WINGS

I've always had a passion for airplanes and flying. Ever since my Dad took me up for the first time..1949..at the ripe age of 5 when the two of us went to look at elk in his Stinson 108 'station wagon'. I can still feel that thrill and hear that engine. My little world suddenly looked so huge from way up there.

I'm sure we all have our favorite flying stories, whether as a pilot or as a passenger on an airliner.

Personally, one of my all-time funniest flying stories is one I wrote about on an earlier Bajanomad thread about DC-3's:

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=9033#pid67075

Here's the post from that thread:

Extreme Baja takeoff

"I flew a few DC-3's around Baja years ago.

In and out of Serinadad, Loreto, La Paz, Cedros Island, Ensenada, ..to name but a few. All 'gooneys' were fun, except a couple overseas. Once flew one with my black lab, Gypsy, from Mexico City to a ranch south of Acapulco to go duck hunting. Same place Johnny Weismueler made his 'Tarzan' river scene movies..clear river...large sloughs full of ducks. The plane was not pressured, of course, so we flew some canyons and encountered lots of turbulence. There was about 20 people on board with me and the dog, who I had bought a seated ticket for rather than kennel her in baggage where she woud be bounced around.

Across the aisle from me and Gypsy was an irate US lady who was objecting loudly that she should not have to share the cabin with my hunting dog. I told her the dog paid its way and was entitled to the same comforts as us. She gave me the evil eye. I tried to be polite and ignored her.

Now the stressed out stewardess of this little airline come staggering down the aisle with a Playmate cooler in her hands. Not very cool Cokes and plain cheese sandwiches were the menu. I grabbed two of each..remember, Gypsy was a paying passenger, too. The stew smiled at me and offered the same to a young fellow seated just ahead of us. He was not a good flier and had been having a little discomfort with the bucking up and down of the DC-3. Poor kid. He was a little green when the stew offered him a coke and sandwich. 'NO! Thanks, anyway'., he says.

The battleax across the aisle is still muttering about the dog and mashing her sandwich. More evil eye towards me.

I finish my coke and sandwich, give a small piece of another to Gypsy and then leaned forward to see if the kid was okay. 'Sure you don't want a bite or a drink?', I said and showed him the cheese sandwich. Whoa... That was WRONG! The kid starts gulping, turns REALLY green and throws up all over the place. Yuck. Now Gypsy jumps off her seat and starts licking up the puke on the seat and floor. The evil eye gal looks over, sees the dog licking puke and starts gagging, then throws up herself.

Jesus, now I am laughing so hard my sides hurt. I get a few grins from my other hunting buddies and we all manage to help clean things up with the stew...who is laughing herself.

I got out of that plane well ahead of that puker gal. I think she became a little unbalanced at that point."

..well, it was kinda hilarious at the time...
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Another humorous one I heard recently was from a passenger:

After a series of noises and shuddering bumps during arrival, he says,

“Did we land, or were we shot down?”


So that brings me to this post about WINGS. On a trip down ..or was it up?..the Oregon Coast, we came across the Air Museum outside Tillamook and naturally I had to see it.

If you get a chance and love airplanes or history, give this place a long visit. You won't be disappointed.



The versatile DC-3. Still flying all over the world.
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A magnificent aircraft..the P-38 Lightning fighter.
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I could put one of these to good use this summer. Casting from the wings at remote fly-in lakes of northern Canada.
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Or better yet....

Bring the whole camping setup..

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There are lots more planes...care to see?

Roger, great story! I'd rather sit next to a dog on a plane than most folks I've had to fight over the armrest with!

I think it's time for a reprint of Capn Mike's tale of flying to Las Vegas.

WINGS...ah, the joy of flying...and landing.




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Gracias for the comments. Without further ado..and because I'm cabin-bound today a gillion miles from nowhere...here are some more famous airplanes courtesy of the Air Museum of Tillamook, Oregon.

(Which also happens to be the home of one of my favorite cheese factories. ...ummm, I'll take a block of sharp cheddar, please.)


TILLAMOOK CHEESE, OREGON

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"Okay, let's get this airshow off the tarmac!"


"But first..where's the stewardess bell and my drink holder?"
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Douglas AD-4 Skyraider carried 4500lbs of bombs, rockets and assorted mayhem.
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"Achtung, US-amerikanische. Ich bin auf dem Arsch!"
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[Edited on 6-30-2010 by Pompano]

More airplanes from the Air Museum.

Chris-Tena Mini-Coupe

A single-seat low-wing homebuilt.

wingspan:.....22' 4"

length:..........16'4"

weight...........850 lbs gross

max sp..........136 mph

cruise sp........115 mph @2200 rpms

Fun little airplane and only cost $1482.72 without extras when they first came out in 1972.

Mike, next time through the area around Portland I will check out that other air museum for sure. Right now I'm a few thousand miles away.

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Waxing a little nostalgic, I was looking through my old photos for a picture of our family station wagon..the Stinson 108, then realized I don't have any here. I wanted to show folks here what I flew in as a kid and teen. So..here's a photo of a typical Stinson that astounded me when I came across it on the internet.



Shown in front of a look-alike wagon. Taken in 1949, this boy was close to me in age, we dressed almost identical..and..I had just got a new bike at about that age. Whow! Talk about similarites?

