A trip to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum

This past Friday weather looked good for flying, so Aaron and I took off and headed northeast to visit the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA.

The flight into Reading was uneventful and took about an hour and a half under some low clouds. My camera was close to dead so I got no in-flight pictures, but when we landed at Reading and taxied over to the FBO adjacent to the museum, we got plenty.

They have this wonderful P2V Neptune there, which actually flies, or at least used to and might again with a bit of TLC.

An old Anti-submarine warplane that pre-dated the P-3 and S-2, a few still soldier on today as fire-bombers. I saw another one at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona this summer. This one is in better shape though.

Supposedly they still fly this one to airshows a few times a year.

Here's a DC-3 that supposedly flies, too.

And a P-84 that doesn't, and probably never will again.

Pity. Even in decay, she's still got beautiful lines.

Their website claims that this Sikorsky HH-52A still flies, but with the rotors missing, I have my doubts.

As to the helicopters behind it...doubtful they'll ever see the sky again.

Over in the corner though is a Fairchild C-119 "Flying Boxcar".

She looks pretty rough too, but it looks like all of the big pieces are there, at least.

Most of the rest of the outdoor birds are in a condition that just kinda make you want to cry.

But their indoor collection is another matter entirely. Jammed into a way-too-small hangar is an eclectic collection of military and civilian aircraft that would make any aircraft aficionado drool. To start with, you walk in the door and nearly knock yourself out on this Grumman TBM Avenger.

This particular one flew to Thunder Over Michigan this year and we saw it there, but it didn't fly, much to my disappointment.

This one survived to be restored as it was kept in service as a fire-bomber while most of it's brothers were scrapped.

There's a B-25 Mitchell in there, too. It's shoe-horned in tight.

Beneath the wing of the Mitchell sits a beautiful Ercoupe. I thought for a while that I might wind up having to fly one of these since they have no rudder or brake pedals.

They've got a cherry 1944 Aeronca 65-TAC in there.

And they've got an N3N-3 trainer.

They've got a Vultee Valiant that lights my fire nicely.

And an SNJ.

But the hallmark of the collection at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is this rare beauty undergoing reconstruction in the back corner:

A Northrop P-61 "Black Widow" night fighter. One of only four left in the world.

This gem was recovered in the late 1980's from a mountainside in New Holland, where it had lain since it crashed there in 1945.

It's undergoing a total restoration, (documented here) and when complete, it will be the only flying P-61 in existence.

New motor mount to hold the new engine.

New skin being fitted.

Taking shape nicely. Seeing this warbird rising like a phoenix from it's wreckage was worth the trip here all by itself.

After paying homage to the collection, we hit the gift shop then flew back home, catching a nice tailwind and making it back in about an hour. By the time we got down and put the plane to bed, some of our fellow shooters were letting me know that they were in town for the next day's shoot, so an impromptu gathering was arranged at the local Japanese Steakhouse. It was truly a good day.

Man, I wish I could have gone to work for the Forest Service

Back in the day, they flew some planes.

While strolling around Pima Air Museum's back lot, out behind the hangars on the far side from the rest of the outside collection, I found some sad-looking old military derelicts that will hopefully be restored someday. Most of them were marked up as Forest Service fire bombers, indicating how they finished their flying lives.

The first was this Grumman AF-2, which was originally built as a torpedo bomber and then repurposed as an anti-submarine aircraft.

This particular one is an AF-2S. 193 of them were built out of a total production run of 389 AFs of all variants. They were only in service with the US Navy for five years, 1950-1955, and with the Navy Reserve until 1957.

Her engine was only 2400 horsepower, which many pilots felt made her underpowered for her size and weight. She was never a very popular pane to fly, and eventually they were replaced in their ASW role by the much more successful S-2 Tracker.

Most were scrapped, but a few, like N99952 here, were turned over to the Forest Service and either leased or titled to companies like Aero Union and used to fight forest fires.

She needs a bit of TLC, but I'd still love to take her up.

Also back there, this Lockheed P-2 Neptune, another Maritime Patrol and ASW aircraft that flew primarily with the Navy but also the Army and Marines and the CIA well up into the 1980s.

This one is on loan from the Forest Service and still looks to be quite flyable; it's probably the most airworthy aircraft in this back lot.

These aircraft flew in the Korean War, Vietnam, and even as recently as the Falklands War in the hands of the Argentinians.

Note the addition of two jet engines under the wings to operate in conjunction with her reciprocating engines.

At one time, the Navy even developed a program by which the P-2 could be used as a carrier-borne nuclear bomber, using rocket packs attached to her sides to help it get off of a carrier deck with a nuclear bomb aboard. But as the P-2 could not land on a carrier, the crew was expected to find a friendly country to land in or ditch the aircraft at sea following bomb delivery. Fortunately for the Navy crews, other, more capable aircraft came along shortly and this role was taken away from the Neptunes.

Several P-2 Neptunes are still flown by firefighting companies like Neptune Aviation Services in Montana, and Minden Air Corporation in Nevada. If I get time this week, I may just send them each a resume. Flying these would be cool.

Also cool to fly: This DC-7.

Here's where they rigged a water-drop bomb bay beneath her. I'd have scootched under there for better shots, but man, that sand was hot, even with the shade.

The engines just need a bit massaging, and I suspect that they'll turn right over.

Not sure why I don't have more pictures of this one. Probably because I was still bouncing around the place like an eight year old on a sugar high in a candy store.


There was a Fairchild C-119 in that lot too, also with a single jet engine attached to it's roof.

Most of these were built near me in Fairchild's factory in Hagerstown, MD, but 71 were subcontracted out to Henry Kaiser who built them out of the old Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti, MI.

These old birds carried troops, supplies and anything else that needed carrying in Korea and Vietnam. Some were even fitted with side-firing guns in an AC-119 configuration,and they rained holy hell down on the bad guys in SE Asia.

This one ended her days as a fire-bomber, but who knows what she did while flying for the Air Force. Like the others here, these were warplanes before they were fire-bombers, and they flew countless thousands of hours between them, probably all over the world in both peacetime and war.

Of course this one could use a little TLC, too.

Look behind her--another C-119 awaiting restoration back in the "off limits" area.

In 1981, Hemet Valley Flying Service lost one of these aircraft and it's two crew members when it's left wing suddenly tore off during a fire drop. That aircraft's N number: N13742. This one:

Cause of the crash: age and wear; metal fatigue.

Sadly, that's not an unknown occurrence in a firefighting fleet made up of surplus aircraft, some of which date back to World War Two. In 2002, Tanker 123, a Consolidated P4Y-2, went down for a similar reason in Colorado, also with the loss of her crew.


Yeah, it wasn't without risk, and still isn't, but what I wouldn't give for a flying job like that, especially in those old warbirds.