Flying High!

 Last Saturday, Bob and I went to an air show.  I've been to quite a few of them, as Bob and our son Andy have always been big fans of aircraft, especially the old ones.  Andy ended up in the military working on aircraft, and although he is no longer serving, he works as a civilian at Fort Campbell, working on Apache helicopters.
This time we were going for a special reason.  But first I'll tell you a little about the day.
It was raining as we got close to the airfield, and when we got out of the car, there was a fine mist and a cold wind.  I was pretty cold and hadn't thought of taking a jacket.  After all, it's July!
However, we made the best of things, walking around and checking out some of the aircraft that were parked there.
Then we got to watch the first section of the airshow.

Excuse the poor quality of some of these photos.  It was hard taking them in the misty rain and seeing what was going on.
This is a coast guard helicopter with a guy hanging out of it, showing how they do water rescues.

This was a stunt plane.  He would fly directly up, then go into a free fall and pull out of it before he got too low.  It was kind of scary to watch.

These 4 flew in formation and were amazing to watch. The name of this group is The Hooligan's.

Here they are again.

That was fun, but the real reason for being there was a gift Bob got from the family for his retirement.

He got the gift of a plane ride...

in this B25 bomber!  (They were doing publicity shots here). We had to order tickets months before as there were a very limited amount of rides available.

This plane is called Rosie's Reply, named after Rosie the Riveter.  It flew combat missions in WWII. Take note of the glass front.  The bomber sat in the bottom of that, and Bob got to crawl down there during his flight.  You'll see photos from that further down.

Here is the plane in the middle of the photo, and the guys that were riding walking out there.  There were 6 men including Bob that were on this ride. The other plane out there is a B17 bomber.

There they go! (Thankfully the weather had cleared by this time, no more rain. The flight earlier in the morning was cancelled due to weather).

Here's some pictures Bob took from the plane.

He was sitting right behind the pilot, co-pilot and crew chief, until he got his turn to crawl through a little tunnel to the bomber seat below them.

Looking out that glass front.

The Norden Bombsight.

The view from above.

When the 30 minute ride was finished, they got a ride back on a golf cart.  He was pretty excited!

He loved it!