CIA themed adventures in AL, FL and GA Sep-12

The broad objective of this trip was to spend 4 days by the sea at Fort Walton Beach watching the diverse aerial activity and then 3 days moseying to Atlanta via aviation museums.

18-Sep-12

Boarding BA185 at Heathrow to find that it's G-ZZZB Boeing 777, one of the oldies. Lo and behold, it's tech, with a baggage hold problem. After an hour or so on stand, Capt Speaking announces that they can't fix the problem, so they'll be offloading a cargo of fresh fish to accommodate our bags.

G-ZZZB hasn't, like one of its sisters, been turned into tin cans, but it can't be long. Very tired and no AVOD. Having pre-loaded in the lounge we then drank the aircraft's supply of London Pride - now limited to 2 per trolley apparently - and passed out for a while. However, after 7hr 15min Capt Speaking tells us that we are descending for Newark over New England which is early, but normal for the USA and we'll be on the ground shortly. The next announcement is that due to bad weather in Newark, we're holding and there'll be an hour delay as we orbit over Albany and Poughkeepsie, NY.

Landing as our connection is supposed to depart, there's a text from American Airlines to tell us that we're re-booked on the next flight to Dallas at 5pm.

Immigration is the quickest ever into the USA but a small trog via AirTrain is required to get to the American terminal. Checking the bag back in, we're told the next flight is full, thus there's no way to reach VPS (Northwest Florida Regional Airport aka Eglin AFB) tonight. We are asked if we'd prefer to stay in Newark or Dallas. Who's paying? After a little grumpiness it is agreed that AA will pay for a hotel in Dallas and we'll be there at 10pm.

We decamp to the Admirals Club lounge and listen to a thunderstorm pass while tracking the inbound AA MD82 from Dallas. Which the diverts to Harrisburg, CT. One guy is giving up and renting a truck to drive through the night to Dallas and offering a lift....we stick with it and eventually our aircraft departs Harrisburg for Newark and we depart for Dallas after 7 hours in Newark. Or 'Sewark' as the AmTran hosties used to call it.

Arriving at DFW at 1am there's an interesting exchange when we ask how we get a hotel voucher. 'You don't' we're told. A bit of perseverance later we are off to the Park Inn DFW for the night. Well, 3 hours. The Park Inn had the aircon set at 68F in the room and provided electric blankets to warm you up in bed. The world has gone mad.

19-Sep-12

Up early for the 5am shuttle back to the airport. Nothing much is open until 6am, we have a TGI breakfast and are on board our American Eagle Embraer 140 on schedule at 0730.

En route to VPS we fly over Mobile-Downtown (BFM), but no white Boeing 757s are in sight.

View from the balcony of our room at Destin West resort. The Eglin hangars are a few miles away and the beach a few feet away.

$30 for two chairs and an umbrella for the day. Unfortunately no hookup for SBS, laptop or bins holder, but at least drinking beer on the beach is approved!

The more detailed aim of the trip was to try and locate the COMCO Boeing 757(s) and get some photos of the resident Eglin 757 which carries serial 25001. 96143 seems to live at Pope, NC or McGuire, NJ much of the time and there's speculation that these two may be alter egos for N226G and N610G of COMCO. Spotting at Eglin involves little more than a deckchair on the beach.

The USAF Armament Museum at Eglin is outside the base and rather interesting. There's plenty outside in the sun to look at and a few more aircraft, but plenty more weapons, inside. The Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) is inside, the largest weapon ever produced.

85-RED was rumbled as having been part of the 'Red Eagles' at Tonopah when it was noticed that all the cockpit placarding was in English, sort of giving the game away that the US had been using foreign assets as part of dissimilar combat training. The program at Tonopah ended in 1988. Naturally, we know now that it didn't really end, just moved a few miles away to the somewhat more secure Groom Lake, where the same activity continues to this day.

