Gallery Update: Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour 2015

I drove up and spent a few hours in Aurora, Oregon at the Aurora State Airport today to see the Collings Foundation's Wings of Freedom tour during their only Oregon stopover. It was about this time three years ago when I first saw them in Salem; they haven't back in Salem since then. With a few exceptions, most tour stops include their B-17G Flying Fortress "Nine-O-Nine," B-24J Liberator "Witchcraft," and P-51C Mustang "Betty Jane." The only downside about today was that their P-51C Mustang developed maintenance issues and was consequently hangared away from the display... But today was still a good day regardless! For starters, I got to see the B-17 and B-24 fly; it's been several years since I've seen a B-17 fly and I've never seen a B-24 in flight before so this was a first for me. In addition to World War II bombers, there was a limited static display as well as an opportunity to do a little planespotting at Aurora, composed mainly of general aviation traffic. Here are the links to the full gallery:

Aurora (UAO) 1

Wings of Freedom Tour 2015

Photo Preview - Warbirds:

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress (NL93012) "Nine-O-Nine" taking off from UAO with passengers on a joyride.

Consolidated B-24J Liberator (NX224J) "Witchcraft" taking off with paying passengers for a joyride. This is only one of two airworthy B-24s in the world; the other is an A-model owned by the Commemorative Air Force.

"Nine-O-Nine" flying overhead while bringing down the landing gear in preparation for landing. Given that it's World War II technology, leave plenty of time to crank down the landing gear! Considering that there are not many B-17s flying today, you can only imagine what it was like to have hundreds of them flying overhead in formation...

"Nine-O-Nine" rolling after landing.

"Nine-O-Nine" taxiing back to the ramp prior to being put on static display for the day.

"Witchcraft" flying overhead prior to landing.

"Witchcraft" rolling after landing.

"Witchcraft" taxiing back to the ramp to prior to being put back on display for the day.

Planespotting - General Aviation Highlights:

Columbia Helicopters, Inc. Beechcraft 200C Super King Air (N111NS) departing UAO.

Locally-based Cessna 750 Citation X (N896RJ) departing UAO.

Piper PA-34-220T Seneca III (N968C) departing UAO.

Life Flight Network Pilatus PC-12/47E (N661LF) departing UAO.

Warbirds - Static Display:

Vultee BT-13A Valiant (N53331) nicknamed "My Mistress" on static display. This is the first time I've seen a BT-13 and from what I've heard, there's only a handful of them still airworthy.

Face to face with "Witchcraft." Note the new air traffic control tower in the background. The tower is completed but still not staffed as of yet. Aurora State Airport has been an uncontrolled airport since being built in 1943 but that won't be the case in the near future. The reason for putting a tower in Aurora is most likely because of it's proximity to Portland; like the Hillsboro and Troutdale airports, Aurora see's a fair amount of business jet traffic and will likely serve as another reliever airport for the Portland-area. Air traffic at Aurora has also been growing for the last several years now and it's considered the third busiest airport in Oregon overall, which would justify having a tower.

Face to face with "Nine-O-Nine."