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Well it was bound to happen. Swiss Airlines cancelled my ticket. They decided not to honor the fare (shock horror) and just outright cancelled the ticket.

They did apoligise and sent me the following email:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writing in regards to the travel you recently booked with Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. from Yangon (RGN), Myanmar. Unfortunately, as you must have been aware of, the fare you purchased was incorrect and resulted from an inadvertent error that was out of our control. While SWISS honors its commitment to the highest level of customer service and safety in air travel, it must also honor its obligations to its employees and shareholders.
We are not obligated to provide our services for compensation that is obviously erroneously published and commercially infeasible. We are aware that good travel bargains are quickly recognized and booked, however principles of fare bargaining dictate that a service provider does not give away its services for almost free or at a loss.
Because the fare you booked was not valid, we will unfortunately have to cancel your reservation and ticket. We are extremely sorry for this error and we are not increasing the price of your ticket; rather we will promptly issue you a full refund for the total price you paid for the ticket. The full amount will be automatically credited using your original form of payment. In the event that you would like to rebook your itinerary at the appropriate price, please contact your nearest SWISS service center or your travel agent.
SWISS deeply regrets the inconvenience caused by the publication of the erroneous fare to the passengers who may have thought they had booked and purchased a valid ticket for an erroneous cost. We apologize for this unfortunate situation and trust your future travel on SWISS is comfortable.
Sincerely,
Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.
Malzgasse 15, Basel/Schweiz
Registereintragung/Registration:
Handelsregisteramt des Kantons Basel-Stadt

 

Not exactly the most nicest of emails, not even addressed to me personally. Total fail there. The booking is still showing live on Travelocity, so i will give it a few days to see if it dissapears, my card hasn’t been refunded yet. I sent a complaint to Swiss, not demanding they honor the fare but more the usual “blah blah blah i thought it was real, blah blah blah”. What i did ask for is that they cover the foreign currency fees if I get charged any by my credit card due to the refund. But I doubt they will do that, but hey.. worth a shot right?

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Well Monday this week was pretty damn busy for me. A day full of driving, fun, awesomeness and just down right #avgeek nirvana.

I spent a fair amount of time in the truck monday, as I had to drive down to Kent (bout 10-15 mins South of SeaTac) to pick up my boxes which have finally arrived from Brisbane. After the stupid import company withheld the packages for 2 weeks to get extra cash out of me (part of the reason i had been stressed so much lately) I finally was able to pick up my stuff which was just awesome to see those boxes and my bike! My Glorius bike.

But the Avgeek portion of the day was truly awesome. As my 2nd time as a Correspondant for airlinereport.com I was on assignment to cover the Arrival of the First commercial service for a 787 to Seattle. It was an awesome experience and you can read all about it here The time was great (though adding to my sunburn i am sure), getting ramp access is truly a priveledge and I am really grateful I could do this.

To add more greatness to the day, a friend of mine from Twitter was arriving on the flight for a couple of days so after making him wait several hours thanks to the ANA festivities, we ended up hitting the road up to Paine Field for a little bit of spotting, catching 2 new Emirates 777s (one delivery and one doing a photoshoot with a lear jet) and then we headed out for some Sushi, Tempura and Teriyaki at Rikki Rikki in Kirkland.

It was great having someone visiting, getting to play host and tour guide all at the same time, also seeing a familiar face was a great thing, helped improved my spirits 1000 fold. Now my time this week will be spent with doing up the photos not only from Monday but also from Saturday still as I struggle to get through them all!

It sure has been a thrilling long weekend, with more fun and frivolity coming up!

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Well tonight was the 2nd of 3 burger installments for September. But this one was meant to be pretty neat. It was definately more what I was expecting for a “typical” American burger… well.. in some ways. Last Saturday was chatting with Dan and he told me about a place in Mukilteo (about 5-10 minutes drive away, just down the road from Future of Flight really. It was a crazy place, part burger joint, part Avgeek nirvana. The way he described it, I was in! Z’s Burgers it was to be!

