Naval Air Museum visit (Warning lots of pics)

[PbyCat-Guy]

Last night I had an overnight in Pensacola. I ended up renting a car, and spent a few hours going through, wish I had more time. It's a very nice museum, and glad I made the "pilgrimage" to one of the Meccas of warbirds, and thanks to my airline for "making" me spend the night there. The "Treasures of Lake Michigan" was hard to photograph, just warning you guys. The airplane I saved for last, was the EA-3B, parked outside near the restoration hangar. This "whale" was the very one that my dad served on when he was A/C on them VQ-2. I've joked with him (yes I know it's bad) that someone knows they're getting up there in age when their airplane is in a museum. Parked outside was another PBY, Neptune, and PBJ with others. 3 PBYs in one musuem, I was in heaven. There are a lot of photos of the PBY, I think its a beautiful airplane. Enjoy the photos, and I welcome feedback. I will add others of the panoramas that I used my iPhone to take.

http://s301.photobucket.com/user/jsfraz ... r%20Museum

[old iron]

Boy, that is a lot of rare aircraft in outdoor storage in a coastal environment!

[CoastieJohn]

It's fun to look at the pics.....thanks.

I too am a little surprised to see some of the older birds (like the PBY) sitting outside in that salty environment.

[k5083]

It's a terrific collection but they do need acres more inside space to shelter the artifacts.

Then again I'm not sure the indoor air in Pensacola is all that much less corrosive than the outdoor air! Not as much sun and rain though anyway.

Did you do the bus tour of the yard? Looks like maybe not. It offers some better looks at the outside exhibits, though you have to look/shoot through grimy tinted windows.

It's been several years since I last visited and I was still shooting film then. Without the ability to change ISO, the Lake Michigan exhibits completely defeated me. With a good low-light digi or even an iPhone 5, it wouldn't be so hard to photograph them.

August

[Malo83]

Thanks for all those closeups of the EA-3B "Whale", busted many a knuckle on those J57-P10's, was in VQ-1 72-75 when they were Homeported at NAS Agana Guam, brought back a lot of memories