F-105D '58-771'/JV is really 58-1155

61-7959, the first SR-71 of the trip at the Eglin Armament Museum

20-Sep-12
A recce to Crestview, which is about 30 miles north of Eglin. In trying to find the entrance to the airfield, we nearly ended up in L-3 Communications car park, which wouldn't be a great idea knowing their association with the Spooks.

At the northern end of the airfield are these two ex-Windjet A320s.

And this interesting mixture of future baked bean cans, which I doubt will be here the next time we visit. N137WA ex-World DC-10, EI-CRE ex Meridiana MD83, N692XD ex-Korean A300 and N326MP ex-Martinair B767 in nice retro colour scheme.

21-Sep
A side trip to Mobile, AL and the USS Alabama museum. USS Alabama is a WW2 aircraft carrier, but we were more interested in the aviation on display.

Vietnam memorial. Outside are several Vietnam era aircraft such as a B-52D

79-0078 F-15A is actually 75-0045

60-6938 Lockheed A-12 with a spare engine and loads of really interesting stories on CIA operations with the A-12

Amusingly, they've included a 'Dreamland' patch made by Glenn Campbell in this display which is a homage to the A-12 and Groom Lake where they were based

3 landings and the tyre looks like this!

A view from the steps up to the USS drum, a submarine, back towards the Vietnam Memorial showing 55-0071 B-52D, 126275/PP G-80 Panther, Republic YF-102 54-0102/RU and F-86 51-2993. In the distance is Grumman Albatross 2129.

Back at the resort, there's a lazy river

and down the road at Destin live these two Mi-8s being readied for bedtime and the weekend in a hangar. Note that N175RU is advertising the Sochi Winter Olympics as well as the 6th SOS via the ? logo

The Mi-8s and a civil UH-1 N59CF clatter up and down the beach at low level with, occasionally, Mi-28s, MV-22s, C-130s and PC-12s. With such a mixture it's surprising to find the Tora Tora Tora Harvard/Zero guys practising as well.

PC-12 returning to Hurlburt

Sunset with, in the distance, a Hurlburt Field spooky C-130 and MV-22

The towers are looking West from Ft Walton Beach towards Pensacola

22-Sep

We started our journey towards Atlanta with a stop at Crestview. This time, we found an airworthy aircraft, this all-silver/grey L100-30 which showed on the SBS box as N3796B. It was completely unmarked and later in the day was reported spending the night at San Diego, CA.

N3796B

On the way to Fort Rucker, we passed through Daleville where this UH-1 is displayed

UH-1 0-16325

In Geneva, AL 6620 UH-1 is displayed on a pole

Fort Rucker, AL US Army Aviation museum is actually inside the base, which is enormous. We presented our passports at the entrance, and just like Pensacola Navy museum, they let you in and free to roam. Well, maybe. We didn't test that.

Ryan XV-5B N705NA

CH-47A 65-7992 looks really odd.....The aircraft was extensively modified and featured a 110 inch stretch in the main cabin, retractable gear, a four blade rotor in which the blades were longer than the standard CH-47D blades by 30 inches, and an aft pylon extended upwards by 30 inches.

An unusual modification was the provision for a hydraulically actuated wing with normal acceleration load-sensitive flaps, permitting incidence control throughout the aircraft's flight envelope. The removable wing could be mounted on the top center fuselage to augment the lift from the rotors.

And following a little brush with the State Trooper for speeding through Jimmy Carter's brith town of Plains, GA, we arrived at Jimmy Carter Airport in Americus, GA.

La Quinta Warner-Robins...you think they'd take the sign away

23-Sep

The rather wonderful Museum of Aviation in Warner-Robins, GA

Credible Sport C-130 (STOL Iran football stadium hostage rescue idea) see youtube

a D-21 drone sits outside the hangar that the mothership SR-71 is in

The Global Hawk will be on display soon, it's wing is under the SR-761 in the main hall. According tot he volunteers, there is a cull coming and 20odd aircraft will be shipped out shortly