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Date:         Fri, 17 Apr 1992 10:05:00 EST
From:         Lydia Fish <FISHLM@SNYBUFVA.BITNET>
Subject:      Miss Mitchell flies again!
Comments: To: aircraft@grearn.BITNET

Forwarded from WWII-L

******************************************************************

Miss Mitchell, a B-25J medium bomber, lifted off on its maiden flight,
Thursday April 16th at 3:40 p.m. CDT (2040 Zulu for them flight types :-).

The natural aluminum finished B-25 rolled to the runway at Fleming Field in
South St. Paul, Minnesota just past 3:00 where she ran up and waited for the
departure of a Harvard Mark IV (North American AT-6D built by Canadian Car
and Foundry).  The Harvard carried a close formation pilot and an aviation
photographer.  The Harvard was scheduled to fly chase for both photographic
opportunity as well as an exterior observer.

FAA regulations required us to make a departure to the south on a 4000'
runway.  At 3:40 p.m., the aircraft was taking off with a 15 knot direct
TAIL wind.

At approximately 1,600 feet, the aircraft began its rotation.  At approximately
2,400 feet, the aircraft lifted itself from the Earth for the first time in
twelve years: 4,176 days after its last flight which brought it to Fleming
Field for restoration which included, as just the beginning, a complete and
total disassembly of the aircraft.

[An article on its restoration may be snarfed by anonymous-ftp on
itasca.stat.umn.edu (128.101.51.9) in the /wwii/caf/Miss.Mitchell
directory - I'd appreciate comments on it from readers...]

At take off, the B-25 was immediately met by the Harvard flying just off
its right rear quarter and a jet helicopter off its left rear at high speed.
(Both, by the way, thrilled the 70 or so people to death... Just like an
airshow! :-) Confused the heck out of the neighbors who live off the runway,
though.  "Uh... What the...?"  :-)

Miss Mitchell made a perfect departure to the south and lined up safely
over the Mississippi river.  Landing gear doors were closed within
moments after departing the end of the runway.

For the next 20 minutes, Miss Mitchell and her photographic chase circled
the area, away from residential areas.  This allowed the ground crew and
ground media the opportunity to ground-vehicle themselves to Holman Field
(St. Paul Downtown Airport) where she will be based during her first five
hours of flight evaluation.  The Metropolitan Airports Commission has
always been very good to us and offers us a lot.  Even the little things
go very well.  One of the media photographers asked for permission to
go to the far end of the runway to photograph the landing.  Not only did
they give approval, but provided him transportation.  The tower and
airport ground personnel were magnificent.

At 4:00 precisely, Miss Mitchell arrived at Holman Field and executed a
picture perfect landing and taxiied to the base of the control tower.
The Harvard, still in close formation, broke away and did a high-speed
"victory buzz" of the control tower (with permission :-) and probably
thrilled the hell of the newspaper photographer in the back seat who is
more used to "press vans" and then returned to meet up with Miss Mitchell.

The aircraft taxiied to the waiting ground crew and onlookers.  The moment
the engines shut down, the pilots window flew open and an excited pilot
yelled not quite what we expected as first words after such a flight:

        "Don't open the hatch!!  Don't open the hatch!!"

He later explained that in his 3,000 hours of B-25 time, he has never
experienced a B-25 with this amount of raw power and desire to fly.  They
almost complained about having to constantly throttle it back.  However,
on their take off roll, the full accelleration was more than they
expected, even after all the high speed runs, and every piece of paper,
log book, registration forms, etc which wasn't nailed down ejected itself
forcefully into the engineers compartment where every loose piece of paper
landed on the floor: i.e., the hatch.  Had we opened the hatch, a zillion
pieces of important paper would have been scattered to the 15 knot (gusting
to 20) winds.

Engine panels were removed and every aspect of the aircraft was inspected.
At 5:00, the call came for an addition 588 gallons of fuel, and at 5:30
p.m. Miss Mitchell once again released herself from the Earth and took
skyward with the Harvard as companion.  She returned about two hours later
with a relatively uneventful flight.  There was no doubt about the
assurance of the aircraft by its pilots.  On the second flight, they
chose to forego the parachute packs they wore on the maiden flight.

