Some pics from my Oregon Washington trip

[Michel C-GNCJ]

Nice pics Chris !

Funny how, given the restricted confines of many museums, that our shots end up being quite similar !

I had never made it to Tillamook, now I know I want to on my next trip over there !!!!

Thanks for sharing

[Chris]

Okay, here is Korea and Vietnam. All the MiG pics were part of the Russian display. Also some of the Navy bird pics have already been posted as well



























I'll post a few pics tomorrow of stuff that really didn't fit into any category but is still pretty neat.

[The Inspector]

More backstory stuff,
The NORTHROP hanging from the ceiling @ MoF is the N-156 protype, and if the boneheads running the place @ the time hadn't beeen so anti military, they could have had the only surviving F-20 to hang along side of it. Same applies to an A-26 tanker that CONAIR up in Abottsford B.C. had set aside for the MoF years ago 'EWWW!..it's not golden age and carries a nasty old smelly gun...EWWW!'
RCAF SABRE 363 is an actual Canadair built SABRE and was Boeings primary chase plane for years and years.
The PHANTOM is a real Mig killer, it was in the OAG @ KPDX and redone in SEA camo by the OAG folks, perhaps Jack Cook has more detailed info on the refurb and swap.
It's hard to believe that the B-47E has been on KBFI and part of the Museum 40 years come this October.
FHC's P-40 (71) has patched bullet holes on it, the AVG scheme is on in movie applied wax finish but seems to be holding up very well.

I'm really very glad you could get up here to see the stuff we have stashed away in the upper left end of the country, just tell all your friends and relatives it only rains here from early January thru very late December, the streets are all dirt, we hope to get electricity in the next 100 years or so, we all run to the beach and tear off our clothes when it warms all the way up to 62 degrees-please! keep us under your hat.

[Chris]

Great stuff Inspector. I'll do my final post later but I REALLY enjoyed my trip and going through all the museums. Any Wixers that get up in this neck of the woods needs to spend some time and visit all these places. Thanks also for the background on the planes as well. Good to have local knowledge.

[Chris]

OK, Here's the last post I'll make for this thread. This is some stuff that fits into no particular category but is still cool none the less.












This gives some idea of the size of the Spruce Goose tail next to the B-17









This is Jordan, our tour guide at the MoF restoration center. The kid was great






The nicest T-6 to Zero mod I've ever seen at Olympic



Mt St Helens in March. AWESOME!!!!

This is a really BIG BIG building

[retroaviation]

Hmmm, interesting....I don't remember the Spruce Goose having that many windows on the side of the fuselage, just aft of the cockpit. But obviously it did. Thanks for posting all of these pictures on this thread.

Gary

[Michel C-GNCJ]

I'm not sure Gary but I beleive this was a modification to show the aircraft structure and bring some light inside as well...

Here is a closer view of that section:


And the other side here:

[kalamazookid]

Nice to see that Spitfire MkIX at Seattle. Used to be hangered at the Air Zoo when it was owned by Cliff Robertson. I sure miss being able to see that one regularly. Was it donated to Seattle Museum of Flight or is it on loan? I seem to recall it being owned by a man in the Tacoma area for awhile who flew it quite regularly.

[retroaviation]

I'm not sure Gary but I beleive this was a modification to show the aircraft structure and bring some light inside as well...

Oh. Well, thanks for that info & pictures. I reckon whenever I get my Spruce Goose, I can cut all the holes in it I want, or leave it like it was originally, whichever I choose. It looks tastefully done, and I completely understand the reasoning behind it, but still.........Wouldn't internal lighting been a little less evasive?

Sorry y'all....I'm NOT slandering the Evergreen folks, as I think they've got an incredible collection, including the Spruce Goose...I mean, how cool is that?!?

Gary

[Chris]

I think I remember as a kid walking through it in Long Beach that it had the side windows as well. They had scaffolding built up to the flight deck area so you could walk along that area on the outside and then you could walk through the cockpit and flight engineer station. Anybody else remember that from it's days across from the Queen Mary? And the Evergreen group recovered all the control surfaces with about two football fields worth of fabric. Can you say "Ribstitch" about a million times. By the way Gary, didn't you fly a really small version of the Spruce Goose at Reno-- the Spruce Sparrow?

[corsair166b]

Kinda cool to see the Evergreen BF 109's and P-38 looking so good and on display....I only ever saw them unfinished while they were on rebuild with Darrell Skurich here in Ft. Collins, CO.....got to see the P-38 do engine runs once, that was pretty cool.

Mark

[Chris]

I think Evergreens 109 is the best one I've ever seen. It just looks so much smoother with the DB rather than the Merlin powered Casa planes. And I am more impressed each time I see the P-38 uncowled at just how much plumbing there is in that thing. I remember seeing Dave Tallichets at Chino one year undergoing an annual inspection with all the panels off. Definitely a tight fit.

[Dan K]

It just grinds me when the local punks park their A-7's in the handicap spaces.

[Steve Nelson]

I know Evergreen's curator Stew Bailey..he was a member of our model club in Kalamazoo when he worked at the Air Zoo. I believe he said Disney installed the "skylights" in the Spruce Goose when they owned her, and Evergreen eventually plans to return her to original configuration. I'll shoot him and e-mail and ask.

I used to love watching Jerry Billing fly the Spit when it lived at the Air Zoo. I don't believe I've seen her fly since she nosed over and trashed the prop in the mid '90s.

SN

[daveymac82c]

Is that Space Ship One the real deal? And that's at FHC?

-David