• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Davis Monthan AFB & Boneyard

S

sketchy

Charter Member
Dear All,

I am planning a road trip soon and always wanted to visit the Boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB.

Has anyone visited this facility? I hear there are tours around it, but only in a closed door bus and only on week days, can anyone confirm this? I of course plan to visit the Pima Museum across the road which from Google Earth looks fantastic! Not sure how well those old airframes or more to the point their paint and canopies fair in the desert sun but looking forward to it non the less.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Sketchy
 
They got the VS-41 Shamrock, my favorite Navy Viking. Hope it gets preserved and not scrapped.
 
Pima Air and Space Museum[FONT=ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva][/FONT] - Some of the original refurbished aircraft have seen some wear over the years. Some are in a state of semi-refurbishment. Some newer additions are in very nice shape. They keep adding to their collection and there are probably new aircraft I haven't seen since I was there in '09. It is well worth the trip. Search Airliners.net photos with "Pima Air Museum" as well as the Museum site to get an idea of what's in store.

PS - bring your sunscreen :cool:<----and sunglasses/hat - we've been pushing close to 90 here already.
 
Thanks for the replies chaps, much appreciated.

I hope they preserve that S3 too, I love that plane.

Do you know if they move you on from taking pictures through the fence?
 
While I haven't done the "fence crawl" myself, I know it's a common thing to do here, and on the site Panther linked, under the category of 'Am I going to get arrested?' it indicates as long as you stay within the law, there shouldn't be a problem taking as many pictures as you want. Look for the Visitor Guide link on the site Panther posted.
 
gecko65 said:
While I haven't done the "fence crawl" myself, I know it's a common thing to do here, and on the site Panther linked, under the category of 'Am I going to get arrested?' it indicates as long as you stay within the law, there shouldn't be a problem taking as many pictures as you want. Look for the Visitor Guide link on the site Panther posted.
Click to expand...

I drove myself & the wife around for ages (on my honeymoon :)) looking for a spot to have a look, couldn't find one. Only found out later we could have organized a tour with the Pima Air & Space Museum.
 
If you are going to Tucson, then a stop at Pima is a must... Not only do you get in to see Pima and all their aircraft, you also get to see the 390th Bomb Group Museum which is located inside Pima...

It is newly renovated and they have their own B-17. Also, you can check out the full-scale B-17 on the wall painted by old man last Summer. It's not done yet, interior needs painted in in some places...
 

Attachments

  • 1378467_655744214456957_950967736_n.jpg
    1378467_655744214456957_950967736_n.jpg
    58 KB · Views: 0
sketchy said:
Not sure how well those old airframes or more to the point their paint and canopies fair in the desert sun but looking forward to it non the less.
Click to expand...

The planes that are being held in reserve have a special coating applied to the canopies and other sensitive areas to prevent sun damage. The paint isn't as much of a problem, since the end user will likely have the aircraft repainted to their needs. Planes that are being scrapped do not get the treatment and just sit in the sun until they are cut apart. It's kind of sad seeing the older model B 52's with their wings clipped waiting to have their pictures snapped from Russian satellites to verify treaty requirements.
 
darklight said:
I drove myself & the wife around for ages (on my honeymoon :)) looking for a spot to have a look, couldn't find one. Only found out later we could have organized a tour with the Pima Air & Space Museum.
Click to expand...
While a bit expensive, another way to get into the Boneyard is the annual Desert Boneyard 5K Fun Run/Walk. We did it last year and plan on doing it again this year (Saturday). Again, it's not really cheap and you only get to run/walk in a limited area of the Boneyard, but a good time nonetheless.
 
gecko65 said:
While a bit expensive, another way to get into the Boneyard is the annual Desert Boneyard 5K Fun Run/Walk. We did it last year and plan on doing it again this year (Saturday). Again, it's not really cheap and you only get to run/walk in a limited area of the Boneyard, but a good time nonetheless.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a great run! A real shame as the friend who will join me for the visit and I would jump at a short fun run like that.

Have a great one on Saturday!
 
The s3 is displayed indoors and looks. New.
The one thing I didn't like about the display is that the canopys are painted silver. That's because of the desert I guess. This in no way detracts from the experience here. The only othe museum that over shadows this one is the museum of the air force in Dayton, oh.

You will enjoy this experience except for the sadness of seeing all these wonderful airplanes waiting to be cut up.

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top