Greetings guys!

Yep, one of THE most enjoyable aspects of being an airline bum, and flying the world over, is getting to meet up with those that I fly with online.

I've had the pleasure to do just that in cities all over America, some in Europe, and hope to someday do that here in Asia (currently in Tokyo on day 11 of a 12 day trip...headed to Portland later today...home tomorrow).

This has been a unique trip for many reasons. The fact that we've had TWO layovers whereby we were in that same city for more than just the usual 24 hours has been a big part of that (we occasionally get 1 destination where that happens...never twice on the same trip). We stayed two days in Bangkok early in the trip, and I was lucky to have a 2 day stay in Portland, Oregon a few days ago. With that said, Showtime and I conspired to hook up, head down to McMinnville and check out the "Evergreen Aviation Museum" (famous for housing Howard Hughes amazing machine, the H-4 Hercules...otherwise known as the "Spruce Goose").

It's always a bit "interesting" meeting those that you've only known on the internet, for you never know how it will go. There are always those questions: Nice guy? Yes or no. Fun to hang with? Yes or no. Serial killer? Yes or no. In this case, I'm happy to say that Showtime is indeed one of THE nicest guys I've met from my online flight simming circles of friends. Hell, OF COURSE he would be a great guy....we're both from Ft. Worth, Texas!

Here are some pics from our little adventure the other day. This installment will have just pics from "the Goose". The museum itself houses (in two buildings no less) dozens and dozens of amazing, incredible, BEAUTIFUL flying machines (including some outstanding warbirds and helos). I'll put up some pics of those in another thread....

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When you enter the main building, there is a statue to the founder's son. He was an Air Force F-15 Eagle driver that was tragically killed in an automobile crash many years ago. Coincidentally, he and Showtime graduated from High School the same year...

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The "Spruce Goose" in all her glory. I actually took this pic later in the day from the second floor of this building, but I put it here. It shows just how friggin big this thing is! I had previously visited her when she was down in Long Beach, CA back in 1987, but this was way better.

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We paid the extra $, and headed up for the personal tour. Are you kidding me? What pilot in their right mind, WOULDN'T pay to plop their ass down where Howard sat in the left seat of this monster? This view shows 3 of the 4 port side Pratt and Whitney R4360 Wasp engines. I remember the tour dude said the prop arc was 17' tip to tip...

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Looking aft. The tour guy said it was advertised to haul over SIX HUNDRED troops...but in reality with any sort of normal fuel load, it would really be on the order of 400+....still that's a ton of web seats hauling a lot of scared kids clutching M1s.

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The flight deck of this baby. Funny, you go to Wiki and is says, "Crew:3"....uhhhh, not so buffalo breath. Hell, they had TWO Flight Engineers alone. The tour dude said the "normal crew" was 11, and on the test flight, they had about three times that many people on the thing! In the wings alone, they had two dudes on either side just hanging on with a fire extinguisher in case something caught fire (pic of the wing tunnel in a bit).

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You can see there was a lot of test apparatus on this thing. One of the funniest things on the bird. That funky looking "tube" thing behind Howard's seat is a blower for "air conditioning"! Seems it got hotter than hell up here, and he just had to have some air flowing over his crazy-assed head. There was NOT one for the co-pilot...lol. It's "good to be King"....

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Getting closer to the two seats that matter the most. The F/E's panel on the right. It "kinda" reminded me of the F/E panel on the older Boeing 747 that I crewed on back in the 80s.... Lots of gauges, switches and knobs.

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Sitting in the "God seat". Notice the eight throttles. The tour guy said originally, they had only four throttles (one to control 2 engines)....seems Howard blew a gasket on that nonsense, and made them put a throttle for each engine. I can't imagine why on Earth an engineer would do that...but then, I'm not an engineer, I'm a pilot, and I want a lever for each engine...lol. I guess me and Howard think alike (AND I like redheads like Howard did....lol).

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Is that Howard himself? No....some ugly dude that escaped from the flight simming "asylum"....

