Had a new customer come in this past week. I took care of him like I do all of my customers, guess he was not used to such service. 
He had a problem after the service and three of us worked on his car for about 90 minutes before we found the problem, we did not charge him for the extra effort. He was amazed at this, and invited me to come to the Van Nuys Airport this afternoon.
It seems he is in the local chapter of the EAA and they are sponsoring an kids program and as part of that program they have a real live flying B-17 there.
He has arranged for me to have a private tour of this historic warbird.
I can’t wait.
You bastard! :mad:
OK, I’m envious. If the ‘private tour’ includes a hop around the patch, I’ll be so envious I may tear my hair out!
Seriously, though. Kudos, and enjoy the outing. Wave at Group 3 Aviation when you’re there.
Glare.
I’m happy for anyone who gets such an opportunity. No jealousy here, not even envy.
This is how most porn/slasher movies start
Have fun though ratbastard
Declan
I doubt it will include a hop around the yard, I think they want at least one kidney for one of those.
Question, I can function on just one kidney, right?
awesome, take lots of pics and share them with us when you’re done!
/envious
=)
The trick is figuring out before hand which one it’s going to be.
At my store we get a lot of air force people shopping for lunch. My dad had become acquaintances with quite a few of them just due to them stopping in on a daily basis. About 12 or 13 years ago he got a couple of the employees here a ride on a refueling mission. He arranged one for me, but 9/11 kinda put a damper on civilian ridealongs apparently. About a year ago the guy said in the next year or two (or three) he should be able to get me on one. Yeah me.
There are several organizations with B-17’s on tour. The going rate was $450 for a 20 minute flight last year, IIRC. Probably more this year with fuel prices being what they are.
Drool!
That’s cool! I got to crawl arond in one for a couple of hours last year and had a great time. See if they’ll let you shoot at anyone. They wouldn’t give us any bullets.
Well it wasn’t a private tour, but I did get to spend quite a bit of time chatting with the pilot. They had a serious cool collection of aircraft there besides the B-17.
Showed my son the J-3, and how it was covered in fabric and if you turned off the engine in flight how you restart it. His response? :eek:
Here is a link to the photos I took.
All in all a very, very cool day.
Amazing. Great pictures.
I got to go in a WWII bomber at the EAA Sun ‘n’ Fun fly-in in the 90’s. I wonder if it was the same one.
Looks fun! I don’t know what it is about DC-3’s, but I love em. If I ever owned a plane the DC-3 would be near the top of the list. (As I don’t fly, nor have the money to buy a plane, let alone a DC-3, it’s just a fantasy).
My mom worked for an FBO at MYF, so she knew when someone at the field brought in a DC-3 when I was ten. I think a short ride cost a sawbuck. I got a window seat.
Great photos! I love old planes too! I’ve promised myself that I will one day pay for a ride in the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museums’s Avro Lancaster - I think it’s about $1200 or so! They also have rides in a DC3 Dakota or a B25 Mitchell, as well as a Beech-18, Tiger Moth, Chipmunk, Cornell, Stearman, Harvard and Lysander. Their flight schedule suggests that they might fly their PBY Canso (Catalina) as well this summer. When we got engaged, my husband paid for a ride for me in the Stearman; one of the best moments of my life!
If any of you are ever in the Hamilton, Ontario region, I heartily recommend this museum! I haven’t been since I moved away 5 years ago - I can’t wait to visit again, possibly this summer. I’m wondering if they’ve gotten much further on the Bolingbroke restoration.
I didn’t know that they had completed the Lysander restoration; after I posted the previous post I did a double-take on the list of planes you can get rides in! Here’s a video of her (new) first flight; given what they started with, it’s rather amazing!
That is what I described to him.