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FiFi goes home


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A fairly lengthy but really cool video of image.png.874ef02624438244081af36bf599bc48.png making the short flight from Fort Worth to her new home at Dallas Executive ("Redbird") Airport.  Noteworthy how busy her ferry crew of four were... definitely a team effort to get her aloft and back down.

 

 

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After a career in aircraft maintenance - primarily military craft - my Uncle Bob and aunt moved back to his native Port Isabel, Texas area.  There, he found his "perfect retirement gig," working for the Confederate Air Force, in Harlingen. 

 

image.png.874ef02624438244081af36bf599bc48.png was his favorite project; he just loved her, and enjoyed countless hours working on her - sometimes travelling to "other places" to fix something so she could make it home.  It broke his heart when the move to Midland took place, as there was no way he was going to leave his home on the coast for the desert of West Texas. 

 

Sadly, he passed in 1998.  Fortunately, he missed the organization's name change to Commemorative Air Force.  There may have been some unexplained seismic activity around the Donna, Texas cemetery when that happened.   :rolleyes: 

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The Warbirds go through a more attentive start-up procedure then used during WW2 were they wanted the planes up and flying once the OK was given. We had an original WW2 Checklist encased, but we never used it, rather the extensive notebook procedures and they were followed by the book and checked off and initialed.

One thing we did for B24, 25s, and my favorite the B17, was run up the RPMs on each engine before taking off to check for any problems before going down the runway for takeoff. I noticed they didn't do this for the 29.

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I just had a thought:  The two gentlemen flying the plane are quite obviously "well seasoned," likely quite experienced and possibly well into their sixties.

 

I'm wondering what the average age was of the original pilots and crews during WW II....  

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Just a guess, but I would think maybe 24-25 or even 26.  Many of the Aircraft Commanders (A/C)  were veterans of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Europe, and were captains or majors at least. Plus, the B-29 was a lot more technically sophisticated than the B-17's and B-25's. Add in the distances to the target with no place to abort to until Iwo was secured, and you needed experienced, mature pilots. Crewmen also were probably veterans of Europe, and the centralized fire control system (CFC) was quite sophisticated, at least until Ol' Iron Arse made them take all the guns out except for the tail to enable heavier payloads of incendiaries to be flown at 5,000 to 8,000 feet instead of high altitude! 

 

Question: Is FIFI going to be maintained in flying configuration at its new home?

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i still call it the confederate air force and always will , my father was left gunner on a 29 on saipan , he always wanted to see fi fi but never bot the chance , he passed in 2000 , thankfully missing 911 , 

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