B-25 Flight Adventure Rescheduled

 

GrimesField
GrimesField

Went to Grimes Field in Urbana Ohio today for my B-25 ride.  It was a gift from my family for Christmas.  Scheduled for 12am.  It’s been beautiful around here all week until this morning.  Drisely all the way there.  Lots of people waiting.   Turns out flights were scheduled to start at 9am.  However the ceiling was too low for VFR (Visual Flying Rating)flying.  It looks like the B-25’s are limited to VFR conditions only.  Although, I am not certain, it is likely due to not carrying the equipment certified for modern day IFR (Instiment Flight Rating) flying.   The crew was waiting for minimum of 1500 foot ceiling before flying.  Thus the delay.   We were early so we had a great breakfast at the Airport Cafe.  The flight crew reported the flight would be delayed at least 2 hours. 

So, we visited the Museum and the B-17 Champaign Lady under contstruction/restoration there.  Got a wonderful up close Cleko tour from one of the volunteers.  Sat with the family Band talked a while.

Back to the lobby to check the weather/ceiling, still a no go.  We had some pie for which this cafe is well known.  I choose peanut butter.

Close up, the Barbie III looks to be in excellent condition.  For me, it’s not about an aircraft ride, it’s a little about riding in a warbird, but it’s mostly about feeling those two Wright R-2600-13 turbo-supercharged radials of 1,700 hp each pounding away from the inside of the aircraft.   I can almost feel my spine tingling just thinking about it.

After lots of conversation and discussing if we’d have all 3 meals in the cafe today, I checked again at about 4:10 and they had scrubbed all the flights until Sunday.  The ceiling never got above 1100 feet that I saw and at the time it was down to 700 ft..  I’m rescheduled for 10am on Sunday.  It’s going to be colder, low tonight about 36 I heard.

Will report back tomarrow.

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