Arriving at Cape May. Wow, what is that huge hangar doing here?
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_12A very friendly ramp agent greets us, and shortly Mark touches down and parks next to 56Tango.
Yee-haawww!!! Looks like we gots us a real-live fly-in!! I have never done this before in my life,experienced the whole light-aircraft leisure-trip experience as a mere passenger, and I am enjoying it.
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_13If this place could talk... in 1944, this former naval air training base managed 16,994 takeoffs and landings one month. Divide that by 30, by 24... yeah, that's a lot of ops. They were out there in swarms, learning to dive-bomb mostly in the incredible Curtiss Helldiver. 42 airmen, most of them Helldiver trainees, I'd imagine, were killed flying around here. As one veteran put it: "training to fly dive-bombing missions was often as dangerous as combat!". If I were to lay odds on seeing a ghost at some old airport some misty midnight, I'd pick this place. It's now a bustling GA-friendly airport, close to the quaint old beach town of Wildwood.
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_14 And look what they have just lying around like dust bunnies!!
Caribou. About 2 dozen of them; a few right by Hangar #1, which houses the museum. They are apparently just stubbornly corroding here, but they seem to be still well-lubricated, if not operational.
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_15Next we pass this obvious dive-bomber, now outfitted for bombing forest fires. Note the refueling boom... interesting. Have no idea if it's still flying... or even what it is. Anybody?
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_16Around by the restaurant, in another enclosure... more Caribous (Caribou?). They're like june bugs, here. And they all look very sad that nobody's putting them to work... I could not believe how many there were, here...
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_17A very fine example of a Lockheed T2V-1 Seastar; the canopy opaque with crazing tells me "inop".
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_18Bomb, or fuel pod? My guess was: napalm bomb. Anybody know? Whatever; it makes for a fitting sign. Neds to be out front- i couldn't get near it for a really nice photo.
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_19But first, the restaurant. All four of us are famished. I tried an overhead shot of the whole group, but it didn't work out. Anyway, lunch was excellent and a good deal, nice waitress, and a table by the window, overlooking... yes, the Caribous, and plenty of GA traffic. The perfect spot to refuel...
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rot9-10-05_37a Next: Inside Hangar #1!