My New Favorite Picture

[Snake45]

Last week my Dad--now 84--went to Vance AFB, OK, to see my Kid get his USAF wings. While he was there the Kid took him out to see a locally based B-26. Kid says that when the B-26 crew found out Dad had flown them in Korea, they treated him like a Rock Star, dragging out the ladder so he could get in the cockpit one more time.

I think there will be lots more pics coming of this exciting week, but for now, this is my favorite:



BTW, here's Dad's "original" B-26:

[Triplane102]

Congrats on ALL of that Happy Occasion ! Now we need a pic of All 3 of you guys together !

[Mark Allen M]

Fantastic!!! ... wonderful to see your father and son doing so well. Great for you and for them. Your father looks like he could get right up there and start her up and go. Honorable looking gentleman and another one of our hero's. Thanks for posting.

M

[DH82EH]

Agreed!
Really great shot of a wonderful occasion.
Thanks for posting!

Andy

[Dan K]

Awesome pic and event!

Extra kudos to the Lady Liberty bunch for getting her airborne after 9 months down with a blown engine.

[Pogo]

Pretty awesome stuff alright. Now where are those additional pictures...?

[Wilson]

I can see why it's your new favorite picture. I thought it could use a couple of quick Photoshop tweaks.

Congratulations to your son. Respect to your dad. And a pat on the back for you, too.

[Snake45]

I can see why it's your new favorite picture. I thought it could use a couple of quick Photoshop tweaks.

Wilson, that's fantastic! I did some tweaking on it but I don't have the full Shop program or know how to use it. If I email you the original full-size image, could you work the same magic on it and email it back to me?

[Snake45]

Great for you and for them. Your father looks like he could get right up there and start her up and go.
M

He prolly could, too. While he was out there, the USAF let the families and friends play on the T-1 Jayhawk simulator. Most who tried couldn't even get down the runway without crashing, and only a few got into the air at all. According to my Kid, Dad--who has a couple thousand hours in the Fokker F-28--took off straight down the runway, climbed to altitude, did aerobatics for a while, then brought it back around and landed right on the numbers.

Dad's major comment on the sim flight was that the trim didn't react fast enough to suit him. But he said after he got the trim lag figgered out, he was just fine.

[Michel Lemieux]

Great story!

Congrads to your son.

Just curious, lovely pic of your dads bird.

Where was it taken? Love the ocean in the background.

Cheers!

[Snake45]

Just curious, lovely pic of your dads bird.

Where was it taken? Love the ocean in the background.

I believe that was taken in Japan, as they were flying those airplanes back to the states in '54 or '55. Another pic in that series has an all-black B-29 in the background. Well, the upper surfaces might be NMF but the black goes almost all the way up the fuselage sides, and right up to the tip of the fin. I've only ever seen one other photo of a B-29 painted like that.

[Snake45]

Just curious, lovely pic of your dads bird.

Where was it taken? Love the ocean in the background.

I believe that was taken in Japan, as they were flying those airplanes back to the states in '54 or '55. Another pic in that series has an all-black B-29 in the background. Well, the upper surfaces might be NMF but the black goes almost all the way up the fuselage sides, and right up to the tip of the fin. I've only ever seen one other photo of a B-29 painted like that.

Just found a pic with part of that black B-29 pic on photobucket--I'd forgotten I had that loaded up.



ETA: Just found another one: