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Two nights ago I dreamed that I worked for the Air Force at Cheyenne Mountain. I was on an airliner, traveling on a business trip to the east coast with a Japanese woman, sitting in a window seat. Looking out the window I suddenly saw contrails arcing into the sky from the ground; one of them passed near our airplane and I instantly recognized it as an ICBM since I worked with those at my Air Force job. I watched the first stage of the rocket separate and somehow even noticed the MIRVs being prepared for deployment.
It occurred to me that a massive nuclear conflict had begun, and that we were still four hours from landing - being airborne, there was nothing we could do about the devastation that was about to happen. "The world is going to be a different place when we land" I thought to myself.
Then the airline pilot decided to divert to Kalamazoo. We landed in no time - before the missiles hit, even. I decided that I needed to find an airplane and fly myself to a desolate area outside of any potential radiation zones that would be near populated cities. My Japanese business partner and I ran through the hangars of the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, looking for an aircraft that was airworthy. Finally I found a WWII fighter plane in working order, except that it was missing a propeller!
I desperately searched the other museum aircraft trying to find one with a suitable propeller. Finally I found one (I remember it had a red hub) and tried to remove it discretely - there was a tour guide and her group of tourists wandering about the museum and I didn't want to attract attention. I got the propeller off, but I really struggled trying to install it onto that flightworthy aircraft. I was getting very frustrated...
...and I woke up. What an interesting dream!
Yep, you can find flying tigers (on pink WWII fighters, no less!) at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo! Amanda and I visited this aviation museum yesterday and we thoroughly enjoyed it. They have several real aircraft plus many more replicas and mock-ups. While the entire history of flight is covered, the emphasis is on World War II aviation. Some highlights...
Missions Theater - an old half-cylinder hanger was converted into a theater that shows 3D movies - not IMAX but the kind where you wear 3D glasses. It featured the story of a WWII B-17 crew on a bombing mission and the film was great.
Flight Simulator - a popular attraction is their full-motion three-axis simulator; you won't find this at Putt-Putt! You're strapped in as tightly as you would be on an inverted roller coaster, although at 6'4" I barely fit. "Full-motion three-axis" means that you can fly complete 360-degree rolls and full loops where you physically go all the way around! What a blast. However, there's a delay with the control input - when I push the stick left, there's a half-second where nothing happens, causing me to push the stick further left and suddenly were doing a full-rate barrel roll. Classic control delay causing pilot-induced oscillations. I got more used to it but it was still a very difficult simulator to control.
Simulation Station - a collection of real cockpits that guests are allowed to sit in. This was quite fun because you're able to get a hands-on experience with the controls, instruments, and what it feels like to try to fly one of these things.
I'm going to let Amanda further describe those and other highlights of our trip because I want to focus on one of them: the Link trainer.
I won't try to explain the history of the Link trainer when the Air Zoo already did it so well (see photo above). Basically it's a small cockpit mock-up with real flight instruments and some pitch-roll-yaw motion to train pilots how to fly without visual reference; i.e. flying just from the instruments. In the photo below you can see me sitting in one at the Air Zoo.
The reason I find these things so cool is because my maternal grandfather (we called him Grampy) used to teach pilots on these simulators! Grampy was in the US Army Air Force during WWII and was assigned to train future pilots. I don't know how he got selected for that - he's wasn't a pilot himself and never had an aviation interest that I'm aware of. My maternal grandmother (aka Grammy) recently dug up his duty records, which showed that he was sent to Indiana or Illinois (I forget which) to be trained in flight instrumentation and celestial navigation. After that he spent time training future pilots.
Interestingly, Grammy was also involved in the war effort as a "Rosie Riveter" - she didn't actually do rivets, but rather she installed hydraulic lines in the nose section of a bomber aircraft, but I don't know which model. Grammy has registered Grampy at the National World War II Memorial (a great site to check out sometime).
FYI, my paternal grandparents - we simply called them Grandpa and Grandma - were also involved in WWII. Grandpa was in the US Navy a diesel engine mechanic on board a landing ship, an LST I believe. Grandma worked at a factory assembling ailerons or artillery shells.
In these next two photos (above and below) you can see a more complete Link trainer than the one I sat in. The complete one has a hood on top to complete enclose the cockpit, giving the pilot zero reference to the outside world which simulates flying in the clouds or total darkness (real Link trainers didn't have a window like this museum piece has). There's also a gimbal mechanism as the base, which can move the cockpit to simulate the motions caused by various control inputs and simulation conditions (e.g. engine out or turbulence).
Particularly interesting to me, the Air Zoo had an instructor's station for the Link simulator. This is where I assume Grampy would've sat when teaching the student pilots! Unfortunately we didn't get a better photo of the desk. On the right side of the desk is a data recorder which kept track of the student's actions during the simulated flight. On the left side are some flight instruments that show the same values as what the student is seeing on the same instruments in the cockpit. On top of the desk (you can't really see it in the photo) is an aeronautical chart where the instructor could plan simulated missions and track the student's progress.
It's always so fun and enlightening to take a walk through history, especially when there's a personal connection.