Wrapping up a bittersweet trip to Reno for the last of the Air Races, we made a stop in Atwater to visit Castle Air Museum. They have an extensive collection of aircraft at the location of former Castle Air Force Base.
Castle Air Museum – main collection
Castle Air Memorial Brick Park.
Museum Restoration Center
Castle Air Museum is located at 5050 Santa Fe Drive, Atwater, California, 95301
Myself and best friend spent most of the day visiting the USS Lexington CV-16 Museum in Corpus Cristi, Texas.
On par with other fantastic Texas Museums such as the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, this was full of artifacts and information . Having visited a number of shipboard museums, I was amazed at the amount of areas open to the public, and the depth and quality of the exhibits.
The “Blue Ghost” has quite a story behind her. First named the CABOT while under construction, it was renamed the LEXINGTON after the original Lex (CV-2) was sunk at Coral Sea. This is also the carrier from on which Sen. John McCain served, before being shot down over Vietnam.
Here a a number of photos of the upper flight and hanger deck displays. Although we were able to explore some of the lower decks, we ran out of time, so there are only a couple of photos there.
This museum deserves a full day’s attention to try and get all you can from the experience. I hope you enjoy some of the snapshots.
Our time in California is quickly coming to a close. As part of this process I took on a 3000 mile road trip from Santa Cruz CA to Canyon Lake TX.
Along the way I decided to spend a day in Tuscon AZ and visit the Pima Air & Space Museum. And it was WELL worth the stop! Along with that visit I took a trip to the US Military “Aircraft Boneyard” (actually known as Davis-Monthan AFB).
The Air Museum itself is absolutely amazing! With 300+ aircraft and endless artifacts, it is really a 2 day visit if you want to even read all the ID plates, much less spend the time to learn about the amazing history some of these very unique aircraft, including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner Prototype 002 which is currently on display in this collection.
I could attempt to wax poetic about this visit, but instead I’ll simply post about 90 snapshots I took while trying to take do it all in one day.
Fleet Week is always one of (if not THE) best Air Show on the West Coast. A large aerobatic box over the San Francisco Bay means a lot more latitude with the types of maneuvers that can be performed.
Here are some of the highlight pics from yesterdays performances.
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Some photos from 27-SEP-2014 California Air Show in Salinas CA:
You won’t see this any time soon, and possibly never again. 7 US Super Carriers in port together, in one photograph.
This is a stitch of 4 photos taken on 3-March-2012 of Naval Base Kitsap, showing 7 of the world’s largest warships in port at the same time.
On the left, are some of the last 4 diesel (oil) powered Super Carriers. On the right side of the image is the most unusual aspect of this photograph, 3 Nimitz class nuclear Super Carriers in port together, including the classes namesake ship, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), just days prior to her re-locating to hew new home port of Everett Washington.
Ships are labeled in the photo, left to right.
It was a warm and sunny day along the California Coast for the last day of the California International Air Show, in Salinas CA. Only 45 minutes south of my friend’s hose in Santa Cruz, CA. it was easy to plug this event into the last day of my vacation.
After 2 weeks in the sun, I needed some shade. Another full day in the sun and I’d likely return home with a burn, so I lobbied to purchase the VIP Flight Deck tickets. It was an easy sell. The flight demonstration teams always work in a couple of extra tricks right in front of the VIP seating areas, and we’re at an air show after all. Accommodations where good. Food, snacks, soft drinks and a fully bar were all at our disposal, and the first round of drinks were included in the price.
The performances were great. Plenty of jet action in the air.
One of the highlights of the show was the TORA TORA TORA performance. It’s a 10 minute show using aircraft from the original 1970 movie TORA TORA TORA. It’s a sight to see, so I’ve uploaded video shot with my little Canon camera set on the fence (it get’s bumped a few times so the framing missed the final WALL of FIRE, which I found unfortunate).
When the SnowCones took to the air, we decided to move onto the static displays. I’ve seen the very polite and nearly silent (and I’m sure very environmentally conscious) SnowCones enough times to fall asleep during their show. I had a 900 mile drive ahead of me that night, and I needed to remain alert. Oddly the couple of times I looked up into the sky, they always seemed to be speedily (albiet quietly) flying away… hm… I wonder if they are all French Canadians…).
