Air-Minded: PASM Photoblog XIV

I haven’t posted a Pima Air & Space Museum photoblog lately, so I have some catching up to do. There’s no theme to this one, just a lot of this and that. I’ll start with the obligatory selfie and some head-on shots of interesting aircraft: PASM recently added two new outdoor exhibits, a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor […]

Another Nickel on the Grass

I disagreed with most things John McCain stood for as a politician, but although I consider myself socially progressive I was also a career military officer and that informs a lot of my thinking. If I held public office half my socially progressive brothers and sisters, probably more, would hate my guts. So I try […]

Air-Minded: IL-2 Restoration Photoblog

Work continues on Pima Air & Space Museum’s IL-2 Shturmovik. The fuselage is largely finished, the engine is in, the wings have been fabricated from original blueprints and are awaiting installation, and the propeller, damaged when the Shturmovik’s pilot crash-landed on a frozen lake near the Russian village of Zamejie on January 28, 1944, is being hammered […]

Thursday Bag o’ Schnozz

I steeled myself for a stern lecture and a return to white pads and tape, but the dermatologist’s nurse practitioner (the nice one!) took one look at my skin graft Tuesday and said “Let your nose shine out upon the world for all to see.” So here it is, in its bumpy, slightly discolored, W.C. […]

Air-Minded: PASM Photoblog XII

There’ve been some changes at Pima Air & Space Museum, where I work as a volunteer docent. Our T.35 Vampire, once used as a trainer and staff support aircraft by the Royal Australian Air Force, has been moved indoors, and not a moment too soon: de Havilland used molded plywood in its construction, and those panels were taking a beating […]

Friday Bag o’ Brimley

I’m not going to be coy: my blood sugar started inching up a few years ago; this year it crossed a line and my doctor says I now have type 2 diabetes. At my age I’m probably in for the duration. It’s totally on me, of course. I couldn’t feel guiltier if, after years of unprotected anal […]