re: Anyone related to any B-17s pilots or survivors on here?

My father flew many different aircraft in WWII. He started flying when he was 14. A cousin took him up in a bi-plane (crop duster) for a ride. After they landed, he said he could do this, and took off for a solo. He did crop dusting in HS.

When WWII started and before America was in the war, he joined the Canadian Airforce which was flying a variety of aircraft to England. Never mentioned a B-17, but he had a lot of B26-B time. Never liked the Lancaster because all of the controls were "backward."

He was up on rotation to fly The Hump, when the base general asked him where he learned to land the B26-B that way and sent him to Tampa as a flight instructor. The whole B26-B program was in danger of being closed because it was hard for new pilots to land thus the nick-name, "the widow-maker." He loved that plane because it was high performance.

Later in life he as in position as an accident investigator and safety director working for the Army that paid him extra to fly helicopters. That was like a kid being paid in a candy store.