On July 28th 2003, one of my friends came over to my house and was talking all kinds of stuff that makes aviation nuts like me act like a crack addict with no game.  He first asked if I wanted to go for a flight with him. I replied that I would love to go.  He then stated that he was not going on this trip and said that I would be leaving out of Farmingdale on a Boeing 17.  As the room started to spin, I heard things like EAA and Aluminum Overcast!  Once the room stopped swaying, I realized that he had just told me that I had a reservation on EAA's very own B-17 Flying Fortress,  the Aluminum Overcast.  I was going to go on Flt#1 on Aug 17th out of Farmingdale, Long Island's Republic Airport. He left me in a daze, feeling like I was 6 years old on Christmas Eve. 

The weeks seemed like years as I looked at every B-17 picture available on the internet to try and find all the perfect pictures before my flight.  I may never get a second chance to take pictures of this historic aircraft from the cabin in flight.  I looked over and over to try and prioritize the importance of each picture and how I was going to make it possible.  I finally realized that the main two shots I wanted was out of the nose, screaming down the runway, sitting in the bomber's chair, and looking at the number two prop spinner, reflecting the aircraft and nose art.  

The letters started to arrive and things were getting better by the day.

Here are some shots taken during a night excursion at the airport with a close friend of mine.  Taking night shots of this bird was truly awesome and I felt like the luckiest person alive...Oh!  I almost forgot that I am going for a ride in her two days later. 

The day before I laid in bed for about 4 hours unable to sleep.  All I could think about was me and my dad watching the formations of B-17 under attack from flak and German fighter.  Some were limping home from damage that would have downed any other aircraft. My real spark for the B-17 came in the form of the movie "Memphis Belle.  As I laid in bed I could almost hear the kicking of a 1,200 horsepower Wright Cyclone engine,  but this would be the last time I could almost hear it!  Turning over and over I had a smile from ear to ear because I knew that this would be the biggest prop that I have ever been on, the only others were a C-172 and a Piper Warrior.

I awoke at 4:00 AM and quickly realized that I could not possibly go back to bed. I wanted to sleep so I would be well rested but my mind kept hearing the sounds of large radial engines kicking over.  I decided to get up to check my batteries and quickly realized that I would not crawl back into bed and four hours would have to do.  I rushed out the door at 5:30AM for the half hour trip to the airport but did not really need to be there before 8:30.  I stopped at the local Deli and grabbed some breakfast, had two bites and quickly decided that food with all the butterfly's was not a great idea. I arrived at the airport at 6:00AM and was looking through a fence at this beautiful aircraft.  6:00AM quickly turns to 8:30AM and the first of the staff at the American Airpower Museum opens the door.  About 10 minutes later the crew chief arrives as we talk about the up coming flight and my lack of sleep (This is very important as it later secures me the best seat in the aircraft-Flightdeck seat!). 

My Butterfly’s in my stomach have had babies and now the offspring is about to give birth again! I walk around this awesome beast with the curves of an angel. All that is running through my head is , I’m ready, I’m ready I’m ready!

I get my ticket and safety card

Then it happens

Rain!  Grounded until further notice.    I decide to go take Pictures of the museum.  I was told that there is other things to look at but seem to keep looking outside ever few minutes.  I keep taking pictures of B-17 model displays for some weird reason.

9:30 turns to 10, 11, and around 12:00 Noon the rain finally stops. I hear a towering voice over the intercom,  "Ladies and gentlemen,  due to the low ceiling, flight 1 will be delayed until 2:30PM".  I hear about 25 people say the same thing at the same time "AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH".  Frank,  A very nice ex-UAL mechanic asks "are you upset?". My reply was honest, "Not at all, that is if I am going up today".

I walk through the museum and all I can think of is some of my online friends, and how I may not get to go because of that Bitch mother nature,  Then it happens!  From the intercom "All passengers for flight 1 please report to the rear of the aircraft.  My heart is about to pound out of my chest as I make my way calmly to the plane thinking that If I showed how I really felt, there would be old men all over the floor from me pushing them out of the way to get to the plane. The Crew man Mike that I had met first was to choose the placement during takeoff and knew that I wanted the nose shot during takeoff and informs all that I arrived before anyone else on the premises and would be sitting in back of the pilot.

We now enter the aircraft through the rear door and go past the waist gunners,  through the bomb bay which is fully loaded, past the radio room and into the cockpit where the pilot and copilot are doing the preflight.

Mike enters the flightdeck with as big a smile as all of us lucky enough to be there have.  He then tells me that once the aircraft breaks ground, he will hit my leg to let me know it is time to jump in the hole next to my seat which will put me in the bombers position in the nose as we race down the end of the runway. I ask him to hit my leg HARD!  He smiled and tells me that the view will give me good pictures as well as a surreal feeling of speed that I should enjoy.  I am then briefed on where some of the great shots are, Mike has no clue that I have been thinking about that for weeks and have seen almost every B-17 shot ever taken. Then it happens! The pilots start firing up the engines. I loosened my belt and stretch to see out the window as the engine is firing.  I start taking shots over my left arm trying to get a good shot from behind me.

Finally #4 is on line when I hear “****** *** dammit! That #2 again! Ok, bring her down! The need to fix that sombitch because this just sucks!” After #2 stopped, a man races up to it and in 30 seconds it is roaring. We then listen to them getting clearance to taxi to position and hold at runway 1. Riding it down the taxiway felt like I was in my bed with my 3 ½ year old jumping on it, bounce bounce bounce all the way to runway 1 run-up area. I am watching the throttles one by one get to full
power then the blade pitch changes over and over. The entire plane is vibrating and feels like the plane is saying “GET OFF THE BRAKES MAN!”. We wait for about 5 minutes for traffic to land and then we start on the active.

Throttles to full power and we are going, really going! I never felt the plane get off the ground when the crew slams my leg, letting me know that it is time to jump into the nose.