My 1980 Single Engine B-17 Landing

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Tanker #135 the "great Pumpkin" that was Gene Powers personnel airplane. I can remember when he flew it into Reno one year, I think we had all of H&P's C-119's that were flyable there for those fires. I want to say we had 4 or 5 H&P and 2 HVFS, plus a couple of PB4Y2's, DC-4's, and DC-6's and at the time the only DC-7C on contract #115. We had 4 or 5 big fires burning around the Reno area at that time; it was quite a busy time especially when you have only two loading pits.
Scott........

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Tanker #135 the "great Pumpkin" that was Gene Powers personnel airplane. I can remember when he flew it into Reno one year, I think we had all of H&P's C-119's that were flyable there for those fires. I want to say we had 4 or 5 H&P and 2 HVFS, plus a couple of PB4Y2's, DC-4's, and DC-6's and at the time the only DC-7C on contract #115. We had 4 or 5 big fires burning around the Reno area at that time; it was quite a busy time especially when you have only two loading pits.
Scott........

[sledge39]

...

...Tanker 135...the most colorful of the C-119 tankers...

...at Hemet 30 July 1977...




...

[sledge39]

...

...Ontario 28 July 1977...

...left turn at the intersection...




...

[gary1954]

cool....really really cool...

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Great picture of #133, look at the rudder positon, also looks like the jet is not running.
Scott..........

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Did we scare you off Larry?
Scott......

[denoon]

In response to an old message, N3703G , a B-17, still has the Tokyo tanks and they still are operational.

[Eric1001]

Larry Kraus wrote:
Sril,I'm aware of the Intermountain connection with Tanker 22 and I have a picture of it somewhere with the Fulton Skyhook Gear installed.We had a couple of leftovers from that arrangement,which once included a set of antlers on the nose to capture the balloon cable.The pitot tube on T22 was repositioned to the top of the nose by Intermountain so that it wouldn't be damaged by the cable.It always reminded me of the refuelling probe on an A-6.You might be able to see the pitot tube in some of the T22 pictures.The tail turret area,which had been converted into an entry area for the person reeled in by the Fulton Gear was covered with a light framework of what looked like either light metal or wooden strips and then covered with fabric.You can probably also see that in the pictures of T22.

I believe that Steve is correct in stating the AF s/n as 44-83785,but there was some question as to whether or not this was actually the correct s/n for the airframe.I'll have to check with Chuck Ott for the details,but I think that it had to do with Intermountain having two B-17 airframes at one time and one of them going missing under mysterious circumstances.

Steve,while looking for a picture of T22 in it's former guise with the Fulton Skyhook Rig installed,I ran across a picture that should answer your original question:[img][img]http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u303/tkr62/n809z.jpg[/img][/img]



That's it Larry. Thanks.


Steve G

This is a photo of Tanker 22 taken at Yellowstone Regional Airport, in Cody near Greybull Wyoming in August 1976.




The story behind it is that during that summer of 1976 when I was 24 years old I was traveling from Yellowstone to Mount Rushmore. I was hitchhiking and got dropped of at the crossroads near the Yellowstone Regional airfield.
As I am from the Netherlands I had no idea that there actually was an airfield there near that crossroads. But while waiting for a new ride I noticed the airplane across the fields and and after looking at it for a while it dawned on me that it actually was a real B-17. (I already was a little bit into watching old warbirds then so I was able to identify it by type.)

I could not figure out why it was there so I decided to take this picture. That way I at least could prove to myself I had really seen it.

When I got back to the Netherlands I asked around about it but I never figured out what plane I had seen.
Till recently when I discovered on the net there had been an company named Hawkins and Powers that had been flying Air Tankers out of Greybull Wyoming.

Then after some more searching I discovered this thread, that actually had a picture in it with the same plane that I had photographed in 1976.
So I am very greatfull for you guys helping me solve the riddle about this plane after almost 35 years.
Maybe you guys like seeing how this plane you are talking about looked in the summer of 1976.

Eric

Last edited by Eric1001 on Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Scott Rose]

Hello all,

I really enjoyed this thread and Larry's story and his willingness to share it with us. I decided that this story deserved to be given a more permanent spot on the web site so I have turned it into an article which can be found here
http://articles.warbirdsresourcegroup.o ... age_1.html

Hope you enjoy it and thanks again to Larry for sharing it with us.

[Flying Pencil]

Thanks for reminder, Scott!

[Robbie Stuart]

Great idea Scott. Larry's ordeal is one he11uva story, & anyone with an interest in 17's should read it.
Thanks again Larry for sharing it with us!
Robbie

[sledge39]

1 Evergreen's N207EV "Tanker 22" reloading at Hemet (HMT) Nov 1980

2 "T-22" and "Tanker 65" N5237V overhead at Hemet Nov 1980

3 Departing Hemet Aug 1981

4 Intermountain's N809Z "tanker C71", Ontario, CA (ONT) 1973

[pilotpiper]

Very interesting read. I was a T-38 instructor at Williams and watched this arrival from the runway supervisory unit for Rwy 30R. As I recall, the tower told us there was an emergency arrival on 30C, which was the main runway for transient aircraft. Shortly after, they called and asked us to clear our pattern as the B-17 didn't have enough fuel for 30C. Anyway, it was a pretty remarkable bit of flying and it's great to see the pictures and hear the story first hand. Can't believe those pictures look so OLD!

[Larry Kraus]

If you think that the pictures look old now,you should see the pilot some 33 years later.Still going,but no longer a kid....LK