Airline History Museum, Kansas City, MO PIREP

[Jay Honeck]

http://www.airlinehistorymuseum.com/

So we used our own webpage today, trying to find something new to do with
the kids.

My first plan had been to fly to Rantoul, IL (the old Chanute Air Force
Base), which has an outstanding aviation museum on the field -- but my kids
whined so much about having been there too many times that I dug around the
webpage, looking for other fly-in destinations nearby.

Flying south seemed better than east, given Saturday's gigantic snowstorm,
and Kansas City's connection to the new movie about Howard Hughes ("The
Aviator") that the kids had just seen made Kansas City Downtown Airport
sound a lot more exciting than Rantoul. It turned out to be a delightful
place to visit!

Kansas City was the home to TWA, owned by Hughes, and there were once many
Lockheed Constellations based on the field. TWA's old world headquarters
building is still on the field, right across from the museum, and Howard
Hughes' office is now prominently pointed out during the tour.

Flying into the museum is very simple. Downtown (MKC) is under the Class
Bravo veil of Kansas City International, so by using Flight Following all
the way we naturally ended up talking with Kansas City Approach. Traffic
was light, and after being handed over to Downtown Tower by KC approach, we
were cleared for a sort-of straight-in to Rwy 19. The whole, incredibly
smooth flight took just a shade over 1.6 hours, bucking a moderate headwind.

With progressive instructions we were able to easily find the museum (which
is not clearly labeled from a distance -- just look for the big number "9"
on the hangar) in short order, and were pleased to find that we could park
right outside the museum entrance! Now THAT is an aviation museum!

The museum itself consists of an exhibit area, a gift shop, and a very large
hangar (which was World War II surplus, and brought here from Texas after
the war!) that houses their three prop-liners -- a Douglas DC-3, a Martin
404, and a Lockheed Super G Constellation . The DC-3 is undergoing a
ground-up restoration, while the 404 is currently grounded with tail spar
corrosion that will likely mean the end of its flying days. (It's made of
magnesium, and no one knows how to work on them anymore.)

The centerpiece of the museum is the "Save-A-Connie" Constellation that is a
regular on the airshow circuit. Purchased from a desert graveyard in the
1980s for the unbelievable sum of just $4000 (its scrap value alone was four
times that amount!), it has been lovingly restored by former TWA employees
and hundreds of volunteers to pristine condition.

We were lucky enough to visit during the Connie's certification checks
(basically an annual inspection on a grand scale), so every access panel was
open or removed. Talk about an unusual tour! We were able to see many
fascinating internal structures and systems that are usually hidden from
view when the Connie is on tour. You're allowed inside the Connie and the
404, and it's just amazing to see the luxurious passenger livery -- imagine,
real silverware, and real food!

Admission is reasonable, at just $7 per person, and a personal tour guide
was assigned to my family. He gave us a terrific tour, literally taking as
long as we wanted at each exhibit . The tour guides are all volunteers,
too, and giving tours is clearly a labor of love for them.

We arrived right after noon, and were famished. To our disappointment, we
found no restaurant anywhere on the field, but after some consultation with
the museum folks we were able to call a Pizza Hut that would deliver lunch
to the museum! The kids were ecstatic, and our tour guide kindly
interrupted our tour when the pizzas arrived, giving us a chance to eat
while the food was hot.

Our visit lasted around 3 hours, which allowed us time to see everything
(although I would have liked to spend more time perusing the exhibits), and
made for a great day trip. Why in the world we've never flown to Kansas
City before is beyond me -- at just 1.5 hours, it's closer than many of our
"regular" flights. (I suppose it's because it's off our "home"
sectional...)

Reluctantly saying goodbye to our friends in the museum, I went out to
pre-flight and take some pictures of Atlas against the city backdrop. The
airport really IS "downtown", and the big buildings are quite close-by,
visually. It makes for an almost "Meigs-like" panorama, which we really
enjoyed.

Upon departure on Rwy 19, I was cleared for a northeast departure. When I
inquired as to whether they wanted me to do a right- or left-hand departure,
the controller replied (to my surprise) "Your choice."

Upon hearing this, the kids begged me to do a left-hand departure, as this
would take us literally right over (at?) the big downtown buildings -- so I
announced my intention to do so. It was AWESOME!

However, with many giant towers and buildings all around, I was glad it was
cold, we were light on fuel, and we had 235 horses pulling, cuz those
buildings looked MIGHTY close. I know one thing's for sure -- I wouldn't
try that on a hot summer day!