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So off to more interesting things likes Cessnas and Piper Cubs.
Hey all (this is going to several people, so please excuse the somewhat general greeting),
Our director of sales at work called me Friday, and told me that him and his wife were going up to Seattle to do some things, and that I should tag along. They we’re really specific, but I was free (no kids), and it was a nice sunny day. Still recovering from being sick the last 3 weeks and not ready to get back on the bike, I took them up on their offer to pick me up at the ferry. How much simpler could it be?
The day started off with a bang. A trip to the doctor’s office for them to get flu shots. Nope, not kidding. But it was an interesting visit to one of those ‘concierge doctors’. Sort of a private insurance that the well heeled like to use. For about $80 a month they get a doctor they can call 24×7 (not just a service, but their actual doctor..) and get advice. It’s in interesting health care delivery model. The one I went to was called Qliance. http://www.qliance.com/ Anyhow, the view for the skyscaper was worth the elevator ride, and it only too 5 minutes.
Back in the car, we fought our way (and I mean fight, this is Seattle I’m talking about) north to the Fisherman’s Terminal. Which is where things go interesting. Joel, the ever ‘working a deal’ sales guy worms his way into the parking lot where the crabers park their personal cars. Which was very cool, because just a few feet away from us was this: (were’ parked just off frame):
Talk about timing. They were 3 day late pulling out of port, and the entire crew was there working hard to get the boat ready to head up for King Crab fishing. It was very cool. The boat looks so much bigger, yet at the time, so much smaller, than it looks on TV. One thing I’ll tell you that big ‘block’ they use to pull the crab pots up is ENORMOUS! About twice the size it looks on video. Now I really understand what a big deal it is for those guys to get clocked by it.
OK, so anyhow we managed to get a little bit of Keith’s time (he’s a *really* nice guy, not at all like he’s portrayed on TV, he hard a hard time excusing himself from us a few other people to get back to work. Even after he finally went back on board, we talk him talking to other people from a port-hole on the stern of the boat. They had a 9 day trip to Dutch Harbor a head of them. Got to meet his brother Monty and a couple of the deck hands a well. I’ve a lot more photos of the boat I’ll post up later.
We also saw this, the memorial plaque and small memorial shrine setup for Phil Harris:
The next coolist thing to happen, was a Coasti MH-65 heli blasted by low overhead, cranked itself into a tight turn and then came back right over the Wizard. You can see one of the guys waving out the door here.
Then we got a little demonstration of USCG at-sea heli rescue. The pilot put the thing into a hover about 60′ feet off the water, and just off the edge of the dock. Quite a crowd appeared! Sorry the photo looks fuzzy, but we were being doused with water from the rotorwash.
It was really awesome to watch, close up, how the pilot kept the bird in such a tight hover. It was a little windy yesterday. Being that close to a heli in hover for 20 minutes was very cool. Those MH-65 Dauphin helis are not that big! You can see on the door that this one is stationed out at Port Angeles.
While there, Rachael (Joel’s wife), tells us that Dan Akroyd is just a mile away at one of the stat liquor stores promoting his Crystal Head Vodka. Into the car we hopped and blasted down to the Whole Foods store and there him and his entourage (and I mean entourage) were. The line to get in the place wrapped around the building, but it seemed to go pretty quickly.
That’s him posing for another person to take the picture. After that he posed with my friend’s wife, signed our bottles, stopped (no idea why) thanked me (for taking the picture?), shook my hand smiled and handed me my signed bottle. He was taking the time to be friendly to everyone. Some people we’re being real knucklheads making a lot of Ghost Busters jokes, getting him to sign Ghost Busters memorabilia, etc. etc. and he was cool to everyone. That was a lot of fun.
After we bailed out of there, we headed back to the Fisherman’s Terminall. Lucky for us the crowd around the Wizard was gone, they’d finished loading the last of the pots on the boat and the crew was relaxing a bit, and got to talk to them for a bit again. We didn’t stay to watch it pull out (it was going to be a couple more hours). Stopped at the Anthony’s Fish Bar in Belltown, watched the cruise ships sail out and then headed to Joels.