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Now back on the Air Museum tour I took at Tillamook.
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North American P-51D Mustang
This was the fighter most widely used by the US Army Air Force inWWII.



It had a top speed of 430 mph and a range of 2000 miles using drop tanks. It's performance characteristics are superior and it is classed as one of the greatest fighter planes ever built.

Wingspan.............37 ft

Length..................32'3"

Height...................13'8"

Loaded weight......10,100 lbs

Armament..............Six .50 cal. machine guns, plus bombs and rockets.

Engine...................One Packard/Rolls-Royce Merlin 12 cyl. V-1650 water-cooled V-12 engine of 1,720 hp

All in all, over more than a dozen nations flew P-51's over the years...with final air combat in the 1969 "soccer war" between El Salvadore and Honduras.

Of 15,484 Mustangs built, about 60 are still flying. I know one owner and flyer, a rice farmer from California whom I met at Pta. Chivato back in the late 70's. His wife would not allow him to fly his P-51 over thier house a second time...

His fuel burn rate was off the charts. "Bad Rice"
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Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter


This red Jet Ranger was used by the NAvy until 1977 and amassed more flying hours (22,000) than any other Jet Ranger. Now on loan to the Tillamook museum.

The Jet Ranger was selected as the US Navy's training helicopter in 1968, and is one of the world's most widely used helicopters. Still in service, it is flown in most free countries of the world today.

Carries 2 pilots, plus up to 3 passengers
Max load ...... 3200 lbs.
Max speed.....140 mph
Hover ceiling..13,200 ft.
Armament.......none

Gracias amigo.

I worked in aviation for 37 years. (A&P) my wife 32 yrs as a flight attendant. Last Dec. we went to the new Smithsonian museum near Dulles. Pretty impressive. A lot of the stuff that used to be downtown in DC.,plus a lot of new stuff, including more NASA. The enola gay etc. now there

If you get the chance, go there really worth the trip!
Dave
PS I used to have the identical bike.

Quote:

Originally posted by bajadave1 I worked in aviation for 37 years. (A&P) my wife 32 yrs as a flight attendant. Last Dec. we went to the new Smithsonian museum near Dulles. Pretty impressive. A lot of the stuff that used to be downtown in DC.,plus a lot of new stuff, including more NASA. The enola gay etc. now there If you get the chance, go there really worth the trip! Dave PS I used to have the identical bike.

Thanks for the new Smithsonian information, Dave. We'll definitely make a visit next time through Texas. I love to find out more about planes and all things aviation. You folks have a lot of aviation tradition in your family..congratulations. My Co-pilot is now 25 years as a flight attendant.
Funny thing about that bike..mine was identical to the one in the photo, too. Guess it was pretty popular back then. Mine is buried somewhere in my storage barn. My childhood and lifelong amigo, Randy, had a twin. He called his Silvia for some inexplicable reason. But then, he's always marched to a different drum.
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Now back to my final photos of the Air Museum at Tillamook, Oregon.
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I should mention that there is a full-service RV park within walking distance of the Air Museum. Nice quiet place, very reasonable rate of $15 per night, and a herd of elk for neighbors.



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Here is a view of the museum building and adjoining airfield.



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A scenic tour biplane lifting off from one of the runways at Tillamook Airport next to the Air Museum.
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Some of the uniform styles for women of the armed services.
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I had to have a photo of this old stepside favorite. How many of these have you owned? I had an old International when I was a teen..called it Jaspar.
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Here's a plane close to my heart. This is one of two light Cessnas that first made it to the North Pole.

Randy and I once flew his 210 Centurion inside the Artic Circle...we were so close on a trip to Alaska that we thought we might as well do it for our record book.
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"How about a fun quiz?

See if you can name the rest of these airplanes from the Air Museum..and if you can, give a little history to each?"

Here we go...TRY TO NAME THESE PLANES.
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1. (plane is below the number)

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HOW MANY DID YOU RECOGNIZE?
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Nostalgia corner:
Some quotes about wartime aviation.

"To the aircraft I aim, not the man."
— Francesco Baracca, Italy's leading ace of WWI, in Italian "è all'apparecchio che io miro non all'uomo," the prancing horse emblem he sported on his aircraft was used by Enzo Ferrari on his cars. Corpo Aeronautico Militare, 34 victories WWI.

"I mean, I had fast motor cars and fast motor bikes, and when I wasn't crashing airplanes, I was crashing motor bikes. It's all part of the game."
— Sir Harry Broadhurst, RAF, 12 victories WWII

"Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart."
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen.

"So it was that the war in the air began. Men rode upon the whirlwind that night and slew and fell like archangels. The sky rained heroes upon the astonished earth. Surely the last fights of mankind were the best. What was the heavy pounding of your Homeric swordsmen, what was the creaking charge of chariots, besides this swift rush, this crash, this giddy triumph, this headlong sweep to death?"
— H. G. Wells, 'The World Set Free,' 1914.

Thanks for some great airplane shots Pompano.
Here are a couple of rather unusual one-of-a-kind airplanes built by some very innovative people that actually made it into space (367,000 ft) and won the 10 million dollar Ansari X-Prize. Of course it took a reputed 25 million of Paul Allen's money to do it. Quite an accomplishment for private aviation.

Here is another one.

This picture shows Spaceship one attached to the mother ship which takes it to 50,000 feet for release.