Ghosts

[SCraig]

A unique opportunity for an airplane nut. Fifi is the only remaining flying B-29 anywhere in the world today. Built in 1945 and re-engined between 2008 and 2010 she is once again prowling the circuits and showing off at airports across the country. She stopped in Smyrna, TN for the weekend but I didn't go yesterday since it poured rain all day. It was cloudy and drizzling today but I went anyway. Tomorrow is supposed to be better so I'm planning to go again early in the morning. She is scheduled to fly about 9:00 and I'm hoping to get some engine-startup, takeoff, and landing shots.

Her traveling consorts are a P-51 Mustang named "Gunfighter" and a C-46 Expediter named "Bucket of Bolts".

 

[runnah]

Wow so lucky to see in person!

 

[SCraig]

Wow so lucky to see in person!

You got that right! I would not have known anything at all about it had not a friend at work brought me a little blurb in the local newspaper. Nothing on TV, nothing in the Nashville paper that I noticed, just a little corner in the Smyrna newspaper.

It is a magnificent airplane, but I'm not going to take a ride on it. I don't know how long the rides are but at $595 per person I don't imagine it would be worth it unless it was an all-day flight

 

[bogeyguy]

FiFi was recently in Pgh. That $600 will get you a half hour flight. The cost can go up to $1600 depending on where you would like to sit in the plane during the flight. You want to sit in the belly gun turret, $$$$$. FiFi costs $10,000. per hour to fly. The engines were recently rebuilt at a cost of 3 million dollars. A few of the remaining WWll vets were happy to spend the cash for a ride. It must have been the thrill of a life time. God bless them.

 

[wyogirl]

I'm feeling cheated.... I thought your post would be about paranormal photography.... I wanted to see a real live dead ghost.:lmao:

 

[SCraig]

FiFi was recently in Pgh. That $600 will get you a half hour flight. The cost can go up to $1600 depending on where you would like to sit in the plane during the flight. You want to sit in the belly gun turret, $$$$$. FiFi costs $10,000. per hour to fly. The engines were recently rebuilt at a cost of 3 million dollars. A few of the remaining WWll vets were happy to spend the cash for a ride. It must have been the thrill of a life time. God bless them.

I wanna sit in the front left seat Bet that one costs more than $600!

Thanks for the info, I didn't know what one would get for that money.

I knew they were expensive to fly. There was a B-17 at an air show here many years ago and I talked with the pilot for a good while. At that time, and as I recall it was back in the early 80's, it cost over $2,000 to fly that one for an hour. Given increases in fuel cost, difficulty in finding parts, and so forth, I'm not at all surprised that it adds up to about $10k an hour.

The engines weren't rebuilt though, they were replaced. It took 3 years to do it, and they wound up using engines from the Vietnam era that were in A-1 Skyraiders and C-119 Flying Boxcars. I did hear the same $3 million figure for replacing them though. I hope it's halfway decent in the morning and they can fly her, I really want to hear the sound from them.

I'm feeling cheated.... I thought your post would be about paranormal photography.... I wanted to see a real live dead ghost.:lmao:

Sorry. Life is full of small disappointments

I forgot to post the shot that explains the title:

The airplane is a member of the "Ghost Squadron". It's also painted [FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-1]FS-36375 "Light Ghost Gray"[/SIZE][/FONT] so the title of "Ghost" against the gray background of the skies seemed to work.