Having spent 21 years as an Airborne Traffic Reporter, I was up in the air plenty in a single engine Cessna 172, and occasionally in a Jet Ranger helicopter. At one point I even got the thrill of going up and doing acrobatics with the Red Baron Pizza stunt team in a Stearman biplane. For me, this past week topped it all after I had the opportunity to fly over Boise in a legendary B-17 “Flying Fortress! I never served in the military, but my father was actually a mechanic during WWII, working on B-17’s and others, and I’d seen WWII aircraft up close before at airshows, but had never been inside one, and getting to go for a flight was really something!
The Liberty Foundation is a non-profit which maintains, restores, and flies a few of the remaining B-17’s…there are 12 total still flying in the world. They have brought one of the legendary B-17’s to Boise, and this weekend you can tour the “Madras Maiden” for free, Saturday and Sunday between 2:30pm and sunset, at the Jackson Jet Center. Flights of about 30 minutes will take place on the hour from 10am to 2pm each day, at a cost of $450. At last check there were already over 80 people scheduled to take flights! Ray Fowler is a volunteer and Chief Pilot for the Liberty Foundation and says while that sounds expensive, it costs the foundation just over $5,000 per flight hour, and over $1,500,000 annually to keep the B-17 airworthy and out on tour…rather than it sitting in one museum somewhere! Enjoy the pictures of my experience, and hopefully you’ll get to enjoy this iconic piece of history this weekend! ~ Ron
