Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

You only go around ONLY once....DO IT, that price is a pittance for the fun you'll have

GreenBay

Definitely worth it! Flew from Green Bay up the Door Peninsula on the Aluminum Overcast. About a 40 minute flight. We helped turn the engines over before they were started up (to prevent damage to a rod or piston if the bottom cylinders had filled up with oil). Very interesting flight, got to move around during the flight. Stood right next to the pilots. Got a good lecture on the history of the airplane both before and after the flight. It is loud! Those engines are so distinctive sounding, I heard the plane flying in to Green Bay and immediately got on the list for a ride.

1963mca

1998, in "Fuddy Duddy", cost $0.00.

My wife and I had bought a Hot Air Balloon ride for her mother's 75th birthday. We tagged along as part of the chase crew. Balloon landed in a field about 10 miles from BGM airport. While working the balloon recovery, we heard a really loud prop aircraft heading our way. Looked down the valley and was shocked to see a B-17 coming over the treetops (actually about 2500 feet but looked much lower!). Since I based our Cessna 172 at BGM, I could estimate that on his heading and altitude, he was probably making an approach into BGM, since I flew that approach quite often. Since we were finished with the balloon, we hopped in the car and drove quickly to BGM to see if it actually landed. Sure enough, there it was on the tarmac with a fuel truck in attendance. Struck up a conversation with the crew and found they were enroute to the new warplane museum (Wings of Eagles) near Elmira, NY (Horseheads). After a lot of hangar flying, the AC said since this was just a ferry flight, they had a few empty positions available, and would I like to go with them. Took me less than a second to ask my wife if she would mind driving to ELM and pick me up there. Being the nice wife she is she said "NO, I want to go TOO!" Actually she said fine, and I got to go with the crew in Fuddy Duddy. As we were taxing out to the active 34 I realized I left so quick I forgot my camera, which was still in the car. So I didn't get any pictures in flight. I did get some static pictures on the ground when my wife arrived with the car, but the once in a lifetime in-flight pictures just weren't to be. From that time on, I treat a camera as my second priority in the "never leave home without it" category, you may not get a second chance at something, so be prepared.

By the way, I did donate $100 to the museum after the ferry ride.

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Salute to you and him👍😀

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Salute to him. 😀👍👍

acain52

I rode in the "Texas Raider", it was worth every penny. How our men flew 10 hour missions in these things is beyond me.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Neat pics...remember what lens you were using? Aluminum Overcast came to my airport 3 or 4 yrs ago. I did a $10 walk-through and took some pics. I was surprised how small it was inside. Amazing bravery for the 'young kids' riding it into battle. Someone mentioned "Memphis Belle." I used to have that movie, but I lost it (or lent to one of my brothers) and never saw it again. It's being moved into the NMUSAF for display. My grandfather (never met) worked as a painter for the Thomas-Morse Aircraft Company (Ithaca, NY) and have seen one pic of the whole crew in front of the hangar. My uncle, who still lives out there, is helping ($, tech) with the re-construction of one of the only examples left in the word of the "Tommy," a WWI trainer. I heard it is expected to fly once and then be donated to a museum. They are making it with some of the original tooling/building. I rode the Tri-Motor on my first visit to Oshkosh in the last 80s and last year was treated to the Bell 47 ride by a couple I took to Oshkosh from O'Hare (Melbourne, AU suburbs).

dodgerm37 Loc: N.E. Ohio

If you get the chance by all means GO! I went a year or two after the EAA started their tours. During the hour long flight each "passenger" got ten minutes at the controls. For its size the Aluminum Overcast is amazingly light on the controls. I've flown on two B-17's, the Collins Foundation's B-24 and a privately owned B-25. The 25 was the noisiest of the three. The only aircraft that was worse is the C-123. Go and enjoy a piece of history.

EdJ0307 Loc: out west someplace

I did the Ford Trimotor a few years ago. I have been to exhibits that featured flights in a B-25 but couldn't justify the $400+ cost.
I posted some photos from the TriMotor flight here on UHH.

recalcitrant1 Loc: Northern Illinois

I had the opportunity to take a ride in Liberty Belle a year before it had an emergency landing in a corn field and burned to death (sad, sad, sad). Anyway, like you, I wondered if the $400 would be worth it, but then I thought, there aren't too many of these old birds around and it's a once in a lifetime experience (and having grown up watching 12:00 High, what more incentive did I need)?. Anyway, It was some of the best money I've ever spent, the memories are great and there is nothing like the roar of the four radial engines spooling up, slow roll to take off and smooth as silk landing. One other fantastic benefit to my ride was that you could sit anywhere you wanted for take-off and landing, but once we were "wheels up" we were free to wander around the aircraft with only the cockpit and tail gunner position off limits. So yea, I got to "pretend I was ono a bomb run sighting through the Norton bomb site, pretended I was flaming some 109"s from the waste gun, and got some nice tail shots (photo-that is_ by sticking my head out of the open "skylight" above the radio operator compartment. Sorry about the long narrative, but you can see the memories are still vivid, SO..... GO FOR IT! I'm anxious to hear about your experiences.

Ghery Loc: Olympia, WA

I've been through the Collings Foundation B-17 and B-24 when there were at OLM. Didn't go up, however. Also went through the CAF's B-29 a few years ago. Fascinating aircraft. My uncle was a co-pilot on a B-17G out of England near the end of the war. Mother-in-law was an Army nurse and came ashore on Omaha Beach on D+1. Dad was a Pharmacist's Mate 3rd in the Navy, but didn't leave the US during the war. A cousin of my mom's is buried at the US military cemetery in Luxembourg, he was killed in Germany on January 27, 1945. Saw his grave last month while we were there. WWII was a terrible, major event.

Now, if I get a chance to go up in a B-17 in the future, I'll spend the money and go. What the heck, it's only a little more than 4 hours in the club's C-172. :-)

swede1909

Go for it. It's a once in a lifetime experience. I took my son and two G-sons for a 45 min ride on the Aluminum Overcast out of Boeing Field in Seattle a number years ago. Fantastic experience. It is noisy, as someone already mentioned. Hard to imagine an eight hour flight over Germany in WW II. Youngest G-son sat in the bombardier's bubble as we flew over Puget Sound on a clear, sunny day. Years later, they still talk about it.

kerry12 Loc: Harrisburg, Pa.

I flew on the Nine O Nine also. The triangle A was my Dad's Bomb Group. Well worth the money.

bhanusa Loc: Maui, Hawaii

I spent probably 100 hours in a B-17 flying out of San Francisco with the Coast Guard, doing search an rescue in 1953 in 1954. Great experience, and I collected an extra $50 per month for flying at least four hours per month, as did everybody on the base including cooks and stewards.

Aloha, Bob

Quaking Aspen Loc: Cottage Grove, OR

What is really amazing is that American factories were cranking out 100s of these planes and other planes and thousands of tanks etc. during the war. I often wonder if there will ever be a time when the American people will work together again with such a commonality of purpose. I guess having the homeland under attack is a powerful incentive.