They close kind of early on a Saturday night (8pm) so considering we were there at 7 it was REALLY quiet, which kind of breaks my rules about eating in empty places. BUT i think its cause it was just “late” for them. Most people think that it would of been closed. At least the sun gave a half decent show as it went down over Whidbey Island. Snapped a couple of photos of the sunset as usual

From Expat Life
From Expat Life

But the main attraction was Z’s burgers itself. Being that they are just near the Boeing Factory, its all Boeing here baby! Aircraft on the walls, aircraft on the roof, aircraft on the counter. It was all boeing and it was all awesome! There was also a good stock of Coke memoribilia in the corner but I was here for the Avgeekiness of this place.

From Expat Life

Hell even the burgers are named after Boeing planes!

From Expat Life

Who seriously isn’t going to try the 747! So i ordered it, all the while being told I will regret that decision in life. But I just had to at least once try it! We sat up at the window for a little while, but it was getting a bit chilly so moved further indoors. The burgers are cooked to order so ours took about 10 minutes or so, which is fine with me, I like them fresh. Just before I go into how the burger tasted. Lets look at the description of the “747 Jumbo Burger”. A Cheeseburger with Ham, Turkey and a Grilled Hot Dog. Yep thats right. The wierdest ever hamburger I have ever seen. To hell with it! This is right in the territory of my Man vs Food showdowns but they should of had this place on it!

From Expat Life

The burger was DAMN good. Yeah it may sound wierd and the hot dog did give it the wierdest texture. But the Ham worked and the Turkey to some extent. But everything on it was super fresh. When looking at burgers like this, it reminds me of the Fish & Chip shop burgers back home. Fresh, tasty, a nice looking bun filled with awesome looking ingrediants. A sauce that runs down your hands and arms and requires mountains of Napkins (the sauce actually was pretty close to what is on a Big Mac, not sure how they managed that!).

Add on the fact that Z’s burgers is Avgeek heaven, fresh made burgers, good size, price wasn’t bad $10 for burger, drink and a freaking huge burger is pretty good if you ask me! This was the type of Burger place here in the USA I was looking for. A mom and pop place that is 100% local and totally crazy to boot! This kind of place you would expect off the highway somewhere remote, not in the middle of Subrubia, down the road from one of the largest buildings in the world.

From Expat Life

I did finish the burger by the way… but barely.. Couldnt get through all my fries.. #fail? Nah #win! The end of the burger chronicles will be next Saturday… with the Ultimate avgeek burger journey.

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Well i have been so slack lately in updating but to my own defence I have been both slack, busy, stressed and just totally not in the mood to post.

Life has been pretty up and down the last week wtih way to much stress lately both Work and Personal related, but with the weekend approaching it should lessen this. What I am looking forward to now is October (well actually starting sep 29th, next Saturday). There is going to be some epics times coming up next month with Seattle Restaurant Week dates and menus released (planning already underway to visit a couple), Friends coming to visit, a quick day trip to LAX for some spotting, shenanigans cross border, road trips and probably some unpacking as well!

My stuff that was shipped to me months ago is somewhere between Seattle and Los Angeles and hopefully I will get it next week sometime as I really miss my bike (bet you never thought you would hear that word) and I have to take some time this week to give the camera a decent clean ready for some pretty heavy duty it is going to get over the next few weeks (probably a good 2000 or 3000 photos to go on it).

Pretty much my life is all good, nothing I can’t handle and the stress, although its there, is nothing more than normality really. the things you deal with in life.

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So I do like a good burger. A while back (pretty sure it may have been memorial day weekend) I posted my review of Red Mill Burger which was spot #2 in my Man vs Food Trilogy. But I had been chatting with one of my friends over here Daniel who swore black and blue the best burgers were at Red Robin. I really wasn’t sure, because to be honest I have had some good burgers in my life. I had flown down to LAX just for a Burger in July (funnily enough… that may happen again soon 😉 ) and have always enjoyed In n Out. But I don’t usually like fast food burgers to much, I like me a good burger that’s been made well.

