One thing I did notice was the B-25, which was bare metal. There were some
polishing marks under the wing, where it looked like there was some overly
aggressive paint removal. Also, not unexpectedly, there was a fair amount of
filliform corrosion on the undersurface as well.

They also had a windshield wiper on the bombardier's window in the nose, but
not on the B-17- first time I noticed this up close.

Overall, a memorable day.


"gatt" wrote in message
...

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
news
I saw a bunch of planes outside as well, apparently awaiting renovation.
Looked like a Beech starship and an F-15, along with some others.

The F-15 was the first to end up in civilian hands and he got his because
his son was a '15 pilot (the museum is named after him.) The son retired
from the USAF iirc, became a police officer and was killed in a motorcycle
accident.

Driving out we saw some WWII armor, as well as what looked to be a T-76.

Yep. I'm pretty sure it runs. I've never seen the IMAX, and you
described the Goose engine in a previous post. I'm pretty sure that's a
new display too. Very cool! Took my father-in-law there for father's day
a couple of years ago and he got a little misty-eyed (I imagine that
happens a lot there) because the UH-1 out front was the first bird to
which he was assigned.

Other trivia is that the C-47 with the Normany stripes used to be at the
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry...as a UAL DC-3 that you could walk
around in. At some point there was talk of trying to restore it to flying
condition, but then I think they discovered that it had actually
participated in D-Day, and that made it worth too much to risk flying so
they returned it to its original livery and configuration. That place
really is amazing for being out in the middle of nowhere.

What a great treasure in the middle of nowhere.

I did my IFR training around there and one time while I was under the hood
outbound for the procedure turn my instructor says "Wow! That's a big
airplane." I couldn't look. Then she goes "WOW! LOOK!" It was
Nine-O-Nine, coming in over the river beneath us on the ILS. It looked
magnificent in its OD paint and red tail against the farmland below. I
never imagined I'd look down at a B-17 in flight and I only hope that my
grandfather was able to look down from much higher and share in my
excitement.

Pretty much shot my concentration for the day. There was no way I could
go back under the hood, because the B-24 was still out there somewhere.

-c