Day 27 began with a tour of Castle Air Force Museum (formerly a fully fledged airforce base). This museum is where old military planes come to retire. There are many many helicopters and aircraft here. We enjoyed checking out everything from a B52 to an F111 to early turbo prop fighters. Very interesting.
A jet fighter. Unlike the Joint Strike it has actually been in service...
A more manageable plane for us non pilots
My host Bill in Sonora volunteers at this museum helping to rebuild an old B-36 bomber. This huge plane has 4 jet and 6 turbo prop engines. It was the world's biggest bomber in its time. It is clad in some sort of magnesium alloy that is slightly lighter than aluminium, because this is slightly lighter, and the weight difference was critical at the time. Unfortunately the cladding is deteriorating rapidly, so Bill is part of a program that is replacing it with aluminium. Interesting stuff. unfortunately we didn't have a chance to see their workshop...
B-36 bomber
We presented today at a joint meeting of the Atwater and Lilydale Rotary Clubs. President Rich ran a lively and friendly meeting and the clubs asked lots of interesting questions. It was a pleasure to be there. And I won the raffle! It was only for the right to draw a luck marble and I missed the jackpot, but we had a side pot for nearest the winning ticket on our table, so I won $5 there.
Atwater Rotary
Some of us popped out to attend vocational visits in the afternoon. It could have been time off, but many of us spoke to our hosts and arranged extra vocational trips. I (Will) went to Merced College to meet with the man in charge. Sarah spent time trying to catch bad guys. Glen went to build big machinery. A good time was had by all.
Sarah trying to catch bad guys...
And in the evening we had a party at Glen's hosts Carol & Ralph's. It was fun. All hosts and others from Merced who'd met us attended. Fantastic food and wine. (Mind you there was BBQ foster farms chicken, which worries at least one member of the team).
We all had a good night. It was very civilised!
Host Jerry Schaffer & Will at the party
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