Don't specifically remember with the B-17, but with the EAA Tri-Motor they go do a full run-up, no passengers on board, before they beginning flying activity for the day.
Since you are not, then my answer to your thread title is .... yes.
Enjoy you're long, arduous expensive journey to a medical certificate. Good luck to you.
Are there continuing background checks, is the question. Isn’t this guy 60 years old? If I get checked ten years ago when hired and then change in the intervening years, how is that caught?