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Jims RV-8
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Date:  10-30-2016
Number of Hours:  0.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Formation flying with a B-29 (Part 1)

Sunday morning I was down at Midway Regional (KJWY) getting in some Cub time on a beautiful early fall morning. The right door/window was open on the Cub and I had already put the Cub thru its usual paces of power on and off stalls, some dutch rolls, and some turns around a point. I had motored back to the pattern at Midway and was working on my landings with a 5 knot quartering crosswind. After greasing the Cub in for the fourth time I was getting the carb heat pushed in and preparing for a takeoff roll when I hear the following transmission over the radio, “Midway Regional traffic, B-29, 3 miles northwest of you, southbound”. My situational awareness meter had already calculated that this “traffic” was not going to be a factor as he was three miles NW and I was on the East side of the hard surface runway, in the turf. It took a tad longer for my “little kid meter” to alert me that I was flying very close to a piece of aviation history. In fact, I was airborne at about 500 feet at this point, ambling along at 60 knots and tipped the right wing up to see where he was…and there she was – just abreast of me, about a mile or so west! Hi Fifi! When I reached my desired altitude, I turned crosswind in the pattern and then decided, what the heck – I have a WWII relic in my airspace, let’s go check it out! Unfortunately, I was doing about 60, she was probably doing 150 and I would never even get close, but I did think to pull out my phone an snap a picture… but you can’t really even tell it’s a HUGE four engine bomber. Thinking she would turn back north to the airshow at Redbird (Dallas Executive) I followed her for a bit. But she continued to fly, gracefully away to the southeast. What a thrill to think I was transported back in time, flying a 1946 Piper Cub near the 1944 B-29! Wow.

One of the reasons I love Midway Regional – there are usually different airplanes. From the Cub I fly, to the Pitts, Citabria, T-28’s, sailplanes, tow planes – and on this day there was a P-80 Shooting Star on the ramp.
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lower left is the very small, far away B-29

lower left is the very small, far away B-29

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P-80 Shooting Star

P-80 Shooting Star

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