Tag Archives: open day

Growlers Pop By

The US Navy brought a couple of E/A-18G Growlers from Whidbey Island to the open day at Paine Field.  The pair showed up in the morning and were parked up on the ramp at Heritage Flight Museum before they left later in the day.  We got a good look at them as they landed and departed.  Hopes of a nice low approach and go around were sadly not fulfilled but it was still cool to see them visiting.

Consequences of a Doolittle Style Takeoff

Grumpy got airborne using the Doolittle technique I posted about here.  During the takeoff, there were some puffs of smoke from one of the engines.  Initially I thought this might just be some oil blowing through but, as they climbed out, the output from the engine was clearly not as it should be and the one engine was clearly not healthy.  They cut short the flight (although not as short as it could have been) and brought the plane back down.  I saw Grumpy fly a few weeks later so I guess they dealt with whatever the issue was.

Doolittle Style Takeoff

Paine Field held an open day which included some flying from the local aircraft.  The Heritage Flight Museum had a number of the aircraft taking part including their B-25, Grumpy.  On one of the takeoffs, they used a technique that was reminiscent of the Doolittle Raid.  They applied power and full back controls to lift the nosewheel from the ground and roll down the runway in a wheelie.  It was quite an interesting thing to see.