WE ARE STAYING LONGER

We checked on the status of the parts we are waiting for and we are told one came in and the second won’t be in until Monday. So we will be staying here until Tuesday. The good thing is they are reducing our campground fee since we are waiting for parts for their maintenance department to install.

This morning it was over cast  and when you look at the sun through the clouds you could see a rainbow ring around it. The evening news said it was a Sun Halo caused by ice crystals in cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere.   

We then unloaded the Wing and took off for the Prima Air & Space Museum. We bought tickets after showing photo I.D. to take the tour to the AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. This base contains 2,600 acres.

This is a t-shirt in the store.

Space Bars - These are dehydrated ice cream bars and felt hard.

 

There were rows and rows of all kinds of planes and helicopters.

They are coated with a latex like coating to prevent light and moisture damage. It peels off easily when they need to get into them or remove some parts. It will keep the interior of the planes 15 degrees cooler.

This radar plane lets the other planes it is flying with know when there are enemy planes in the area.

This model of drone when used took down the plane it was shot from and was decommissioned right after. The two pilots did get out safely.

 

These are all pieces which have been dismantled.

All the helicopter blades are removed and stored inside a climate controlled building.

The chief reasons for selecting Davis-Monthan as the site for this storage center were Tucson's meager rainfall, low humidity, and alkaline soil. These conditions make it possible to store aircraft indefinitely with a minimum of deterioration and corrosion. In addition, the soil (called caliche) is hard, making it possible to park aircraft in the desert without constructing concrete or steel parking ramps.

 AMARG provides customer services including aircraft regeneration (restoring aircraft to flying status), programmed depot-level maintenance, and parts reclamation, in addition to its historic storage and disposal functions.

 

It contains more than 4,400 aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles from the Air Force, Navy-Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard, and several federal agencies including NASA. With an original purchase price of more than $35 billion, this aerospace fleet provides a unique savings account from which military units throughout the world may withdraw parts and aircraft. The government earns additional income by selling aircraft to various allies.

We caught these planes flying over head after our tour.

 

Cathy caught this guy bicycling his dog around. I thought we could use this unit so we would only need 1 bike. Not sure if Cathy would have enough power to haul me around though.

 

The weather was great reaching a high of 22C today.

All for now...