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On a recent weekend, my wife Kelly and I flew our Cessna 170\nto a fly-in being held at Arkansas International airport (KBYH) in Blytheville,\nArkansas. The fly-in was the prelude to a fund-raising event planned for later\nthat evening in a local hangar with the B-25 as the \u201cguest of honor\u201d. Arkansas International is the former Eaker\nAir Force Base and, as part of the Strategic Air Command, was home to several\ntypes of aircraft including, most recently, the B-52G bomber. The event was\nbeing held to raise funds for a National Cold War Museum being planned for the\nairport to honor and acknowledge the role these aircraft played in keeping our\ncountry safe during the cold war era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nBack to the B-25. My experience began with a 20-minute\npassenger safety briefing that included such items as \u201cdon\u2019t touch anything\nthat is painted red\u201d and \u201cwhatever you do, DO NOT remove your headset\u201d. As I\nmentioned earlier\u201c\u2026it\u2019s loud. Having been sufficiently briefed, we were then\ninformed where we would be riding in the aircraft. While it is possible to move\nfrom the front of the aircraft to the back, it is not allowed in flight.\nFortunately, I would be riding in the front. Approaching the aircraft, I noted\nthe presence of oil the entire length of the fuselage\u201c\u2026from front to back. It\nactually smelled<\/em> of oil and I knew that this was my kind of airplane.\nJust standing next to it makes you feel like a man! Imagine what riding in it\nwill do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the time came to board, I climbed a ladder through a\nsmall hatch located on the belly of the aircraft to a compartment just aft of\nthe cockpit. Our pilot greeted us, told us to put on our headset and hook our\nseatbelts. He then informed us that immediately after take-off, we were \u201cfree\nto move about the cabin\u201d, but DO NOT take off our headset. <\/em>If we wanted\nto move forward to the bombardier station in the nose of the plane, we must\nunplug the headset and take it with us. By this point, I was beginning to think,\n\u201c\u201c\u2026it might be loud in this thing\u201d<\/em>. Once we were seated, seat belts were\nbuckled and the engines were started, I couldn\u2019t help but notice a few things\nabout the B-25. It\u2019s loud. It smokes. It shakes. It smells like oil. Oh, and\nit\u2019s cramped. I guess passenger comfort wasn\u2019t very high on the government\u2019s\nlist of requirements for the design of this airplane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Feeling (and hearing!) the exhilarating thrust of two\n1700hp, 14-cylinder, Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone engines is impossible to describe.\nHere\u2019s my best attempt\u201c\u2026YEEHAW! Once airborne, we unhooked the seat belts and\nbegan to look around. As it turns out, one of my favorite views from the\nairplane was looking out the side of the aircraft through the window located\njust behind the pilot seat. This view is directly in line with the propellor\narc and gives you a very unique perspective of the massive engines located mere\nfeet away. With the tips of the props passing literally inches from your face,\nyou almost feel that you are a part of the airplane and not just a passenger\nonboard. While enjoying this view, I noticed that you can actually see the\nairplane fuselage reflected in the polished prop spinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After admiring the beauty and power of the engines, I\ndecided to head to the nose of the aircraft where the bombardier\u2019s station is\nlocated. Access is through a small tunnel located directly under the pilot\u2019s\nseat. Since I AM tall and AM NOT young, this presented a bit of a challenge in\nthe cramped confines of the cockpit area. But I would not be denied the\nincredible experience of riding in the \u201cgreenhouse\u201d for the best view of the\nflight\u201c\u2026even if it meant copious amounts of Ibuprofin the next day. Let me just\nsay, it\u2019s worth everything it cost me to get to that seat\u201c\u2026and yes, I took my\nheadset with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The view is absolutely stunning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As we flew down the Mississippi river at 1500 feet, barges\npassed below, completely unaware of our presence above. Taking hold of the\nmachine gun in front of me, I couldn\u2019t help but think what it must have been\nlike as a \u201c20-something\u201d year old making bombing runs under heavy anti-aircraft\nfire from below and enemy fighters above. These brave men were truly heroes and\nwe owe them a debt that can never be paid. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are times in life where 30 minutes seems like an eternity,\nbut a rare ride in a historic and iconic aircraft is not one of them. Much too\nquickly, the time came that we must return to our seats and prepare for\nlanding. Back in my seat, with my seatbelt (and headset!) on, I watched the\npilots preparing for landing and thought how lucky they were to be a part of\nthe crew that keeps these magnificent machines in the air. But I was also\nreminded that because they voluntarily give of their time, I was able to\nexperience something that very few people ever experience. Back on the ground,\nI thanked them for all they do and for the privilege of being a part of the\nfortunate few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A ride in this type of airplane is certainly not cheap, but\nit is worth every penny of the cost and I encourage you to do it if you are ever\ngiven the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hopefully, my hearing will return in a few days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jerry Chism They\u2019re loud. They smoke. They shake. They smell like oil. I love any type of aircraft, but these are just a few of the reasons I have a particular fondness for WWII aircraft. So imagine my excitement when I recently had the good fortune to take a 30 minute ride in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arkansas","category-front-page-slider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20201107_142200edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16916,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909\/revisions\/16916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/20201107_143412edit.jpg\")
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