Air Force Museum

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You never know the nuggets of wisdom that you will find on this
newsgroup. I had flown into the Dayton area to go to the USAFM twice
in the past, using both Springfield and Morane airports (for no
particular reason). The night before we left on Friday, I searched the
archives and found several recommendations for Greene County on the
southeast side of the Dayton Class C. I have to echo those
recomendations!
We flew from the Madison, WI area down around the Chicago Class B and
then angled southeast towards Dayton. Great weather as everyone has
discussed recently. Called Greene County while we were about 30
minutes out (in a 182) and had them get a car for us (they were out of
the rentals, so calling or emailing ahead is a really good idea).
Dayton and Wright-Pat were pretty quiet and got into Greene County
pretty easily.

One weird thing is that on short final I saw a car out of the corner
of my eye look like it was driving towards the runway, then disappear.
Only to reappear on the other side. The airport has a two land country
highway go underneath the runway thru a tunnel...! I thought that was
a little different.

As opposed to Morane or Springfield, getting to the Air Force museum
was very easy from Greene County (the easiest of the three I should
say). And we had a nice day looking at the absolutely amazing
collection. Everyone has their favorites, mine would be the two
Italian birds, the Caproni Ca.3 biplane trimotor of LaGuardia fame,
and the unique (only one left) Macchi MC 200 that flew over North
Africa and Malta.

One warning thou, buy your purchases EARLY!!!!
We had budgeted about 30 minutes at the end of the day to buy stuff,
and my dad and I both had an armful of stuff to buy. But at 1650 (the
museum closes at 1700), the Fire Alarm goes off...
EVERYONE OUT NOW!!!! yells the staff and off we go after putting
everything down.
Heartbroken (just kidding) we head out to the car and watch the fire
trucks show up and they close the place down. Just a false alarm, but
No purchases for us however....

So lesson to self, BUY EARLY!

Then we took off and flew north to Sturgeon Bay, WI (across Lake
Michigan) but that is another story.

-Ryan in Madison

[Paul Dow (Remove Caps in mail address)]

I went out there last November, except by airliner though. Spent 2-1/2
days there and could have easily used the other half. The staff at the
AF Museum were as interesting as the exhibits. Since we were there at a
slow time, the people would spend all the time we wanted with them. Out
at the replica WWII control tower there was a volunteer who flew bombers
then. They have a daily Heritage Tour that gives further information on
a section of the museum. I asked someone how long the tour was, and I
was told it was about an hour so I bought IMAX tickets for late in the
day. Well, the guide took four of us around for 2-1/2 hours before we
had to leave for the movie. He would have probably talked with us until
closing time if we wanted. They really have great people volunteering there.

They're working on a fourth hangar to allow moving the experimental and
Presidential planes from the hangar over on the active base side. If you
have someone with a military ID you can drive your own car over there.
Otherwise you have to take an hourly bus over. I'd recommend skipping
one return bus so you can stay 2 hours at least.

Also while in Dayton a visit to the Wright Bicycle Shop is worth a
couple of hours, and the Carillon Park has the original 1905 Wright
Flyer among other Wright artifacts.

Paul

wrote:
> You never know the nuggets of wisdom that you will find on this
> newsgroup. I had flown into the Dayton area to go to the USAFM twice
> in the past, using both Springfield and Morane airports (for no
> particular reason). The night before we left on Friday, I searched the
> archives and found several recommendations for Greene County on the
> southeast side of the Dayton Class C. I have to echo those
> recomendations!
>.......
> -Ryan in Madison
>

[Jay Honeck]

> Then we took off and flew north to Sturgeon Bay, WI (across Lake
> Michigan) but that is another story.

Across the lake? I'd like to hear that one...

Dayton is just a great place to visit. As much as I love the
Smithsonian, and Udvar-Hazy, I think The Air Force Museum is the class
act of them all. I like the fact that they are aircraft -- period.
Not a lot of fluff, just the most famous aircraft in the Air Force
Inventory. For a nuts & bolts kind of guy, that's just gold.

Last time we were there was right after 9/11, and we had an armed
guard ride the bus with us to the Presidential aircraft hangar (on the
active side of the base). No one was cracking any jokes, and he was
carrying a real M-16. I hope things have lightened up a bit since
then...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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On May 1, 11:14 pm, Jay Honeck > wrote:
> > Then we took off and flew north to Sturgeon Bay, WI (across Lake
> > Michigan) but that is another story.
>
> Across the lake? I'd like to hear that one...


Well, this was a tight visit, down to Dayton. We were meeting family
up at a new house in Door County just west of Sturgeon Bay. After
leaving Dayton we aimed north/northwest towards Muskegon, followed the
lakeshore up from going "feet wet" off Muskegon, and kept going north.
Our original intention was to traverse Lake Michigan laterally from
Ludington to Manitowoc, but the weather was damn near perfect, we had
a bit of a tailwind, and could see the Sturgeon Bay ship canal (which
bisects the peninsula of Door County) from near Ludington at Big Sable
point, so we just angled northwest and crossed the lake obliquely
north of the restricted area. There were two ships out there, one
north of us near Sleeping Bear Dunes, and another mid lake which we
flew directly over at 10,500 ft. (it was a "saltie", a great lakes
term for a salt water ship that comes in thru the Seaway), figuring if
the engine quit then we could ditch in front of it...(!).

Of course the engine purred along none the wiser for being over water,
and we didn't have to break out the life jackets or anything bad. It
was actually quite beautiful. The lake is deceptively benign on a day
like that, until you realize how many shipwrecks are down there. I
took my family on the Badger car ferry across the lake last year (and
the Lake Express back) to Sleeping Bear Dunes, and there is a several
hour period in mid lake where you can't see anything at all, as
opposed to flying across and being able to see your destination. Even
thou it's not flying, taking the ferries across is a fun trip in
itself, kids really like it!

-Ryan

[Jay Honeck]

> I took my family on the Badger car ferry across the lake last year (and
> the Lake Express back)

What's the Lake Express? We've taken the car ferry several times
(although not recently), and it's always been a fantastic way to get
to Michigan and back. Much nicer than dealing with driving through
Chicago.

> Even
> thou it's not flying, taking the ferries across is a fun trip in
> itself, kids really like it!

Yep, my son STILL talk about the ferry ride, and that was 13 years ago
now. The ANG F-16s "strafing" the Badger will forever live in our
minds as one of those great life experiences...

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

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The Lake Express is the "fast" ferry from Milwaukee to Muskegon.
Catamaran hull, much smaller, but quite fast. Still takes about 2.5
hours to get across, but quite fun. I prefer the Badger.