North American NA-108 TB-25L Mitchell

North American NA-108 TB-25L Mitchell

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11/30/2006. Remarks by Bill Ewing: " This aircraft was built as a B-25J-25-NC and delivered to the USAAF on January 17, 1945. In 1947 it was converted to a TB-25L trainer by deleting all armament. The aircraft was retired in 1958 and stored at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, USA. It was sold July 27, 1959 and registered on the civil register as N3512G and had several owners before being sold to Canada and registered to Bob Diemert as C-GTTS in November 1972. The aircraft became N43BA when it returned to the USA in 1982 and was named "Silver Lady" appearing in the airshow circuit for several years. Finally the Mitchell was purchased by Jack A. Erickson on August 30, 1994 and is now kept in airworthy condition at the Tillamook Air Museum, Tillamook, Oregon, USA.

I was there when Bob brought this one home on April 17, 1973. He and his wife had gone down to Texas to get it. It had been used extensively for hauling freight across the Caribbean. The port side had a large cargo door added just aft of the wing. There was corrosion all throughout the plane. The previous owner gave Bob an hour on the controls for a check-out, and walked away, leaving Bob and Elaine to get it home. Bob wasn't sure about it, so he made all his landings on the way back to Canada on grass strips. The first thing I noticed once he had it parked was the nose gear shimmy dampener. It was always an item of special attention during my time on B-25s in the RCAF. This one was in very bad shape. The cap was on cross-threaded, and there was no fluid in it. If he had landed on a hard surface runway, the resulting shimmy would have probably snapped the gear right off."


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11/30/2006. Remarks by Bill Ewing: " This aircraft was built as a B-25J-25-NC and delivered to the USAAF on January 17, 1945. In 1947 it was converted to a TB-25L trainer by deleting all armament. The aircraft was retired in 1958 and stored at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, USA. It was sold July 27, 1959 and registered on the civil register as N3512G and had several owners before being sold to Canada and registered to Bob Diemert as C-GTTS in November 1972. The aircraft became N43BA when it returned to the USA in 1982 and was named "Silver Lady" appearing in the airshow circuit for several years. Finally the Mitchell was purchased by Jack A. Erickson on August 30, 1994 and is now kept in airworthy condition at the Tillamook Air Museum, Tillamook, Oregon, USA. I was there when Bob brought this one home on April 17, 1973. He and his wife had gone down to Texas to get it. It had been used extensively for hauling freight across the Caribbean. The port side had a large cargo door added just aft of the wing. There was corrosion all throughout the plane. The previous owner gave Bob an hour on the controls for a check-out, and walked away, leaving Bob and Elaine to get it home. Bob wasn't sure about it, so he made all his landings on the way back to Canada on grass strips. The first thing I noticed once he had it parked was the nose gear shimmy dampener. It was always an item of special attention during my time on B-25s in the RCAF. This one was in very bad shape. The cap was on cross-threaded, and there was no fluid in it. If he had landed on a hard surface runway, the resulting shimmy would have probably snapped the gear right off."