posted 05-29- 10:19 PM               

Well, thinking of SDOE, guess what the first plane was when we pulled up? An F-14 Tomcat! Kinda funny since it gave me a good laugh, and made me think of the F-14 I made for SDOE. Anyhow it was an F-14A, in fact the first F-14 to ever drop a bomb in anger, in this case over Bosnia. The info sign also said it was from the same sqauadron who shot down the Libyan jets back in 1981. Pretty neat.

But on to the WWII airplanes. When we got inside the first large hangar area there was a gorgeous P-51 right there, a PT-19 trainer, a Supermarine Spitfire (5 bladed prop), a B-25 Mitchell, a Yak-9, a Stearman bi-plane (pretty sure it was a Stearman), and a couple others. I then went outside and walked around a gorgeous P-47 (and all I could think of was team Jugs representation in SDOE which is just so great), a B-17 in which the ball turret was complete and opened up! I got a great look at the inside of it and MY GOD! Those poor guys that flew in "the ball" were NUTS! I got to get up close to it, stick my head inside to peak around and even looked right through the viewfinder, imagining shooting down 109s. An amazing feeling swept over me during all this, of just awe.

After that I walked around a beautiful P-38, a partially built (restored) Dauntless, and then had to head back inside since it was like 115 degs out there.

On to the Pacific Theatre hangar. Oh, and I have to mention this. These planes are NOT roped off, and you can get up and underneath them, and all around them for great viewing (and touching which I did, but wasn't supposed to) After working on that PBY that Snickers is doing well on now, I got to look inside and around one up close! Wow, it was very cool to see since I'd never seen one before. Lovely airplane. I also walked around a MASSIVE Avenger (wow are they BIG!), a Hellcat, and even a Wildcat (parked side by side with wings folded). The Wildcats colors were so pretty! The blues were just awesome. Also of course there was a very impressive Corsair (no words can express this airplane, just amazing to be standing around gawking at it). There was also a Bearcat and a Tigercat.

Well, if you want to check out the site they have for it, go to www.palmspringsairmuseum.org It was a fun day, and I got a nice Corsair T-shirt as well as a B-17 one. After flying so much in SDOE and reading about these planes, watching them on TV on the various channels, it's always a thrill to get up close and personal with them.