Sure the burger can come from a semi fast food place like Red Mill, but i don’t count that as true “Fast Food” cause sure as hell it wasn’t fast. I waited in line longer than it took for me to eat the burger. That to me is not a sign of fast food but GOOD food. A Place that puts effort into its food. So Daniel had made a big call saying that the Burgers were good. I was determined to make him prove it. So without much on the plans for the weekend, and both of us free Saturday night. We decided to hit up Red Robin.

The weather was pretty damn good yesterday (1 day of rain in almost 2 months can NOT be complained about), it wasn’t to cold so I decided to walk to Red Robin as its about a mile away and enjoy the evening as the Sun set. That way i wouldnt feel as guilty. The sun sure didn’t dissapoint.

By the time we got to Red Robin it was pretty packed. I was there first so got our name on the list and few minutes later Daniel joined me and while we waited the sun finished setting off Brilliantly.

We moved inside as it was getting close to the end of our “expected wait” of about 10 minutes and the place was still pumping. This suprised Daniel a bit as he expected it to be a bit slower. I had no expectations but if this is a normal Saturday night… damn he must be right. They had the college football game on some of the screens around and even on the TV sets in the floor! It felt more like a Bar mixed with a Diner. Booths and Tables, a bar area off to one side. It looked pretty good to be honest. By the time we got our table we had to wait a bit, the service wasn’t the best overall but to be honest, I’ve had worse in Australia. It wasn’t the worst I have had over here, but it wasn’t good to start.

I didn’t even chose what Burger i wanted from the menu, Daniel told me that I had to try the “Royal Robin” as it was exactly what he had his first time there. I was up for whatever so I took his advice. The kitchen was pumping out the goods but it didn’t look sloppy or anything like that. The food all looked good. We got our burgers ordered and a side of “Towering Onion Rings” and i was told to be impressed. The menu was pretty good, plenty of burgers (obviously) but also a good selection of salads and other items and plenty of stuff for the kids. The Milkshakes looked good, but a bit to big for me. All the burgers came with Bottomless Steak Fries (to be honest my favourite kind of fry) and the thought of Bottomless Rootbeer Floats sounded good till I saw how big they were and then had 2nd thoughts.

First up was our Onion Rings.

Now the onion rings were good, don’t get me wrong. They were definately not on the same scale of goodness that the Red Mill Burger onion rings were, but they were definately better than the generic frozen ones they serve at Hungry Jacks/Burger King or most places. So that was a win. It came with two sauces, Ranch Dressing & Campfire Sauce, of which I preffered the Camp Fire Sauce. It was slightly smokey and went well with the Onion rings. But then the goodness arrived.

The Royal Robin is described on their menu as:

This is the aristocrat of all burgers because we crown it with a fresh fried egg. It’s topped with hardwood-smoked bacon, American cheese, crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes and mayo.

And it looked good. It looked fresh & Tasty and not at all fast foodish as I expected considering they are a chain restaurant. So definately winning out here. After a few bites I was sold. The burger was damn good. Now is it the “best” burger in Seattle. I don’t know. But is it the “best” burger I have ever eaten…. Dunno on that call either. Is it the best burger I’ve had lately… yeah. We were discussing the merits of Burgers and decided although In N Out are not that great, the LAX store is more about the location and atmosphere than the burger itself and it kind of has a bit of an advantage of Atmosphere. Red Mill has the better onion rings, but Red Robin had the winner of the 3 burgers in my opinion.

Plans were made for another burger outage next weekend and as we were both pretty full, Daniel made his way to his car to drive himself home, while I walked home to make me feel less guilty… Which i don’t at all.

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A year ago today, I was sitting in the SilverKris lounge at Singapore’s Changi Airport (the one in T3) and ending what was the most unbelievable journey I have had around the world. I had spent over 2 months, journeying around the world visiting new countries, meeting new people and just having a blast. I was sad to see it all end, but I did have the comfort of enjoying the lounge with my friend Cat. Little did I know, this lounge visit would change my life.

