April 17,2010 - Tennessee Air Museum |
| We left Pensacola in late afternoon and
headed north for Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We were going to stay
overnight there, and visit an old friend of Bruce's. Once we cleared
all the airspace, we climbed above the scattered layer. |
|
 |
|
|
Bruce surveying the scene. |
|
 |
|
| West of Atlanta the clouds
disappeared. But then this big double-anviled looking cloud appeared
way ahead of us. |
|
 |
|
|
We flew over this massive nuclear power plant facility
with four of the big cooling towers. |
|
 |
|
| This cloud was right over the
facility. We wondered if it was radioactive. Better not fly
close to it! |
|
 |
|
| We left the flatlands and entered hilly
country in north Georgia. |
|
 |
|
|
The Little Tennessee River flowing off to the West. The
Calderwood Dam is just behind the wingtip. We are right in the
middle of the Great Smokey mountains. See how smokey it is?
|
|
 |
|
|
Safe on deck at Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport
(GKT). They have a brand new FBO facility and ramp.
Gatlinburg and nearby Pigeon Forge are popular
tourist destinations. The Great Smokey Mountain National Park is
nearby plus a lot of attractions like Dollywood, Dollywood Splash Country,
a Titanic Museum, and Music shows. Bruce really wanted to go to
Dollywood but we ended up going to the Air Museum. |
|
 |
|
| Everywhere I go these days I see a Cub
it seems. |
|
 |
|
The next morning we had breakfast with Bruce's friend
Jeff, then went to his work. He's the mechanic for the Tennessee Air
Museum which is located on the field. This is their maintenance
hangar, currently mostly filled by this big AD-1 Skyraider
called "Lieutenant America". |
|
 |
|
| Sitting in the
Skyraider. The airplane is just massive. First you have
to climb up on the wing. Then you have to climb up the side of the
fuselage to get to the cockpit. |
|
 |
|
| Bruce and Jeff used to fly a lot
together at Woodbine Field during the golden age of soaring in the
Washington DC area. |
|
 |
|
| Jeff is an ace Warbird/radial engine
mechanic. |
|
 |
|
|
The airport cat liked my RV. This picture was
taken after he jumped down from the wing. |
|
 |
|
| The museum has its own ramp area.
|
|
 |
|
|
Jeff gave us a guided tour of the museum. Here's an
airworthy replica of the 1902 Wright Brothers glider, the plane the
brothers really learned to fly in. After that, they were ready
to slap an engine on and make the first-ever powered flight the next
year. |
|
 |
|
| Bruce hangar-flying an A-4
Skyhawk. |
|
 |
|
| A Vietnam-era Sikorsky H-34.
This helicopter still had the bullet holes from the war. They were
used primarily by the US Marines. |
|
 |
|
| |
| It's almost impossible to tell, but
this Mustang is a full-size fiberglass replica. |
|
 |
|
Yes, it's the helicopter from the TV show Airwolf! Jeff said
there are a surprising number of people that are big fans of the show and
they revere this exhibit. The helicopter used in making
the show was a Bell 222. After the show ended, it became an
ambulance helicopter in Germany, where it crashed in a thunderstorm and
was destroyed. This is a replica that some guy built in
five months using a real Bell 222A airframe, who knows why?
|
|
 |
|
| An OV-10 Bronco. Neat
plane. I remember reading recently an interesting Air & Space
Magazine article on this airplane recently so it was neat to see one close
up. |
|
 |
|
A Beechcraft SNB,
better know as the "Twin Beech", that Jeff gets to fly
occasionally. More than 9000 of them were built. There's one
of these in the maintenance hangar at Essex Skypark, but it's in pieces,
and I'll be amazed if it ever flys again. |
|
 |
|
| The prize exhibits of the museum is
this massive P-47D
Thunderbolt "Wicked Wabbit" It is airworthy and gets flown to
various fly-ins and events. The P-47 used the same radial engine as
the Hellcat and Corsair: the R2800 Double Wasp. Millville, NJ,
which I've flown into many times, was a big P-47 training base during
WWII. |
|
 |
|
|
And this one! "Hun Hunter." Both are painted in the
markings of the 57th
Fighter Group, 65th Fighter Squadron (Fighting Cocks), The
57th FG flew in the 12th Air Force on the southern front in Africa,
Sicily, southern Italy, Corsica and northern Italy. The nose
art is based on the squadron mascot, a rooster called "Uncle Bud.".
