Tag Archives: museum

Preview of the Talbot Museum in Carmel Valley, CA

During the US Round of World SuperBike (SBK) Ducati Owners Club, arranged a preview of the Talbot Motorcycle Museum for club members. It was a great, warm and sunny evening in Carmel Valley, amongst some amazing motorcycles!

Here are some photos from the event:
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Where you can view these wonderful machines:

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American Heros Day – Boeing Museum of Flight

What a fantastic Day at Boeing’s Museum of Flight. It was American Heroes Air Show at the museum. A day dedicated to the men and women that keep America safe by protecting our borders, fighting crime, rescuing us when we are lost or in peril, and saving lives when immediate medical care is required.

The morning started out very slowly. With less than ideal weather over Boeing Field, but the people still arrived early (before 7:00 AM) to watch and photograph the helicopters as they arrived. All were scheduled to arrive between 7:30 and 10:00 AM. Breakwater Insurance was on hand to provide complementary coffee, hot chocolate and muffins for the small crowd that had arrived 3 hours before the museum opened, to watch these wonderful aircraft arrive. They remained outside, in the weather serving the crowd late into the morning. That was appreciated.

We’d heard one helicopter transit the airfield above the clouds, so there was a brief bit of excitement, but after 10 minutes, we didn’t hear it any longer, and it was gone. People didn’t give up though, and at 8:30 AM, the thrilling arrival of the first helicopter via air (A King-5 news helicopter arrived before hand, on a trailer…. much to the crowds disappointment!).

First to arrive was the US Coast Guard in their short-range rescue helicopter, the Aérospatiale HH-65A Dolphin.

USCG - Aérospatiale HH-65A 'Dolphin'

They made a quick approach down the main runway, and then landed just outside the tarmac gates for the museum.

USCG - Aérospatiale HH-65A 'Dolphin'
USCG - Aérospatiale HH-65A 'Dolphin'

Not more than 10 minutes later, the second USCG helicopter arrived to the field:

USCG - Sikorsky HH-60J 'Jayhawk'

To say that it arrived with a lot more flare than the other helicopters that morning, would not be an overstatement.

USCG - Sikorsky HH-60J 'Jayhawk'

Once it had established over, the leading blades were creating just the right disturbance in the air, to create these contrails. And I’m pretty sure they were NOT splaying chemicals or conducting other experiments upon us with the contrails (that’s a contrail folks, not one of those mythical chemtrails). Unfortunately, I did not get any photos with the contrail in shark focus. :/

USCG - Sikorsky HH-60J 'Jayhawk'

Not long after the HH-60J was shut down on the taxiway, a Eurocopter AS350 arrived, and was directed to the landing area.

LEO - Eurocopter AS 350 B2

By now it was 8:35 AM, and the private museum members only presentation of the newly restored HH-52 USCG helicopter in the museum was about to begin, so AJ and myself hurried into the museum for the 1 hour talk about the history of the HH-52 (the USCG website has a writeup about this dedication).

Rear Adm. Gary T. Blore, Commander of the 13th Coast Guard District and current Ancient Albatross gave an excellent presentation of the helicopter, and related his own stories flying these historical life saving machines for the USCG. It held even the attention of a 9 year old body for the entire hour. If you wonder what the designation “Ancient Albatross” means, in short, it means he is the oldest active duty aviator in the USCG at this time (he’s retiring this summer, and the title will be passed to the next eldest in the fleet).

USCG HH-52 Seaguard

Among the stories and facts relayed. We learned;

  • the HH-52 is credited with over 15,000 lives saved
  • it has a boat hull that allowed them to land on water to recover survivors (a technique that is no longer used, because it was really quite dangerous)
  • Adm. Blore had to ditch ad HH-52 on his first mission into the Atlantic, at night, due to bird strikes that disabled the engine and severely damaged the main rotors
  • that Boston Whalers seemed be involved in an awful lot of rescues
  • they had a very limited carry capacity, despite the size, due to single motor being down-rated for cost-cutting measures (re-using existing hardware for the transmissions), sometimes only being able to pull 2 survivors at a time out of the water
  • off-shore navigation before off-shore LORAN and GPS was via dead-reckoning and that is quite difficult. Often they arrived back to the coast with very little fuel and far from an airfield, so they would land on the beach and call for a fuel truck

During the talk, several more helicopters arrived to the field. One of which was this US NAVY Rescure Hawk:

US NAVY HH-60H Rescue Hawk

With the museum opening to the general public in less than 1/2 and hour, and the new arrivals to the static displays, we hustled outside to see take it all in.

One of the first birds out was the Airlift Northwest Agusta. I see this helio a couple of times per week, landing across the street, but I still love to see these thing fly.

While talking to the pilot, I learned some interesting things about this specific helio, such as it’s complex auto-pilot allows them to fly in IRF conditions with just a single pilot. In fact, it does not even have a control stick in the left front. The only person with any controls is the pilot. And like he said, everyone on board is counting on him to be healthy during the flight.

Airlift Northwest - Agusta 109A
Airlift Northwest - Agusta 109A

Just like it’s arrival, the departure of the Chinook was an event in and of itself. It’s a pretty big bird and there seems to be a lot of work the flight crew has to do, just to get it up and rolling. LOL. But it’s such a great work horse, and an amazing thing to see taking flight, with it’s big counter-rotating main blades. Just another bright moment that day.

US ARMY Chinook CH-47D

US ARMY Chinook CH-47D

One of the last birds out, was the DEA Eurocopter. The pilot took off with a standard departure to the south, but at the end of the field, kicked the rudder hard over, banked it high and came back down low over the flight line, before completing a standard northern departure. All of those helio pilots sure seemed to love their jobs!

LEO - Eurocopter AS 350 B2

What a great event at the Museum of Flight. Even the bad weather did not damping the activities on the flight line.