All in all, I highly recommend this museum. It's small, but intimate, and
if you're at all interested in TWA, Howard Hughes, and the pre-jet airline
days, this is *the* place to visit.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Mike Adams]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote:

> Reluctantly saying goodbye to our friends in the museum, I went out to
> pre-flight and take some pictures of Atlas against the city backdrop.
> The airport really IS "downtown", and the big buildings are quite
> close-by, visually. It makes for an almost "Meigs-like" panorama,
> which we really enjoyed.
>
> Upon departure on Rwy 19, I was cleared for a northeast departure.
> When I inquired as to whether they wanted me to do a right- or
> left-hand departure, the controller replied (to my surprise) "Your
> choice."
>
>

Nice report, Jay. As you probably are aware, before KCI opened (in '72), the downtown airport handled all
the commercial traffic, so those downtown, between the buildings approaches must have been pretty
exciting in the big iron.

Mike

[[email protected]]

Jay,

Thanks for the review.

I've always liked Downtown Airport. It's a perfect location for an air
museum, being close to where the people are as well as being on an
airport (don't know how many air museums that I've visited that are
located on airports that simply can't make it because no one is willing
to drive out to them - just at the one at Charles Schultz Airport at
Santa Rosa, Ca., and it's in very sad shape).

In the '70s I flew freight into Downtown and Fairfax (the airport that
was located immediately across the river from Downtown, their patterns
intersected - in fact, they shared a common ILS landing to the north,
at the middle marker you made a left turn if you wanted to land on
Fairfax). First time in there in the middle of the night, it was kind
of odd breaking out of the clag and seeing the buildings of K.C. off
the right wing. I always wondered how the old piston airliners came
out of there, with their flat climb gradient. I'd like to have been
around when the DC-3s were coming out of Downtown and all the B-25s
were coming out of the North American factory across the river at
Fairfax. Must have been something.

As a kid, I rode Braniff through Downtown a couple of times in either
Martins or Convairs (don't recall) but I wasn't old enough to
understand how the airpot was in a bowl and what was involved in
getting in and out.

BTW, how did you enjoy landing over the levee that keeps the Missouri
River off the airport? Wonder how many heavily loaded airplanes have
it it on takeoff.

Warmest regards,
Rick

[Jay Honeck]

> BTW, how did you enjoy landing over the levee that keeps the Missouri
> River off the airport? Wonder how many heavily loaded airplanes have
> it it on takeoff.

Mary was PIC, and we came in really high. In fact, on short final I
commented to her (rather wryly, I thought) that we could "land anytime
now" after we had floated some 2000 feet down the runway. From that
altitude, I didn't notice any levee, but we had plenty of runway to
spare.

I think perhaps we were just too awestruck by the proximity of the
downtown buildings, and the size of the huge railyard that is adjacent
to the airport, to notice the levee!

I found the whole experience to be enjoyable, and I suspect we will be
visiting Kansas City often!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Bob Noel]

In article . com>,
"Jay Honeck" > wrote:

> Mary was PIC, and we came in really high. In fact, on short final I
> commented to her (rather wryly, I thought) that we could "land anytime
> now" after we had floated some 2000 feet down the runway

making that kind of comment sounds dangerous. or Mary is a saint.

--
Bob Noel
looking for a sig the lawyers will like

[George Patterson]

Bob Noel wrote:
>
> making that kind of comment sounds dangerous. or Mary is a saint.

One of the benefits of owning a hotel. When Mary makes him "sleep on the couch",
he just moves into a suite for a while. :-)

George Patterson
He who marries for money earns every penny of it.

[Morgans]

"Bob Noel" > wrote

> making that kind of comment sounds dangerous. or Mary is a saint.
>
> --
> Bob Noel

Are you kidding? If you have met Jay, you *know* Mary is a Saint! <Bfg>
--
Jim in NC

[Bill J]

A much smaller and down home exhibit is at Wheeling, WVA (HLG). This was
a stop on the original TAT/TWA route via ZZV, CMH, etc. The old terminal
is now beautifully restored with a neat exhibit of TWA era
schedules/uniforms/relics. Excellent stop at a non busy, friendly,
controlled GA airport. Nothing fancy, but you would love it!