While heading to the buffet for a coffee top up, I saw someone sitting at one of the tables who I thought I knew, considering there was a coffee stand that way, I took a swing around that way to suss it out. The person who I thought it was, turned out to be him. The owner of the company I worked for at the time. It was surreal. We sat down and caught up and had a good chat about travelling, work, how hard it was going to be to go back to work etc for me. We got to chatting about where I would be going in the future. I told him the truth that I wasn’t sure, that I didn’t get my green card for the USA but some friends were tempting me to go and live and work in Canada. We got to chatting and he dropped a bombshell. If I wanted a job in the USA, he could help with that.

My head span, my mind was going a million miles an hour. The first words out of my mouth were “Don’t be joking with me on that” Considering I had been wanting to work/live in the USA for a good 5 years by that stage, with attempts previously failed. I did not want to get my hopes up. He was serious, I told him that I would have an answer to him in a couple of weeks when I would see him next, as I needed time to think it over and we were quickly approaching boarding time for both our flights (actually departing only a few gates away).

Well, we all know just how that turned out? Because here I sit, in my apartment in Seattle. I am one happy man because life is just the way I have wanted it for so long. Sure things took a bit longer than expected to get over here, but no journey is ever without its ups and downs. So on this one year anniversary of the end of a massive trip, I don’t want to think of it as an ending, but more on a beginning, the beginning of a new journey. A journey towards my future… one that I am incredibly grateful for.

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Well today is my first ever Football Sunday here in the USA and to be honest, I could not be happier. This morning I was super happy when the Patriots played the Titans (and won mind you) but because it was a 1pm Eastern game time, meant a 10am start over here in the West. So I made sure I had done some of my chores before even that time. I made sure I had done all my grocery shopping and everything before even having breakfast, that way I could sit down at 10am and enjoy at least the first half of the game in relative comfort, eating my breakfast, having some coffee and just relaxing. Before of course resuming my usual Sunday morning of cleaning.

Anyway it was a great game, and the Pats won (although I missed the end of the game as my sirius subscription doesn’t cover the NFL 🙁 ) and It was a great start to the year. The Longhorns won their game to (45-0 against New Mexico) so for my first weekend of American football in my new home (now im glad i dont have to get up at 3am to watch the games) I am super happy.

Heres to more Football!!!

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Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Seattle to Dayton
Part 3 – Dayton
Part 4 – National Museum of the United States Air Force
Part 5 – Dayton to Seattle
Part 6 – Conclusion

Monday 3rd September 2012

OMFG, way to early for this stuff, considering its Eastern Time and i am up at 3am for a quick work out and then head to the airport, this is totally the wrong time to be doing things as my body has been used to Pacific time for so long. God damn. But the work out was worth it, the few little things I had to do at the hotel and I was out of there early, which was good because I couldn’t find a gas station near the Airport and ended up almost having to backtrack to the hotel to find one (took a guess and figured, Car Parks & Car Yards should lead to a Gas station.. I was right).

I waved good bye to the Camaro, I was sad to see it go and dropped it back at the Terminal and within moments I was scanned back out, receipt emailed (have I said how much I love National Car yet?) and bag in hand, on my way to check in. The terminal was desolate, there was a handful of people around and not much else to see, but I checked in and thought I would try for my upgrade. I was told by the person checking me in, that she had added me to the Upgrade List, and after reassurances I was on it and that it will be fine as there are plenty of seats available for me to buy up to, I headed off to security. Security itself had no line at all, the TSA people were nice, but I was nude o scoped… 3 times! Apparently they didn’t like the fact I was wearing pants and told me to try it again after pulling them up (not that I would have that problem If I could wear my belt). But apparently even that wasn’t going to please these guys so I didn’t even have to opt out before getting a TSA grope, sadly he wasn’t in the mood for a cuddle after and just sent me on my way, like a cheap hooker.

The terminal was even emptier than check in (or so it felt anyway) and with out a lounge to head to and get a coffee and totally in the mood to do nothing at all, I found a seat by the gate and started playing with the United App. I then noticed that somehow my seat allocation for my first flight had changed to 1A, oo0o0 maybe the upgrade waitlist had worked, but my 2nd flight was still showing the same seat, maybe not. I got the boarding pass issue resolved (After then seeing another one where it told me the wrong gate, which caused even more dramas for other people). To be honest, I was just about ready to kill someone if I didn’t get coffee soon.

