# B-17 Aluminum Overcast, Calgary June 23-27, 2016



## Crimea_River (Jun 29, 2016)

When a friend of mine who heads up the local EAA chapter told me a few months ago that he was working hard to book Aluminum Overcast to make its first swing into Canada with a stop in my home town, I naturally jumped at the chance to volunteer with the many tasks needed to make the visit a success. I also treated myself to a Father's Day gift by booking a ride and ended up on the first flight on the first day, that being last Thursday.

Needless to say, I took tons of photos and a couple of dozen videos and will post here as many as you guys find interesting. Not sure how to post videos though, so I'll need to experiment a bit on that as some are quite large.

I'll start with pics of my flight and the obligatory pre-flight pic. I'm in the white shirt. The pilots are Lorraine and Ken Morris on the far right. Lorraine still flies 777's with United.







Thursday was a beautiful day and the glazing over the radio compartment was removed and replaced with a grille with openings large enough to stick my SLR through. Damn right I held on tight!






The view from the bombardier's position on the outbound leg toward the nearby foothills.















The view out of the navigator's position.






And here's an attempt at uploading a short video. Anyone know the maximum size I can upload?

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## Shinpachi (Jun 29, 2016)

Awesome shots and video, Andy 
In my case, I made account for Youtube to link videos to this forum.


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## Wurger (Jun 29, 2016)




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## Jeff Hunt (Jun 29, 2016)

Superb stuff Andy. Great gift to yourself as well.

Jeff


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## Gnomey (Jun 29, 2016)

Great shots Andy!


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## Crimea_River (Jun 29, 2016)

Thanks all. Not keen on creating a You-Tube account so will continue to try and upload videos. 

More shots tonight.

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## Old Wizard (Jun 29, 2016)




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## Crimea_River (Jun 29, 2016)

For the remainder of the day on Thursday, I helped out on the ramp making sure that enthusiasts didn't step over the line between apron and taxi ways, moving passenger step, and, sitting in the tail by the exit, answering a lot of questions from folks who booked a walk-through of the parked aircraft. After mine, there were 7 more fully booked flights on Thursday in glorious sunshine.

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## Shinpachi (Jun 29, 2016)

Nice


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## Airframes (Jun 30, 2016)

Great stuff Andy - looking forward to more.


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## Crimea_River (Jun 30, 2016)

Well, OK then. Here are some more.

The weather on Friday took a turn and there were showers through most of the day. That doesn't stop the airplane from taking up paying customers though so we stayed busy. At 2pm the crew took a break and we set up the ramp for ground tours and let people walk through the plane for 10 bucks. After a short stint of this, we shut that down too due to lightning in the area and I made my way up to the pit from my position in the tail to make sure that no-one was left in the aircraft and then spent a good hour sitting in the co-pilot's seat chatting with one of the other volunteers who also saw it fit to stay on the plane- wouldn't want to get wet and struck by lightning running back to the terminal now, would we???? 

Here we are waiting out the rain, looking at my knees under the yoke:









When the rain cleared, flights resumed and I took more pics from a position that I could not normally get to in any airshow: 






A flypast before turning to the downwind leg, gear just starting to come down:






The 6pm flight time arrived and there were two "no-shows". Well, we can't let seats go to waste now can we? So, I "grudgingly" volunteered to be additional ballast on the aircraft. Two flights for the price of one!






A "selfie by the fifty":






The end of a great day under dramatic skies.

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## Crimea_River (Jul 1, 2016)

A short video taken in the nose on the Friday flight.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 1, 2016)

Bringing her in on a sunny afternoon:


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## Old Wizard (Jul 1, 2016)

She's a beauty.


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## Wurger (Jul 1, 2016)




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## Wayne Little (Jul 1, 2016)

Fantastic Andy....


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## Shinpachi (Jul 1, 2016)

An elegant plane and beautiful kids


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## nuuumannn (Jul 1, 2016)

Great stuff Andy, really neat photos and a great opportunity not wasted.


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## P.J. Sturges (Jul 1, 2016)

Awesome photos! A day you'll never forget I'm sure!


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## Gnomey (Jul 2, 2016)

Excellent shots Andy!


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## Airframes (Jul 2, 2016)

Great stuff Andy, but it's a shame you had to have that extra ride, must have been a chore, surely ?


