By Erik Jordan
When I woke up last Friday morning and looked outside, I saw a sight that brings tears to the eyes of an old New England boy – SNOW on the ground. The problem here is that our club had a run scheduled for the next morning to Jock and Jill’s Restaurant in Charlotte followed by a visit to the Carolinas Aviation Museum (www.carolinasaviation.org). Fortunately the weather gods intervened, all the snow was gone by Friday afternoon and the trip was not cancelled.
The Metrolina MG club organized this outing and invited our club plus a few other regional British car clubs to join them for some fellowship and an opportunity to see some historically significant airplanes and helicopters. Our club departed Hickory at the appointed hour, expecting to gather a few more members while on route to Charlotte. I counted 12 LBCs at departure. Some additional club members met us at the restaurant. I don’t actually know how many of us ended up participating.
After, for me anyway, a pleasant and casual lunch we then went to the museum, located just a couple of miles down the road on the fringes of Douglas International Airport. Our host club negotiated a discounted admission which resulted in a seamless entrance to the museum. You enter through an expected yet very well appointed gift shop. Staff in the museum foyer provide guests with a comprehensive review of what one should expect once they enter the main hangar. Cloaked in dim yet well placed lighting, we found easy navigation through the collection that included civilian, military, commercial planes and helicopters. The signage, audio-visual aids and memorabilia displays provided just about all the information one would want. In addition, staff was available if one had more questions regarding any exhibit.
Here is a short synopsis of some of the exhibits we saw: an old Italian Savoia Marchetti that had circumnavigated the globe at least once (one of two left in the world), a DC-3, an Eastern DC-7, a Delta DC-9 a CH 46D Sea Knight troop transporter and a recently retired C-130. The museum centerpiece is the US Airways flight 1549 Airbus A-320, more commonly referred to today as the “Miracle on the Hudson”. This flight had to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York City right after take-off because it had the misfortune of running into a flock of geese that killed the engines. To this day, everyone who was onboard thanks Captain Sullenberger and his crew for their expertise and resolve. Outside on the tarmac were the DC-7, the DC-9 and the C-130. Staff then gave us a history of the transition from prop powered passenger planes to the current jet powered ones we see mostly today. We were told that the C-130 participated in the aborted attempt to rescue staff from the American Embassy in Iran after it had been overrun by insurgents.
A big thank you to the Metrolina MG club for organizing the event and to the CVBMC members who were able to participate. It was a good start to the new year, at 65 to 70 mph for a couple of hours or so. Nothing better for our little British cars than to be able to blow out the winter cobwebs.
