I've always said it's great to travel the world but sometimes some of the best things are right in your backyard. I had lived in Arizona for almost 14 years and rarely set foot in the Phoenix suburb Mesa until in Fall of 2020 I found out about the Mesa Air Museum, part of the CAF Commemorative Air Force Museum group. There are several of these around the country, and if you are lucky and close by, many of them have planes from WWI and WW2 still flying! I had heard some things about flying in open cockpits locally and finally found two great places where I could do it! If you love history and you love adventure, and are in Arizona, I highly recommend checking this place out!
The museum itself is fantastic with over 40 planes from almost all eras of aviation and extensive military history, but a flight includes museum admission, so why not fly and get a two for one! At the time of writing Mesa Air Museum has 6 planes still flying, the prices were $80 to $800 for various flights and depending on the seat, and I did a Stearman flight as well with Yellow Bird Aviation. Here's my short summary of each plane and the fun times on them!
C-45 EXPEDITOR
This was my first flight and first time at the museum, we boarded a tiny six passenger plane and circled the mountains closer than I've ever been on a commercial airline, the other passengers were a pilot who wanted the experience on a smaller plane and a veteran, which I found was a great common theme to the flights.
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| First Historic Flight! |
SNJ /T-6 Texan
We are going to take the adrenaline up a little on this one, just you and the pilot in this tiny training flight with glass cockpit for a full view of the valley below! Although obviously not the speed of a modern day fighter jet you definitely look/feel like Top Gun once you are sitting there!
Stearman Biplane (OPEN COCKPIT!)
The Stearman at the Mesa Air Musuem had some mechanical issues that needed to be resolved for safety of course. But luckily I found another company Yellow Bird Aviation that flew the same plane and immediately booked! The guy that runs it makes the whole operation feel like you are flying with a family member rather than a company so really a great experience.
I will probably say for adrenaline rush and adventure experience this one ranked number 1!
B25 AND B17 BOMBER FLIGHTS
I am going to loop these two together because if you are short on time they are similar. For the B17 I paid top price for the nose seat, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and its also typically the first thing to sell out so book in advance. The B25 "Maid In The Shade" is the big boy, and largest air craft they have, I went with a friend in the main body for this one, highly recommended for a group flight.
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B25 "Maid In The Shade"
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So what is better the nose or the body? The nose is definitely better, its about double the price of the body. But my honest answer if you have the time and money is do both. Both flights were super unique experiences and I'm really glad I sprang and did each of them.
I should mention at this point, some of these were just training planes for the air force, some were actually in battle and still have the bullet holes to show for it! You are truly flying in history.
As you can tell from the above videos, once the plane is at cruising altitude you are allowed to safely move around the cabin in designated spots, don't go to where the bombs were it will open! Everyone on the plane was respectful that everyone got to experience each part, radio room, gunner, sky light, etc!
For the nose I went up with two other people and we rotated our time up front, it was a totally great allotment for the experience, you had some time to take it all in, take some pics, cruise, enjoy the view, and take it all in again.
C-47 Sky Train
This at the time of writing is the only night flight available. I figured it would make a great date so my girlfriend joined me on this one. If you have a larger group this is one you can charter for private flights as well. Not in my budget though! So we took this one with a group. This was the final flight for me as well to complete all 6 planes, and I'm glad I did it with great company.
The C-47 Sky Train was actually used in rescuing the Forgotten 500, I never heard of this story prior to this and bought the book of the same name before our plane took off as we were informed of it in the debriefing. I have an amazon affiliate account but I'm not even gonna promote the book here for my commission. I'm gonna advise you to buy it wherever you want because the story is that good I don't care if you get the book used or brand new.
This plane besides being in battle and rescuing fallen troops was also used by private company executives for awhile so as you can see the inside is retrofitted luxury, a lot more comfortable, and less military style.
As the wheels touched down and we got off the plane it was so much like many of my international trips, even though it was in my backyard. The experience of flying in history, reading the Forgotten 500, learning the stories of all the planes, and being able to experience them first hand was an unforgettable experience of travel in Covid Times when of course travel was very limited. Travel the world if you can... But also take advantage of what's right in front of you.
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