United Airlines
UA5766 (Operated by Expressjet)
Dayton to Washington D.C. Dulles
0555-0715
Canadair – CRJ-200 (N836AS)
Economy Class – Seat 1A

Boarding: 0534 (Gate B17)
Push Back: 0554
Take Off Roll: 0602 (Runway 06R)
Top of Descent: 0640
Touch Down: 0707 (Runway 19C)
Shut Down: 0712 (Gate A3)

Boarding was called once pretty much all the people heading to Chicago were boarded to help clear up the mess, but it didn’t look to be a full flight. I was first through the door onto the Aircraft and then had to jump back out and leave my bag on the jetway to be gate checked as there was no way my bag was going to fit in the overheads. So much for travelling light. I was assured that I would be able to collect it Jetside at Dulles and not have to go to baggage claim as that would of made things totally screwed for my connection (I was cutting it fine as it was). There was 3 crew on board… total… including the pilot and copilot. However the Flight Attendant (Martha) had the strongest Southern Accent I had heard in ages. However she just kept ranting! She was nice and all but at 6am, still dark outside and without coffee in me, there is just so much you can take.

The flight was going to be non eventful for me. I just wanted to tune out and I pretty much did. We took off, we went up, we came down. I read my magazine, listened to my ipod, got 1 cup of coffee and that is about it really. Not much more I can say cause I didn’t pay all that much attention. I did snap a few pictures at one point when the sun outside looked amazing, but they all didnt turn out unfortunately.

We landed in Dulles roughly about when we should have and I expected a long taxi, wrong side of the aircraft to get all the good photos but I did get to see the moon buggies. I’ve only had one ride on them in the past and that may well be my last possibly. After we got to the gate in Dulles I held back a little bit, but not all that much. We had to wait by the side of the plane in the open (which made for a couple of good aircraft shots) before the speed walking began. Probably had to walk almost a kilometre all told by the time I got through all the different tunnels etc, add on a train ride between gates (missed the train by mere seconds) and I made it to the gate pretty much on time.

I had passed the United Club on the way as I figured, if im going first class, no point in getting some breakfast at the lounge. This was my mistake. I got to the gate and it looked horrendous, there were people everywhere. But probably come off connections from Europe or Whatnot, I wasn’t going to judge. This is where things started breaking down. After waiting in line and was then greeted with “what question do you have” it went down hill from here. After 20 minutes of “I don’t see you on the list” and “We don’t have seats available in first” and “the screen is wrong” I should of just walked away, instead I wasted 20 minutes at the counter (time i could of sprinted back to the lounge and got some breakfast) but no, I stood at the counter like an idiot. I am not blaming united entirely for this, I blame myself for it. In the end after she purposefully cleared people who were not on the list with me standing right infront of her ready to buy up. Stuff it. She handed back my boarding pass and said “sorry can’t help” to which she elicited a dirty look from me and a snarkily put comment of “why make me wait then, the least you can do is give me a better seat, since I probably won’t get any space onboard now that boarding is almost over” She reluctantly gave me 7A (which probably would of gone out empty and I walked onboard.

United Airlines
UA194
Washington D.C. Dulles to Seattle
0810-1058
Boeing 737-800 (N39297)
Economy Class – Seat 7A

Boarding: 0740 (Gate C27)
Push Back: 0817
Take Off Roll: 0829 (Runway 30)
Top of Descent: 1033
Touch Down: 1105 (Runway 16R)
Shut Down: 1110 (Gate B11)

By the time I got on board, I was just frustrated, no food, barely anything to drink, 1 tiny cup of coffee. I was not in the mood to put up with crap. As soon as i passed the first class cabin I saw my bulkhead seat and saw the legroom, if I couldn’t have first class it was the next best thing. Then I saw someone sitting in my seat. Just fucking dandy. I was livid, but controlled. I started walking back out and the flight attendant saw me and said “is something wrong”. She resolved the situation quickly as the guy in my seat apparently couldnt tell the difference between a 7 and an 8… probably on purpose.

