Rumble

Sunday afternoon late, I was working on some writing and detected a rumble to the south. It wasn't a Spam Can so I rushed out front in time to see a B-17 heading for Paine Field. It cruised over the house at 900 feet and for the first time in 70 years I got choked up. Hate to admit it but I did. Went back to work and heard another familiar sound and a rackety-rack T-28 clattered by. Went back to work and another rumble. I bolted outside in time to see a B-24 coming over. Same emotion. They are in the area for several days so I suppose I will have to go up to Paine Field to see them. The passage of time does weird things.

 

I'm with you, Jim. When I was a small boy in the summer of 1934 my family rented a cottage on the Chesapeake Bay just south of Annapolis. Almost every morning a patrol bomber would come cruising down the shoreline at a low altitude and excite the heck out of me. It was a Consolidated P2Y with the floats under the lower wing and a forest of struts and wires that sang a lovely song along with the staccato of the two engines. I think that the distinctive sound is due to the low count of cylinders that produce the racket. I didn't know it then but they were R1820's and 10 years later I would be flying in several airplanes powered by the same engine. The most famous, of course, would be the B-17 but the C-60 used it too. I think that the list would be very long if one counted all the airplanes that used it. Wright built two good engines, the J-5 and the R1820. I won't mention the rest.

 

I'll get nothing done today. They are flying the B-17 around and the B-24 and B-29 will follow, I suppose. Our house is right under the traffic pattern.

 

Spasso and I are going to meet at Paine tomorrow morning and see what's happening. I'll take the camera. FiFi's supposed to fly at 1000 and I'll always remember my flight with the late Tom Cloyd at the controls in 1992. Just for my own amazement I tallied the "B" type of airplanes in which I have flown---B-17, B-24, B-25, B-29, and B-34. "C" types---C-45, C-46, C-47, C-54, and C-60. There are a few more but it gets boring.

 

The tachs weren't always accurate and from what I recall when they were in cruise it was by tach, by ear, and a lot of fiddling with the props and they usually got it sounding right. The B-24 guys would synchronize by looking at the "blade shadow" between 1 & 2 and then between 3 & 4 and then "spoon and bottle" synchronization of all 4 after that. I don't think that this should be taken as gospel because there were all kinds of techniques and this is what I remember. There were some guys who didn't even try.
"Nine O Nine" came over a couple of hours ago and it was in perfect synch and sounded beautiful. Tomorrow I will inquire what these pilots are doing--if they let me near them.

 

Since my last post there have been at least three more flights that have come over and I have run outside every time to see them roar over the house. Really a shake-up. We are going up to Paine at 0800 tomorrow to see the display and FiFi and hopefully to chat with the crews. Maybe get aboard again.