Tag Archives: museum

Mare Island Museum

The Society of Aviation History organized a visit to Mare Island recently and I went along. The tour started at the museum and walked to a number of locations before ending up back at the museum which we were then free to roam around. I will start at the end today and cover a little about the museum itself. That should set the scene for the follow up posts about elements of Mare Island that we took a look at.

Mare Island was a naval shipyard. From its earliest days it grew into a major shipbuilding facility. In its later days, it was involved in building many nuclear submarines. Ultimately, as part of the reduction in bases undertaken in various phases around the US and beyond, Mare Island was closed as a naval facility and returned to the local community. Much ship related work is still undertaken but the location is a faction of what it once was.

The museum has a lot of displays of what went on at various stages in the history of the yard. Outside there are some missiles and cannons on display covering old wooden frigates through to a Polaris missile from a nuclear ballistic missile boat. The submarine theme shows up in many of the displays and a periscope has been recovered from a submarine and erected in the museum. You can operate it and survey the surrounding area. The clarity of the optics is quite amazing.

The running of the museum is not cheap – not least because the local town of Vallejo charges them a substantial tax each month. Therefore, getting people to visit is an important issue for them. If you have a free day, I would certainly pay them a visit and see a little of the shipbuilding history of the area.

Santa Monica – The Friendly Airport

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My buddy Pete joined me for some fun in the LA area. Pete is a commercial pilot but any form of aviation appeals to him so we have a lot in common. We had a full day available to go exploring. One part of the day was allocated to a helicopter trip but the rest was open time for us. Our first stop was Santa Monica airport.

I was introduced to this great place by another friend, Paul, who was, coincidentally, introduced to me by Pete. It is a short distance north of LAX but is the total opposite. Santa Monica accommodates everything from light sport aircraft to some pretty substantial corporate jets. What it also accommodates is visitors. A nice terrace area is laid out at the terminal building providing a great spot to watch operations with the runway only a short distance away.

The tower frequency is piped to the terrace so you know what is going on. There are vending machines and bathrooms to cover both ends of the spectrum and, in the past, I have seen the airport police officers handing out stickers to kids. The place is so welcoming you see lots of parents show up with their kids to watch the planes. As a UK based pilot, Pete found this to be an amazing improvement on his usual experiences at small airports.

I didn’t actually take my camera initially. I wasn’t sure how long we would be there. As it turned out a couple of cool jets including a nice Gulfstream came in while I was cameraless. No matter. I did get it after a while and got a few shots of traffic before our plans took us onward. Before we left, we did walk across the road to the Museum of Flying. Santa Monica was the home of Douglas Aircraft for many years. The museum was sadly closed when we were there but there was a nice DC-3 on a pole along with an A-4 and an F-86 so something nice to see.

Proud Bird At Last

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One of the icons of the aviation scene around LAX is the Proud Bird restaurant. Located under the approach to the 25 complex, it is a restaurant with an aviation theme. Inside there is plenty of memorabilia. Outside there are vintage aircraft (including some replicas) mainly of a Second World War vintage but some others too. Despite its fame, I had never been there other than a brief visit to the parking lot early one morning many years ago.

Pete was keen to check it out too so we headed there for an early lunch. It was the last week that the restaurant would be open prior to a ten month refurbishment program so our timing was fortuitous. The place turned out to be a lot more than either of us had anticipated. The space was very large, the patio (where we ate of course – a sunny day with planes flying by) was very comfortable and the lunch menu, while straightforward, was really nice. Besides, you could walk among the planes while waiting for your food.

I am not sure what the restoration will bring. It will be interesting to see when things reopen. Meanwhile the staff will have to find other jobs which is probably not making them so enthusiastic. I hope they do well. They certainly treated us nicely.

Contrasting Cars

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One of the fun things about going to Cars and Coffee at the Blackhawk Automotive Museum in Danville is the variety of vehicles on show. You get things from one extreme to another. One of the first vehicles I saw after parking was a Lamborghini Aventador. This is a serious piece of supercar technology. There was also a McLaren to take a look at. Compare this with an old Datsun or a selection of old VWs and you are poles apart. However, they are all loved by their respective owners.

My enthusiasm for the Honda/Acura NSX was satisfied by three of them lined up together over in one corner. A very nice thing to find on one side of a big event. This proved to be a popular edition of Cars and Coffee. Over 800 cars were noted by the organizers. I got there a little early and it was already getting very full. Supposedly some people were there from 5:30am. That is enthusiasm for you.

