Things That Fly … Or Did At One Time!

Monday, 21 January
Maxwell AFB FamCamp — Montgomery, Alabama
Temps: Lo 35F / Hi 65F (1.5C / 18C)

Wow!  The days are flying by here at the Maxwell AFB Famcamp.  It’s not like we’ve been doing much of anything, and yet we’re already wrapping up day four at this campground.

(The image to the rights shows you what we’ve been waking up to here at Maxwell — frost!)

We’ve been spending our time mapping out the upcoming months and looking at our non-Phaeton adventures for next fall.  Airfare and hotel for Ottawa are in the can.  But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and I have a long ways to go before I can consider those plans final.  There is a hint … other than the obvious reference to Ottawa … about part of our future plans in this paragraph ;-)  So, have fun guessing!

Back to what else we’ve been up to.  While I’ve been processing photos (I shoot Raw) and uploading them to my online galleries, Mui’s been trying out recipes — he concocted a shrimp and crab pizza, made tasty shrimp wraps with a remoulade dressing, grilled salmon fillets and artichokes, and baked a batch of cranberry bars.  All quite yummy!

Today Mui installed the replacement over-the-door motion sensor light we received from StarLights (original install post here); and shortened the chain on the rear mud flap on the coach so that it doesn’t drag when he’s maneuvering over less-than-smooth roads.

Sorry, no photos of any of the above, but I do have some to share from our outings around the base.

Although we’ve been waking up to cold temps, our days have been filled with sunshine, the temps quickly warming up to the mid- to high 60F range (18-20C), and staying there for quite a bit of the afternoon.  To take advantage of the nice days, we took our trikes out for a spin on Saturday and Sunday (Mui went out today, too).  With little vehicular traffic, we had the roads mostly to ourselves.

On Saturday’s ride, we did all of the red route and the small yellow circle, and meandered a bit around the commissary area — estimating about 8 miles (13 km) in all.

Our ride on Saturday was the productive one — photo wise — as we ended up exploring the small Air Park in the area around Chennault Circle.  Sunday’s trike ride held out a lot of promise on paper, but that’s all it turned out to be.  You see, the base’s fishing map shows two lakes and the Alabama River on the other side of River Road.  What the map doesn’t show is any warnings that access to that area is blocked.  Oh well; we got to see the prison (!) before coming home ;-) … and it was good exercise.

The sign is not a reference to Mui’s triking speed; there really are low flying
aircraft coming in for a landing at the runway to Mui’s right.

From our Saturday trike ride … if you don’t care for aircraft pictures, scroll past them.

The first thing we saw that had wings was this great blue heron taking off from the golf course.

This Sikorsky MH-53M 'Pave Low IV' Helicopter, painted and marked as it appeared in 2008,
has a rotor diameter of 72 feet (22m).  #785 most recently took US Special Ops personnel
into harm’s way in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, and led the final
MH-53 combat mission for Operation Iraqi Freedom before it was flown here.

The 27-year career of this Boeing B-52D "Stratofortress" started in 1956 and ended
after logging 14,204 flying hours.  It has a wing span of 185 feet (56 m), requiring me
to cross the street to get this shot.  The B-52 bombers have remained in operation
longer than any other bombers in US military history.

In addition to aircraft, there are a couple of memorials in the Air Park.

“Poopsie” is a North American B-25 Mitchell painted with the markings of an aircraft
that flew in the European Theater during WWII.

One of a series of identical officers' homes on Chennault Circle.

This North American F-86A "Sabre" is named "Chris Craft" for the plane flown by
Lt Charles G. Cleveland, USAF, who has been credited with five "kills" in Korea,
thus giving him the coveted status of "Ace."

This memorial is dedicated to 1Lt Karl W. Richter, who was killed in action in
North Vietnam; he is credited with being the youngest pilot (age 23) in the
Vietnam conflict to shoot down a MiG in air-to-air combat.

A granite plaque behind the statue is etched with the following words from A E Housman:
”Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; but young men think it is, and we were young men."

These four aircraft stand in a semicircle behind the Richter Memorial.
I found it interesting that the nose cone of each one was a different design.

Monument to Powered Flight — if not for the Wright Brothers where would we be today?
(sorry about the background clutter; I had no control over it.)

Monument to Powered Flight
"In tribute to the perseverance and achievements of the Wright Brothers and the
leadership and foresight of the Citizens of Montgomery, Alabama.  Together they
established the nation's first school of civil aviation in March 1910, launching
America on her journey to the stars.”

Prop & Wings: the symbol of the American Airman.  First worn by Aviation Cadets in 1917,
the tradition continued on in other commissioning programs.  It is now worn by all USAF
Academy, Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets, and Officer Training School trainees
who have met the challenges of the first phase of officer training.  All graduates of
OTS and ROTC lay their hands on the historic plaque at the base of the statue.

Ribbons of color
even though the trees block most of our sunset view, I couldn’t resist this photograph.

When I started to write this post this afternoon (the 21st), I didn’t think I was going to have any photos from today.  But then we went for a walk around Lake #1, and I found a few other things that fly to share with you.

Great Egret

Kildeer

Pair of Mallards

This is the same Great Blue Heron from a few days ago.
(Can you find the turtle that I was too far to see until I looked at the photo on my computer?)

And that wraps up the last few days here at the FamCamp.  Reading back through this post, I guess we have been doing quite a bit after all ;-)

I’ll be back when I have something new to write about.