Jay Honeck wrote:
> http://www.airlinehistorymuseum.com/
>
> So we used our own webpage today, trying to find something new to do with
> the kids.
>
> My first plan had been to fly to Rantoul, IL (the old Chanute Air Force
> Base), which has an outstanding aviation museum on the field -- but my kids
> whined so much about having been there too many times that I dug around the
> webpage, looking for other fly-in destinations nearby.
>
> Flying south seemed better than east, given Saturday's gigantic snowstorm,
> and Kansas City's connection to the new movie about Howard Hughes ("The
> Aviator") that the kids had just seen made Kansas City Downtown Airport
> sound a lot more exciting than Rantoul. It turned out to be a delightful
> place to visit!
>
> Kansas City was the home to TWA, owned by Hughes, and there were once many
> Lockheed Constellations based on the field. TWA's old world headquarters
> building is still on the field, right across from the museum, and Howard
> Hughes' office is now prominently pointed out during the tour.
>
> Flying into the museum is very simple. Downtown (MKC) is under the Class
> Bravo veil of Kansas City International, so by using Flight Following all
> the way we naturally ended up talking with Kansas City Approach. Traffic
> was light, and after being handed over to Downtown Tower by KC approach, we
> were cleared for a sort-of straight-in to Rwy 19. The whole, incredibly
> smooth flight took just a shade over 1.6 hours, bucking a moderate headwind.
>
> With progressive instructions we were able to easily find the museum (which
> is not clearly labeled from a distance -- just look for the big number "9"
> on the hangar) in short order, and were pleased to find that we could park
> right outside the museum entrance! Now THAT is an aviation museum!
>
> The museum itself consists of an exhibit area, a gift shop, and a very large
> hangar (which was World War II surplus, and brought here from Texas after
> the war!) that houses their three prop-liners -- a Douglas DC-3, a Martin
> 404, and a Lockheed Super G Constellation . The DC-3 is undergoing a
> ground-up restoration, while the 404 is currently grounded with tail spar
> corrosion that will likely mean the end of its flying days. (It's made of
> magnesium, and no one knows how to work on them anymore.)
>
> The centerpiece of the museum is the "Save-A-Connie" Constellation that is a
> regular on the airshow circuit. Purchased from a desert graveyard in the
> 1980s for the unbelievable sum of just $4000 (its scrap value alone was four
> times that amount!), it has been lovingly restored by former TWA employees
> and hundreds of volunteers to pristine condition.
>
> We were lucky enough to visit during the Connie's certification checks
> (basically an annual inspection on a grand scale), so every access panel was
> open or removed. Talk about an unusual tour! We were able to see many
> fascinating internal structures and systems that are usually hidden from
> view when the Connie is on tour. You're allowed inside the Connie and the
> 404, and it's just amazing to see the luxurious passenger livery -- imagine,
> real silverware, and real food!
>
> Admission is reasonable, at just $7 per person, and a personal tour guide
> was assigned to my family. He gave us a terrific tour, literally taking as
> long as we wanted at each exhibit . The tour guides are all volunteers,
> too, and giving tours is clearly a labor of love for them.
>
> We arrived right after noon, and were famished. To our disappointment, we
> found no restaurant anywhere on the field, but after some consultation with
> the museum folks we were able to call a Pizza Hut that would deliver lunch
> to the museum! The kids were ecstatic, and our tour guide kindly
> interrupted our tour when the pizzas arrived, giving us a chance to eat
> while the food was hot.
>
> Our visit lasted around 3 hours, which allowed us time to see everything
> (although I would have liked to spend more time perusing the exhibits), and
> made for a great day trip. Why in the world we've never flown to Kansas
> City before is beyond me -- at just 1.5 hours, it's closer than many of our
> "regular" flights. (I suppose it's because it's off our "home"
> sectional...)
>
> Reluctantly saying goodbye to our friends in the museum, I went out to
> pre-flight and take some pictures of Atlas against the city backdrop. The
> airport really IS "downtown", and the big buildings are quite close-by,
> visually. It makes for an almost "Meigs-like" panorama, which we really
> enjoyed.
>
> Upon departure on Rwy 19, I was cleared for a northeast departure. When I
> inquired as to whether they wanted me to do a right- or left-hand departure,
> the controller replied (to my surprise) "Your choice."
>
> Upon hearing this, the kids begged me to do a left-hand departure, as this
> would take us literally right over (at?) the big downtown buildings -- so I
> announced my intention to do so. It was AWESOME!
>
> However, with many giant towers and buildings all around, I was glad it was
> cold, we were light on fuel, and we had 235 horses pulling, cuz those
> buildings looked MIGHTY close. I know one thing's for sure -- I wouldn't
> try that on a hot summer day!
>
> All in all, I highly recommend this museum. It's small, but intimate, and
> if you're at all interested in TWA, Howard Hughes, and the pre-jet airline
> days, this is *the* place to visit.