I totally didn’t even notice the speech about electronic devices to be switched off till I was chastised for using my phone. In my defence I was trying to work out the aircraft registration… hah. I switched the phone off and settled into the seat and just tried to calm the hell down. Which I was by the time I had decided that today was just not going to be my day. I got my first cup of coffee after we were airborne but for some reason they didn’t offer to sell us any food. They didn’t even have it out. Then I saw a deadheading captain with the Breakfast sandwhich (aka sausage and egg muffin) and I was puzzled. So i pushed the button. They never came. I turned it off, she came, but I was reading at this point, so she only spoke to the two young girls I was sitting next to, and by the time i looked up, she was walking away. Eventually I managed to get someone to stick around long enough to ask them if they were selling food, but apparently my accent again caused hassles. I had to point in the magazine at the Yoghurt Parfait and say very slowly. “Me Want One of These Please” which got a “o you want a yoghurt, sure I’ll see if they have any left” I was about ready to break the cabin door open and jump out. But I held back.

After this little incident, I just turned a movie on my ipod on and tuned out. After that finished, I may have fallen asleep for a bit, then I awoke to a failed screen on my ipod, same issue as what happened in Japan last year. So at least i knew how to fix it, aka.. take it to the apple store. But it still played music, I just couldn’t tell what it was. This did not worry me as I got stuck into my book, followed by bouts of photos out the window as we passed random towns I had no idea where we were, bouts of lumpy bits with no seat belt sign, smooth air with a seat belt sign (again no sense here) and just wanting to die as my back was killing me.

Eventually we started descending into Seattle with the most beautiful view of Mt Ranier and it meant that I could be back in my truck soon. I swear I took dozens of photos (After a panic that I had lost my camera but it had fallen under the seat) of the Mountain and Seattle as we approached from the North over Kirkland and Kenmore (sadly wrong side of the plane to see my house or Downtown Seattle) and came in onto the Right of the Tri Runways. Sitting at the South Satelite was ANA’s 777, the United Star Alliance 777 and other goodies, all on the wrong side! Just my luck. But I didn’t let it both me as I would be back in the air in a few weeks for a day trip, so I can’t complain I guess.

We disembarked and before I had even walked out of the terminal I had an appointment at the Apple Store booked for within the hour and was heading for the car park where I was driving out of the lot within 15 minutes of leaving the airport door. I can’t complain about that really!!

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Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Seattle to Dayton
Part 3 – Dayton
Part 4 – National Museum of the United States Air Force
Part 5 – Dayton to Seattle
Part 6 – Conclusion

This museum was pretty much the whole reason I came to Dayton. It is apparently the largest aviation museum in the world (definitely the USA for sure) and has a very amazing collection of rare planes and exhibits. One thing that is unique is that the collection is made up of a very limited amount of planes from outside of the US. The museum rules is “if we flew it or fought it, it’s here” which means you don’t see a lot of non airforce aircraft.

The sheer size of the museum blew me away when I arrived. Three giant hanger sized buildings in the main complex, and outdoor air park, plus two more hangars on base at Wright Patterson. When I got there at around 930 it was pretty quiet but the crowds were coming quickly. I hadn’t really planned what to see ahead of time or anything was just going to take it as it came. Entry was free and the tours were free which was a mega bonus, I just had to control myself in the gift shop.

As the weather was pretty crappy to begin with I decided to cover the air park first just in case the weather got worse. Outside in the Air Park is pretty much where some of the bigger items are, not sure why these are out here but you have aircraft like the C-141 Starlifter. The one on exhibit is infact the Hanoi Air Taxi which was the last one ever flown and actually went into Hanoi to pick up the last of the POWs after the Vietnam War.

You also have the EC-135 Aria. The Aircraft used to track the Apollo rockets and space program. Its unique cause of its big snoopy styled nose! This thing just looks funny and you can’t help but not like looking at it.

One other thing they have outside in the Air Park is actually a full size replica of a WW2 Control tower and base set up with a few buildings as well. This totally shocked me at how small these facilities were compared to modern towers.

With the airpark out of the way I headed around to the main entrance, past the Memorial garden where there were hundreds of memorials set up to comemorate the fallen.

