EAA B17 Fantasy Camp

[tanker]

I just got back the afternoon of 11/24 from three great days at the EAA Air Acadamy at Oshkosh, WI. 23 people from the the nearby states were offered this special opportunity to experience the B17G "Aluminum Overcast" up close and personal. Room,Board,Training Materials,Local Transport, and 30-45 min. Flights were provided. We heard the personal european air war experiences of two pilots and a ball-turret gunner with a total of 85 combat missions between them. Class presentations at the EAA Museum Educational Center included; developement history of the aircraft, technical descriptions of all systems, flight training by the chief pilot, and historical mission descriptions. After an amazing flight where we were given the run of the plane during flight, we participated in a complete pre-flight and were then given complete access to the entire interior of the aircraft for an hour. A chance of a lifetime experience I will cherish for the rest of my life! A camera crew followed us the full 3 days recording the experience in detail(I lookforward to seeing it in a couple of months on the The Fine Arts Channel) ;D

[Keith Heitmann]

Sounds great! What a chance of a lifetime!

[PUFF88]

lucky you, i did get to fly on one 8 years ago, and walk around the whole plane cept the tail gun position and bottom ball turret. it was great, although they did not let us do any training or preflight stuff at all. was this the one that is bare cept for a red tail? i saw one flying about a month ago was down for the weekend. The one i flew on was olive drab, unless its the same won repainted. They used to come down once a year with a b-24 as well. it was awesome. if u find out when its gonna be on tv, let us know.

[tanker]

Yes Puff, this is the silver B17G in the colors of the 398th Bomb Group/8th AAF(Red Tail/W Black Triangle and Red Wingtips). This plane is owned and maintained by the EAA, and based in Oshkosh, WI. It has a nationwide tour during the warmer periods of the year which covers most the major population areas.

[PUFF88]

thats cool that you got to do so much more than i did, I enjoyed it a lot, would have loved to experience it all. was fun sticking my head out the top viewport at 220 mph though.

[tanker]

The long awaited Video of our B17 Fantasy Camp has been released. Those of you with Dish or Cable Service can see it on The Fine Living Channel (Ch#232-DirecTV) at the following dates and times: May 8 @ 7am Central, May 11 @ 4pm, May 13 @ 4pm, and May 16 @ 3:30am. This is a 1/2 hour show which is The EAA B17 camp at Oshkosh, WI and Drag Racing camp at Moroso Speedway in Palm Beach, FL. The 2004 B17 camp is now scheduled for October 29 thru 31 at the EAA Air Academy in Oshkosh. If you are interested call 888-EAA-EAA9(322-3229) or see www.airventuremuseum.org/flightops/fantasycamp/. It truely is the chance of a lifetime, especially since the Federal Government is trying to regulate these flight opportunites away.

[tanker]

BAD NEWS-The EAA B17 "Aluminum Overcast" suffered a landing gear collapse at Van Nuys Airport in CA in early May. This has caused the suspension of the nationwide "Salute to Veterans " tour and expensive and time consuming repairs.
GOOD NEWS-The article which I submitted to EAA's Sport Aviation Magazine about our B17 Fantasy Camp experience was published in the June 2004 issue with great pictures and some touch-up by the journalism pros at EAA. My wife says I have now hand my 15 minutes of fame. I got a copy of the Fine Living Channel video from EAA this week, it is extremely well done and I was pleased to see I was in several scenes. This was the most satisfying money I ever spent!