Pima Air Museum and Davis Monthan Boneyard Visit
This past weekend eight cadets and two senior members from
CAP Squadron 508 attended the wing-wide Aerospace Education field trip to two
historic aviation sites. We set out in the van as the sun came up at 0700 on
Saturday morning. To get to the museum we had a long drive of about 3 and a
half in store for us. The highlight of the ride for our constantly hungry
cadets the stop at In and Out Burger for an early lunch.
On arrival at the Pima Air Museum about 50 cadets and 10
senior members were quickly divided into groups of 8 to conduct self-guided
tours of the museum. Well, that wasn’t quite true. Everyone got a printed sheet
with questions to answer about 10 items to find around the museum. We never
found out who won the challenge.
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| Getting organized for the museum tour |
The museum had added several new buildings since my last
visit about a decade ago. The satin-black SR-71 was one of my favorite indoor
displays.
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| SR-71 on display |
Other winners were the B-24, B-25, and B-29 series of bombers. I read
a book recently by Amber Smith, an Army Kiowa combat helicopter pilot in Iraq
and Afghanistan. It was shocking to see how relatively small her craft was with
its distinctive wire-cutting appurtenances above and below the canopy. Also
distinctive was the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS)
located above the rotor blades.
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| Stock image of a Kiowa |
The building dedicated solely to space exploration had
models of the X-15, a Mercury space capsule, Saturn V booster, various remote
Mars exploration landers and rovers, and a simulator for a lunar landing in the
LEM (lunar exploration module to those of us old-timers who remember the Apollo
moon landing era. There was not enough time to take it all in during the four
hours that were allotted.
The majority of aircraft were parked outside protective
structures. Rare examples of the B-36 six engine pusher bomber and the speedy
B-58 Hustler competed for attention with various fighters, bombers, aerial
tankers, and cargo hauler aircraft dating back as far as the 1950’s.
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| Is half of a B-36 a B-18? |
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| Too young to remember- B-58 Hustler |
The
monoplane with counter-rotating props mounted up front probably tested the
limits of imagination.
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| Is this an aircraft or something misplaced from Finding Nemo? |
The specially modified B-52 with a specially designed
pylon that lugged the X-15 into the flight levels before dropping it for rocket
driven flight was parked in a restricted area away from the main display site.
A dedicated building commemorated the B-17 and its courageous crews.
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| Not the X-15 carrier plane but still impressive |
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| Business end of an F-18 Hornet Blue Angel |
Cadets enjoyed a bouncy school bus ride to Ryan Airport in
west Tucson. Dinner consisted of the ever popular Little Caesar’s Pizza.
Camping out on a cold hangar floor was an experience for the cadets but not for
me. I spent the night in a noisy motel, serenaded by the Southern Pacific
Railroad and restless fellow travelers on the floor above me. At least I had a
bed.
The next day we were treated to a private tour of the
boneyard at Davis- Monthan Air Force base. We were admitted to a restricted
area, off limits to public tours. The four types of handling aircraft receive
was explained. We got up close and personal with a C-5 Galaxy. That aircraft is
larger than life. I remember the distinct whine of their four engines as they
flew over my home in San Jose, CA enroute to a landing at Moffitt Airfield.
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| C-5-Such majestic aircraft look forlorn out in the Arizona desert |
The
regeneration of aircraft and conversion to remote controlled iterations was
explained as we visited a hangar with an F-16 undergoing maintenance. Under the
skin, the lower portion of the fuselage looked like a giant series of computers
while the upper half contained all the hydraulics that operate this fly-by-wire
model. We also got up close and personal with a cadet favorite, the A-10 Warthog.
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| F-16 ready to pounce |
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| A-10 needs no words |
The trip home could have seemed long but was sped along by
the humor of my copilot and the enthusiasm of our cadets. I applaud all the
participants from our squadron who dedicated almost an entire weekend to this
special activity. I am sure that those at the wing level will take notice of
our interest and contribution.