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I thought this was interesting. A "joystick" for Howard to use when trimming the machine. He also had some wheel-type things used in trimming, but they didn't look as cool as this.

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Now Showtime looks like he BELONGS in that seat! Agreed? (last time I saw a "shite-eating" grin like that, it was on a 5 year old kid at Disney Land!)

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Captain Showtime on the left and First Officer BBall on the right. (truth be told...if I drew to a pair like this....I would fold.   )

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This was the old dude that was our tour guide...."Spruce Goose Bruce". The guy was ex-Air Force maintenance, and was a freeking walking enclyclopedia of facts and figures about the Goose. He disputed (with proof) some of the myths about the machine (how high she got off the water, etc) Oh, and BTW, at his 3 o'clock low sit the two APU's for the bird. They start them (on the flight deck) to use to start the big-assed PW's! Can you imagine how loud that must've been?

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"Bruce" showing us the wing tunnel on the starboard side (accessed from the flight deck). No fuel stored in the wings, only down in the bilge area...then pumped up to holding tanks in the wing (green ball looking thing behind Bruce's head), and then out to the engines. Again, part of the lore was that on the day of the test run (flight), a dude was positioned behind each engine with a fire extinguisher...in reality there were not 8 guys doing that, only 4....  Just behind where I'm standing, stood a HUGE oil tank (almost 400 gallons) to use to replenish the oil in the various engines. This thing was a systems nightmare (IMHO). I mentioned to Show that if they ever did manage to fly these things as they envisioned, it would be a MIRACLE if one ever made it across the pond without some sort or serious issue (or emergency). WAAAAAAY too many moving parts ....again IMHO.

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last pic...




The beach balls.

Interesting story. Apparently, since this thing was born in Long Beach, Howard decided to give each person that worked on it a beach ball (?). They found these in the one of the wing pontoons! They were all made from really robust rubber (you could tell just by looking at them through the plexiglass), and were sealed at the opening. They were all STILL INFLATED WITH AIR FROM 1946!!!! It was a quirky thing, but then Howard was a really quirky dude. And using a material that was REALLY important to the war effort just to reward employees....well, that sounded like Howard.

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So that was our tour of the Goose. I (of course) logged the :15 in the left seat in my Logbook (just kidding...maybe). Show and I spent the next several hours touring around, drooling over all the beautiful machines, and then retired to his hacienda. His lovely bride (and she is indeed lovely...except for her taste in men, she seems like the perfect woman) plied us with food and liquor, and we eventually settled into his "man cave" and did ....you guessed it....we FLEW DCS WORLD on his crazy HOTAS setup!

Of course... the perfect end to the perfect day....

later...

BB

Nice photos, that is a true beast. Nice to know that we're not all weirdos too

Great pics and thread there BBall and Mr Showtime. I had a look at the website for the Evergreen Aviation Museum, what a great place that looks like. Anyway i hope you two aviation delinquents had a good time !

Hey Ball - Now that's a captain's cockpit.

All the switches block off from the First Officer's side!!

Awesome photo's...I just watched the Aviator.

Oh man, what great day that was at the park. I have been there a few time over the last 3 years or so and I learn something new each time I'm there. BBall has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to aircraft.

I knew of BBall for many years, dating back from frugal days and meeting him in person was something I wanted to do even before I meet BBall on TS of the 229th.

Thanks BBall for great day, let's have beer soon.

Good stuff Meeting virtual flying partners, to me, was always a great experience.I think the best part of sims is when they lead to something real.

Don't let him fool you Showtime...remember he's a pilot...

(A/229) Showtime wrote:   BBall has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to aircraft.

Hehe..... I hate to admit it, but Flyer is right...

(A/229) Showtime wrote:Thanks BBall for great day, let's have beer soon.

Great company, great flying machines, great food....AND....Showtime fed me beer when we were done. Pretty much the perfect layover. Thanks again Show for babysitting me all day!