Wednesday Outing - Travis AFB Museum

Wednesday Outing - Travis AFB Museum - Oct. 8, 2008.
The six passengers, Kelli and Tony, Pulled away from Quail Creek at 10:40. We are headed to Travis Air Force Base Museum, for our Wednesday “Outing”. I am looking forward to the day. I saw the Museum many years ago, when it first opened. I know that they have added planes since then.
It is a beautiful day - warm and no wind! Tony heads South on Dover. He turns left onto Airbase Parkway. We take this nice boulevard all the way on to the Air Base. Not much traffic going either way this time of day. I haven’t been out here in many years. The last time was at an Armed forces celebration - many years ago. They featured the Army’s parachute team, and the Thunderbirds stunt group.
We passed the David Grant Medical Center. The hospital has been enlarged since I last saw it. We arrived at the Main Gate - and were cleared to enter - at 0952. Now, There is plenty of local traffic on the Base - moving in all different directions.
What a coincidence! Tony parked in front of one of the planes stored outside that was very familiar to me. It was a Convair T-29, the same type that I flew at Mather Field in Sacramento during the Korean War (1951 - 1953.) If I checked my old flight log, I might have flown this very plane as we had a lot of the T-29’s at Mather. I flew B-25’s out of Mather, before transitioning to the Convair. This Billy Mitchell twin-engine medium bomber was the same type of plane that General Jimmy Doolittle and his group flew off the Hornet on their 1942 raid on Tokyo.
The narrative plate stated that it was one of the best transport plane produced after the workhorse C-47 - during WW II. It was an easy plane to fly, and with it’s wide landing gear it was very pilot forgiving, and safer. We flew B-47 pilots up and down the State - with legs up to Seattle at the northern end, and over to Phoenix, from Los Angeles, at the Southern end. Occasionally, we would fly a couple of hours out over the Pacific, and back, to give the students in the back over-water-navigation training. Two pilots manned the B-47. The plane didn’t carry a navigator, or bombardier, so the pilots were trained in all three skills. Generally, we cruised at about 160 knots and at 8,000 feet. We used oxygen above 10,000 feet in the daytime, and 8,000 feet at night. We filed a flight plan because we were controlled by the FAA. We would radio a position report to their control every hour we were in the air. The cockpits were very comfortable - roomy with soft chairs - instead of the usual cramped sitting area.
Normally, we would make a practice -ground controlled approach (GCA) landing after each mission. A few times it was because of necessity due to poor landing visibility.
The T-29 was very similar to the Convair 240, that the airlines were flying - except for the configuration in the back. In the T-29, tables and chairs were installed for the instructors and students, replacing the passenger seats on the airliner.
Kelly saw that I was interested in the plane, and offered to take my picture - with it in the background. Then, I walked around to get a close-up look at some fighter planes parked nearby.
Parked on the ramp nearby were the following fighter aircraft - F-104; F-105; F-86; F-84-F; F-101-B; and a F-102A. While I had heard of these planes, I had never seen them up close like this. Nearby was a C-45H which interested me. I flew a similar one on a cross-country trip from Maxwell Field, in Montgomery, Alabama to Willow Run, Michigan, and return. The Air Corps used this plane as a transport during the war, as well as to train some twin-engine cadets, The C-45 was changed a bit and used for other trainers such as the AT-7 for navigators, and the At-11 model, for bombardier training. While I didn’t fly this latter model, I did have over 100 hours flying in it as an “Observer”. This was when I received my bombardier training at Victorville - on the edge of the Mojave desert. We would drop 100 pound practice -sand bombs on nearby targets. The AT-11 bombardier training plane plane had a top speed of 215 mph, and a service ceiling of 20,000 feet. But we cruised at 150 during our bombing runs - usually flown at 8,000 feet. We had a few low-level drops.
It was at Victorville, that I ran into “Flying Sargeants”. Due to a shortage of pilots, the Air Corps decided to dispense with the 2nd Lt. commission for these civilian pilots, and bring them in with Staff Sergeant rankings. They were all experienced and good pilots. They later were promoted to the rank of “Flight Officer”.