[MC]

>Why in the world we've never flown to Kansas City before is beyond me -- at
>just 1.5 hours, it's closer than many of our "regular" flights. (I suppose
>it's because it's off our "home" sectional...)

Jay, Glad you had fun in our city. Come back in the summertime and catch a
baseball game or head to the Worlds of Fun Amusement Park. I'm sure your
kids would like it.

I drive by MKC every day on my way to work and have questioned weather the
museum was worth a stop. Now I know.

From a hopeful future student who will park and plane watch at MKC dreaming
of the day his wife will let him learn to fly.

Matt

[Jay Honeck]

>> making that kind of comment sounds dangerous. or Mary is a saint.
>
> One of the benefits of owning a hotel. When Mary makes him "sleep on the
> couch",
> he just moves into a suite for a while. :-)

Luckily it hasn't come to that yet...

I must admit that my mouth gets ahead of my brain every now and then.
Luckily for me, Mary and I will be celebrating 20 years of marriage this
year (and THIRTY years together, counting dating, next year!) -- so I think
she's thoroughly used to me by now...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> Are you kidding? If you have met Jay, you *know* Mary is a Saint! <Bfg>

Amen, brother!

I'm the luckiest guy around, for sure.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> From a hopeful future student who will park and plane watch at MKC
> dreaming of the day his wife will let him learn to fly.

Matt, do not, under any circumstances, wait one more minute. Call a CFI
and set up a "Discovery Flight" -- it won't cost much. Then take your wife
to the airport, and let HER fly in the right seat with the instructor.

You sit in the back. Watch her have fun.

That's what I did when I needed to convince Mary that flying was worth
emptying our bank account. And, as you probably know, it worked!

Just be careful -- if it works as well as it did for me, you'll end up
splitting left-seat time for the rest of your life!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Rod Madsen]

Great story, Jay. It's funny how many ways there are to meet interesting
people. Last year I was on ebay bidding on a sextant for celestial
navigation. I used to navigate a ship that way while in the navy 35 years
ago and wanted to see if I could still do it. I lost the bid to a retired
TWA captain in Kansas City. I emailed him to find out what he intended to
do with the sextant. It was then that he told me he was a prominent member
of that museum restoring old TWA airplanes. Turns out he flew many LA to
London flights back in the 70s and I was on quite a few of those flights.
TWA was the best way to go in those days.

