Papa with the Grandkids at the Air Show

       Well, the blog today is by me the guest blogger; whose account of the day with the Grandkids at the Air Show will go down in blogging history as the most/least interesting of any at this location. It all began with an article in the Air and Space Magazine mention of Paul Allen's (Microsoft founder) new Faulk Wolf model 190A-5 restoration being completed down in Arizona and being trucked up to Everett, Washington; where it would be flown as part of the collection of toys by said billionaire.

As the Fw 190A-5 has always been my favorite aircraft model to build when I was a kid; having constructed seven that I can remember, I didn't want to miss out on this opportunity to have the chance to experience this event; a bonus was that I could interest my immediate/local family members in accompanying me on this excursion. I e-mailed the Music Man Son and The Analyst Son about it and called them on the phone and got commitments from each of them. But when it came time to follow through, enthusiasm flagged and only three Grandkids were interested in going; Miss Maggie, 'D', and A.

After careful planning and packing basic necessities the four of us headed up I-5 to Everett, Washington; with the weather the worst possible. Here the three Musketeers are in front of the B-17 flown in for the event, but grounded because of the Western Washing Weather. Now this rainy day did provide a bonus in that the fee to access the B-17 and it's accompanying P-51 (Mustang) was reduced by 50%! Since the planes didn't fly, access to them meant getting into the bomber!!

So, here are the reluctant boys on the entrance ladder. I refer to them as reluctant because by comparison to their Miss Maggie, who scrambled right up the ladder and was gone from my view; taking precautions, I hollered up through the entrance hatch to her, "Don't push and buttons or switches!" When I asked the boys why they were hesitant, they replied that the steps of the ladder were, "So far apart and the plane was so big."
I'd have done more to verbalize with them their "concerns", but several adults were lining up behind us waiting for the boys to ascend into the plane; so, I "bossed" them up the ladder and into the bombardier section below:

Since this is the E model of the B-17, the Bombardier ran the Norton sight as well as the twin "chin" turret .50 caliber machine guns; leaving the other two .50s for the navigator and flight engineer. The radio operator ran a single .50 out the top of the craft while the top gunner ran the twin .50s in the top turret. Once I got the boys past the open bomb bay catwalk (literally narrow enough for just a cat), we entered the waist section below:

As you can see, Miss Maggie is all ready to do the shooten.

We next got out of the bomber and walked over to the P-51 and there I attempted to explain just how a propeller actually worked to propel the aircraft forward to the point that the same shaped wing section got enough "suction" (lift for all you plane-o-files out there) on the top of the wing's surface to vacuum the plane off the ground and into the air.

This "education" concerning how the Bernoulli principle actually worked didn't seem to penetrate into their understanding until the new Fw 190AS-5 was rolled out and the engine started and the plane taxied around the tarmac; being pulled forward by that "propeller" as below:

Once the Fw 190 is out onto the tarmac you can see the kids are having so much fun in the cold rain as we wait for the ground crew to prepare the plane for starting of the engine:

Now the pilot gets in and starts the engine with a very, very, very loud roar!!

It was so load that all three kids plugged their fingers into their ears. Next the pilot taxied around the tarmac and it was this forward movement of the plane, being propelled by the propeller that finally got the concept of flight through the minds of the kids.

Next we went into the Heritage of Flight Museum (which I refer to as Paul Allen's "toy box") and looked at the aircraft on display:

The one above is an old Jenny build back in 1918 and used as a flight trainer for those military personnel doing the fighting in Europe. Some of you may wonder why I have a fascination with flight, yet will not fly? Well it is like art; I admire and collect works of art yet I'm no artist.

Here the kids are in front of the "business end" of the B-25 and one of the questions I asked them is, "how many guns does this one have?" 

Here they are in front of the D model of the Fw 190, which differs from the A model in having an inline engine rather than a radial engine. When I asked them what nationality symbols were used to identify the aircraft, Miss Maggie referred to the "squiggly" thing on the tail as German. The red round circle was Japan, the white star was American, the red star was Russian, the red, white, and blue circle with in circles was British. But alas, they became confused and never did get the symbols identified with who was who.

Now this one is the Bf 109E (Emile) by Messerschmidt, not to be confused with the 190A; yes I kept telling the kids, there are a one, and a nine, and a zero in each of these planes designations, but try and keep them strait, OK? What nation built this one? German they all shouted out!

Well, the Boss of this blog is telling me that I'm making this the most "boring" one on the Internet; so I'll terminate the guest blogging by relating the facts that I got each of them a model airplane at the museum store (Miss Maggie getting a P-47) and when asked why she replied, "Because it was the biggest model the store had".