Sunday, May 13, 2007

B-17 Flight (2)



Airfield Looking Back From Radio Operator's Position

I ended up seated behind the pilot for take off and landing. Sounds good, eh? Well, let's not get carried away: in practice, this means sitting on the floor between the pilot's chair and a bulkhead, trying hard not to kick the large, red fuel transfer valve for the port wing-tanks that was right in front of me.

We had about 15 minutes for pre-flight checks and taxiing, plenty of time to enjoy the sights and sounds of all 4 engines on part-throttle idle, drifting in and out of synch and sending waves of vibration through the airframe. Stirring stuff.

Anyway, time to go and the pilot pushed the throttles to full power and off we went. Hard to get an impression of how fast we were climbing but overall it was a smooth and seemingly-quick take-off.

2 comments:

I said...

what a cool day out

J said...

It was a great morning and something I'd happily do again. Love to get a ride on a Lancaster but not sure how many of those are left flying these days?