"Uneventful" is rather misleading, however.  I was told by the pilot that
they almost aborted take off because they saw someone waving wildly.
He feared that there might have been a problem noticed by a ground crew,
but they determined what it really was: One of the restorers jumping up
and down yelling "She's gonna fly!  She's gonna fly!" (with the media
cameras trained on him, of course :-).  Even a pair of Wright Cyclone
R-2600's at full throttle couldn't drown out the cheer that went up.

Some of us were less intelligent, but we didn't care one bit.  Using a
Korean era USAF jeep (sans top of course), we departed from the field
and carried a photographic entourage to Holman Field in the 40 degree
brisk air.  There's not much one can say about riding in an open jeep
when it's really cold and what seems like high speed when  you don't
have any doors (not to mention seatbelts :-).   I'm also too nice of a
guy, but I've already seen some of the results.  I managed to "purchase"
a seat in the helicopter by "donating" two Miss Mitchell caps to the
pilot and cameraman.  The deal was offered to me personally, but I then
surrendered it to our professional cameraman who has some stunning
photos in the tank probably all night.

How the Cessna 172 got to Holman before Miss Mitchell, however, goes
beyond any rational explanation :-).

Miss Mitchell is scheduled to complete her five hours evaulation requirement
by Friday morning.  Weather and everything else permitting, she will
return to Fleming on Saturday to mark our recognition of the 50th
Anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.  That's really hard to beat
around here.  No aircraft carriers on Lake Minnetonka.  :-)

The newspaper photographer called and reached me after things had settled
down and talked about what a thrill the flight was.  He also felt the need
to mention how perfect things worked.  We were suffering for several days
with overcast skies.  The maiden flight was to have occurred on Wednesday,
but the cover kept decending and then went below 1,000 feet, all the while
drizzling and raining.  But today, the cover was closer to 2,000 feet and
no rain.  But each time they lined the chase aircraft for a shot, there
was a momentary break in the clouds which let direct sunlight through for
just a moment.  He describes the effect as "everytime I was going to press
the button, the skies opened and Miss Mitchell just GLOWED."

I haven't heard from the second video guy yet... I'm sure he wasn't
expecting the ride he likely ended up with.  When our chase pilot
"Spook" returns to ground, the joke is that we clean the grass stains
off the prop.  He also likes the concept of high-G turns.  :-)

The other television station photographing the event aired an article at
the close of the 10:00 news with some absolutely stunning air to air
photography.  That's one pretty plane in the air.  I'm now anxiously
awaiting the morning paper.  We're not unknown to the front page of the
B section, but I've been informed that there is a 50-50 "danger" of a
front-page color photo.  I hate suspense.  :-)

The only downside to the whole day was a personal note.  A couple of unit
volunteers were seriously bent out of shape because of media presence.
They live in a world where media and PR is an expensive option that does
nothing but end up depleting funds (total media expenses to date: $16.00.
The footage which the stations have donated to us is worth thousands, if
not tens of thousands of dollars in future revenue, ignoring what it has
already done for show attendance and other donated services).  It's
unfortunate that such an attitude exists and has to intrude on an event
like this, but it's something that all volunteer groups must be aware of
and control.  In the end, those that were the biggest complainers were
those that wanted first rights to the backseat of a chase plane - Fairly
petty if you ask me.  There are lessons to be learned here for anyone
working on major projects.  But I digress...  :-)

When Miss Mitchell rotated, lifted off and waggled her wings as she
departed, not a dry eye could be found anywhere.  Some were openly
uncontrolled - people who normally show no emotions of any kind included.
That, by far, made up for any problems and justified the 12 years of intense
volunteer labor.  She is now officially on the airshow circuit and a live
bird (as soon as the limited category papers come back).

This was seriously incredible.

--
Robert J. Granvin                                    Southern Minnesota Wing
rjg@umnstat.stat.umn.edu                               Confederate Air Force
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