Recently got this movie and have watched it several times. My 2.5 year-old
grandson loves the flying scenes - wants me to repeat certain scenes over
and over. Fun movie, but considering that it's a tribute to WW-II style
flying, couldn't Spielberg have tried a bit harder for aviation
authenticity?

Some mistakes noticed:

-Pete doesn't bother to feather either prop when he runs out of fuel and
glides to a landing (this is the one that bothers me the most. Just stupid.
The props ARE feathered in the long shot of the plane rolling out).
-Pete RETARDS the throttles to start his power dive to save Al. (this may
make sense in a fully loaded A-26, but seemed wrong to me if he was trying
to catch up to the PBY)
-The hydraulic pump is already on "Aux" when Dorinda loses pressure and has
to ditch in the lake. She switches it to "Primary" to try and fix the
problem.
-What Dorinda is doing with the yoke doesn't seem to have much relationship
to what the airplane is doing as she steers for the lake.
-Why does an inability to pull out of a dive always (in Hollywood) depend on
being unable to pull on the yoke hard enough? When they finally figure out
a way to pull harder, they recover.

These are the main piloting gaffes I can remember. Of course there's the
usual Hollywood hokum about ditched aircraft instantly sinking (don't
directors know anything about buoyancy?)

Still, I liked the movie enough to buy it.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)