Erickson Aircraft Collection

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I attended a course recently that was held in Madras OR at the home of the Erickson Air Museum. This museum is a fantastic collection of vintage aircraft, some of which were used for the course, more of which will appear on this blog in due course. At various times while we were there, I had the opportunity to wander around the museum and see the collection. This included during the evening when a party was underway but which also meant they had some interesting illumination.

The majority of the aircraft are warbirds but not all of them. A Bellanca was present which is, to be generous, a most unusual looking aircraft. I would certainly have liked to have seen it outside had the opportunity arisen but that wasn’t to be. There was also a Martin Mauler which is an aircraft I had never heard of previously. It looks like a Skyraider but you could tell it was different. It was just hard to know what it was without checking the information on the display.

Madras is not on the trail for most people so I imagine the museum does not have a lot of people happening upon it. However, it is a nice facility with a great collection and a super bunch of people working there. If you like warbirds and vintage aircraft, it should definitely be visited at some point.

DC-3 City of Tillamook

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The Erickson collection did not used to be based in Madras. For many years the aircraft were part of the museum at Tillamook. The old airship hangars at Tillamook were their home. While most of the planes have now moved, one of them still bears a name indicative of its past. This is the Douglas DC-3 named City of Tillamook.

The aircraft sat on the ramp outside the museum hangar for the duration of my visit. The first evening we were there we had time to stroll around the ramp as the sun set. This resulted in some lovely lighting conditions. It was fun to see the DC-3 in close proximity to some later Douglas products. They shall be the subject of a later post.

A2AX Workshop

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About a year ago I saw a ton of cracking images showing up online from friends of mine that had attended the Madras A2AX workshop. At the time I figured I needed to start panning on being there for the next edition of the workshop. It is run by Scott Slocum and Lyle Jansma at the Erickson Air Museum’s facility and their aircraft provided the subjects for the photo flights. Scott and Lyle were joined by Paul Bowen. Paul was not instructing but he did provide his own perspective and guidance on what we were working on and also could be relied on to show up with his camera whenever you were looking at your goofiest and to tell some hilarious tales of his various exploits.

I met some familiar faces and made a whole bunch of new friends. Various hurdles were thrown in the way of the team due to weather and serviceability issues but they adapted well and the team were intent on having a good time whatever was going on. It was a fantastic weekend with some great learning opportunities and some beautiful aircraft to photograph. Here are a couple of samples of what we had to play with.

Rolls Custom Effort

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A Rolls Royce is some people’s idea of the pinnacle of motoring. I have ridden in a couple and, while they were comfortable, they never really floated my boat. Cars and Coffee had two examples that I was looking at and the comparison was amusing to me. One was a brand new car that a dealer had brought along to show off. It was fitted with all of the latest toys and certainly would help relieve you of a chunk of your bank balance. However, the current Rolls styling is not to my taste and they look rather inelegant.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was a far older model that has been customized. Apparently, this had been a labor of love for a guy but he had sadly passed away. Not had been finished off by his family but they had then sold it on. It is a strange vehicle for sure. The classic Rolls shape is clearly identifiable but the cut down bodywork and the lowered suspension are a big deviation from the norm. I have no idea how much it cost to modify and I’m sure the value was to the guy rather than anyone else but it is a great example of creativity and commitment. I hope he was happy with it.

More Cars and Coffee

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Other than the stuff that has got its own post, there were a bunch of other cool looking cars at Cars and Coffee. Here are some of the others. Hard to believe that some of these are also ran subjects! Normally they would get more attention!

Volvo Restoration

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My recollection of Volvos as a youth was of boxes on wheels. They never struck me as impressive cars and the interiors seemed to match the exteriors in their boxiness. I even have a less than favorable memory of driving a 740 through France overnight to try and make a morning ferry (which we did). It was not always thus. The P1800 was quite a smart looking car and a TV star in the original version of The Saint.

This example showed up at Cars and Coffee. It was in excellent condition. Whether it has been kept well or restored beautifully (or even a bit of both) I don’t know but it looked great. It wasn’t the only example around either. However, it did stand out as the one to see. I have no idea what they are like to drive but that wasn’t the point at an event like this.