What it's like to fly a B-24 Liberator

Video from the channel AOPA: Your Freedom to Fly about Consolidated B-24 Liberator, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:57. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

Alyssa Cobb, from AOPA, flies a B-24 Liberator from the Wings of Freedom tour alongside the tour's chief pilot. She holds a multi-engine rating and moves up from a twin-engine Aztec to this four-engine bomber. The video follows her from cockpit preparation to landing.

Before takeoff, the pilot explains the maneuver: a rolling takeoff at 40 inches of manifold pressure, adjusting each throttle individually because the turbochargers respond differently. The copilot must raise the gear lever as soon as the aircraft climbs. After takeoff they run through the checklist: gear up, power reduced, flaps up, fuel pumps switched off one by one while watching pressure, and the hydraulic switch. She then takes the controls, levels off and sets up an approach over the field before landing.

According to the pilot, it is one of the hardest production aircraft in history to fly, and there are barely a dozen people in the world qualified to pilot it.