Geedee's 2022 adventures :-)

[Jeff Hunt]

Hey Gary. I am going to MAAM at Reading PA, Oshkosh, Thunder Over Michigan and a couple other smaller shows. When and where are you going to be in N America this year?

Great photos, thanks for sharing.

Jeff

 

[Geedee]

I wonder how many active duty Air Force pilots on that base were wishing to fly it.

I got the feeling just about everybody there !

 

[Geedee]

Hey Gary. I am going to MAAM at Reading PA, Oshkosh, Thunder Over Michigan and a couple other smaller shows. When and where are you going to be in N America this year?

Great photos, thanks for sharing.

Jeff

Hey Jeff

Will be at the EAA AVC race in Wausau that finishes as Osh starts and will be camping at Osh for the duration. Normally spend a bit of time at the AVC enclosure...centre of crowdline...before going walkabout. Hoping to get out again in Sept on Tour with the CAF B29/B24 Sqn. Will be in touch nearer the time

 

[Geedee]

And now for some interior shots. Being crew means I get a lot of early access when prepping the 'girl's for the tours, so I'm inside with a checklist making sure everywhere is just right...also means I don't have the hassle of that elusive shot because somebody is in the way !
The cockpit area is just huge with 2 x pilots, bomb aimer front gunner, radio, navigator and flight engineer. I understand that the radios in Fifi are operational and used occasionally as in radio-ham chats.

Pilots side

Central view with the Nordon just in sight

Co-pilots side

view from between Nav / radio seats

Radio section

Navigators area

The nav chart is also signed by Dutch Van Kirk who was the navigotor in the Enola Gay...that's history right there !!

And the flight engineers position. This guy makes the whole thing work right thru the mission !!

Then its back in the gunner section with the Barbor Chair where the gunnery chief would sit (this view is looking forward)

and one of the side gunner positions

This is the view down that access tunnel. Being pressurised you would not want to be in there if the tunnel was holed in combat !

View looking back form the Barbor Chair area to the rear gun position

The Putt-Putt...and yes, this one does work

Tail gunners viewpoint

looking forward from the tail gun position with the gun crew access hatch and ladder on the right

Seating area for riders with the two Scanner seats by each gun blister

 

[Wurger]

 

[Geedee]

And a quick little vid I posted on my FB page

 

[Wurger]

 

[Snautzer01]

I FIND YOUR LACK OF FAITH DISTURBING

 

[Geedee]

Okeydokey, so now y'all seen the outside and inside of Fifi...what's she like in the air ?

One word' Ohmyfrikkinhellthisisbeyondepic' !

Yes, I was a bit excited on my first flight in a B-29 and I had been assigned the bombardiers seat for the flight as well...short of hands on the controls, it don't get much better than that I can tell ya !

Sat there in the pointy end lined up on the runway and the thottles are moved slowly up to take off power, the noise is....you don't just hear it, you feel it !. Surprisingly, once we started to move the decibels dropped considerably...the reason for this is a we accelerated, we outstripped the noise footprint because we were in front of the clockwork !

Settled into the cruise and I tried a quick vid...poor cell phone struggled to keep up with the noise which was surprising because it didn't actually sound that loud...and that is without doubt a bl**dy awful first frame of the vid !

If you didn't hear in the above vid, the flight from Pittsburg down to Baltimore was around 1:10 hr and we transited mostly at around 7.5K alt. Flying over the clouds sat in the front of Fifi was just pure adrenalin pumping sheer magic !

Around about half way there, Curt obliged and used my cell phone for this pic...the more I look at it and what it involved, my gob is well and truly smacked !!

Clearly I am a Star wars Stormtrooper as I missed most of my mug ...good thing really ...in this pic. Being assigned to the Bombardiers seat as a rider means you are there for the duration of the flight which is not a problem at all

We did a slight detour on the way and dipped down and overflew the Gettysburg Memorial as a mark of respect. It was a little bit bouncy at the lower altitude but to be honest, I didn't notice as was still in sensory overload mode. Then is was time to land...I've had to reduce the length and picture quality of this clip to get it under the upload restriction...and needless to say it was stunning approach and touchdown

More to follow still

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Superb videos Gary.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely shots Gary!