A Banner Plane

 I heard this guy flying over head.

This a Piper Super Cub pulling a banner.

You can see the line.

I think the banner said, "vote".  It was cool to see a Piper Super Cub though.

Wishing a Final Farewell to the Yankee Lady

I found out yesterday that the Yankee Lady would be leaving for California at Noon today.  I figured that I would head over to Willow Run to see her off.  I will have more thoughts on that after the pictures.

I arrived a little early at the airport.  I wanted to make sure I had a decent spot and it turned out to be fairly decent.  I was able to catch this RV-8 as it was doing touch and goes at the airport.

The RV-8 is a homebuilt aircraft that can be used for stunt flying.  It was first introduced in 1995 and a little over 1600 have been built.

I think this particular one comes out of Monroe.

This is a 737 but I'm not sure who it belongs to.  I'm pretty sure it is used for hauling freight.

The RV-8 again.

This is a Piper Archer that belongs to flight school that operates out of Willow Run.  I think it is the school that now handles the Eastern Michigan flight program.

As I was looking at Flight Radar to see if the Yankee Lady had a flight plan, I saw that this plane would be taking off around the same time.

It is a 727 belonging to USA Jet.  It was heading down to Laredo, TX.  I presume it is delivering parts.

A Diamond DA-20.

The Piper Archer again.

The moment that I was waiting for, the Yankee Lady taking off from Willow Run for the last time.  It was a pretty nice day for it.

The Yankee Air Force bought her in 1985 for $250,000.  After some test hops, she was brought from Mesa, Arizona to Ypsilanti, MI.

When the museum got her to Ypsilanti, they found that they need to do alot of work to restore her to her condition in World War II.

It took nine years to do that and her first post-restoration flight took place in 1995.

She has been in a movie and took part in the dedication of the Memphis Belle at the US Air Force museum.

Last year, there was a directive from the FAA that kept her grounded.  The Yankee Air Museum had to some work on her wing spar to make her compliant.

They had to do some other work on her this year.

In June, they announced that she was sold to a person in California.

It was announced kind of clumsily and caused a bit of uproar.

So now she is on her way to California where she will be taken apart and shipped to New Zealand where she will be completely restored.  Her purchase price was 15 million.

As I said, they kind of fumbled the announcement of her sale.  Initially reading between the lines, it sounded like the museum could be in some financial trouble.  There were other people that explained it better.  Namely, that she was getting expensive to maintain and it would come down to saving her or doing other things.  They decided on other things.

To put it in perspective, I believe the cost of spar thing was close to a million dollars.  It costs close to 300,000 to replace her engines.  I'm not sure on costs of other parts but I imagine they are not cheap.  I would hate to see them keep her and then have to scrap her later because of lack of funding.  Of the planes in their collection, the B-17 was probably the most valuable.

So I hope she has a good home and may come around some time in the future.
 

The Flying Super Cub

 Sometimes I get to see all sorts of things on the river.

This plane was carrying a banner but I didn't get to see what the banner said.

I wasn't sure what kind of plane this was though.

So I looked up the tail number when I got home.

And determined that it was a Piper Super Cub.

A Piper Cherokee Six Flies Over

 As I was taking pictures of the ship, I saw this guy fly over.

It is a Piper Cherokee Six.    The aircraft first flew in 1963 and was introduced in 1965.

It was developed from the Cherokee and meant to be larger than four seats.

This particular aircraft carries six passengers and has a baggage compartment.

The Start of a Whirlwind of a Day

 Saturday turned out to be an interesting day.  After taking my mom to the lab for some bloodwork, I headed up to Pontiac to stop at the Oakland County International Airport.  They were supposed to have a B-24 Liberator flying.  I looked up the schedule and saw the times it was flying and had time to catch a flight.

There is a nice little spot off to the side of the runway where you can watch the planes take off.  Unfortunately, it has a fairly high fence that makes some shots difficult.  But still, it's better than what they have at Metro.  Anyway, first up was a Cessna 150.

It was followed by a Piper Cherokee.

The Cessna was doing pattern work and touch and goes.

Another Piper Cherokee.

A Beechcraft Bonanza.

Another angle of that plane.

This is one of the planes that came with the B-24 Liberator.  It is a T-6 Texan and was used as a trainer during World War II.

Our friend the Cessna Returns.

A Beechcraft Super King Air takes off.

This Delta Airlines 717 flew overhead.  It was pretty low too.

This was a Bell Jet Ranger that flew by.

Another angle of that helicopter.

A Diamond DA-20 taking off.

A Beech 76 Duchess.

The T-6 Texan flying by again.

Another Piper Cherokee.

Another Diamond DA-20.

This was a Cirrus SR-22.  It has a parachute and is one of the safest general aviation planes out there.

The plane that I was waiting for.  This is a B-24 Liberator.  This particular one was built by Consolidated Airplane Company.  The design was built by Ford at Willow Run.  I wish the Yankee Air Museum could find one that was built there.

I would love to see one of these flying over Ypsilanti.

A Beech A36.

A P-51 Mustang flying by.

Another angle of it.

It was circling the field to come in for a landing.

The T-6 Texan in the air again.

The P-51 passing by.  Unfortunately, I had too much lens.

The B-24 entering the pattern to land.

A Hawker taking off.

I should go back to Pontiac.  It is a busy little airport and has a nice variety of aircraft.  I guess on Fridays, it gets really busy.