Warbird Information Exchange

According to this, it seems so!

http://www.williamsnews.com/main.asp?Se ... cleID=7820

My question is... the article says all his planes are flyable, but how true is this? The B-25 has been at Mesa with the rudders off for a while now... and I don't know about the others at Glendale and Buckeye.

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

N/C on the flyable part

Well, bully for Hans. I, too, have no comment on the flying versus static query, but this is at least something positive for aviation.

City of Glendale had their opportunity to work with him as well, and they could have had a museum attraction at this municipal airport but people moved about professionally and priorities shifted.

It's at least nice to see someone in the state interested in this sort of thing and willing to work with an individual with a unique personal collection.

Can't help but hope he gets something in ink and he gets a commitment from someone in charge and this progresses forward. I think back to how Doug Champlin got shafted by the City of Mesa over the years trying to display his collection and offerings at Falcon Field, and what little a priority the preservation of history was (and still is) to this Godforsaken, aviation-retarded municipality.

Off soapbox. Good luck to ya, Hans.

Matt,
Did I miss the boat somewhere??
I thought you were taking care of all his a/c???

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Don't touch my junk!!

I completely agree... I look at places here in the valley where you'd think the tourist attraction value of an aircraft museum would hold some water with the city fathers, but it seems like they are way too concerned about pooling resources to become the next Scottsdale.

I look at an airport like Chino and get envious on how the city and county seem to embrace the history and heritage of the warbird haven and support building enterprise around that heritage, not pushing it away but partnering with it. With the history of Falcon Field, you'd think it'd be a natural for the city of Mesa, but they seem to care more about putting a waterpark in the city than anything else.

I can't help but think... as I look at the article... how much "potential" does a museum have up there? I mean, look at the POF facility just up the road in Valle... does it get much traffic at all? Enough to keep the doors open? Or does POF subsidize it to keep it for storage? Would a museum in Williams add or compete? It's not like there's a lot of population up around those parts (though I would say Williams has better chances due to it's proximity to the I-40).

I'm hoping it all works out for him... it's a shame that the collection is spread eight ways to Cucamonga as it is now... would be nice to have it in one spot.

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

The A-26 and C-1 flew to nearby Buckeye last year and the C-119 went up into Northern AZ to private strip.

http://www.skippyscage.com/aviation/az/ ... /index.php

http://www.skippyscage.com/aviation/az/ ... /index.php

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Paul Filmer
skippyscage photography

I think a community like Williams would be able to carry a concept like this forward with a great degree of success. Seems to me that the Valley municipalities are far too concerned with maximizing financial gain to even consider a new museum concept as quite simply the tax renevues couldn't carry the weight of say, a big building project.

You'd think that Mesa with its stake in two historically significant airfields (Falcon Field, a RAF training base) and the former Williams AFB would want to pay tribute to this bit of history. Not the case at all. In fact, visitors walking into the airport admin office at FFZ will not see a single signboard or vintage photo showcasing the airstrip's heritage. It's as inviting and mentally stimulating as a trip to the dentist's office. Even the City museums or public buildings downtown offer little and don't seem interested in the municipality's aviation contributions.

Ryan is correct that the city fathers seem far more interested in revenue generators like a water park that preserving something from the past. In a nutshell, that's just it - it's history, it's in the past, and to them, boring. We need more neon, more bright colors, and more stucco covered, air-conditioned big boxes.

I'd go so far as to say that if Mesa's economic development team could figure a way to further prostitute themselves and copulate with big business interests and could financially justify doing away with the airport, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

They'd froth at the chops if Bed, Bath and Beyond or WalMart would propose a way to build out FFZ and show them they'd put the City in the black financially and bring in more revenue than those noisey old airplanes do. Hmmmn. Maybe I've provided thought for our economic development office and at this very minute they're hashing over tax incentives, a bond proposal and a forgiveable loan program for this very thing right now...

I don't think an air museum is an efficient use of space in the middle of a large city. You're right! A water park attracts a lot of locals and churns a lot of tax dollars. Williams on the other hand, if they have anything, it's space. Their choice is not a water park OR an air museum, it is an air museum or NOTHING. How many people would a water park attract in Williams? I can't imagine you could get a reasonable return on your investment.

A water park in the middle of the desert...

Smack where the flying heritage is so huge as was said on a previous post... What happenned to the Champlin collection is quite representative I think. I bet the CAF is fighting the very same issues day in and day out.

Too bad, really. I've been regularly visiting the area year in, year out for the past 10 years and it seems to me that aviation is getting less and less space and interrest.

Lately we organized an open house day at a local airport and offered Young Eagles flights to three local high schools. Seems the yougsters have much else than airplanes in their mind as the turn-out was nowhere near what we anticipated. Not only had we free flights, but also static aircraft displays, workshops, etc...

Pretty representative of the general public's interrest in our passion I guess. Or too many video games to play ?

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Michel C
Thousands of a/c pics at Passion-Aviation

Good for Hans!!!!! Glad to see him finally work something out. As far as Pooners and Ryans soapboxes go, I'd like to stand up on them too except there's no way I could say it better than the Pooner man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Amen brothers.

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The more I learn about aircraft, the more I realize I still have to learn.

This sounds exactly like the Irvine "Great Park" concept for the former MCAS El Toro. The great park consists of about 90% houses and commercial property and 10% parkland on the uninhabitable areas. Originally everyone voted to keep it an airport, but that was quickly overturned.