PIREP: Combat Air Museum in Topeka, KS

The four of us flew in yesterday, on an absolutely glorious autumn morning.
The air was smooth and thick, and we had a nice 5 - 8 knot tail wind that
had us sailing along at better than 150 knots at 4500 feet. The colors,
past their prime here in Iowa, were bursting as we flew south over Missouri
and Kansas.

Forbes Field, located outside of Topeka, Kansas, was an active military base
until 1973. The base closing obviously gutted the local economy and
airport, but the locals have done a good job of keeping the lights on, with
a fair amount of activity resulting from the Air National Guard base (KC-135
tankers) that occupies a small corner of this once-massive base. The Army
(?) also bases some Blackhawk helicopters in some hangars near the museum.

They also have a new (military) control tower (it's closed on national
holidays -- gotta love it!), and a beautiful (if little used) terminal
building that caters to a steady stream of military transports and
transients. (There is an Army base nearby that is quite actively involved
with the war in Iraq.) The FBO told us that they regularly service
everything the military flies, from B-1s to F-14 Tomcats. They even get B-2
Spirits here, doing touch-&-goes...

They lost their airline service -- a Beech 1900 that only flew to Kansas
City -- this past spring, and are desperately trying to lure them back.

Calling an airport "massive" is over-used and hard to quantify, but suffice
it to say that there is a photograph in the museum showing the tarmac lined
with over 70 (!) B-47 jet bombers -- with room to spare. Landing on this
13,000 foot runway was really quite amazing, and taxiing felt more like
commuting...

The museum occupies two large hangars in what was once the maintenance area
of the base. One hangar is for the "finished" products, the other is filled
with "ladies in waiting" -- either planes that need restoration, or restored
planes that still fly. The collection is fairly extensive, with a
surprising emphasis on jet fighters, rather than the usual World War II
stuff.

I found this surprising because the base never apparently based jet
fighters. It opened in 1941 as a B-17 base, ending the war as a B-29 base.
It was then closed in '48, re-opened in '49 (I can just imagine the
politics!), closed (and re-opened) again in the '50s when it morphed into a
SAC Titan Missile base (until the treaty with the USSR required us to
destroy our Titan II missiles), and ended its life at the end of the Viet
Nam war as a transport base. At no point did it seem to have jet fighters,
always housing either bombers, transports, missiles, or refuelers -- so why
the jet fighter emphasis, I don't know.

Anyhow, it's a neat collection, with some planes I'd never seen before. A
beautiful Grumman Tiger, painted in Blue Angel's colors, really caught my
eye, and their A-4 Skyhawk looked like it had just landed. (It almost
had -- the pilot autographed the underside in '99, when it was flown in and
retired.) They also have a MiG 15 and 17, an F-86 Sabre, an F-84, and were
expecting to receive an F-14 Tomcat later this week! (They were worried
about where they were going to put it...)

According to one of the staff members, many of the planes used to regularly
fly to airshows, including the jets. In recent years, however, a shortage
of qualified pilots and outrageous insurance requirements has kept most of
them grounded -- although several are maintained in "near-flight-ready"
condition. The only ones that now regularly attend airshows are the C-47
and their Beech 18...

The gift shop was nice, with some nice photos, artwork, and the usual models
and doo-dads. We purchased a fair amount of stuff for the hotel, and found
that the people who run the place are a dedicated, fun lot. There is no
doubt that it's a labor of love, and a few minutes in conversation with them
will teach you more about the history of Forbes Field than will all the
displays in the museum.

Anyone thinking of heading that way, it's certainly worth the trip. The
price is right -- $23.00 for the whole family -- and, best of all, as pilots
we get to park our planes RIGHT outside the hangar -- closer to the door
than you can park your car!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"