Rod

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:CP_Id.25749$IV5.23830@attbi_s54...
> http://www.airlinehistorymuseum.com/
>
> So we used our own webpage today, trying to find something new to do with
> the kids.
>
> My first plan had been to fly to Rantoul, IL (the old Chanute Air Force
> Base), which has an outstanding aviation museum on the field -- but my
kids
> whined so much about having been there too many times that I dug around
the
> webpage, looking for other fly-in destinations nearby.
>
> Flying south seemed better than east, given Saturday's gigantic snowstorm,
> and Kansas City's connection to the new movie about Howard Hughes ("The
> Aviator") that the kids had just seen made Kansas City Downtown Airport
> sound a lot more exciting than Rantoul. It turned out to be a delightful
> place to visit!
>
> Kansas City was the home to TWA, owned by Hughes, and there were once many
> Lockheed Constellations based on the field. TWA's old world headquarters
> building is still on the field, right across from the museum, and Howard
> Hughes' office is now prominently pointed out during the tour.
>
> Flying into the museum is very simple. Downtown (MKC) is under the Class
> Bravo veil of Kansas City International, so by using Flight Following all
> the way we naturally ended up talking with Kansas City Approach. Traffic
> was light, and after being handed over to Downtown Tower by KC approach,
we
> were cleared for a sort-of straight-in to Rwy 19. The whole, incredibly
> smooth flight took just a shade over 1.6 hours, bucking a moderate
headwind.
>
> With progressive instructions we were able to easily find the museum
(which
> is not clearly labeled from a distance -- just look for the big number "9"
> on the hangar) in short order, and were pleased to find that we could park
> right outside the museum entrance! Now THAT is an aviation museum!
>
> The museum itself consists of an exhibit area, a gift shop, and a very
large
> hangar (which was World War II surplus, and brought here from Texas after
> the war!) that houses their three prop-liners -- a Douglas DC-3, a Martin
> 404, and a Lockheed Super G Constellation . The DC-3 is undergoing a
> ground-up restoration, while the 404 is currently grounded with tail spar
> corrosion that will likely mean the end of its flying days. (It's made of
> magnesium, and no one knows how to work on them anymore.)
>
> The centerpiece of the museum is the "Save-A-Connie" Constellation that is
a
> regular on the airshow circuit. Purchased from a desert graveyard in the
> 1980s for the unbelievable sum of just $4000 (its scrap value alone was
four
> times that amount!), it has been lovingly restored by former TWA employees
> and hundreds of volunteers to pristine condition.
>
> We were lucky enough to visit during the Connie's certification checks
> (basically an annual inspection on a grand scale), so every access panel
was
> open or removed. Talk about an unusual tour! We were able to see many
> fascinating internal structures and systems that are usually hidden from
> view when the Connie is on tour. You're allowed inside the Connie and
the
> 404, and it's just amazing to see the luxurious passenger livery --
imagine,
> real silverware, and real food!
>
> Admission is reasonable, at just $7 per person, and a personal tour guide
> was assigned to my family. He gave us a terrific tour, literally taking
as
> long as we wanted at each exhibit . The tour guides are all volunteers,
> too, and giving tours is clearly a labor of love for them.
>
> We arrived right after noon, and were famished. To our disappointment, we
> found no restaurant anywhere on the field, but after some consultation
with
> the museum folks we were able to call a Pizza Hut that would deliver lunch
> to the museum! The kids were ecstatic, and our tour guide kindly
> interrupted our tour when the pizzas arrived, giving us a chance to eat
> while the food was hot.
>
> Our visit lasted around 3 hours, which allowed us time to see everything
> (although I would have liked to spend more time perusing the exhibits),
and
> made for a great day trip. Why in the world we've never flown to Kansas
> City before is beyond me -- at just 1.5 hours, it's closer than many of
our
> "regular" flights. (I suppose it's because it's off our "home"
> sectional...)
>
> Reluctantly saying goodbye to our friends in the museum, I went out to
> pre-flight and take some pictures of Atlas against the city backdrop. The
> airport really IS "downtown", and the big buildings are quite close-by,
> visually. It makes for an almost "Meigs-like" panorama, which we really
> enjoyed.
>
> Upon departure on Rwy 19, I was cleared for a northeast departure. When I
> inquired as to whether they wanted me to do a right- or left-hand
departure,
> the controller replied (to my surprise) "Your choice."
>
> Upon hearing this, the kids begged me to do a left-hand departure, as this
> would take us literally right over (at?) the big downtown buildings -- so
I
> announced my intention to do so. It was AWESOME!
>
> However, with many giant towers and buildings all around, I was glad it
was
> cold, we were light on fuel, and we had 235 horses pulling, cuz those
> buildings looked MIGHTY close. I know one thing's for sure -- I wouldn't
> try that on a hot summer day!
>
> All in all, I highly recommend this museum. It's small, but intimate, and
> if you're at all interested in TWA, Howard Hughes, and the pre-jet airline
> days, this is *the* place to visit.
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>
>

[MC]

>
> Matt, do not, under any circumstances, wait one more minute. Call a CFI
> and set up a "Discovery Flight" -- it won't cost much. Then take your
> wife to the airport, and let HER fly in the right seat with the
> instructor.
>
> You sit in the back. Watch her have fun.

Trust me I've had those thoughts, I just have to wait untill the grad school
bills quit coming in. It get's pretty tough to justiy flight training on top
of that. But that ends very soon and I'm already planning (scheming) to make
all this happen.


> Just be careful -- if it works as well as it did for me, you'll end up
> splitting left-seat time for the rest of your life!

I would be thrilled to do nothing more!

Matt

[Jay Honeck]

> Great story, Jay. It's funny how many ways there are to meet interesting
> people. Last year I was on ebay bidding on a sextant for celestial
> navigation. I used to navigate a ship that way while in the navy 35 years
> ago and wanted to see if I could still do it. I lost the bid to a retired
> TWA captain in Kansas City.

They have a very interesting collection of sextants at the museum, all used
for navigating the Connies across the Atlantic.

Apparently there was one very bad accident when the astrodome they used for
taking sightings shattered in flight, and the navigator was sucked out of
the plane while using his sextant. After that, they changed the design so
that you inserted a tube on the sextant up into the astrodome from inside
the cabin.

It's amazing how far we've come in so short a time.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"