When I came in I saw a big line for limited tickets so I jumped in it not 100% sure what it was for but after a bit of deduction turns out it was to head over to the base to see the two hangars over there. The Presidential Aircraft Gallery and the Research & Development Gallery. Aka the goodies. I will let someone of the pictures talk for themselves but there was so much going on in these hangars. (full album link in final part of the trip report)

From USAF Museum

My highlights were the XB70 Valkyrie which is the only remaining example left in the world.

The YF12 the prototype they would eventually lead to the A12 and the SR71 (my favorite aircraft).

SAM 26000 which was the first jet “Air Force One” and was the aircraft that took Kennedys body home after his assassination.

I could of spent hours in those two alone as you can get up close and personal with the aircraft. Your not meant to touch (hah like you wouldn’t) the exhibits but I did, just one, the YF12 just cause if I didn’t I would hate myself forever. You only get about an hour in total at the hangars before your back on the bus to the main museum. Upon returning it decided to head to a local grocery store for some lunch supplies for a picnic in the air park.

My lunch in the park was good, there was heaps of people doing similar and gives a good alternative to the museum food as you can’t take anything into the museum, not even water. So if you want to have a nice break a picnic is a good idea. My entertainment was plenty of people watching, always interesting at an aviation museum.

Upon returning into the museum I actually joined the free tour they offer but when I asked how long it went for it thought he misheard me when he replied “it should finish around 4pm”. It was scheduled to start at 130pm. He wasn’t far off being right. I ended up leaving the tour at almost 2 hours in after the WW1 & WW2 galleries and there was still way more to go. My estimate would very 530ish.

The tour (at least what I did of it) was great, I learnt a bit, got good history into the specific examples of the aircraft on show. A lot of the stuff in these galleries I already knew about but I still enjoyed it. The few things I really enjoyed seeing was the B24 Liberators which I had not ever seen a real example of before (I don’t think anyway) and didn’t realize how low to the ground they are.

The big drawcard for the WW2 gallery in my opinion is Bockscar. The B29 Superfortress that dropped the 2nd atomic bomb on Nagasaki. I had seen Enola Gay before and this closed out that series. I had to get a photo of me with it, to compliment the one of me and the Enola Gay almost 4 years ago.

After I left the tour in the Southeast Asia gallery (aka Vietnam & Korea) I was pretty Damn tired so just grabbed photos of all the stuff I could think of. I did the same in the Cold War Gallery next door. I was just to tired to finish the day off to late.

Out of both the last two areas I loved seeing the F4 and the Century series aircraft, like the F100, the F104 or 105.

But I was there to hunt down some rare stuff. The F82 Twin Mustang, the F111 for a blast of home, The SR71 cause I never Tire of seeing them and the F117 stealth. All these aircraft just made the whole trip worth it to me.

By the time I left the final gallery is was beat. It’s definitely somewhere you could easily spend 2 days seeing everything on offer, 1 day is just to rushed to fully immerse yourself in the experience and not rush through it. Even though I wasn’t there open to close, you would need that to do it in one day.

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Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Seattle to Dayton
Part 3 – Dayton
Part 4 – National Museum of the United States Air Force
Part 5 – Dayton to Seattle
Part 6 – Conclusion

So rather than trying to cram everything into one post about my time in Dayton, I am going to split it into two parts. This one will cover the hotel, car, random bits and pieces and the other post will cover specifically just the USAF museum.

After grabbing my bag off the belt which was a whole wait on its own, I headed past the rental counter straight outside to the car park. I had rented my car with National who have a lovely program called Emerald Club where essentially you just walk up and pick any car you like from the Emerald aisle and you are on your way in moments. I had joined up via a promo link (pretty sure it’s meant to cost but if you look around there will be links to what I used to get it free) so only had access to the standard aisle. The more you rent the better the cars you have access to for the same price.

Being late by Dayton standards the car park was pretty empty. The emerald aisle was essentially a choice of a Chevy Traverse or a Chevy Traverse. But as I looked at each I was greeted by one of the staff offering to help. She apologized for the lack of cars in the Emerald Aisle then said something awesome. Your our last pick up this evening take whatever you want.

