The A-26 tankers that you saw are sitting right here on the field at
BIL. The owner and pilot who flew them in the movie just died a few
weeks ago. He owned the local Cessna FBO until just a few years ago
when he and his partners sold it. He owned two A-26's and they have
been for sale for a long time. One is painted up in military colors and
is the more valuable one. The one used in the movie is still painted
that way and is parked outside for all to see.



Bob Chilcoat wrote:

Recently got this movie and have watched it several times. My 2.5 year-old
grandson loves the flying scenes - wants me to repeat certain scenes over
and over. Fun movie, but considering that it's a tribute to WW-II style
flying, couldn't Spielberg have tried a bit harder for aviation
authenticity?

Some mistakes noticed:

-Pete doesn't bother to feather either prop when he runs out of fuel and
glides to a landing (this is the one that bothers me the most. Just stupid.
The props ARE feathered in the long shot of the plane rolling out).
-Pete RETARDS the throttles to start his power dive to save Al. (this may
make sense in a fully loaded A-26, but seemed wrong to me if he was trying
to catch up to the PBY)
-The hydraulic pump is already on "Aux" when Dorinda loses pressure and has
to ditch in the lake. She switches it to "Primary" to try and fix the
problem.
-What Dorinda is doing with the yoke doesn't seem to have much relationship
to what the airplane is doing as she steers for the lake.
-Why does an inability to pull out of a dive always (in Hollywood) depend on
being unable to pull on the yoke hard enough? When they finally figure out
a way to pull harder, they recover.

These are the main piloting gaffes I can remember. Of course there's the
usual Hollywood hokum about ditched aircraft instantly sinking (don't
directors know anything about buoyancy?)

Still, I liked the movie enough to buy it.