Great aviation museum

Just spent the day at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR.
(around an hour SW of Portland)

It is an unbelievable facility, and rivals the NASM in terms of the displays
and collection. The original Spruce Goose is the main feature, but they have
a B-17, B-25, A-26, F-100, F4U, etc. on display. You are able to get a lot
closer to the actual planes than in either of the NASMS.

They have a brand new IMAX theater in an adjacent building, and are
constructing an equally large additional building next door.

Considering it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere except being next door
to the McMinnville airport, it is surprising as to the extent and breadth of
the collection.

Highly recommended for an excellent experience.

"Viperdoc" wrote

Just spent the day at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR.
(around an hour SW of Portland)

Highly recommended for an excellent experience.

Too bad that it is such a long hall from NC, but I hope to get there some
day.

The Spruce Goose is totally interesting to me, for the massive scale, and
for the groundbreaking use of new technology. Add to that that I am a
woodworker, and that fills out the trifecta.

Anyone got a link that has a bunch of good articles (or whatever you want to
call the reporting) on the Spruce Goose, and good pictures to go with it? I
goggled for a long while, and never came up with a good web site. I am
primarily interested on how it was made, and how it works.

I still am of the opinion that it did not have enough power to fly out of
ground effect, and Hughes knew it, once he did his test hop. I sure would
like to see it fly one day, if it could. Doubtful (understatement) that it
will ever happen, (due to the enormous cost) sadly.

Thanks for the report.
--
Jim in NC

They had lots of books and models of the Spruce Goose, including some of the
models used in the Aviator movie.

It's amazing to see such a huge wing and fuselage without any rivets! Also,
those 28 cylinder engines were unbelievable (they have a larger engine
collection and display than the NASM), all up close and easy to inspect.


"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Viperdoc" wrote

Just spent the day at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR.
(around an hour SW of Portland)

Highly recommended for an excellent experience.

Too bad that it is such a long hall from NC, but I hope to get there some
day.

The Spruce Goose is totally interesting to me, for the massive scale, and
for the groundbreaking use of new technology. Add to that that I am a
woodworker, and that fills out the trifecta.

Anyone got a link that has a bunch of good articles (or whatever you want
to call the reporting) on the Spruce Goose, and good pictures to go with
it? I goggled for a long while, and never came up with a good web site. I
am primarily interested on how it was made, and how it works.

I still am of the opinion that it did not have enough power to fly out of
ground effect, and Hughes knew it, once he did his test hop. I sure would
like to see it fly one day, if it could. Doubtful (understatement) that
it will ever happen, (due to the enormous cost) sadly.

Thanks for the report.
--
Jim in NC

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
t...

It is an unbelievable facility, and rivals the NASM in terms of the
displays and collection. The original Spruce Goose is the main feature,
but they have a B-17, B-25, A-26, F-100, F4U, etc. on display. You are
able to get a lot closer to the actual planes than in either of the NASMS.


Sadly, the B-17 has a broken wing spar and is no longer flyable, but I got
to ride around in it on two or three occasions when they were wooing
investors for the museum as well as touring veterans. (My job was to wear a
WWII flight suit, get people strapped in, make sure they didn't yank on the
cables or screw with anything. Afterward, we'd find pop cans and litter and
crap stuck in the ammo boxes, etc.) At one point, removed every machine gun
belt from the airplane, disassembled them link by link, hand-polished them
all with Brasso, reassembled them and threaded them all back into place.
Somebody once asked me "Why?!" Probably doesn't need an explanation here,
but the reason is because I got to spend all of that time more or less alone
in the hangar with the old girl. Was riding in the tail one time and we
nearly had a collision with a commuter on the opposing runway as we landed.
Left brake seized up, tail swung around (I was in bucked in in the tail),
the back end filled up with smoke and then the pilot, Penn, pulled it all
together and taxiied to the hangar like nothing had happened. We
unanimously thought it was the greatest ride ever.

They have a brand new IMAX theater in an adjacent building, and are
constructing an equally large additional building next door.

Really?! I knew about the IMAX, but not the other building. They also have
some operable tanks they restored and huge Class II firearm collection.
Before the IMAX was built, some World War II reenactors had displays set up,
Allied and German, with the machine guns, tanks and everything. In the
middle of a battle demonstration (using pneumatics to operate the guns),
Nine-O-Nine arrived in the pattern as if it was part of the reenactment.

That bf109 is Luftwaffe with the original Daimler engine and was supposedly
at Ploesti. It used to be in their main meeting room before the museum was
built. All of the meeting chairs were out of a 707 or something, but it
would have been physically impossible for me to pay attention to a meeting
with a bf109 in the room.

The Blackbird came along later. Can you believe they have the engine on
display? That's a hint of how deeply connected Evergreen is with the
government, which is about all I have to say about that. Lots of stories
about that place, but not all of them favorable. I'll never complain,
though.

Considering it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere except being next
door to the McMinnville airport, it is surprising as to the extent and
breadth of the collection.

Highly recommended for an excellent experience.

