AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2017 - 35

AVIATION
HEADSETS
PORTABLE
INTERCOMS
S-58 Headset
* Powder Coated
No-Glare Frame

FLYING HISTORY

When asked what it costs to keep a 70-year-old bomber flying, owner Larry
Kelley just shakes his head. He doesn't want to know. "I can tell you what it takes
in hours, though. This year we'll be about 400-to-1 maintenance hours to flight
hours." Kelley, owner of the Delaware Aviation Museum Foundation, which owns
B-25J Panchito and a host of other interesting airplanes and World War II gear,
is quick to credit a small army of volunteers who toil endlessly on the beautifully
polished bomber.
Based at Delaware Coastal Airport in Georgetown, Delaware, Panchito is tasked
with helping to keep alive the contributions of the Greatest Generation-those
men and women who, as Kelley puts it, helped create a world ruled by democracy
when it could have been tyranny.
The museum uses funds from flight training in the B-25J to help pay expenses
for maintaining it. Orientation flights, type ratings, and second-in-command type
ratings are among the options for those looking to experience the heavy warbird.
I met up with Panchito to renew currency for the SIC type rating I earned earlier
and joined Sid Ellner. Lurching the B-25 down the taxiway, I tried not to use the
expensive and finicky brakes. "Brakes are a four-letter word around here," said
instructor Calvin Peacock.
Differential power is the best weapon for keeping the aircraft going kind of
straight, but to stay out of the grass one must tap one of the brake pedals.
Landings are equally challenging. Come in flat and you run out of kinetic energy,
plunking the airplane onto the runway in a way that may break it. Come in steep
and then allow the energy to bleed off slowly in the flare, touching down on the
mains and then gently flying the nosegear down.
"It's part of its mission," said Peacock, "letting people experience the airplane,
both young and old," he said. "Particularly people who have been there and done
that-to let them put their hands on it again, we're especially happy to be able to
do that."
-TBH

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S-68 Headset
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SPO Portable Intercom
the gleaming twin-engine bomber. "My
favorite airplane. I have great memories."
In ROTC while in college at the
University of Connecticut, Ellner chose
the Air Force in 1955, entering the service
as part of Class 55-Q. "We were the very
first class to go through as officers," Ellner
said. Previously, cadets went through flight
training. Officers didn't always adjust well
to the flight training regimen, he said, noting it took the air force a couple of years to
figure out how to handle officers as pilots
in training.
Ellner's training started in a Piper J-3
Cub at Bartow Air Base in Bartow, Florida,
and he then quickly graduated to the T-6,
with its 600-horsepower engine. "We
thought that was the cat's pajamas," he
said. His bomber track led him to the B-25
and ultimately to the B-36, where on a few
occasions he flew live nuclear weapons.
WEB

One mission had them flying nonstop from
Spokane, Washington, to Guam, 35 hours
without refueling. "That gives you a sense
of the range of that airplane," he said.
He left the military in 1957, but he didn't
leave flying or his friendships behind. "I
think more of my friends and fellow classmates who aren't here anymore. There's
something about flying relationships that
you end up with friends for a lifetime. It's a
very unusual kind of relationship."
Spry, sharp, and always ready with a
funny quip, joke, or punch line, Ellner
impressed Peacock, who has flown many
veterans in Panchito. "Sid is a rather
remarkable individual. Very, very sharp,"
said Peacock. "He nailed" the flight.
"There are not many military-trained B-25
pilots left who are still active pilots."
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

* Operates up to 40
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* Includes a DC cable
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* 5 Year Warranty
* Music input
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* Push to Talk Switch inputs for both pilot & copilot
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PTT Push-To-Talk Switches
* Attaches to the control
yoke with a hook
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* Coiled cable extends to 6 feet

See our web site for our complete line of headsets, intercoms, and accessories.

Sigtronics Corporation
909 305-9399 * www.sigtronics.com

www.delawareaviationmuseum.org

178 East Arrow Highway, San Dimas, CA 91773
www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 35

http://www.delawareaviationmuseum.org http://www.sigtronics.com http://www.aopa.org/pilot

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2017