At Joel’s, we smoked some cigars, make some cocktails with the Crystal Head (it’s goooooood!), and capped the night off with a huge dinner at 13 Coins in SeaTac. The ferry was going to be a really long wait so they just drove me the 70 miles home. I got back just before midnight.
It would have been a long day for the kids, but I’d wished I’d had the chance to take them there, meet Keith and Dan, and watch the Coasties rescue demonstration. Oh, and the fresh seafood at the terminal.. that was pretty good too!. I think they would have had a lot of fun.
I have 197 photos I took yesterday. When I’ve culled the herd to a reasonable ‘best of breed’, I’ll be posting up higher-res versions.
I’m a fairly avid reader, seldom without at least one book to read. In fact I have two I’m working through right now. And by working through, I mean, working. Both of these A Beautiful Math and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information are pretty technical in nature, so they are not a typical casual evening read.
Digressing, while fighting off a nasty cold, I took in a little television time on Saturday, the 9th Anniversary of that terrible day in New York City. Obviously there was little on the national broadcast crap-fest, nor the typical brain-dead cable fare to tide me over. But, I flipped onto CSPAN (a guilty pleasure, I’ll admit) and caught most of the 3 hour panel hosted by Lynn Spencer, a commercial airline pilot, whom wrote the book Touching History, The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11.
I was a fascinating panel discussion. The first panel was comprised of FAA and ATC personnel that were on the front line that morning, trying to sort out disaster, land nearly 5000 planes, and re-route the remaining International flights to other countries. The second panel was comprised of commercial pilots flying when the attack happened, and Air Force pilots that had to intercept countless commercial jets, with orders to shoot if they did not comply.
Stories of a airport in Canada that was stacked 30 planes deep, fighter squadrons recalled from a training mission to be re-armed and then briefed on the rules of engagement for shooting down passenger aircraft, pilots that saw the planes hit the buildings while they were trying to land, others simple told to ‘get out of the area, just leave’.
It was a moving 3 hours of television. I felt compelled to go find this book, but sadly, our local book store (I’m not even sure why I waste my time at Barnes and Noble) did not carry it. I know I can get it online, but I’d like to spend my money local, and support stores that carry books such as this.
When I do get the book in my hands, I will be sure to read, and post my thoughts. In the mean time, you might look into it as well. If the book is anything like the articulate author I watched on TV, I’m pretty confident that I will not be disappointed.
UPDATE: 23-SEP-2010
Try as I might, absolutely no luck in finding the book in a brick-and-mortar store. Too many ‘Vampire Stories’ filling the shelves. A rather sad commentary on America’s literary tastes. Not all is lost, the book is in transit as I speak from an online e-tailer. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be sure to blog when I’ve started to read.
Looks like it will be here sooner than estimated!
Lynn Spencer "Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11"
Previous estimated arrival date: October 07 2010 - October 15 2010
New estimated arrival date: September 29 2010 - October 02 2010
I recently complete reading this fascinating book. I’ve always been a big fan of Bob Hoover, having seen him fly at countless air shows. Over the last few decades, I’ve heard some pretty amazing stories about this guy and his life, including his direct involvement in the X-1 project (where we broke the sound barrier, for those non-aviation types). Most you have likely heard of Chuck Yeager. Well, Bob was his back-up guy, on the project. Had he not nearly lost his legs in a crash during the program, he’d have likely been the 2nd guy (maybe the first) to do it.
But, it turns out that was just the tip of this great man, this hero’s, incredible life in aviation. Bob basically tough himself how to fly, became one of a rare few enlisted that earned their wings during WWII, spent a lot of time flying Spitfires in Europe and Africa, received numerous flying medals.
I don’t want to spoil the read, and give away any of the amazing stories told in this book, a fair portion of it from the point of view of the pilots that flew with him. Excerpts from their diaries and letters home provide some very unique, and amusing perspectives on his incredible life in aviation.
Some of the most striking stories from the book:
If you are at all any sort of aviation nut, this is a MUST READ book. After reading it, I had visited the Boeing Museum of Flight (where I’ve been many times), except this time a lot of the ‘other’ displays about aviation greats were people I’d read about in his book. It’s impacts go beyond Bob himself. It just goes to show what an important part of US aviation he played.