Dell Smith got his start mowing lawns in McMinnville, joined the military,
became a helicopter pilot and when he came back, everybody said it was
ridiculous to consider cropdusting with a helicopter, but the community lent
him the money based on their experience with his work ethic.

Also, Bob Hoover's Commander used to be there. Something happened, though,
because when I talked to him a few years ago he didn't have the Evergreen
bird, and spoke rather icily of them. A friend of mine did some training
in the Commander and had an engine fire during a taxi. He said he wasn't
afraid of the fire, just what they'd do him when they found out about it.

-c

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
t...

Considering it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere except being next
door to the McMinnville airport, it is surprising as to the extent and
breadth of the collection.

Highly recommended for an excellent experience.

By the way, they'll bring a shuttle van over to the FBO to pick you up if
you fly in, which is a hell of a lot better than trying to cross the highway
there.

-c

I saw a bunch of planes outside as well, apparently awaiting renovation.
Looked like a Beech starship and an F-15, along with some others.

Driving out we saw some WWII armor, as well as what looked to be a T-76. The
Imax building looked new, and the new building looked just as big as the
existing structure.

What a great treasure in the middle of nowhere.

"gatt" wrote in message
...

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
t...

Considering it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere except being next
door to the McMinnville airport, it is surprising as to the extent and
breadth of the collection.

Highly recommended for an excellent experience.

By the way, they'll bring a shuttle van over to the FBO to pick you up if
you fly in, which is a hell of a lot better than trying to cross the
highway there.

-c

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

The Spruce Goose is totally interesting to me, for the massive scale, and
for the groundbreaking use of new technology. Add to that that I am a
woodworker, and that fills out the trifecta.

Trivia: I overheard an Evergreen volunteer say that the reason you can't
access the cockpit is because it's not handicap-accessible and they don't
want to either get sued or modify the airplane to put in an elevator. Got
to run around (you don't crawl in the Goose) inside before it was put back
together. They asked for volunteers to peel off the white fire-proof
coating since they couldn't pressure wash it or steam it off without
damaging the wood.

Seemed like a great idea. I peeled a little for a minute and only then did
I really start to understand how big the airplane is. It would have been
worth it, but if I'd have started in 1997 by myself in my spare time I'd
still be doing it.

Right now, it has an SR-71 sitting under the right wing. The blackbird
looks tiny.

-c

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
news
I saw a bunch of planes outside as well, apparently awaiting renovation.
Looked like a Beech starship and an F-15, along with some others.

The F-15 was the first to end up in civilian hands and he got his because
his son was a '15 pilot (the museum is named after him.) The son retired
from the USAF iirc, became a police officer and was killed in a motorcycle
accident.

Driving out we saw some WWII armor, as well as what looked to be a T-76.

Yep. I'm pretty sure it runs. I've never seen the IMAX, and you described
the Goose engine in a previous post. I'm pretty sure that's a new display
too. Very cool! Took my father-in-law there for father's day a couple of
years ago and he got a little misty-eyed (I imagine that happens a lot
there) because the UH-1 out front was the first bird to which he was
assigned.

Other trivia is that the C-47 with the Normany stripes used to be at the
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry...as a UAL DC-3 that you could walk
around in. At some point there was talk of trying to restore it to flying
condition, but then I think they discovered that it had actually
participated in D-Day, and that made it worth too much to risk flying so
they returned it to its original livery and configuration. That place
really is amazing for being out in the middle of nowhere.

What a great treasure in the middle of nowhere.

I did my IFR training around there and one time while I was under the hood
outbound for the procedure turn my instructor says "Wow! That's a big
airplane." I couldn't look. Then she goes "WOW! LOOK!" It was
Nine-O-Nine, coming in over the river beneath us on the ILS. It looked
magnificent in its OD paint and red tail against the farmland below. I
never imagined I'd look down at a B-17 in flight and I only hope that my
grandfather was able to look down from much higher and share in my
excitement.

Pretty much shot my concentration for the day. There was no way I could go
back under the hood, because the B-24 was still out there somewhere.

-c

On 4 Jun 02 I visited the museum and was told I couldn't visit the flight
deck for the same reason. It had just recently been closed to the public.
They said they soon expected to make it accessible. Guess they changed their
minds.

"gatt" wrote in message
...

Trivia: I overheard an Evergreen volunteer say that the reason you can't
access the cockpit is because it's not handicap-accessible and they don't
want to either get sued or modify the airplane to put in an elevator. ...

Jon Woellhaf wrote:
On 4 Jun 02 I visited the museum and was told I couldn't visit the flight
deck for the same reason. It had just recently been closed to the public.
They said they soon expected to make it accessible. Guess they changed their
minds.

"gatt" wrote in message
...

Trivia: I overheard an Evergreen volunteer say that the reason you can't
access the cockpit is because it's not handicap-accessible and they don't
want to either get sued or modify the airplane to put in an elevator. ...



Putting in all the stuff to make it accessible is EXPENSIVE and most
museums don't have much $$ (if any).

Margy