For all you folks who may be into that InterWeb voyeurism thing, I’ve uploaded a new album to my photo gallery. It’s a collection of shots I took two years ago when the Collings Foundation “Wings of Freedom” tour stopped off in Utah for a weekend. As you may have gathered from my warbird-themed entry earlier this week, the Wings of Freedom tour consists of two World War II-vintage bomber aircraft, a B-17 and the only airworthy B-24 left in existence, which travel around the country giving people the rare opportunity to see them up close and in the air.

Even more exciting than seeing them, however, is the chance to actually ride in one of them. My dad and I took that chance, and even though the initial price tag seemed ridiculous in return for a mere twenty minutes of airtime, we’ve never regretted spending a dime of it. For the record, we chose to fly on the B-24, reasoning that if it’s the only one left, we may never get another chance with this particular model.

Feeling the vibration of the plane’s engines in your belly, shouting to make yourself heard over their roar, smelling the exhaust and the hot oil and the sun-baked aluminum fuselage… there’s no other word for it except “thrilling.” It’s the closest thing to time-travel you’re ever likely to experience. If you have any interest in history, any desire to know, at least in some small way, what the grandfathers of Generation X went through some sixty years ago, you really must try and catch one of these flights. Some day I intend to write a detailed blog entry about the experience, but for now take my word for it and check out the photos.

A quick technical note: I haven’t linked directly to the new album because I plan to reorganize the gallery’s directory structure in the next little while (as well as add lots more pictures!), and I didn’t want to leave dead links all over the place. So, for now, just hop over to the gallery and open the new album manually. It’s the first one at the top of the page.

In addition, for anyone who may be interested, I’ve posted a recent picture of my girlfriend Anne and myself in the Random Shots album.

Enjoy!