Museum Visitor FAIL

APG85 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:31 am

Spotted this the other day at a "large museum". I've altered the picture to protect his identity. Guess he wanted to take a closer look... :roll:

CH2Tdriver · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:21 am

I guess he's special?

Mike · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:54 am **Posts:** 3332

I was surprised at how unprotected the exhibits were when I visited a couple of weeks ago. I was able to get nice cockpit shots of the 'between the wars' fighters as they were left unprotected with canopies open. Only the WW I aircraft had any protection around them.

JohnB · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:25 am

Which museum..or is that secret?

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7852

That SBD sure had a lot of nerve rolling under that guys flip flops.

Enemy Ace · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:29 am

Just one more screw and he'll have a neat part to take home as a souvenir.....

CH2Tdriver · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:46 am

You know if I was a docent and saw that I wouldn't say anything to him. I would try to figure out which car in the lot was his. I'd then finagle the hood open and when he showed up to leave he'd see me browsing around the engine underneath the hood. Do ya think he'd get the hint?

JFS61 · **Joined:** Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:44 pm **Posts:** 305

JohnB wrote:

Which museum..or is that secret?

That's the Pearl Harbor/Battle of Midway veteran SBD on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola.

Misterg97 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 2:14 pm

How about crawling in the jet engine on a fighter ... Please no questions!

maxum96 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 8:51 pm

Are the planes not roped off? I don't see any in the picture. Were there any signs staying to keep off? All of us (warbird and airplane junkies) know not to touch or climb on aircraft without permission. While I can't condone the guy getting up on the plane, I can see some of the less intelligent folk amongst us thinking that it's ok to climb up on and look in without any ropes or signs.

Wildchild · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 9:17 pm

At least he got up there correctly...

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 1:11 am

I was chatting with a docent at that musuem a couple years ago, and we watched a kid start moving the elevator on an F6F. We both cringed, but the docent gurmbled "whaddya gonna do? It's supposed to be a "hands on" museum." I was on the flight deck of USS Yorktown last month, and some woman was trying to convince her freinds to climb into the intake of an A-7 for a picture..they declined, but she called them "chicken" and said she'd have no problem doing it.

Heck, back when I was a docent at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo some ten years ago there was an F-86 on display with the boarding ladder in place and the canopy open. I watched a guy step over the three-foot-high black-and-white striped barrier, climb up the ladder, and stick his head in the cockpit..much like the idiot in the first photo. When I (very politely) told him to get behind the barricades, he very indignatnly told me "I wasn't hurting anything, I just wanted to see inside."

The sad thing is, the jerk in the picture probably didn't even have a clue that he was doing anything inappropriate. Museum visitors these days seem to have a real "entitlement" mentality. I don't mean in a political sense, they just seem to think that because they paid an entry fee (or "my tax dollars pay for this place") they should have free run of the place. I'm just appalled by the lack of respect for in general these days for "things that ain't yours." Even if I'm admiring a classic car in a parking lot, I won't touch it without permission..and if I'm a visitor in someone's home I certainly don't go around picking up things or rummaging through drawers. I don't even open the fridge without permission.

I guess I've now officially entered "curmudgeonhood."

Steve "Get Offa My Lawn!" Nelson

Fouga23 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:19 am

****! If I saw someone touching my aircraft or car without permission, I would break their neck!

Rauhbatz · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:32 am

Several years back during a vacation in Destin I contacted the Pensacola Museum to take some pics for our Dixie Wing archives of their SBD airframe/parts collections. I went through all the official channels to obtain access and take pics for future restoration efforts w the Dixie Wing SBD. They were a great bunch of folks to work with and were more than accomodating...

Back at the musuem they let me take a look inside their restored SBD...very impressive work where I was happy to see that we got it pretty close to their efforts..

Somehow I don't think Jethro here did not go thru the same process...hope they don't have to rope off this impressive piece of work to keep people away from the aircraft...

B 25 C · **Joined:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 12:05 pm **Posts:** 166

I Think the child didn't have any idea of the cost or man hours it took to get this bird back to current condition. Somewhere in the museum there should be a break down of what the cost in money and man hours to do a restoration. Still someone would not care and do what this child did. An adult would respect the artifacts and not touch! Just my two cents.

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