Touring the west

Sojourner, I'm keeping your parents and all the others affected by the flooding in my thoughts and prayers. Between fires and floods it's been an apocalyptic summer! Good luck on the job decision, too.
 
Sojourner said:
They sent me a picture of their flooded street. Some lady tried to drive through and didn't make it just after they took the picture. Apparently a guy in Middleton got swept away and died.

As for work......20 years down, 20 years yet to go! Unless Powerball or Mega Millions helps me out....
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Last night I saw on the news a school bus driver driving through the floods....were these people born without any sense???????
 
Phil Tarman said:
I learned to fly in '77-'78 while I was working in the oil field in Healdsburg, CA. I learned to fly at Sonoma County International airport in Santa Rosa. It was a fire bomber base and they flew mostly converted DC-7s, with a few DC-6s. They also had, but never flew, at least when I was there, two F7F Tigercats that had huge drum tamks under their bellies for fire retardant. Plus there was a B-17. One day after my son and I had done some touch and go landings and flown out to Bodega Bay in a 152, I walked over to the fire bomber pilot lounge and asked who was driving the B-17. A young kid spoke up and I asked him if he'd mind if Chris and I looked at his bird. He said, "Heck! We can do better than that. I'll give you the grand tour." We spent about an hour or more looking around in the B-17. It had been built by Lockheed and had never been in the Air Force inventory, but had flown for the Navy and the Coast Guard as an air-sea rescue bird until ab out 1952. Then it had been a mosquito-spraying plane in Florida before becoming a fire-bomber. It was later sold to one of the British museums and was restored to its WW!! condition.

When Joanne and I were visiting Hawkins and Powers in Greybull in '91, we met Mr Powers and I told him I'd seen one of his planes in California. He wanted to know which one I'd seen and when I told him it had been a B-17, he got really upset and told me he'd never had a B-17 and never would. He was a believer in the PB4Y!
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As you saw in the vid, HP re engined the PB4Y from PW 1830s to Wright 2600s, IIRC. But couldnt safely use full power. It would have been an interesting plane to fly. If you are ever with some free time, google Lifeboat for B-17.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xrjEFlvaGI
 
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