This made it so much more difficult. There was Lincolns, A couple of Ford Edges, a suburban, numerous other small SUVs but there was 2 cars that caught my eye instantly. A red Camaro and a White Camaro. I was intending on trying something new, but the allure of a hard top white Camaro with shiny mags just was to much. She did try to sway me from the choice telling me they have horrible blind spots (she wasn’t wrong) but I took it anyway and soon enough I was on my way to the hotel.

I had spent so much time picking the hotel cause I couldn’t make up my mind where to stay but in the end, chose the Residence Inn Dayton North. The Residence Inn brand are like extended stay hotels, mini suite or studio style rooms with plenty of space and a kitchenette. Free Wifi, parking and Breakfast round out the goodies.

This was a good location close to the airport and near heaps of restaurant choices (albeit mostly chains) but pretty good options. There was a super Walmart a few seconds away and Downtown was 10 minutes drive away. The museum (pretty much whole reason for being there was about 15 mins drive) but that was all interstate driving so quick as hell.

The hotel looked pumped with families and when I checked in it was a madhouse on the Saturday night as there was kids going everywhere. Turns out there was a youth Soccer tournament on in town, hence the families. I was checked in pretty quickly and went up to scout my room before getting some stuff from Walmart.

The room was much bigger than I expected and had a pretty decent set up. Nice big flat screen tv that could face either the mini living room or the bed and a big comfy bed that just screamed at me to get to sleep. Full size fridge in the kitchen along with the basics you could want (toaster, coffee machine, pots, pans etc). This was a good choice!

The only negative I had about the room was the lack of water pressure (it was just lower than I’m used to) and the basic toiletries offered (just shampoo, conditioner and a block of soap). Maybe I’m spoiled to much but I expected a little bit more.

I hit up Walmart for some dinner supplies and then ended up crashing out watching some college football.

Sunday 2nd September 2012

The next morning I ended up waking up pretty much as planned and thankfully the hotel has a small gym so rather than have to go for a run in an unfamiliar area, I used their gym for a bit. The gym was basic, two treadmills a stair master and an exercise bike. But it was half decent looking equipment (Precor) with built in TVs and a big flat screen on the wall. Nothing to complain about honestly.

After a workout and a quick shower, I grabbed my tablet and headed to breakfast before the crowds. Breakfast was free at the hotel (like most of the cheaper brands in the USA) and it was good to. Nothing over the top but their was, toarlst, cereal, muffins, bagels, fruit, yoghurt and some hot options (eggs, sausages, biscuits, gravy). Make your own waffles in the corner (popular with the kids) and plenty of juice options. But I was interested in one thing… Coffee. It was hot, there was plenty of it and I was set.

Unlike other hotels that offer free breakfast these guys had real plates and cutlery, that was a bonus of its own. Feels nicer eating off Crockery rather than paper. Some toast, coffee and some fruit later I had my day planned out and I was on my way to the museum.

I didn’t see all that much of Dayton outside of the museum as I just didn’t have the time. I did however visit Huffman Prarie which is where the Wright brother had their airfield so it holds the title of “Worlds First Airport”.  It was only a few miles from the museum but it’s a bit confusing getting there, at times I wasn’t sure if I was going the right way. But I found it and it wasn’t all that great.

The field is now part of a gun club skeet range and there is only one or two signs so unless you knew what it was, you would just see a field. What I didn’t know before however was there was a tram line that ran to the field in the Wright Brother’s day and the little platform still stands. I guess back then they still had public transport options to airports.

Before dinner on the Sunday night I took a cruise to downtown and after a lap around the empty city I headed for a parking is had seen that would give me good views to downtown hopefully. It turned out to be a kind of memorial peace garden thing and it was pretty tranquil, nothing over the top but a good place to sit on a fine day with a good sunset probably.

I rounded out my time in Dayton with a dinner at a bbq chain restaurant near the hotel with a half decent piece of steak, my book and a spot at the bar. The meal wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible so nothing really to say about it. Called it early that night as it would be a very very long day to come.