Aviation Day

Saturday was Aviation Day at one of the local airports. We found out about because we followed a bus one night in traffic as we were getting on the freeway and saw the advertisement stating that the warbirds were going to fly at noon. That advertising worked -- we went.

It was a typical overcast day here in the Northwest. We arrived there around 11:30. We wanted to make sure we were there before noon when the Zero and the Hurricane were flying. That was not a Zero flying in a Hurricane but two airplanes flying. I learned quite a bit about airplanes both yesterday and today as I wrote up the post.

The first thing that we saw was the T-6 flying in formation. As they were finished they did breakway and that was fun to watch. I looked up on learned a bit more about the T-6.

There were times that the runway needed to be used for other planes so we saw a dream lifter take off. J decided that was the closest he has been to a dream lifter.

We were there in time to see the Zero. In the museum they had a bit of story about the specific plane. I don't remember the story about this one. The Zero was a Japanese plane used during the war.

 It was fun to just stand and watch as it zoomed by. It was a fast plane.

The Hurricane is a British plane used during the WWII.

Then we were introduced to Grumpy which is a B-25D Mitchell. I am not exactly sure how this plane was named Grumpy but it did have Grumpy painted on the side.

Since most of the planes were from WWII there were also some vehicles there as well.

It made you feel a bit like you were walking back in history.

There was a demonstration of a new platform that can be lowered from a helicopter and used in rescue missions. It was interesting to watch it lowered and then five people get on and fly around. I don't really like heights so I don't want to do that for fun. It is still amazing to think what they can do to help people.

Miss K wanted to have her turn as a pilot. She wanted to fly on a plane and I told her that in July she will have that opportunity and by the time that trip ends we will be tired of airplanes.

It was a bit of a cold day but in spite of that it was worth it. We had the Flying Heritage Collection on our list of things to do but this is the way to see it. The tickets were cheaper and you were able to see a number of the planes flying instead of just walking around and looking at them in the hanger.

Beth