Trip to Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
 

It was raining like crazy for three days. No flying.






Finally Sunday! Mostly sunny with temperature above freezing. The museum month is ending and I've visited only two. Time for a big one, time for Smithsonian Air and Space in Washington, DC. A quick phone call - flight plan into FRZ filed. College Park Airport, MD KCGS.
WOT!! Out of this swamp :D







Good tailwind. Climbing on top of Philly Class B.












Somewhere here just north of Bay Bridge airport I asked Potomac gatekeepers to let me in.







Observed, proceed on course, stay out of Bravo, report College airport in sight... what could be simpler...







It was a bit bumpy below 1,500 feet but not terrible. I even managed to get couple shots of the Mall and the Monument.

First time to find College Park airport from 1,400 feet is not easy. It's hidden in the woods and surrounded by large buildings. It's a little pretty place. There is even a herd of domesticated bambis.





On approach end of runway 33 is a unique cutout of tall trees on the glideslope.
Very visible and looks unusual. The only airport keeper was a TSA coordinator, a young, friendly and energetic gentleman who promptly locked my propeller with one inch thick cable and explained how to get to a Metro station.







The subway (not sandwich) station is couple minutes walk from the airport.







I fumbled with prehistoric ticketing machine for some time. Finally I am in after spending whopping $8 on round trip.






It's definitely not New York City. Very different underground.







After a short 20 minutes ride (phone reception is good in the tunnels) I exited at Smithsonian.













.... there will be more after the break.... :D

I was just there.
 

I was at the Smith a few weeks ago. Lots of neat stuff to see.

One of my paintings is among their collection somewhere.

Hey Vlad, great write up/tips.

I'm &!?## jealous!

Vlad, have you gone though the security proses to land in Collage Park? I did many years ago and have made the same trip you did,,lots of fun.

Of the two locations, I think I prefer the Udvar-Hazy facility at Dulles. Harder to get to from the city, but wow do they have a lot of neat airplanes there!

mcb

Sure hope you made it to the Udvar/Hazy museum at Dulles.

Roberta:)

I hope/expect he went through the museum there at the College Park airport.

That's way cool Vlad!

"After a short 20 minutes ride (phone reception is good in the tunnels) I exited at Smithsonian."

I remember riding that subway on one of my first visits there with my family years ago. There was somebody talking on the phone as the train entered a tunnel. I was thinking "this guys going to be surprised when he loses his signal". Nope, he kept talking in the tunnel!!

I also recommend Udvar/Hazy. My family was pretty entertained at my ooohhhs and ahhhhs as we walked through. You can see the Sirius 4 satellite that my company built as a spare for Sirius Radio. I worked on that bird as a Mechanical Engineer. There is also an SR-71 there which was the Lockheed test bird in Palmdale when I worked there as a Flight Test Engineer in the mid 80's. It's pretty cool to see actual stuff you worked on in a museum. It also makes you feel OLD!

SR-71,.......... Kelly Johnson!

By Chance any relation?

RHill