I got a longer sleep tonight - up at 9:30. Have juice and coffee and check out today's fun - USS Midland - an aircraft carrier. Its about 0.7ml away on the waterfront so I walk getting there before 12. Its self guided with an extremely good audio tour. $18 all in.
Starting on the hanger deck which is actually the least good bit. It has a number of historical aircraft and also flight simulators, a shop, the cafe etc. It would have been better had they left it 'original' but I guess they need to make their money. There is a diversion to the crewmen's quarters - what a hell hole - how can people live so confined! - and airwing area which are interesting. I leave going down to the lower floors and get a turkey croissant (they don't just put jam on croissants in the US) and a coffee - nice actually.
Then down to the engine room. You can't see that much but there is an interesting 'docent' there ( a veteran who's volunteering in the museum) who tells me some good stuff.
Then to the flight deck. Not surprisingly this is where it all happens. There are loads of planes there - more contemporary than below - plus helicopters. Each has an audio description and some have comments from people who served at the time. Towards the bow there is a veteran of the catapults talking about this - its fascinating. The thing is held there on full power buy a metal pin around 1cm thick. Take off occurs when the combined force of the catapult and jet engines are strong enough to break the pin and off it goes. Each plane type has its own pin. Brilliant talk.
I see the rest of the displays at the front then queue up for the tour of the bridge. Not many in front luckily. Lots of very steep steps but this is an interesting guided tour.
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| Just a coissant |
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| The carrier in the background is the one they bought Bin Laden's body back on. |
Then down to the engine room. You can't see that much but there is an interesting 'docent' there ( a veteran who's volunteering in the museum) who tells me some good stuff.
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| This is where it is really steered |
Then to the flight deck. Not surprisingly this is where it all happens. There are loads of planes there - more contemporary than below - plus helicopters. Each has an audio description and some have comments from people who served at the time. Towards the bow there is a veteran of the catapults talking about this - its fascinating. The thing is held there on full power buy a metal pin around 1cm thick. Take off occurs when the combined force of the catapult and jet engines are strong enough to break the pin and off it goes. Each plane type has its own pin. Brilliant talk.
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| This is not a city freeway, its an aircraft carrier! |
I see the rest of the displays at the front then queue up for the tour of the bridge. Not many in front luckily. Lots of very steep steps but this is an interesting guided tour.
Then the rest of the flight deck displays including the Admirals area and mission command.
Flight deck persons are colour coded by function
There is another guy talking about landing. He was a pilot with 80 landings who served on exchange with the Royal Navy, mainly in Scotland. As they land, the pilots go to full thrust so if they miss the catapault they have a fighting chance of taking off again. I ask at what point they power down - its when they come to a complete stop: the catching line stops and holds fighter jets at full power! He said that sometimes the pilots are so fired up that they ground crew have to harrass them to power down - thet are sitting there stationary at full power. Landing in the day on good seas is generally successful but at night or heavy seas apparently misses are quite common. They have pilots in observation bays watching each landing and warning th epilot of they're not quite right. Apparently sometimes pilots spend a whole tour doing thsi. That must suck. Another brilliant insight.
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| Being an Admiral rules |
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| The machine that goes Ping |
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| Mmmm, knobs |
Flight deck persons are colour coded by function
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| Bless their multiculturalism :) |
There is another guy talking about landing. He was a pilot with 80 landings who served on exchange with the Royal Navy, mainly in Scotland. As they land, the pilots go to full thrust so if they miss the catapault they have a fighting chance of taking off again. I ask at what point they power down - its when they come to a complete stop: the catching line stops and holds fighter jets at full power! He said that sometimes the pilots are so fired up that they ground crew have to harrass them to power down - thet are sitting there stationary at full power. Landing in the day on good seas is generally successful but at night or heavy seas apparently misses are quite common. They have pilots in observation bays watching each landing and warning th epilot of they're not quite right. Apparently sometimes pilots spend a whole tour doing thsi. That must suck. Another brilliant insight.
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| The grabby bit of the catapult |
Then down to the lower floors. The messes (officers and crew), sick bay, Petty Officers mess (they have their own mess, better even than the officers mess, own pay scales and are considered to be the bedrock of the navy). Its getting towards 5 now (closing) and its quiet down here and peaceful at last (noisy children everywhere) though I'm sure the ship would never have been quiet. But at least I can chill. I finally finish the tour pretty much dead on 5. Brilliant. I feel quite privileged getting an insight as to how a city at sea like this works.
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| The Petty Officer's mess. The food here is better than any other mess and even the captain has to ask permission to come in. |
I've sort of walked through the pain now but hobble back, finding a 7Eleven to get tonight's wine.
Lie down for a bit with a coffee, then off about 7 to Basics Pizza on 10th.
Its a bit of a long way and is a sort of warehouse type place very well regarded on TripAdvisor. You design your own pizzas. I get an IPA of some sort (shame I couldn't remember what it was as it was really nice) and the rather gorgeous waitress took my order. I get a 'red pie' (sort of traditional tomato based) with pepperoni and olives plus (at waitresses suggestion) roasted eggplant. I got the small but it was huge - about 12-15" and really nice. Especially the eggplant.
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| $37 000 to you. Flux capacitor extra. |
I walk back somewhat bloated and tired (I left two slices which I have with me) and very pleased when I finally get home. Once I finally catch by breath my $14 Piniot Grigio goes down really well. Get a plan for tomorrow (like last year, a late flight is always going to make doing stuff difficult as I'll be stressing about getting there: but I have a plan).
This was one of the stand out days of the holiday. Excellent :) I think I took more photos today than on any other day. You can see the rest here: https://picasaweb.google.com/109601532802723861644/Holiday2011_06_21SanDiegoUSSMidway?authuser=0&feat=directlink
This was one of the stand out days of the holiday. Excellent :) I think I took more photos today than on any other day. You can see the rest here: https://picasaweb.google.com/109601532802723861644/Holiday2011_06_21SanDiegoUSSMidway?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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