Boy Scouts Aviation Outing

Aviation with the Boy Scouts

As most of you may or may not know, I am the assistant Scout Master/Deacons Quorum Advisor. Today we were treated to go to McChord AFB and Thun Field to help the boys complete their aviation merit badge. We started in the AFB control tower which was a lot of fun. We learned how they control planes coming in and out and how landing/departing runways are named. I didn't have a memory card at the time so there are no pictures of that.

Below is some of the pictures from Thun Field, the airstrip in Puyallup. We did a pre-flight inspection on the Cessna below. That is Eric in the pilot's seat, Matthew is co-pilot and Duncan is the passenger.

Part of the pre-flight instruction with Bro. Vance the merit badge counselor.

This was at McChord where we got to go out on the tarmac and check out a C-17. It was huge but apparently compared to the C-5 it is tiny.

This is inside the fuselage looking forward. Again the size was just big.

We also got to get into the cockpit of the C-17. More switches and dials than it seems one could learn. After talking with Captain Vance of the Air Force, it sounds like they have made it very pilot friendly as technology is replacing a lot of the crew that it use to take to fly these big birds.

We had a fabulous time thanks to father and son both Captain Vance, the Air Force, and of course the Boy Scouts (which often gets us permission to do things we otherwise would not have been able to do.)