Happy Birthday today, to our Dear Sweet Emmie. She turned 3 years old today and we had a great skype video call with Her out of Grey, Tennessee this morning. She was pretty excited, as well as Her Sister Paige! Great to see them!
Right after breakfast we decided we would make a visit to the Palm Springs Air Museum. It was a windy day today, and a lot of the Museum is inside, so we figured that would be good.
No, I did not go out and buy another model helicopter! This Company offers site seeing tours of Palm Springs for $50.00 a head, and operate out of the side parking lot of the Museum.
Off they go… with Mount Jacinto in the back drop.
They have a nice museum here, with a bunch of palm trees…
We were in luck, they had a B-17 at the museum, on loan from the museum in Mesa, over near Phoenix. This is a beautiful plane, that was referred to as the Flying Fortress during the war. It carried a crew of 10. It is crossing the U.S. on a Nation wide tour right now. More on it a little further in the blog.
Inside the Museum was the Flag of Honor. It contained the names of all the people lost during the 911 attacks in New York City.
We attended an hour long lecture on the war in the Pacific Ocean, that was excellent! Lots I did not know about!
Check out the old army helicopter below… wonder if my remote controller will work with it???
Judy and Pat were checking out a flight simulator.
Judy and I went inside the B-17 from above. It was a replica of the original, including the machine guns! It was like flying in a pop can. I could not imagine being in this while other people are trying to shoot you down!
It was a little tight inside the B-17… I only hit my head once!
I made my way up to the pilot’s chair, and this is his view as you look out to your left…
Oh… which button and lever to push????
There is a gun turret, right behind the pilots, where the gunner would stand to shoot with his head up in a glass bubble… this is the view, with weather starting to come in off the mountains, and the machine guns ready to shoot anything that gets in the way!
These are what the machine guns fired!
If the machine guns didn’t work, you just dropped a bomb on them!
Nice Mustang below, waiting to be fired up! Most of the planes here can fly!
They have a full library at the museum, and we all found the original copy of Life Magazine, for the day we were born! Cool. Judy is holding March 14, 1955… oopppss, I am giving secrets away…
Yesterday, while we were at the Palm Spring Wal-Mart, the B-17 took off from the airport, and was great to see it fly… For a small fee of only $425.00 they would take you for a private flight in the B-17. While at Wal-Mart yesterday, it was funny when a fighter plane took off after the B-17 and buzzed Wal-Mart and set off about 5 car alarms… had to be there!
We spent over 1/2 the day here and had a great time! Well worth it!
Till tomorrow…
Nice tour of the Air Museum. Hard to imagine how those young fellows went up in those planes day after day. Had a look inside a Lancaster in Hamilton years ago & couldn't believe how small it was inside. Sure would love to go for a ride in that B17 for sure. Had a helicopter ride over Miami one time & that was really neat. While in the Navy I got a 'flip' on a C-130 Hercules from Shearwater Nova Scotia to Trenton Ontario & that was super neat. Stay at the controls of that Helicopter & soon you too will be airborne:))
ReplyDeletenice tour of the air museum!..have you ever been to the one in Tillamook, Oregon???
ReplyDeleteGreat tour of the Air Museum. I visited it last year and thought it was pretty impressive. As a helicopter pilot, I'll bet you had a lot in common to talk about with some of those old war veterans!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great tour. Makes me want to go there. Loved the photos and your description of the car alarms at Walmart. What a fun day.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting such a useful, impressive and a wicked article./Wow.. looking good!
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