I was privileged to have an incredible trip aboard the Commemorative Air Force’s B-29 “Fifi” a couple weeks ago and I wanted to share that experience with everyone. “Fifi” spent a couple weeks at Historic Flight Foundation on display while the crew performed mid-tour maintenance. While she was here, I spent any spare time I had helping them out as best I could, whether it be helping clean the plane, move ladders, or just talk to visitors about “Fifi” so the crew could focus on working. Some of the crew I’ve known from other museums, but I got to meet a few new people as well. Of course all this time I took advantage of the opportunity to get some pictures. On the day they were supposed to head on to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, they had a minor maintenance issue pop up that delayed their departure. I stopped in after work to see how things were going, and they were trying various things to resolve the issue. Eventually, they called it a day and hoped they could get it resolved and leave the next day. The following day I happened to get out of work early and decided to stop by and see if they were still there. As I drove up, I saw there was no B-29 on the ramp. As I turned around to head home, I saw “Fifi” holding short of the runway for takeoff. I raced to my favorite spot and got some pictures of her departure. As she climbed out I expected her to turn east towards Idaho, but instead she made a turn to the west. It was about this time I noticed some of the crew out back where they had been working on her. About 10 minutes later she landed and taxied in. When I got out to the ramp, they were loading up the tour signs and crew bags. The issue had been resolved and they were going to depart as soon as they refueled from the maintenance flight. As they fueled, I helped them pack up the signed and baggage. As we were finishing securing things in the forward bomb bay and were waiting for one of the passengers to arrive, the pilot walked over and asked if I’d like to go with them. They had a seat available, but I’d have to find my own way back from Coeur d’Alene (some 220 nautical miles away). I had to think about it because there were many unknowns. I had no idea how to get back from Idaho, all my vacation days were going towards Oshkosh, and I didn’t really have much money. It didn’t take long to decide. I was going. I’d figure the rest out once I we got there. They had made a similar offer to one of the other volunteers the previous day and were waiting for her to arrive. She got there just as they were about to get in and go. I was offered the observer’s seat behind the pilot (which would have been my first choice anyway) and listened in to the crew on the intercom. The flight engineer started her up, and we taxied out to runway 34L. After some quick checks, we took the runway and departed. We turned east after departure over the city of Everett and headed towards Steven’s Pass. We leveled off at 7500 feet just as we were reaching the mountains. I’ve flown in this area many times before, but obviously never in a B-29. I offered recommendations on navigating through the mountains, which the crew seemed to appreciate. Earlier in the day, a wild fire had broken out on the east side just north of Wenatchee. By the time we had come through, it had grown significantly, and there was a temporary flight restriction to allow for safe firefighting operations. We passed to the north of it and headed direct to Coeur d’Alene. The 1.4 hours flight was uneventful, and I spent most of it taking pictures and just enjoying. We circled over Lake Coeur d’Alene a few times before landing. Once we were on the ground and the oil had been wiped from the nacelles, reality started setting in. How do we get back to Everett? We checked some of the rental car places online, but all the ones around town had closed for the night. If we could get to Spokane, we could hope a Horizon Air flight or rent a car from there and drive back. As we looked for some sort of shuttle service to get to Spokane, the copilot walked over and asked us where Crest Air Park was. Crest is just a little south of Seattle. There was a guy with a Cessna 180 who was heading back to Crest with his wife. We found him and asked if he had room for us and if he could drop us of at Paine Field, and we’d pay for his fuel. After pondering for a couple minutes, he decided that he could take us, but he limited his flying to Day VFR and was already racing the sun to get back to Crest, so he couldn’t stop at Paine. Since it would get us much closer to home, we decided it would be a good trade. We again offered to buy fuel, but he kindly declined. We departed almost immediately in order to get back before it got too dark. It took about 2 hours to get back. Along the way, the fire had grown even more and offered us a nice red glow with the setting sun. We crossed the cascades through Stampede Pass and Arrived at Crest Air Park in the last light of the day. We helped put the plane back in the hangar, and the pilot offered to take us to Seatac since it wasn’t very far out of his way. From SeaTac we caught a shuttle back up to Everett. We had departed Paine around 5:00pm, and we were back at Paine a little less than 8 hours later after what might be the most amazing experience of my life. Flying aboard the only flying Boeing B-29 Superfortress over the Cascade Mountains, bumming a ride back across the mountains in a Cessna 180, and all for the price of an airport shuttle ride. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday evening in July.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 22:30:01 +0000
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