang]

YUP,

Seeing Chuck flying the Duck was really cool!
That pass before he went home where he missed the 500' show line was fantastic. The misjudgement he made was the most impressive pass of the afternoon for me. The hull of the boat looked like it was below the tails of the Forts about halfway through, and he was dead center between them and the T-6s. ON THE RAMP!

BTW, Where were all the other boats on the list?

Great stuff,
The Schedule had a few more airplanes added including the O-2s and Stearmen. The T-6 flight included a BT and The only New airplane that was there. A Yak-52TW
The B-17 flight was a little more organized on Sunday, and the final pass was a B-17 Missing Man from behind the crowdline.


Did anybody listen to the things happening on the radio during this event?
(ATC not responding to the requests from the 109 etc.)

[tom d. friedman]

oh man!! what are you talking about????? that's a great shot!!!! i can relate to the "duck joke" though..... that center pontoon would be a mouthful. on the other hand if she hit me i could have saved $1800.00 bucks in dental work that cost me from attending the show. which smiley should i use??? regards, tom

[oscardeuce]

I would have liked to see more flying, there seemed to be too many lulls between acts. All the O-2's stayed on the ground, and I know 2-3 other pilots that were ready to fly, but did not. Otherwise a great show, and I hope they put a large sum into the new hanger account!

[TonyI]

Great show, great pics! Great meeting fellow lovers of noise, metal and octane.

Beautiful O-2 you have Oscardeuse and it was a pleasure talking with you, quite a historic bird you have. Gotta make a run down to Akron to see the museum one of these days.

Tom, did the root canal the only thing that sucked about it was the bill and the weird feeling of the temp. tooth until the permanent crow was put in. Good luck hopefully your goes as smoothly as mine did. Guess that means I have to wait till next year for a special wave
as for a smiley... just have to figure out how to black out a tooff for a while.

cheers
Tony

[TimAPNY]

I would have liked to see more flying, there seemed to be too many lulls between acts. All the O-2's stayed on the ground, and I know 2-3 other pilots that were ready to fly, but did not. Otherwise a great show, and I hope they put a large sum into the new hanger account!

Did you fly the O-2 up from MAPS Friday afternoon?

[oscardeuce]

Yes,
we left in the O2-A and the Navion from MAPS Friday about 1500 local when the weather was clear enough. A very nice flight!
Thanks for the compliment on the plane. I am trying to verify, but 3000 hours + of combat time may make 862 one of the highest combat time vets flying today!