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## chuter (Jul 2, 2016)

Twice years ago when this plane flew through the San Francisco area I worked on this bird. Both visits were mid-tour inspections of some sort (maybe 100 hour). We changed #3 motor on the first visit and on both we chased a laughingly large number of cracks. Boy, these things can sure shake themselves to death, like a nitrous equipped DC-3 missing a blade from each prop. Well ... maybe ... not ... quite ... that bad ... maybe. Now that I think about it, the shaking was really only at takeoff power (and that at today's peacetime pansy-*** MAP) ... but still ... lol. There are much more authentic B-17s out there than this one but they are all worthy of being checked out if one comes to your area. Awesome plane.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 2, 2016)

Yep, saw a lot of welded cracks and some stop-drilled in the oil cooler intakes on the outer engines. And I agree with you on the authenticity. I wished they didn't put the fictitious nose art on it and that they rather completed the plane to look fully like the 601 Bomb Squadron aircraft that the serial number depicts.

A couple of other interesting birds joined the festivities, a rather nice 70% Spitfire replica whose lines are very well done, considering, as well as a Stearman with a Lycoming engine. The Spit pic is done with my cell phone so pardon the quality. I also attach a short video of it in better light.


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## Shinpachi (Jul 2, 2016)




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## Wurger (Jul 3, 2016)




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## Airframes (Jul 3, 2016)

Good stuff Andy, and I agree, that Spit looks to be very well done. And I think I heard a northern English voice on the video too.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 3, 2016)

Northern English as in Canadian......There may have been a Brit standing next to me in the crowd when I took that. The Spit is owned by a local pilot and is currently not flying - just taxiing - as it has issues with engine reliability. It's powered by a 1962 215 cubic inch Buick V-8 and was built from scratch over between 1970 and 1994. It was purchased by the current owner in 2005 and underwent a 3000 hour restoration, modification, and refinish between 2005 and 2011.


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## Airframes (Jul 3, 2016)

Sounds like an interesting combination of engine and airframe. Back in the 1980s, there was a company producing kits for, I think, 7/8th scale Spit MkIXs (maybe slightly smaller than 7/8th scale), which used the Jaguar V-12 engine. I think the company were either Australian or from New Zealand, and the Spits really looked the part, very like the one you posted, apart from being the 'MkIX' replica, and much more like a Spit than some of those small replicas currently flying.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 3, 2016)

The story goes that the chosen engine on this one had exactly 70% of the exhaust flange-to-flange dimension as the Merlin.


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## Tracker (Jul 4, 2016)

Andy,
Great pics and vids! Lucky devil -a true life experience.
We are expecting Sentimental Journey here, 29 Aug- Sept 5, hope to have an experience as great as yours.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 4, 2016)

Go for it but beware of withdrawal symptoms!

I'll close with these last few pics of the B-17. For those of you interested in getting coated with oil, try taking pics from behind like the last one below! Thanks for your interest everyone.

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## Wurger (Jul 5, 2016)




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## Airframes (Jul 5, 2016)

Good pics Andy, and yes, I've had the 'oil experience' with 'Sally B' many years ago !


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## Crimea_River (Jul 5, 2016)

I knew it would happen but went ahead anyway. Had to clean the lens after though!


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## Wayne Little (Jul 6, 2016)

Fantastic Andy....you lucky [email protected]


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## Gnomey (Jul 6, 2016)

Nice shots Andy!


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## Shinpachi (Jul 6, 2016)

Thanks for sharing beautiful pictures, Andy


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## Micdrow (Jul 6, 2016)

Great shots of her Andy, She comes home in a couple of weeks for Air venture where she is home based at EAA's Museum in Oshkosh. I have climbed through her many times and loved every minute of it.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 6, 2016)

Glad you enjoyed this short thread everyone. Some of the most memorable 4 days of my life.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 6, 2016)

Glad you were able to get some time in with Aluminum Overcast, even though she never saw angry skies, it's still awe-inspiring to see and especially ride in!

We get visits from her typically every other year here at Redding (RDD) and as a bonus, the Collings Foundation arrives about a month afterward with their fun stuff!

Thanks for sharing your photos and experiance, Andy!


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## fubar57 (Jul 6, 2016)

Very nice Andy


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