Firepower Afternoon Randomness (33 HQ Photos)

Keep Calm. Chive On.

USS Enterprise CVN-65 by Gabriel Suranyi

http://www.carrierbuilders.net/gallery/20070318_USS_Enterprise_1-72/20070318_USS_Enterprise_1-72.htm

Off to Mystic, Connecticut this weekend.

I’ll be winging my way to the great New England area and Mystic, Connecticut.

I’ll be leaving the Chi tomorrow morning and arriving in the early afternoon.

I may be going to the New England Air Museum and later to the Quonset Air Museum with pictures to follow in a future post.

Sunday at noon will be the Lexican meetup at the Harp and Hound located at 4 Pearl Street in Mystic CT 06355.

If you’re going to be in the area I look forward to seeing you.

Cutaway Thursday: Alenia Aeronautica C-27J Spartan

NAS Glenview Squadrons: A Photo Roll Call

Walking around The Glen you’ll notice at some of the store fronts are plaques detailing the various squadrons that served at NAS Glenview. Here’s a photo roll call of all those squadrons:

The Glen at the Former Site of NAS Glenview

After taking time to visit the museum we decide to take a walk around The Glen to see what traces if any of the naval air station were left over. The Glen is Glenview exclusive shopping area containing many of the typical stores you’d find in a suburban area mall or shopping area. It’s all outdoors and situated where the main ramp used to be.

Pretty much the only thing left over is the main tower. It’s known to the city as Tower One:

As you can see, the local businesses have incorporated the tower into their storefronts. Here’s another view of Tower One and the rest of The Glen from the air:

Tower One is just seen from the vertical strut of this N3N-3. You’re looking from the west. This picture was taken during the grand opening in 2004.

That very same N3N-3 is now preserved in the Von Maur store located at The Glen. Here she is:

Back on the ground and outside there’s a small park that has some statues in dedication to the aviators and aircrews that served there:

Also in the park, you can also purchase bricks and dedicate them to whomever you choose. Proceeds go to the Hangar One Foundation. Here’s some pics of some of those bricks. I’m sure some names may be familiar to readers:

All in all, it was a good trip. I learned there are quite a few ghosts waiting to get their stories told. I’ll probably have more on NAS Glenview as I come across more information.

Up next, I’ll have a photographic roll-call of all the squadrons that served at NAS Glenview.

Freeway Follies

Freeway Follies

 I had an interesting time today.  This  morning I had decided to drive “up the hill” to the Sierra Foothills and see Apple Hill – an area with perhaps a couple of dozen apple farms that are open to the public during the fall.

Hangar One Foundation NAS Glenview.

What used to be the sign at the main gate to NAS Glenview

This past week I went to visit the Hangar One’ Foundation Museum located in Glenview, IL. It’s a bit of NAVAIR history right in my backyard. A visit had been long in the planning but I finally got around to it this weekend. The Foundations Museum is located in a small warehouse on was used to be the eastern side of the base, located right next to what is now Lake Glenview.

The mission statement the Hangar One Website:

Glenview Hangar One Foundation was formed to insure that a permanent memorial was created to recognize the contributions of veterans of Naval Air Station Glenview who served, or supported its operations, here and its subordinate locations Wolverine and Sable. The Glenview Hangar One Foundation considers it our duty to discharge this mission because freedom for Americans is secured at a price the time and lives of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States of America who fight, and sometimes die, so that Americans can live free and pursue their inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I won’t go into the history of NAS Glenview, as it’s well documented at the Museum itself and at the base’s Wikipedia page. What follows is what I got to see when I visited.

The Museum is open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday. The guides are usually personnel that used to work at the base when they were in the military and themselves are treasures of knowledge about NAS Glenview.

The facility itself is rather small but has a lot of interesting things you’ll see displayed. The Hangar One Museum used to be in the shopping area that has since sprung up in the area (in 2004) but the cost of keeping it open there was prohibitive.  The tour through the small facility is a guided with the a huge amount of information about the artifacts and the base being passed along.

