I have tried to talk with my command about getting my Dad up for a ride.. I think they literally laughed out loud at me
I could definitely get you on base and on a tour, possibly on our EP-3E as well. The biggest think is TS Clearance- even the guys who change our oil (half the time is me) have to have a clearance to even look at the insides. CP-140s remind me of an old Winnebago ha. They do a lot of the same stuff, but the US has bought the Navy a lot of nice fancy gear to put in ours. Comox, BC about 1.5 hours north of Whidbey in the air has a few CP-140s flying the pattern, we go up and share it every now and then for PPT training.
Our performance numbers shock a lot of people, one of the reasons the Orion has been serving over 50 years! We can fly a long time... Over many miles. My longest was 14.3 hours and about 2,700 ish miles (Outbound and back. On Station is another story!). Of course we had the two outboard engines feathered to save gas
Now all I do is high altitude recon and surveillance- its a neat job, I hope to commission just as soon as I finish my degree- then I can fly the P-8, which Im sure you know a ton about. Very neat airplane, but not as good at Sub-Hunting
If I could get in touch with a tech rep who works with the wing spars maybe they could talk the command into letting us do a "research" flight for the spar cracks.
I would definitely love to zoom around with you sometime - I am pretty familiar with the good back country airports in WA and Idaho if youre ever wanting a big adventure, just be sure to fly your nosewheel to the deck!
Take care,
Jacob