On the way home from work, I turned the corner at Basin Road to Rt 13 rounding the curve around the Wilmington Airport when I spotted an aircraft in the distance. Over the landing lights at Hare's corner, it was just about a mile away. The airplane looked familiar but it wasn't the C-130's and it was too big to be a biz jet. It landed and went out of sight behind all of the buildings that totally block the view of the runway from the road. I was curious but decided to just keep heading home. Just then, something caught my eye up and to the left. I couldn't believe what I saw but a B-24 Liberator landing over my head. That's when I decided to turn around and find out what was going on at the airport. When I pulled into the arport parking lot, I saw handwritten signs for "Wings of Freedom" tour taped to a lightpost and followed them into a parking lot behind the airport.

Parked on the tarmac were the B-17 and the B-24. The engines were off and the planes were empty... done for the day. So I pulled the camera out and walked around the aircraft until the organizers looked like they were ready to go home. I'm sure they had had a long day so I took one last shot and walked back to the truck. As is typical on any shoot, the last image was the best one of the bunch.

You can follow the barnstorming warbirds by clicking on the Wings of Freedom link above.

On Sunday, August 24th, I had the privilege of flying with my next door neighbor Don Anthony. He owns two airplanes, one being this T-6 trainer built in 1942. It has been totally rebuilt twice and looks as if it was just delivered to the Army Air Corp. The last owner had it refurbished and painted to match the colors used by the Naval Air Corp during the war in the Pacific. The airbrushed transitions from dark to light blue make this a unique and beautiful aircraft. We flew from Summit airfield to Millville airport in Southern New Jersey. The ceiling was just above 3,000 feet, the air was clear and sunny. The big radial engine purrs and was not as noisy as I expected.

After eating lunch at the Millville airport restaurant, we spent an hour at the Millville Army Air Field Museum. If you get the chance, visit the museum. The Millville field was a training base for P-47s during WWII and the museum has a great deal of memorabilia on display. There is no entry fee but donations are welcomed. I was surprised to see Dad's photograph on the wall in a display of POWs. They had the Stars and Stripes photo of newly-freed GIs standing in front of the boxcars painted with POW on the roof. I pointed out Dad's image to Don and the museum staff. The museum was impressive.

After the tour, we flew at 2,000 feet over the Delaware River back to Summit. Before landing, we had to buzz our Back Creek neighborhood and I got some great photos from the open back seat canopy. This photo has been left at full resolution. Click on it to get the full size image. To see a "PhotoSynth" of the flyover photos, click here.
We also flew over the Chespeake Inn to check out the activity on "The Deck".