- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I’m pleased to report that our Club’s 3rd field trip was well supported, with 14 members and guests attending, plus a cameo appearance by SoCal member Fred McDowell, who was attending as a W.W. II American Paratrooper reenactor.
As planned, we hit the Yanks Museum and Brewer Brothers Model Expo at 10:00 AM. The place was filled with both dealers and modelers. Some of those models were, for lack of a better word… breathtaking. And they had a nice, if limited, collection of vintage planes.
At 1:00 PM we headed over to the Planes of Fame museum, and man, what a treat that was! For me, the highpoint was climbing through a B17, but there were lots of other things to see, including an excellent collection of bi-planes, a couple of P-38’s, a Japanese Zero and, well, a long list of interesting combat aircraft, most in excellent condition and many in flying condition. Wow!
At about 4:30 we called it a day, and decided to sample the local cuisine with a trip to “Flo’sâ€, the only restaurant at the airport. It proved to be a good choice, and we enjoyed an excellent and reasonably priced dinner.
It was great to see so many SoCalASL members and friends: Matt Cicero and his son Roman, Bruce Kirkaldy and his friend, also named Bruce, Karl ‘KJ’ Johnson, Mike Cirrincione, Glenn Sellar, Scott Thompson, Eric Visnowski and his friend Kevin Stein, Mike Soffa, Stance Nixon and Eric Nyquist. I must say Kevin’s encyclopedic knowledge of military aircraft proved invaluable as we wandered through the museum.
What a day!
Gents,
What a great weekend, ASL on Saturday, and a superb field trip on Sunday. I was glad to see so many make the trip to Chino airport to visit Yanks Air Museum and The Planes of Fame facility. These are both well worth the visit and have a great selection of historical aircraft. Because of the focus on the model expo at Yanks, one of the hangars, one jammed with aircraft, was closed Sunday .However , it was still great fun seeing everything there . I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes with Pearl Harbor attack survivor
James J Lee who, at age 90 had a sharp recollection of the events that day so long ago.Planes of Fame is just incredible, from the B 17 on the front lawn, to the hangar mock -up of a carrier deck- this hangar was dedicated to American naval aircraft- to the mechanics area and beyond. Planes of Fame is almost overwhelming, it has a huge assortment of aircraft, many hundreds of airplane models, weapons and other equipment , maps etc in attractive displays. They also have a lifesized diorama of a crashed Japanese Betty bomber. This diorama is like a movie set : the Betty sits battered and bent in a jungle setting and you walk up on it like the first discoverer. Their collection is housed in 4 hangars with a bone yard outside Near the end of the day
as we all sat for a much needed rest, Jim mentioned that we must have walked 2 miles in those hangars.For my chili dog gorged body it felt like 10! For dinner we ate at the famed Flo's diner, and let me tell you it was the perfect ending to the day with that small town feel and heaping plates of great food,its almost worth the trip by itself.In closing, I want to say that these field trips add a great dimension to being a member of SoCALASL and I hope more of you will join in. Jim already has the next field trip lined up,returning to the Littlefield Collection in the San Jose area in March 2012.This is the trip of a lifetime for tank lovers so stay tuned for further info.
I can't think of another ASL club that offers so much to its members!
Regards, Eric Visnowski
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.