Camarillo Air Show

Stace and I returned to the Wings over Camarillo Air Show on Sunday, without the girls, though my parents met us there. (I blogged about our trip to the same show with toddler Cora here!)

I'm standing in front of a Spitfire belonging to the Commemorative Air Force based at Camarillo Airfield. 

We noticed the Union Jack, which drew us close, and learned that this 1942 Boeing Stearman biplane was flown around the world by Englishwoman Tracey Curtis-Taylor. She flew from Capetown, South Africa, to Goodwood, Sussex, on one trip. On another, she flew from Farnborough to Sydney, Australia. We chatted to her, and she signed her book for us.

 

There was a car show on one end, and we later noticed this sweet 1950s BMW Isetta bubblecar in a hangar that oozed money.

This one was a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules transport plane. 

We had a lovely day here, and later were able to meet up with our friends Rob and Michelle for an early diner before heading home.

Stacey Blogs!

We had fun at work when the Lockheed Martin F-35 flight simulator came to our factory. 

I've worked on the aileron actuator program since it's development and had a great time flying the simulator. Mike Garcia, the local US Congresssman, was also in attendance as well as local radio, TV and newspapers.

I attended the Camarillo Air Show, taking along Chris and meeting up with John Liudzius, a work mate and Rigo.

Here's a couple of photos of me and John against two of the aircraft we work on at Woodward. The H-1 Viper helicopter and the F-18 Hornet.

I recently stopped in to the Porsche dealer Saturday morning Cars and Coffee. I drove the TT and the parking man told me to park close to the front, next to a Lambo and a Corvette. It was the only TT that was at the event. The purple car in the photo is a Monteverdi. I've never heard of this car. It is gorgeous. After I walked away from admiring it, Jay Leno, walked up, got in, and drove off.

Early one morning, I got up, got the TT washed and drove up around the new housing estate that circles behind Magic Mountain. You can see the back of the park from up there.

The Stupendous Silver Spitfire

 Stace and I had an aviation adventure Thursday!

He's been following the exploits of this 1943 WWII Spitfire for weeks now, as it left the UK on a five-month round-the-world trip in early August. Fully restored, the Silver Spitfire rested in Santa Monica for a few days this week.

Stace was determined for us to get as close as we could. The official plan was to go to tiny Santa Monica Airport and take photos from a viewing platform.

But when we arrived, we saw the Spitfire was at a hangar way across all the runways, and just barely visible behind the accompanying plane joining it on the trip. The airport employee let us know that the previous day, the Spitfire was just below the viewing platform, but not today.

We could have gone home, but no.

We drove down the road, into the parking lots of the aircraft businesses lining the runway, hoping to get a closer look. No luck.

We then decided to just drive down and around to the company with the hangar, and see what we could do.

Stace asked those ladies at the desk if we could go out and have a look, and after a brief consultation, they decided that sure we could!

We found ourselves right next to the planes, taking as many photos as we wanted, with no one else around.

Pretty special.

This lovely lady helped win the war!

What a beauty.

Air Show

We went to the Los Angeles County Air Show in Lancaster this weekend, where we saw some beautiful planes like this B-17 Flying Fortress as well as many other WWII bombers and fighters including the Spitfire, P-51 Mustang, B-25 Mitchell, and the P-38 Lightning.
Stace was happy to show us the JSF F-35 Lightning. One of his main projects is the assembly and test of the aileron actuator. See Violet's hair? It was super windy, and that wind was cold.

Stace is pointing out the actuator his company designed and builds for this V-22 Osprey. Woodward's hydraulic power units convert the V-22 from vertical to horizontal flight.

Here is a de Havilland Vampire, a British jet built in the early 1940's. The Vampire was the first jet plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It was also the first jet aircraft to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. Of the 10,000 built, only 22 Vampires are left flying today.

Our eyes were fixed skywards for the always impressive F-22 Raptor air display. The power and technology that allows this plane to pull off the most amazing maneuvers is incredible. Mom and Dad came, too, as an air show ticket was our birthday present to Grandpa.

Besides the planes outside, there were some fun and educational activities inside the tents. The engineers from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were on hand to show the children examples of the technologies used in the aerospace business. 

Here, Violet is looking through the virtual reality glasses to see exactly what a F-22 Raptor pilot would see on a flight from his cockpit.

The girls made flying crafts to put into a wind tunnel,to see how how different designs would catch the air and fly out of the top.

Violet watches hers fly upward.

The girls also used the Snap Circuits to make electrical circuits to light up bulbs and activate buzzers.

Here's Stace explaining to Cora how the flight controls operate on this helicopter rotor head model.

Flying High

We headed to the Camarillo Air Show on Saturday, where we enjoyed flying displays of WWII-era planes, modern stunt planes, and the latest in tilt rotor technology.

It was warm, breezy and sunny, and one of the vendor booths offered inexpensive hats. The girls and I all bought a new hat, each with a handy chin strap. We're posing in front of a P-51 Mustang.

The V-22 Osprey was the tilt rotor craft, kind of a hybrid between an airplane and helicopter. Used by the U.S. Marine Corps, it's a vehicle I've heard about for years, and was fascinating to see overhead.

Stacey's company provides some of the hydraulics for it.






The stunt planes wowed the crowd with their aerobatics.

Nice photo, huh? Thanks to Aunt Patty for supplying nearly all of these photos. We me up with her and Uncle Bill, along with Grandma and Grandpa, at the show.






Violet especially loved this purple stunt plane - the color isn't quite visible here - which had a female pilot.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's friend Lt. Hal Wilder was a special guest at the air show, where he had a table set up in the WWII hangar, with his memorabilia and self-published memoirs.

Hal, as he asks to be called, was a B-24 Liberator bombardier in Europe. Below are his cotter pins, from one of the bombs.

 The B-25 Mitchell Bomber, the  WWII plane that took part in the Doolittle Raid on Japan,  participated in a series of fly-bys at the air show.

Here is the B-25, flanked by various WWII-era fighter planes. They were beautiful to watch overhead.











This P-51 Mustang  has the red tail markings of the famous Tuskegee Fighter Squadron, made up of African-Americans during the segregated days of WWII.

We all enjoyed our afternoon at the air show, and afterwards went to Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's for dinner, with Hal and his son. It was a special time together.

Anniversary Sunday

Sunday marked 11 years of marriage for Stacey and me. We celebrated by not working on the bedroom project.

Instead, after talking to our family in England, we went to the Santa Paula Airport. The airport opens to the public on the first Sunday of the month, and this month, a British classic car club was hosting a mini show.

The airport's pilots operate a huge variety of planes, from the vintage to modern.

We then headed back to SClarita, where we had an early anniversary dinner at Chipotle with the girls. Might not have been wine and roses, but spending the day with Stace and the girls was perfect.

Then we went to church - we've decided that the 5 p.m. service will be our normal Sunday plan, and I'll help out in the nursery every other week.

On our way home that evening, we stopped at Valencia Methodist, where they were hosting a fun family block party. The girls loved the water slides, even if we had forgotten to bring their swim suits. It was hot enough that it didn't matter.

This is Cora at the top of the climbing wall - the guy running it helped her out by pulling her up by the pulley.

What a fun weekend we had!