Hunter
Indiana

Reflections on an Unusual Flight

Dear all,

Friday and this weekend brought relief from two weeks of biblical deluges and flooding in Indiana.  Temperatures have been comfortably warm, the skies only partly cloudy, and breezes moderate.  Everything is a deep, rich, early summer green.

Today, I saw that Indiana green from a new vantage.  An aviation foundation brought its restored WWII B-17 bomber (think: Memphis Belle) to a nearby rural airport, and I dug deeply into my wallet for a half-hour ride.  The inside of a B-17 may look large in the movies, but in reality, it's cramped, and one moves around stooped over and constantly bumping into aluminum.  The noise inside is monstrous, and earplugs made it possible to enjoy the ride.

Seeing the green Indiana fields through the pilots' windows and the bombardier's station let me feel the flight as if occurring over the English countryside in 1943-44.  This was the flight of a lifetime, and I came back to Earth in a reflective mood, thinking about the thousands of 18 and 19 year olds who flew these airplanes over Europe, most with only 150-200 hours of flight time, if that, and who endured great discomfort and danger on every flight.

If you ever get a chance to ride in the EAA Foundation's B-17, "The Aluminum Overcast," do it.  They tour the country all summer, selling rides.  Go to "EAA.org" for information.  I doubt that such rides will be available much longer.  What with the difficulty & cost of keeping an ancient complex aircraft flyable, insurance issues, and the attacking hordes of lawyers, I think this will have to end within the next few years.

Hunter