What a great day!
Chuckie flew twice today. Both flights, Ray Fowler was PIC. First flight, SIC was Pat Mahaffey. Second flight, SIC was Steve Swift. Crew Chief Bill Gorin was FE on both flights. The pilots reported that the '17 flew perfectly and there were no squawks from either flight. She was a little hard to start this morning (the temperature was about 38 deg F at startup!) but she got over that morning crankiness and fought off the cold like the trooper she is! Kudos to the ground crew for spending hours outside in the cold and wind. The temperature eventually warmed up to the upper 40s by the end of the day, but that north wind was pretty much relentless all day.
It was indescribably satisfying to watch the '17 roar down that runway and into the blue Texas sky for the first time since February, 2008. The VFM crew has worked very, very hard for a long time in order to get the B-17 back into flying condition, and today's flights were made possible only through the outstanding teamwork, commitment, and dedication of a lot of hard-working volunteers, led by our crew chief, Bill Gorin, and our hangar boss, John Frasier. Some of our folks are professional aviation mechanics and pilots. Some of us are just wanna-be's who happen to know which end of a screwdriver to hold. But we all shared a common vision, and together, we made it a reality! If the temperature had been a few degrees colder when those tires un-stuck from Runway 34R this morning, there would have been ice cubes falling from peoples' eyes instead of teardrops (and there were plenty of those).
It was a real pleasure to meet Jerry Yagen. He is a really nice fellow, and there's no doubt in my mind that he will take excellent care of our beloved B-17. I had flown with Ray Fowler before aboard
Liberty Belle. As someone else mentioned, he's a superb pilot and a good guy. Ray has flown probably all of the '17s that are airworthy today at one time or another. He sure knows how to handle a Flying Fortress!
Zane is a much better photog than I am, and he was shooting with a real camera as opposed to my pocket point 'n shoot, but here are some of my shots:
Carl Best flew in from McKinney in his shiny yeller AT-6. His ship served as an A2A photo platform during the second flight. Jerry Yagen was in the back seat shooting pics of the '17 in flight. Here are a couple of shots of the Six:
Here's a very satisfied (and thoroughly chilled) Jerry after the photo flight:
Here's a shot of an elated bunch of ground and flight crew members!
(thanks for taking the picture, Carl!)
From the left: Ray Fowler, Dean Hemphill, John Frasier Jr, Mike Tolfa, John Frasier Sr, Brian Gorin, James Flair, Bill Gorin, Chuckie Hospers, Pat Mahaffey, Steve Swift, and Jerry Yagen.
Oh, and there was this character hanging around, too. . .
And finally, to everyone who has supported us. . . THANKS!!!
Dean the elated!
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I am sure she will be the center peice of the museum in VA. 
Just kidding, thanks again Zane for coming out, you got some of the best shots's I've seen! It's been over 24 hours and I still can't wipe the grin from my face!! 
! 
