For those of you who dont know, The AHM was formerly known as Save-A-Connie. And their main claim to fame is they have one of the few remaining flyable Lockheed Super Constellations on the planet. It has been awhile since i had been there, and apparently during that time the Connie had a engine fire which grounded her, but they have repaired that and shes ready to fly again and are just waiting on the final go ahead from the FAA to hit this summers air show circuit. I was told in the meantime they have permission to do test flights and will be flying sometime this month. My neighborhood is in the approach path for KMKC and the Connie has flown low over quite a few times. And it makes quite an impression. Most of the people who work and fly the plane are retired TWA and Ozark airline employees. (i was led around today by a former Ozark DC-3 pilot) Just being in the cockpit of the Connie is a big thrill for me!

 

Also at the museum they have an airworthy Martin 404 thats in very good shape.

 

But the highlight for me on the tour was the Douglas DC-3 they are close to finishing a complete restoration on. They have a bit of work to do on it yet, as only one engine was on the airframe and my guide said they had to swap the radios out for modern equipment. But everything else is done, they have 3 spare engines for it, and they hope to have it ready for 2013. Remember these old guys are retired volunteers, so nothing happens fast with them.

 

They had me watch this video presentation and it made me laugh several times because when they were describing different models of historic airplanes, when they didnt use (or couldnt find a decent stock photo) in the video, they used a screenshot from Flight Simulator instead!

 

Speaking of which, they had a nice 3 screen FSX setup in their lobby, complete with yoke, throttle quad, and pedals. It wasnt running when i was there, the tour guide told me that was for the kids!

 

I took a slew of pictures and may post them on flickr sometime in the near future.

That sounds like a really great day out to me.

 

Al

That sounds like a realy great day out to me.

 

I agree!

 

I've seen Australia's Super Connie at a couple of airshows, it was pretty impressive.

I was just looking through old photos. This is from first SATCO Convention. I hope these guys, Mike Sweeney, and I cannot remember for the life of me the other guys name, don't mind. I have a bunch of others too of the interior and cockpit.