(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A Reunion [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-18 B-52G 58-0183 Tucson is a great place for bicycling, at least during the months where the temperature doesn’t approximate the surface of the sun. On a recent weekend layover I found myself in Tucson with a rented bicycle and time on my hands. This was apparently the one weekend a year it rains in Tucson. But hey, I pay for bike, I ride bike. Needless to say I got soaked. “Builds character” as my mother would have said. At least it’s not my bike. Fortunately I was back in Tucson two weeks later and the weather was more cooperative. I decided to ride out to the Pima Air and Space Museum. Gratuitous cactus picture so you know it’s Arizona. Tucson has a very nice bike path network called “the loop” which, as the name implies, makes a loop around Tucson. Spotted a Roadrunner by the bike bath. Apparently they don’t go “Beep! Beep!” My childhood was a lie. Riding “the loop” around Tucson. Really nice bike path. The museum is just south of Tucson near Davis Monthan Air Force Base, home of the “boneyard” for mothballed aircraft. Note that you can no longer tour the boneyard so don’t bother asking. I managed to get a look at the boneyard as I rode south. These C-130s are just a very tiny part of it. The museum itself is huge. It covers 80 acres and boasts a collection of roughly 400 aircraft. Some of them are pretty rare. I spent a good part of the day going “Wow. I’ve never seen one of those up close before.” There are only four B-36s still in existence and one of them is here. There is no way I can post pictures of 400 aircraft here unless you want to be scrolling for days. If you check out their website at pimaair.org they probably have better quality pictures than anything I could take anyway. T-38 Talon, which I logged 1000 hours instructing in as a young FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot). I think the aircraft directly behind it is a BAC Jet Provost trainer. These are at the end of their service life and will be phased out soon. I was really here to see one plane in particular. You see, I was meeting an old friend. After going through the large indoor exhibits I had to wander outside a ways to find it. You knew this was coming. First off, this is a B-52G, the second to last model built. This one was built in 1958. You can tell the year of production by the first two digits of the serial number 58-0183. B-52G with a “tall tail” B-52D behind it. The D’s had all been retired by my time. This particular tail number was assigned to the 2nd Bomb Wing, Barksdale AFB Louisiana. Odds are pretty good that I either flew it or sat alert in it at some point during my tenure at Barksdale. That was the main reason for my visit. Nothing to make you feel old quite like seeing a plane you flew in a museum. The museum wasn’t very crowded that day. I finally found a nice German tourist to take my picture. I haven’t been this close to one in thirty years and I had forgotten just how massive they are. At 488,000 pounds fully loaded it is still the largest aircraft I have ever flown. Since I will likely finish out my airline career on the 767, it will remain so. The 767 maxes out around 400,000 pounds. The B-52G could actually be air refueled to just over 500,000 pounds in flight. The two chin turrets housed night vision cameras. The turret closest to me is in its stowed (streamlined) position. The other is rotated with the camera forward. Cockpit photo showing the night vision displays (green screens). I think this was late 70s early 80s technology and pretty amazing at the time. We could fly 200 feet at night, which was basically our wingspan. That’s me in the left seat. The Fleur-de-lis on the tail marks this as a Louisiana (Barksdale) aircraft. The gun turret and fire control radar are still there, but the four .50 caliber guns have been removed. Unlike older models the gunner of a G model sat up front in the cockpit. The G models were all retired around 1993. Probably just as well. They were pure turbojets (J-57s) and burned a lot of gas. With today’s fuel prices I doubt even the military could afford to operate them. Most of them were chopped up by treaty with the Russians at the end of the Cold War. This is probably one of the few intact G models left. This would be a good picture if my glasses weren’t crooked. I include it anyway because it shows the nose art and the 2nd Bomb Wing insignia. Sorry. Selfies aren’t really my thing. Either that’s my “steely eyed warrior” look or the sun was in my face. The slightly newer B-52H is still around, and is scheduled to get new engines along with a few other improvements. They’ll probably still be flying long after I’m gone. I actually had a Barksdale B-52H pass 1000 feet under us not too long ago. First time I’d seen one in flight in a very long time. We were over Arkansas on a flight to Memphis. As I write this, I’m looking at the pictures and thinking, thirty years is a long time. This picture was taken in January 1991 right after our first Gulf War mission. I’m on the far left, totally rockin’ that ‘stache if I do say so. The mustache alone had three confirmed kills. I would have been 28 years old when this was taken. I could have spent the day there but it was a nice day and the bike path was calling. I left mostly feeling old, but it was a good visit. Definitely check out the Pima Air and Space Museum if you’re in Tucson. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/18/2151916/-A-Reunion Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/