The National Naval Aviation Museum

Sorry for the delay in posting about this national treasure of a museum, I had to wait for my ears to stop ringing so I could concentrate.  ;c)

The National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida is one of the top aircraft museums in the United States, it ranks right up there with the Air Force Museum in Ohio and the two Smithsonian Air and Space museums (DC and VA).  It's been on my bucket list for years and after my visit, it is back on my next bucket list and probably several more after that (sorry Marti).

Even on the way into the museum, there are reminders of who is behind this collection of aircraft.

Walking in, you're blown away with the size of the collection of aircraft.  You don't know where to start.

Because there are so many planes contained in two huge buildings, I'll show just a couple to pique your interest instead of showing each and every one (so Marti will not make me sleep on the couch).

Here is a World War II TBM torpedo/bomber plane.  It is the type of aircraft that former president George H.W. Bush flew as an 18 year old Navy pilot.  He was the youngest pilot in the Navy at that time and was shot down on a bombing mission and was rescued by a Navy submarine. 

Another plane that has special meaning to me, the Grumman Wildcat fighter.  My dad worked for Grumman on the Wildcat assembly line before he was drafted in World War II.  When I see these planes, I wonder if it is one my dad helped build.

One plane in the collection is what the museum considers its most historically important aircraft, a Dauntless SBD-2 dive bomber.

It was found laying on the bottom of one of the Great Lakes.

It was one of over 300 aircraft that crashed in the Great Lakes during World War II.  The Navy had purchased two Great Lakes coal carriers and converted them into mini aircraft carriers (The USS Wolverine and the USS Sable) to train new pilots.  Pilots had to make eight landings and takeoffs to qualify for duty on an aircraft carrier.  They had a very high accident rate and rather than use brand new aircraft, war weary aircraft taken from the front lines were pressed into this training role so a crash was not a great loss.  Often, the pilot who crashed a plane was fished out of the water and put right back into another worn out warbird to try again, without a second thought.

This particular Dauntless was raised relatively intact and sent for a restoration.  Upon finding the plane's serial number, a check of its history record in Navy files revealed some amazing facts.

The Dauntless was on the ground at Pearl Harbor when the Navy base there was attacked on December 7, 1941 plunging the United States into World War II.  It survived that attack and went operational to a U.S. aircraft carrier.  During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, it flew missions against Japanese forces and survived that intense battle, returning to its carrier base with over 200 bullet holes in it. 

Sometime after the battle, it was retired from front line service and relegated to a training role, where it ultimately was "lost" in a crash into the Great Lakes.

The Dauntless was lovingly returned to pristine condition, there are very few examples of this plane left in existence today.  Two parts of the plane were left in the original unrestored condition where the plane's serial number, 2106 can still be seen.

My next post on the museum will have some more presidential aircraft and a helicopter that nearly sent me flying, about 100 feet in the air and without a parachute.

 Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Marti's Musings: say what?

Paul has pretty much crashed for the night.  It was a long, and n-o-i-s-y day.  Whistling Dixie is one thing, but by the time we got here.....  let's just say my ears are still ringing.

We decided to go all 359 miles to the campground by our daughter's house.  One less day to deal with that endless whistle....  Interesting though, if I held my head in some weird position, the whistle was actually blocked - either that, or I am now half deaf.

The campground "Wood Smoke" is not only close to our daughter's, it is actually much better than I remembered.  Free Wi-Fi (with great speed), thus we can thumb our nose to Verizon, who insists that we have used 10g the last month; wooded, but still with access for DirecTV; laundry, fishing pond - alas, no hot tub, though.  WalMart is a couple miles away, and there are large military bases close enough for commissary shopping, but too far for the campground for ease in visiting. 

We had a  delish dinner at Cracker Barrel (love those gift cards!) - and our daughter and the grandkids met us there, on their way home from a birthday party.  We were able to squeeze in a couple hour's visit, before we headed back to the RV for the night.  Tomorrow there are predicted heavy rains and storms, so not sure what the plan will be. 

I understand the Pensacola, where we just left yesterday, is under tornado warning tonight. yikes!  Talk about timing!  I hope and pray our friends in that area are safe and sound......

The weather has been bizarre lately, so we hope everyone battens down the hatches, and stays safe. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment.      ~Marti

Whistling Dixie - A Blogging Detour

I know many of you are waiting on the edge of your seats (not Marti) for my post on the National Naval Aviation Museum.  I was looking forward to writing up my visit with a few special aircraft to show pictures of.

Alas, it will have to wait for another day as I take a blogging detour.

This morning we packed up to get ready to leave the FamCamp in Pensacola, Florida and start our trek to South Carolina for a couple of weeks.  Yesterday I did all my pre-trip checks, tire pressure (all good), fluid levels, battery water, etc.  Gave the Journey a serious eye-balling to make sure everything was ship shape (motorhome shape?).  Everything was as it should be for carefree travels down the road.

Once everything was stowed, I turned the ignition key and...the engine started right up.  That's when the fun started.

The Journey is built on a Freightliner XC chassis.  One of the features is a computer controlled information center on the dashboard that reads out all kinds of information.  And the computer went out of control.  I got all kinds of waring lights and messages as well as a whistling alarm.  The screen flashed "Brakes Worn", "Oil Change", "Water in Fuel" and the whistling alarm sounded, and sounded, and sounded and sounded some more.  Also the icon for the cruise control stayed on, the fuel gauge slowly bounced back from fuel to empty to full and the whistling alarm continued to sound.

The other gauges read normal, oil pressure, temp, charging and air pressure.  So I turned off the ignition and turned it back on, no joy, just more whistling.  I gingerly pulled out of the campsite and tried the brakes, they worked fine, in fact, everything worked fine except the exhaust brake, the cruise control and the message screen.  I stopped and checked the central ground wires connection under the dash, I took it apart looking for corrosion and found none, so I re-tightened it.

Next, I took some wrenches and a wire brush and took apart and cleaned all the battery terminals, both the chassis and house batteries.  Lots of connections and wires come off the batteries.  Once everything was put back together, I tried the ignition again and...no joy, just the annoying alarm whistle.

We decided to head out anyway, the only real problems were no cruise control (I have cramps in my right leg from holding the accelerator pedal down all day), and the exhaust brake did not work, so I made sure I kept extra distances between me and the cars in front.

We are heading to our daughter's house in South Carolina for a couple of weeks, and we planned after visiting her to head to the Freightliner repair facility in Gaffney, SC for some routine service before heading to New Jersey to welcome our new granddaughter.  We decided to call Gaffney and see if we could get an appointment for next week.  We landed a slot for Wednesday next week. The shop is about an hour and a half North of our daughter's house so we'll run up to Gaffney Tuesday afternoon and check in to their campground to be ready for our 7:45 am appointment on Wednesday.  We'll hang while the Journey gets poked and prodded and hopefully repaired quickly.  Then we'll bounce back to our daughter's house again for the rest of the time we have slotted for the visit.

It is acting like a ground problem, I checked the obvious, but we're at the point where some computer diagnosis is required.  In the mean time, we're shopping for ear plugs, because the *^&$#%^! alarm whistle won't shut off.

What did you say?  Huh?  I can't hear anything now...

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.