A 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.
If 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.
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.
Next 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?
Around 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...
A very fine example of a Lockheed T2V-1 Seastar; the canopy opaque with crazing tells me "inop".
Bomb, 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.
But 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...
Next: Inside Hangar #1!