It was fantastic to meet and learn from these American Heros. The people out there on the front lines of national defense, law enforcement and search and rescue. It really makes me Proud to be an American.

Blue Angels and Others at SeaFair2010 (Saturday)

Granted, it’s been almost a week since the Blues flew at SeaFair 2010, but I do have a day job after all, and picking and processing photos is a time consuming affair. Regardless, here are some of the highlights from the fun on 7-Aug-2010 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Weather was pretty iffy, but the Blues still few a program to the delight of thousands. Here are some of those photos:

Fort Lewis Military Museum – Part 2

A fine day to take in some history

museum.wwii_tanksThis past Saturday, my kids and myself traveled to the Fort Lewis Military Museum to learn a little bit about the largest military base in the state of Washington. What I did not expect was to learn so much.

This is a continuation article.  There seems to be some arbitrary (at least unknown, to myself) limit to the size of an article, and my full article, even incomplete, was too large to publish.

CONTINUATION FROM PART 1

Cold War History

Also on display is an interesting collection of Cold War artifacts and hardware. A few photos of the rolling-stock located outside the building. I’m in the process of trying to identify some of these Soviet Block weapons systems, few of them had current placards.

M60 Main Battle Tank ("Patton")
US ARMY M60 Main Battle Tank ("Patton")

Soviet Block - unidentified medium tank
Soviet Block - unidentified medium tank

Soviet Block - unidentified light armor
Soviet Block - unidentified light armor

US Nike-Hercules nuclear tipped SAM
US Nike-Hercules nuclear tipped SAM

US ARMY - unidentified APC
US ARMY - unidentified APC

US ARMY - Honest John tactical nuke
US ARMY - Honest John tactical nuke

US ARMY - MIM-104 Patriot  SAM / missle defense
US ARMY - MIM-104 Patriot SAM / missle defense

US ARMY - FAV (Fast Attack Vehicle) experimental
US ARMY - FAV (Fast Attack Vehicle) experimental

US ARMY - Pre HUMVEE experimental prototypes - both cancelled
US ARMY - Pre HUMVEE experimental prototypes - both cancelled

US ARMY - Kawasaki Scout Bike (9th Infantry circa 1982)
US ARMY - Kawasaki Scout Bike (9th Infantry circa 1982)

Operation 'Just Cause' campaign map
Operation 'Just Cause' campaign map

US ARMY - Nike fixed possition SAM / tactical nuke
US ARMY - Nike fixed possition SAM / tactical nuke
Iraq / Afghanistan War History

Information on Iraq & Afghanistan

MORE TO FOLLOW IN PART 3

Fort Lewis Military Museum – Part 1

A fine day to take in some history

museum.wwii_tanksThis past Saturday, my kids and myself traveled to the Fort Lewis Military Museum to learn a little bit about the largest military base in the state of Washington. What I did not expect was to learn so much.

Legion of Merit
Legion of Merit

Our family has a tie to the base via my cousin, a Lt. Col. whom deployed to Iraq in 2003 from Fort Lewis, following his unit’s activation, to support the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom. He received the Legion of Merit for his service, which our family is very proud of. Following his deployment, before his return to California, he spent some time with my family, showing us photos and stories from his time in ‘The Sandbox’. I thought it appropriate to give the kids some exposure to the great warrior traditions of the US ARMY and their family. Fort Lewis has continued to provide critical personal to the fight against terrorism overseas, with deployment of Rangers, MPs, Engineers and of course the STRYKERs

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So much history, so much to see, so much to read.

There is no way to due the museum justice without a multi-part article, and at some point later down the line, following another visit, I may just do that. For now I’ll cover some of the interesting things to be seen there in photos.

Artifacts and History from the Lewis and Clark Expedition through WWI

There is a complete section on the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was in fact, a military expedition to explore the west. Along with commissioned officers Lewis and Clark, the force consisted of volunteer US ARMY regulars. Within that section of the museum I learned about a confrontation between the US and Britain during the 1800’s over possession of the San Juan Islands, the nearly erupted into another war between the nations. Displayed is a map of the area showing positions of forces, along with a political cartoon of the time.

San Juan Islands - disputed territories
San Juan Islands - disputed territories

America vs. England - Standoff over Disputed San Juan Island territories
America vs. England - Standoff over Disputed San Juan Island territories

Also in the display was an excellent collection of rifles, pistols and other equipment related to the expedition.

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PART 2 TO FOLLOW SHORTLY

Museum History – The Red Shield Inn

The Fort Lewis Military Museum is occupies one of only two existing historical buildings at Fort Lewis that date back to WWI. In 1918, the Salvation Army constructed the 150-room ‘Red Shield Inn’ at a cost of $107,000, to accommodate the soldiers, his family and friends. After the drawdown following WWI, the Salvation Army sold the building to the US ARMY for the price of $1 (one dollar) on July 1, 1921. It remained in use by the US ARMY until a new Fort Lewis Lodge was constructed closer to the base’s Main Post Headquarters. The Fort Lewis Military Museum is the only certified US ARMY museum on the West Coast, and contains interesting and rare artifacts preserving the heritage of Fort Lewis and the US ARMY in the Pacific Northwest.

Getting to the Museum

The Fort Lewis Military Museum is located south of Seattle, between Tacoma and Olympia. Take exit 150 to enter Fort Lewis. The museum is located in North Fort Lewis, signs guide the way. Visitors without a current military vehicle registration decal and federal ID card must first obtain a Visitor Pass at the Main Gate Visitor’s Center. You will need to produce a driver’s license for each individual 16 years and order, as well as the current registration and proof of insurance for every vehicle entering the base. Those receiving a pass, and get directions to the museum from Visitor’s Center staff.