Some of the items on display showing the insignia of the first squadron in residence at NAS Glenview.

A close up of a piece of an aircraft displaying the insignia.

There are quite a few tables of model airplanes that were built and donated by various people in the community:

A few of the models on display.

More models (I can go through and name them all but I won’t).

For our resident Whale bubba.

An F-4B from VF-114

There are some other important NAVAIR artifacts that are on display here. Here are a few of my favorite:

Remaining wreckage from the crash of an Avro Vulcan at occured at NAS Glenview in August 1978. You can learn more about that here.

This Wright R-2600 radial engine was recovered from Lake Michigan and powered a Grumman Avenger that operated from NAS Glenview.

LSO paddles. Used to signal pilots on how to make their landings aboard ship.

A close up of one of the paddles.

I don’t recall specifically what kind of engine this is. Readers?

This really should be preserved in glass or plastic.

There are also quite a few pictures of the base itself and it’s aircraft operating around Chicago:

NAS Glenview c. 1977. The photo looks north and the museum itself is on the eastern boundary (to the right about halfway up the photo).

F9F Cougars over Chicago’s Navy Pier.

Douglas A-4Bs over Chicago’s Navy Pier.

Outside of the Museum is a Sikorsky HH-52 Sea Guard helicopter that belonged to the United States Coast Guard at Glenview and for a time was on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry:

USCG 1459 sits forlornly on a trailer outside of the Museum.

Up-close and personal with USCG 1459’s cockpit area. FYI, in helos, PIC sits on the aircrafts right side.

Inside USCG 1459. The cockpit. She still smells like airplane 🙂

USCG 1459 port side aft. The stylized “Chicago” is from the band by the same name.

Starboard side door of USCG 1459

The main gear, transmission, floats/sponsons, the tail rotor and main and tail blades are all covered but remain outside. The aircraft itself is in good condition but is deteriorating quickly. It needs to be displayed indoors.

USCG 1459’s sister ship, 1364 illustrates how gorgeous 1459 was in her glory days.

I had such a great time here. I spent almost 3 hours here not only looking at the models,artifacts and photos but talking with the volunteers and their experiences at NAS Glenview was by far the best part. I got to be a little kid and have a seat in the helo cockpit and even see some of the things most visitors don’t get a chance to. There’s so much more to see that’s sitting in storage that there’s just no room for.  That’s why they need a larger facility. All this history needs to be somehow preserved.  They have plans to move into a larger, as yet unbuilt, facility but like most museums, lack there’s a lack of funding and a decided lack of interest from the City of Glenview. The City seems to be ashamed of this history and going out of it’s way to sweep it under the rug.

I encourage you to go visit the Hangar One Museum, make a donation it or if you’re inclined they have a selection of books, magazines, calendars and manuals available for purchase for $10. I picked up a copy of “To War In a Stringbag.” Kind of rare but you’ll never know what you’ll find in the stack.

Here’s some releveant links for Hangar One:

The Foundation’s website and Bring It Home Glenview.

Next post I’ll talk about what you can find in the shopping district of the new site, called The Glen.

A conversation Between 2 Pilots

Had lunch yesterday with a friend, who is a retired  777 pilot.

He: probably 30,000-40,000 hours, flown for the Air Force, Air America in SE Asia, Airlines

Me: 200 hours – last flown 25 years ago single engine Cessnas, Beechcrafts and Pipers. No IFR experience, no experience in complex aircraft.

He – will probably get a cool plane – a  Riley Rocket – a hot rodded Cessna 310

The plane has a glass cockpit, and he wants to get acclimated to GPS-driven instrument approaches.

I now bring you to the restaurant table.

He: “I need a check pilot when I will be under the hood practicing these approaches – would you like to do it?

Me: I would like to but in the interest of safety’s sake I haven’t flown in 25 years and I have no IFR rating – are you scraping the bottom of the barrel?

He: “I just need someone to tell me if the ground is coming up too fast”

Me: “I can do that”

One Pumpkin to Rule Them All

Seriously awesome Pumpkin!

Innocent Bystanders

.

.

View original post