Warbird Information Exchange

Those are really great pics. Thanks for posting. I am one for the settings that the lights provide. it is great to get great pics of the airplanes, but there is more to a visit there, then just the pics. Take in what you are seeing. This year at Oshkosh I had a similar change. Every year I spend the whole show taking pics of everything, so that I can come home and see on a screen what was infront of me in real life just a day or two ago. I had just bought a Nikon D-50 and wanted to do it again this year. But what I did instead was I took most of my pics on two days, and the other two, I didn't even take a camera. I just walked around and took everything in.
Rick H, Ha Ha, it is a plan to get people to buy our color book. That book is $15.00. If the book is something you like,is that really too much to ask from a museum that charges no parking and no admission?
I would love to see an improvement to the lighting, and I really do think it is coming. Just so it is an equal balance between better lighting, but not loosing that special feeling you get through the setting they create.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

mustangdriver.......after reading your post, and giving the lighting subject a few minutes thought, I have changed my opinions somewhat.

I realized that particularly in the "Early Years" and "Airpower Gallery" the use of the subdued lighting definitely works well with the use of the "dioramas" that are prominent in those rooms. That light level definitely adds to the realism attained when viewing the diorama displays with the human figures, etc.


Ted

You know James, you and Mustangdriver are just NO fun. Here I was trying to start my own grassy knoll conspiracy and you guys had to go and shoot it down with logic. Thought we could get something stirred up here,...but NOOOO you guys wouldn't come out and play !

Don't get me started on conspiracies. This morning a coworker (who I thought was reasonably intelligent) was showing me an e-mail he got claiming to be a list of 50 people the Clintons have had killed. I told him that list had been been floating around the net for years, and thoroughly discredited as the concoction of a paranoid right-wing fanatic. He said he couldn't believe that I was that "naive."

For the record, I'm no fan of Bubba and especially Hillary, but I don't think they're the Sopranos either.


SN

"For the record, I'm no fan of Bubba and especially Hillary"..........NOT ME EITHER!!


Ted

Rick despite all of our debates, I love ya buddy.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

...and the beat goes on

I am gonna stick to my guns and say that I think the majority of Boy Scout Troops, school functions and even WWII veterans visiting the museum don't have a clue when it comes to taking good pictures nor do they care that there is a reason behind the lighting problems.

I also see what you are saying mustangdriver about the $15 book which I will obtain a copy of on my next trip there

Walking through the memorial grounds outside is something I don't see people doing much of either. I just found the Security Police memorial on my last visit!

All in all, the NMUSAF is time well spent, inside or out. I went so far as to get a motel room and spent two nights and the better part of three days and found that there were new things still to be found. Leaving my cheapo digital at home next time I visit and just going to enjoy the ambiance.

Now mustangdriver...can you get me inside of the planes? How about an after hours tour, just you and me going inside the cockpits and making engine noises?? THAT would be a trip of a lifetime

Peace Dude

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Earn my respect and never lose it.
Demand my respect and never gain it. -Me

...just another plane dreamer.

Actually they do have an open cockpit weekend for members of the museums. They open like 5 or 6 differnt aircraft and let the members get in them. It is worth being part of the museum just for that day alone.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Having spent time reading all the posts on this subject, I would like to add a few cents of my own. .... How time changes ....

While going to college nights under my Korean GI bill (mainly for the checks) I took every course in Photography that was available. I was forced to shoot, develop, print, mount, etc. lower Manhattan for my final presentation. At the time, who knew my black and white photos of the building of the twin towers would be memorable. After all, I watched them being built from my office window form day one to completion.

From 1999 to 2006, I would visit Kettering, OH some 27 times. Each one found me visiting and trying to photograph the Museum. Using my Canons), I shot everyting from slides to as high a film as I could find. My oldest son was the production manager for a Professional Photography lab in NJ and supplied me with various types of film, both slides and print. I tried everything possible as well as pushing during the developing. I was lucky in that I managed to get a lot of good pictures. And like so many others, they sit in a drawer.

In 2006, we moved from NJ to OH and since then I have been volunteering at the museum for some 10 months, a minimum of one day a week. An honor and a privelige(sp?) Looking back, I ask myself, why did I spend all that time running around with cameras, tripod, film, etc. and missing the true meaning of the museum. On those visits I missed the true meaning of the museum ... "We are the Keepers of Their Stories".

To photograph the musem is a challenge and for those of you who enjoy doing so ... have fun and enjoy it ... however take some time as well to read their stories ... there are some hidden ones ... and some most noteworthy like the "Doolittle Goblets" .. "Linebacker II" ... "Ranch Hand" .. and sooooo many more.

History is being forgotten in many places throughout our great country .. but at the museum, it is brought to life. One of my favorites is when I see a grandfather bring in a grandchild to visit and whose eyes light up in amazement as his/her first look at the B-52.

Having flown in a C-46, C-47, C-119, C-124 and a Chickasaw ... over 50 years ago ... maybe I shouldn't preach ....

So the next time you walk thru those front doors, look beyond the aircraft and ........... enjoy the history ....

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Jerry
S/Sgt. - USAF Radio Operator '52-'56
C-119 "Flying Boxcar" - Korea & Japan

Volunteer: National Museum of the US Air Force (2007-2016)
LTM 381st Bomb Group Memorial Association

Very well said man.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Hi Jerry...that is what I was saying about my last visit there I spent the better part of three days trying to see and read every last thing in and out of the museum. Having worked in the machining field for the past 20+ years, I found myself trying to figure out how some parts of the aircraft were done so long ago without the advantage of CNC machining!

Incredible collection as well as so many amazing stories. I am an Air Force veteran same as you (was in a little after you were ) and am so proud to take friends and family to the museum and try to explain to them the rich history and tradition of the Air Force. I try also to not let them know of my distaste for the current politics of the higher ups in charge of the museum and their somewhat questionable decisions outside of the day-to-day operations of the museum!

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Earn my respect and never lose it.
Demand my respect and never gain it. -Me

...just another plane dreamer.

An unique situation developed many years ago when I worked at Pacific Fighters. One of the a/c we took care of was Dick Bertea's AD-4 Skyraider.
In the wheel well of this AD on several hyd. actuators were labels which read- Mfg by Bertea Machine Products under License from Douglas Aircraft.
His fathers company made those parts for an aircraft which was used by the Navy, went to France and then Gabone, then back to France and then back home to the USA.
Rich

A while back I realized the same thing Mustang Driver did... I was spending so much time behind a camera that I would miss the museum/show/event I was attending.

I happen to like the setting in the WWI and WWII gallerys, it is a great way to present each a/c. It does make pictures a pain, but it really helps bring the focus to each plane.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Well, here is a vote (from a creative art type... ) for the dramatic lighting. I think it looks GREAT. I'm hoping to make my first trip there in 20 years this winter.

Django,

I'm sure it will be great to have you .... If you can plan now for a visit during the winter months that will include a Friday ... you can call now to be put on the behind the scenes tour to the restoration area and see among others the B-17 Memphis Belle now going a 8 to 10 year restoration.

It is the only area that an advance registration is not only allowed but required. The tour is once a week, on Fridays at Noon.

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Jerry
S/Sgt. - USAF Radio Operator '52-'56
C-119 "Flying Boxcar" - Korea & Japan

Volunteer: National Museum of the US Air Force (2007-2016)
LTM 381st Bomb Group Memorial Association