I am PLANE worn out!

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you are the pilot." - Pilot Quote

We visited Pima Air and Space Museum (800 airplanes/helicopters) along with the Davis Monthan Air Force Base Bone Yard! (4000 airplanes/helicopters) which means we are exhausted in Tuscon, Arizona!!! Totally PLANE worn out! 

The Pima Air and Space Museum has several different hangers dedicated to several different eras of aviation and space!  It was the perfect museum for a pilot.  I was exhausted and totally pilot and space overloaded! 

Beloved showing the kiddos how the tug pulls airplanes.  This is the plane that was in Top Gun.  It is called a F14 (Tom Cat).

Planes like the movie planes.

 

Beloved is showing how they put the sonar bouyies in the helicopter. The sonar buoy is ejected out and lands in the water and looks for for submarines. 

 Hanging out near the missile.

They have acres and acres of airplanes.   You can taking a walking tour or a trolley tour.

 The back of the Guppy. 

(My personal favorite because it really does remind me of a guppy fish.)

 The front of the Guppy! 

The Guppy carries very large items.

A small section of the helicopters. 

Beloved believes he flew that Huey tail number #95 back in flight school.

He will check is paper work just to confirm it. 

 Interesting paint jobs!

They boys are doing Astronomy for school so the Space Air Museum was a necessity for some road schooling!

 And, they talked me into buying space food!  

Frozen Ice Cream!

In the WW2 museum they showed the deck of cards for soldiers that taught them how to recognize ariplanes (so they would only shoot down the enemies and not the friendly). Soldiers would pass time away by playing cards. 

 Flight jackets from WW2 

Each flight jacket is different! 

Love all the paint designs that they would do.

 The Museum is so large that they actually have a huge airplane cafeteria. 

The food is very good. 

They play WW2 era music. 

As you can see our view was of a Blue Angel Plane.

 The Military has a bone yard where they store all the planes that are not in service or have not been used for scrap metal.  The C-27s are being taken out of the bone yard and the Special Ops community is getting some of them and so is the Coast Guard.

 Hundreds of acres of planes!

So hard to even comprehend how many there are out there! 

We took a bus tour through the Bone Yard.  

I just took a few photo shots. 

But, if you want to see an air view of the Bone yard -- just goggle "Air Force Bone yard, Arizona"

 And of the 50 pictures I took this will have to be it for today.

                         I am guessing I have over loaded the system for downloading already.
Until next time anyway, as we plan on coming back to see the commercial airline bone yard out here one day too. 

Hands on History in an Avaiation Museum

We went to the local Aviation/Car Museum in Las Cruses, New Mexico. They have a fabulous museum. The volunteers are eager to tell you the stories of all the planes and cars in their hangers. Such neat history. 

This is Beloved's favorite plane! He has liked it since he was little.  Growing up he always wanted to a pilot. They say it is what he has talked about since he was 3 years old.  He did not have the ability to accumulate the wealth of knowledge that children have to do with the Internet on all the helicopters and planes that he wanted to know about! Instead, he spent hours writing to airplane industries for any pamphlet he could get on planes. Some times it worked and they would send him something and he was always so happy when they did.

 I don't think my children really grasp the fact that they have traveled across the U.S. several times and have seen and done many things most people have only dreamed to do.  To them our traveling and way of life is normal.  I hope they look on their childhood and realize that the adventures we are having are special.   And, I hope they fondly remember all the times we have dragged them to all sorts of Historical Museums.  Maybe they will remember hands-on history being exciting. 

This plane had a story to tell. 

The older WW2 pilots were up set after the war with what was being done to the airplanes. They were being scrapped. Most of them started and joined pilot clubs to help preserve the history.  This plane was bought before it was scrapped for $50.00!  The owner then restored it and raced it against other pilots in racing shows.  It was finally retired and loaned to the museum.

In airplane hangers it is popular to have propeller fans! 

I guess I just take this for granted that every one knows this! 

 The museum had a lot of old restored cars mixed in with the restored airplanes.  

Many of the planes and airplanes had drip pans underneath them. 

If you see a drip pan underneath them in a museum that means they still fly and drive! 

The boys have their favorite color.  The Little Man likes red.  The little Gentleman likes green.  They determined their favorite car only due to the color!  I am sure it will change when they are older but right now I get a chuckle out of it.

A picture to remember the movie "Herbie". 

"Herbie the love bug". 

 They like that old movie. 

They thought this motor bicycle was funny!

 Afterwards, we went out side and looked at some of the planes on the flight line. 

This is a Russian Plane. 

It reminded me of several historical and opinion articles recently that I have read. 

The Russians build their airplanes for function.

So, they have the most interesting designs to me as they are not pretty. 

And, I find their logic different than ours in the U.S. when it comes to using their planes, tanks, etc. in war.

The Russians will build 1000s of tanks and for ever 10 tanks they will put a radio in one of them. 

The U.S. will build 100 tanks and put a radio in everyone of them.   So, what do you do in war? Well you look for the Russian tank that has the radio antennas in it and take it out.  Then, it stops them from getting orders and it basically paralyzes them as their military rank structure is one where the next in line does not  automatically become in charge.  They actually have to wait for the next person to be put in charge.  

                                     

Now, the U.S. military does it different.  And the articles that I have read talk about it from the position of those allies forces who work with us.  (British, Kiwi, Aussies, etc.)  They talk about the fact that when our "radios" go out or when our commanders die, etc. The U.S. doesn't  get paralyzed but instead become more gorilla warfare. (This comes from our Indian History on fighting in the U.S.)  If the mission goes bad the U.S. still fights on.  If we are in a position where we can't get orders (the radios go out) the  U.S. continues the mission.  They still go after the target. They still fight.  If a commander is hit and unable to fulfill his duties, the next in line due to our rank structure takes over!  They don't leave that commander behind but they still continue to the target.

I told Beloved that someone needs to write a Military History and Warfare Jr Home school curriculum on this stuff as I think home school boy community would love to read history and information like this!  I would do it if I had the time!  Unfortunately, I am trying to home school 4 of the 5! That in itself takes up so much time! But, if anyone takes up my idea and takes the challenge, I want the first binding of the curriculum!

Children Museum

"Baby, it's cold outside." -  Cold Museum

It is very cold to us in San Antonio this weekend.  So, instead of doing some of the outside establishments we did something a little warmer. We took the children to San Antonio's Children Museum.  Here is a few snap shots from the day.

Art Room

Build a house and see if the earth quake button will knock it down

An animal lizard habitat. It looks perfect for little fairies.

Bubble Making

We spent the rest of the day back at the camper doing some school work and staying warm!

Natural Museum/Duck Ride

"Travel is the one thing you buy that makes you richer." Unknown

Another day of hiking Washington D.C.

Today, we had a picnic lunch at the park in front of the Capitol building and fountain.

 Then, we headed on over to the  Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. 

 Quartz

 The Hope Diamond

Aquamarina

Gold

 Animals Skeletons

Egyptian Mummy

Great White Shark

Woodpecker Bird Exhibit

Our day ended with a Duck tour of the city and a hike back to the car.