Gatlinburg airport actually had an airport rooster, named Uncle Bud
of course, who co-existed with the cat. Regretfully Uncle Bud died
of old age last year though so we didn't get to see him.
From “Stars and Stripes” Mediterranean Edition, Rome, January 30.
1945:
WITH THE 57TH FIGHTER GROUP – Uncle Bud II came home today,
the gift of Hal P. Monahan Sr. of Lake Placid, NY, in memory of his son
who was killed fighting with the “Fighting Cocks” In December 1943.
Like his predecessor Uncle Bud is cocky, ill-tempered,
fighting son-of-a-gun of a rooster and that’s the way the boys like
him.
When Col. Phil Cochran, former commander of the “Fighting
Cock” Squadron asked Milt Caniff, creator of “Terry & The Pirates,” to
design the original Uncle Bud, he said, “I don’t care what you come up
with, Milt, just so long as he’s a fighting son of a gun.”
Caniff
chose the rooster, and Uncle Bud the First came overseas with the squadron
and followed it from the hectic days of the North African campaign until
he was killed by a jeep last September. Lt. Col. Gilbert O. Wymond of
Detroit, the squadron’s present commander, wrote to Caniff and asked him
to assist in finding a replacement.
Caniff passed the plea along to
the readers of his comic strip and from thousands of replies received, he
chose that of Monahan Sr., who asked that he be allowed to sponsor the
rooster in memory of his son.
Republic Aviation Corp., who’s P-47’s
the “Fighting Cocks” fly in combat, obtained the rooster and at a
midafternoon ceremony during the employees’ rest period, Monahan presented
the bird to Captains Ray Donahue, Jr. of Pittsburgh, and James Eubanks of
Bronte, Texas, two members of the squadron home on 30 day leave.
The fliers smuggled Uncle Bud II on board ship by hiding him under
their coats. He shared their cabin and got his first taste of army chow- C
rations and fruit, which the officers managed to scrounge.
Uncle
Bud II has already proved himself a “Fighting Cock.” His first official
act upon being uncrated was to rout a pet dog from the kitchen.
At
the officers club, he was introduced to Uncle Bud I, formerly believed by
members of the squadron to be the “meanest rooster alive”, mounted in a
fighting pose in a glass cage. The new arrival immediately lashed out at
the intruder with his long spurs and had to be pulled away from the glass.
Said one pilot, “He’s even meaner than Old Bud himself. He’ll do.”
|
|
 |
|
| An airworthy F-86 SabreJet. They
also had a Mig-17. Jeff said you could really understand the
differences between capitalism and communism from working on the two
jets. The American jet had innovative things on it, which originated
from a salesman saying "Hey, we have this neat new gizmo you just have to
have!". The Soviet jet, on the other hand, didn't have much
innovation. If something worked, they stayed with it. There
was no one pushing anything new. New things happened only from
necessity. Kind of interesting, I thought. |
|
 |
|
|
We took off from Gatlinsburg around 1PM and headed east to
cross the mountains. Once we were in the flatlands we turned
north. We started off at 9500 to get over the mountains but there
was still a scattered layer above us, we we climbed to 11,500 to get above
it and the smooth air. This was the first time I've had the RV over
10,000 feet. |
|
 |
|
| We were just over the clouds at
11,500. |
|
 |
|
|
It was a long way down. |
|
 |
|
| We were taking the "inland" route back
home. Here we are over the Shenandoah Valley. It got pretty
bumpy. |
|
 |
|
| But we made it. Here's the RV
after we unloaded all our stuff: tents, sleeping bags,
airmattresses, folding chairs, clothes, etc. And so concludes
a great trip made possible by the RV. What a magical traveling
machine! |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|