Hide Article Text (OCR)
Vintagebomberleaves Freedom Fieldfor flying tour dutyBy MIKE KLIMKO SHARON TWP. - Nobody could blame the small group of well wishers and observers for the nervousness they felt Thursday morning when two men boarded a vintage B-25 bomber, taxied down the runway and flew off into a cloudless blue sky for Carisle, Pa.Certainly, the tension was present at Freedom Field on Rt. 18 as Donald Buchele of Columbia Twp. in Lorain County and Gene Fisher of Carislestarted the engines of a plane that had not flown for eight years.According to observer Bob Koptis of Sharon Twp., the old bomber was spitting smoke during its initial ascent. ‘ He (the pilot) seemed to have a little trouble and he circled for about 20 minutes,” Koptis said. ‘‘But on his last pass; the plane looked good and sounded good. It sounded good for sitting here as long as it did.”SO THE plane that was somewhat of a landmark atFreedom Field since 1970 was gone.‘‘You might say we lost a landmark today,” Dennis Con-rad, Freedom Field’s manager, said. “Everyone knew it was here. And certainly everyone saw it when driving by.”Conrad said the B-25, used to bomb Tokyo in World War II and in the motion picture “Catch 22” as well as television’s “Name of the Game,” would be shortly joining the Confederate Air Force, a non-%profit flying museum that makes appearancesthroughout the country, including the Cleveland Air Show.Buchele, Thursday’s copilot on the Carisle flight, recently sold the plane to the museum stationed at Paris, Texas.“It looked fine on takeoff,” Conrad said. “It was trailing a little oil, which is normal for a plane that hasn’t been flown as long as this one.”
Newspaper Details
Medina County Gazette
Medina, Ohio, US
Fri, Sep 29, 1978
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Randy S.
USA 13 Mar 2023
Other Publications Near Medina, Ohio
Medina Sentinel
Medina County Gazette
The Gazette
