Monthly Archives: June 2021

Airbase Arizona Museum

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It’s been well over a year since we were able to set foot in a museum. Oh how we missed them! We spent several hours touring Airbase Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum in Arizona, with friends Dave and Marilyn. Although it was one of the smaller plane museum’s we have visited, it had a number of things we have never seen before.

Below is a replica of a Nieuport 28, built in France, and flown during WWI. It was the first fighter aircraft for the United States.

The plane below is a 7/8 scale flying replica of the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E. 5a, one of the fastest aircraft flown during World War I.

The museum was able to obtain an actual steel artifact from the USS Arizona, which was sunk in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When the USS Arizona wreckage was declared a national memorial in the 1960’s, a portion of the wreckage was removed so the visitor’s bridge could be installed. The pieces that were removed were stored by the Navy in Pearl Harbor. The Airbase Arizona Museum requested a piece of the wreckage, and the Navy granted their request and they received this piece in 2019.

The North American F-89 Sabre

And the most produced jet fighter type in the world, the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21PF “Fishbed-D.” (in case you are wondering how I remember all of this, I take a picture of the sign, and then the airplane!)

The museum has several helicopters on display. The Bell UH-1B “Huey” Gunship

The very “slim” AH-1F Cobra SN67-15589

And the Sikorsky H-19 Chicasaw, used during the Korean War.

The Douglas A/B-26C “Invader” was used during World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

The North America P-51D Mustang was a single pilot fighter bomber used during WWII and the Korean War.

The “red plane” is a Frankfort Sailplane Company QQ-3, a remote controlled drone used by anti-aircraft artillery for target practice. 9,403 drones were produced, but there are only 6 left in existence. It was painted red for better visibility in the museum.

Outside the museum, they had a Douglas C-47 “SkyTrain”, used as a cargo troop carrier.

You are able to walk inside this plane. And we quickly realized why they may have it outside, with the windows open. It had a very strong odor of cigarette smoke. According to the plaque (see below), the plane was operated during WWII.

The Boeing B-17G Bomber “Sentimental Journey” was undergoing routine maintenance. You can actually schedule a ride on this plane. It was also one of the few planes that you could walk (or rather “squeeze” through).

This is what I mean by “squeezing” through..

But it does get a bit wider in the back!

The front of the B-17G Bomber from the inside…

And the view of the front from the exterior.

The bay doors below have been signed by many of the brave men that have flown on this World War II Flying Fortress.

They have a display of fighter pilot head gear over the years.

I always enjoy the personalized symbols on the planes

If you are in the Mesa, Arizona area, this is definitely worth a visit. The four of us had a great day reliving history.

Quote for the Day: “If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.” – Chuck Yeager

More visitors and moving on

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We finally left the 48th state (Arizona) in April and made our way up to Wyoming for the summer to work.  But not before our friends from Yuma, Dave and Marilyn, stopped in for a quick visit.  Thanks to a tip from Jack and Ruth Ann, the four of us took a very scenic, but winding road over to Tortilla Flats, Arizona, population 6!  The town was originally a stage coach stop in 1904.  Now it is a fun little tourist town.  And I do mean little, as this is the entire town:

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The original school in Tortilla Flats.

We did stop in for a cold beverage and lunch at the saloon, which had saddles as the bar stools.

Cheers from Marilyn!

And I was immediately drawn to (or suckered) into this sign:

The next day the four of us ventured out to Airbase Arizona, Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa, Arizona. I will do a separate blog post on that, as it’s hard to just select a few photos for this post.

After leaving Arizona, we headed back to Transwest Truck Trailer RV in Frederick, Colorado, for some quick service work on our motorhome. The motorized front shade/visor had been giving us problems for the past several months. We have talked with both Newmar and the manufacturer of the shade, AutoMotion, but neither could come up with a solution. Newmar did send us a remote, so we could manually raise and lower the shade. Since it was still under warranty, we wanted this fixed.

I also was doing laundry in our motorhome when I heard water running. It’s never a good thing to hear water running when you are in an RV! The hot water valve going into the washer did not shut off at the end of the cycle, and water was spurting out the back. Fortunately, the washer sits on a pan, which caught the excess water. This could have been a lot worse! We did try to take the washer out to look at the back, but this unit is bolted down so well it wouldn’t budge if an earthquake struck. Dan called Transwest and asked if they would look at it, and since it is a Splendide, they said they could. Apparently they will not service other brands of washers.

Newmar agreed to overnight parts to Transwest since we had made them aware of our issues. The motor on the shade was replaced (and works perfectly now) and the intake valve on the back of the washer was replaced. It took the technician four hours to get the washer out of, and back into the closet. We e-mailed Newmar and suggested they put in an access panel in the closet, so you can reach the back of the washer/dryer. Hopefully we will not have any more issues with that, as the bulk of the repair bill is just getting access to the machine. But everything was covered under warranty, and we were soon on our way to Wyoming.

As we were driving up I-25 into Wyoming, a truck passed us and blew a tire. We knew we couldn’t escape the flying debris, and pulled into the next rest area to check for damage. Oddly, our exhaust pipe was the only thing damaged. We felt we really caught a break.

What you can’t tell from the picture above is how close to the ground the pipe is. We started calling Ford dealers and RV dealers in Wyoming to see if we could get this repaired before the muffler hit the ground or the tire. The Ford dealers said they were too small to fit an RV into their shop, and the RV dealers were unable to get us in. One dealer recommended calling Central Truck and Diesel in Casper. Dan called and explained our situation, and they said to “come on in.” They said they could order a new tip, but it would be several days before the part arrived, or they could just bang it out and reweld it on. We opted for the latter. It took the service technician three hours to repair, and then we were on our way.

We finally made it to Luton’s Teton Cabins at 8 pm, and got up and started work the next day. This is our sixth summer now (and hopefully last, as we really want to go to Alaska!) It’s going to be a super busy summer, as we are booked solid at the cabins.

Quote of the Day: “The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.” – Douglas Adams