Today shooting ILS approaches at McMinnville, with the blinder on, I had a
close encounter. There was a lot of chatter and people stepping on each
other, but I heard one aircraft rumbling calling out over McMinnville
looking for the traffic on approach (me). Didn't catch his call numbers.

A few minutes later I was flying outbound from the runway at 2,400 and Delcy
said "I have the traffic...whoa! That's a BIG ASS airplane" and then ('cause
I was under the hood and couldn't see out the window) "Whoa! Look at that!
What's it doing here?" My eyeballs threatened to slither out of their
sockets, down my cheeks and out the window, so I raised the blinder and
looked...

A camera in my head went *snap* and the view was unforgettable. At ten
o'clock low to my nose, against the valley floor, was the B-17 Nine-O-Nine.
Her red tail and wingtips cut across the yellow and green fields and the
black, bending river below, and she passed low and slow; probably a thousand
feet, along the instrument approach. So close I could see the glint off
the plexiglass turret and the black traction tape and red gas caps on her
olive wings. 60 years ago, I'd be thankful I wasn't German. Today I am
simply thankful.

We aborted the approach and circled high because she was too close. I
tailgated a B-17 Flying Fortress! And didn't spazz out and auger the plane!

She passed around and I got back under the hood. I was flying in the
McMinnville pattern with a B-17 and a I had a damned blinder on! She was
right out there, and I could not see it. NNNOOOooooo!!!

I was freaking out 'cause I'd just seen the Joe DiMaggio of warbirds, AND I
still had to turn 180 degrees and fly the approach down to the runway.

It turned and banked away, and we were down at about the same altitude then,
and her red tail sliced across the landscape again like a bloody fin. Back
under the hood and headed for the Newburg VOR, Delcy covered up the
directional indicator and the artificial horizon. Harsh. Did one form of
approach for Aurora, (nailed it), circled around and did the instrument
landing approach. Passed the airfield at about 500' and she says "Whoa!
There's that airplane again. There's two of them!"

Down on the tarmac at Aurora airfield (next to I-5 south of Newburg) are the
WWII B-17 Nine-O-Nine and the B-24 Dragon and Its Tail. It is my not so
humble opinion that Nine-O-Nine is the single most beautiful flying aircraft
in the entire world. It's the very same airplane that we rode on with my
grandfather on June 17, 1993, which was the happiest I remember seeing him
and the first time he'd ridden one since crashing into a French countryside
50 years previous.

For years, somehow, the airplane and I always cross paths, but this is the
first time I've ever seen one flying from above.

Awesome!

-c