This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
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Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:21 pm

Gents, if I do this I'm travelling by air with Air Canada, so no stopping all over the place.

No car renting since although I'm old enough to fly everything built until now, I can't rent a car.

Kinda limits me options, eh?

8)

Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:51 pm

Yeah well, the more I think about it, the more it'll end up on a snowy slope out West!

8) :spit2

Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:04 pm

I whole-heartedly support the USAF museum at WPAFB as the starting point. There's one of everything there including some less 'garden variety' beasts such as a Dehavilland Mosquito and an SR71. Being close-ish to the Canadian border, you would be off the plane and into the warbirds PDQ.

I spent a day there and saw about 1/3 of what I wanted to see.

Walrus

Travel

Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:33 pm

Ollie,

Being from Texas there is alot to visit here in the DFW area but it is spread out all over the place... Dayton is high on my list because so much is in one museum... but still hard to do with no car rental. One year at Sun N Fun I flew in and had to have a friend put his name on the car rental for me because I was under age!

Brings back some memories of flying my Taylorcraft to Oshkosh and Sun N Fun and taking the courtesy car to the hotel and being JUST old enough to rent the hotel room at age 18!!! When they asked for some ID I wanted to tell the guy at the hotel counter... "hey, I just flew here in MY airplane so you better give me a room!!" When my dad and I land in my 170 at different airports they still ask him all the questions about "his" airplane.

Anyway... back on topic. Chino is the my pick. I have been there twice and knew there was more to see around the LA area but stayed right there on the airport taking it all in!

Fri Dec 17, 2004 7:48 am

Without a car rental you are stuck pretty much whereever you go. So if you are going to pick a on-site excursion then I would suggest either Chino, Dayton, Pensacola or the NASM.

Mike

Fri Dec 17, 2004 11:58 am

Now if you are doing a east to west or vice versa you have to stop at the Hill Field Museum. It rivals a lot of places as far as its collection. B-24D, B-17, P-40, P-38, SR-71, F-4 (2 of 'em), B-29, F-89, B-52, P-47, B-25, C-154 - this is a PARTIAL list. Plus if skiing is your thing Utah claims the "Greatest Snow on earth"

Heres the homepage:

http://www.hill.af.mil/museum


Tom P.
www.wendoverairbase.com

Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:31 pm

Hill, NASM, USAF Museum, MAPS, Chino, Seattle, Pima. Those are my picks.

Also the Mid America Air Museum (MAAM but not from PA) in Liberal KS. It has over 100 planes on display. Solid-nosed B-25, F4U-5NL, TBM-3, all L-planes up to the L-6 except the L-1 (BTW, how many of those exist?), PT-19, PT-22, PT-23, PT-26 and more. However, I forget the url.

Sun Dec 19, 2004 10:29 am

Ollie, Dan's right, there isn't much here in the DFW area. My pick would be Chino and south to Castle AFB, Miramar and then the San Diego area. I'll look for you @ Duxford next year.


Cheers,


Lynn

Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:18 am

Lynn Allen wrote:My pick would be Chino and south to Castle AFB, Miramar and then the San Diego area. I'll look for you @ Duxford next year.


How far south of Chino is Castle AFB? Is the airpark accessable to the public?

Mike

Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:52 am

Castle Air Force Museum is North of Chino at Atwater. It is about a 4-5 hour drive from Chino. But with LA traffic it could be shorter or a lot longer. That is the Fun of LA.

Castle is open to the Public, The air force base closed in the mid 90’s. The Museum is civilian operated. The base was used to train B-52 crews. One interesting note is that in the late 80s or early 90s they flew up the B-47 from China Lake (southern CA). I guess they were able to land just before all the Hydraulic fluid leaked out of the aircraft. I knew someone stationed there at the time. I guess it wasn’t a pretty picture coming in. But what I wouldn’t have done to be there.

My question is who here was there? Someone had to be involved I know it.
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