Next to the At-11 was a huge Douglas C-124 Globe master - a four prop job that had a gross weight of 216,000 pounds when fully loaded at take-off.
Also, one of the Lockheed family of C-45‘s; AT-7‘s and AT-11‘s was the Lockheed UC-78. Many student pilots referred to the UC-78 as the “Bamboo Bomber”. I did fly this latter model in Basic-Flight Training, along with a similar model - the Cessna AT-17 - out of Minter Field in Bakersfield. Student pilots, who were likely to end up as multi-engine pilots were usually assigned to fly twin-engine trainers in their basic- flight training; where “fighter” pilots would receive their Basic training in a plane like the Vultee BT-13.
Just before entering the large hangar, there was a O2A, which I had never seen before. It had a front and rear propeller, and was used for observations. It certainly was distinctive looking.
Inside the hangar was a Stearman, which brought back many positive memories of learning to fly, during my Primary Flight Training. I also met my future wife there! (We will be married 64 years - and have five daughters - on December 23, 2008!). My training was a little easier because I was a Student Officer, rather than a Cadet.
The Strearman PT-13 was a tricky plane to land, but very good for stalls and acrobatics. The landings were difficult, because if you had the slightest amount of drift at touchdown, there was a good chance that you would ground loop. The main reasons for this were the narrow landing gear plus, the plane was a biplane, and this extra-wing weight made it top heavy. Without a nose wheel, we made dead-stick - three-point (usually) landings, This condition reduced the control of the aircraft close to the ground.
I was very fortunate to have an experienced civilian - Instructor pilot, who had many flying hours - barnstorming; flying the mail; instructing; crop dusting etc. While I never had to use his admonition, I never forgot his words of wisdom: When practicing “simulated engine failure” (power off), he told me to always maintain my safe flying speed (above a stall) - even if I had to fly through a brick wall. It would still be safer than a “stall” and
“spinning in.” So, I was very happy to see an “old flying friend” once again.
I was hoping that they would have the Norden bombsight on display in the hangar. Not seeing it, I asked the operator of the Gift Shop, and he located it for me. What a thrill to see it once again after many years.
This instrument was an amazing invention - so unique, innovative and accurate. During our bombardier training, the instructors said that the sight was so accurate that a bombardier could drop a bomb in a pickle barrel from an altitude of 25,000 feet! While this might be a stretch, but a good bombardier - with a good pilot, plane , auto-pilot and bombsight - under ideal flying conditions probably could drop a bomb within 100 feet of a bulls eye
I used this type of bombsight in the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress on 50 combat missions, and it performed “as advertised”. It was so valuable, and such a secret, that we bombardiers carried 45 caliber pistols to protect it, when we carried it to and from the vault to the plane. If we were shot down we were instructed to fire our pistol in the eye-piece and destroy the sight, rather than let the Germans capture it intact.
Another feature of the bombsight was it’s reliability. In North Africa, the summer ground temperatures could be 100 degrees in the morning at take-off, and yet below zero, at noon, over Italy when we were on the bomb run. Old-timers may recall a cover of Life Magazine which showed a bombardier student with a black ring around one of his eyes. All of us bombardiers looked like this when we returned from our missions. The rubber padding around the eyepiece got so hot that they started to melt.
And so, reluctantly, we had to leave a very memorable place.
We left the Travis AFB Museum at 12:15 and headed back aboard our mini-bus. We turned right on to Burgan Blvd. We turned left on to Travis Blvd. to Air Base Parkway. Tony takes a left turn, and we pass Peabody Road across Walter Road. We pass the intersections with Clay Bank Road and Dover Avenue to Heath Avenue. Then, down Pennsylvania to Mimi’s for lunch. We arrived at 12:35.
After a nice lunch, we loaded back on to the bus at 2:10, and back at Quail Creek at exactly 2:30 - right on time!
RCL - 10/13/08.