Layover adventures

My layover adventure usually begins with arriving at the room to find my key card not working, necessitating a trip or three back to the front desk. But that's good because I get my steps in.

Next I strip off layers of polyester (Latin for "many esters"), and remove whatever layer of crud I have accumulated during the day. Then its time to adorn myself with my not-fashionable yet inexpensive duds to alight upon one of the many uncomfortable chairs at the hotel restaurant, where I will dine on my $15 $28 turkey club sandwich, made from the finest staples of Sysco's "valu-line".

Then back to the room where I can attempt some form of sleep, once I figure out how to dim the Zenith "Radiation King" clock next to the bed, while attempting to not contemplate the temperature of the water the sheets were washed in.

Nice early go the next morning before the sun is up, because, you know, natural light burns. A cup of joe would be nice, but, of course hotels have gotten away from lobby coffee now that they have installed inoperative hot water dispensers in all the rooms. The line at the single place that has coffee at the airport "eat-n-go" has completely overwhelmed the one employee, so it's off to the jet to do the morning's "boot up lottery".

Fun times.
 
Richman said:
My layover adventure usually begins with arriving at the room to find my key card not working, necessitating a trip or three back to the front desk. But that's good because I get my steps in.

Next I strip off layers of polyester (Latin for "many esters"), and remove whatever layer of crud I have accumulated during the day. Then its time to adorn myself with my not-fashionable yet inexpensive duds to alight upon one of the many uncomfortable chairs at the hotel restaurant, where I will dine on my $15 $28 turkey club sandwich, made from the finest staples of Sysco's "valu-line".

Then back to the room where I can attempt some form of sleep, once I figure out how to dim the Zenith "Radiation King" clock next to the bed, while attempting to not contemplate the temperature of the water the sheets were washed in.

Nice early go the next morning before the sun is up, because, you know, natural light burns. A cup of joe would be nice, but, of course hotels have gotten away from lobby coffee now that they have installed inoperative hot water dispensers in all the rooms. The line at the single place that has coffee at the airport "eat-n-go" has completely overwhelmed the one employee, so it's off to the jet to do the morning's "boot up lottery".

Fun times.
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I’ve found that the likelihood of my key not working is directly proportional to how badly I need to poop.
 
BobDDuck said:
You have a work trip there, or you have more time to go hang out and do things? There's a ton of cool stuff down in that direction on the North Island, but you'd be tight for time on a work trip.
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Work… I’ve got about 50 hours. I’m all ears for suggestions!
 
Screaming_Emu said:
That place is amazing, I just wish they had more planes you could actually get onboard. No reason they can’t put some glass up at the cockpit door and let people onboard a few of the planes. Plenty of other museums do that.
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I agree, but this museum is very busy which is probably why you can't go inside anything. The Airline Museum in KC was awesome for that, I was able to go inside just about everything they had there.
 
skypilot6 said:
I agree, but this museum is very busy which is probably why you can't go inside anything. The Airline Museum in KC was awesome for that, I was able to go inside just about everything they had there.k
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I have an MCI layover next month, I might check that out if I have time
Never mind, that’s the one that closed down 🙁
 
Roger Roger said:
I have an MCI layover next month, I might check that out if I have time
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Definitely worth it, it's at the Wheeler Downtown airport. Mostly old TWA stuff, they have a TWA Connie you can walk through, At least they did when I was there 6ish years ago.
 
Ian_J said:
Work… I’ve got about 50 hours. I’m all ears for suggestions!
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Auckland proper is kind of a drag. They haven't really recovered from covid still, and even beyond that, there are large drug and homeless problems in the CBD. One thing to do there is take the ferry over to Hobsonville (across the harbor... 20 minute ride) and go to Little Creatures Brewing. It's in an old amphibian hangar. Waiheke island is nice as well (bus service can get you around over there) but as of a year ago the ferry was having reliability issues and it was hard to get there and back.

Everything else is either a bus tour or a car rental. I'd recommend the car rental version as you can go where you want. You technically don't need an IDP, but they may ask for one. If you've never driven on the left side of the road... just envision high fiving the oncoming drivers and you'll be ok. I rented from Ace Rental last time I was in AKL (location near the airport and one in the city) and they were good.

If you go north from Auckland, Whangarei has a cool tree, and some other things. North of that Paihia and the Bay of Islands is pretty neat. Can be done as a long day trip out of AKL.

Just to the west of Auckland is Piha, which is a cool little beach town. There is a day trip canyoneering company that does a very beginner canyon there. Lots of fun, especially if you've never run a canyon before.

Heading south you've obviously got Hobbiton, which is ok, but I was a bit underwhelmed by. Rotorua has all kinds of outdoor adventure type things. The town of Raglan has some really nice beaches and scenic overlooks. Waitomo is a 2 hour drive but has the famous glow worm caves. There are several companies that offer tours. One has boats you can float through the caves in. The best though is the Blackwater Rafting company where you can swim and float on inner tubes through the caves. VERY much worth it.

Everything farther south is kind of too far to do as a day trip but if you ever take a longer trip that way, let me know.
 
Roger Roger said:
I have an MCI layover next month, I might check that out if I have time
Never mind, that’s the one that closed down 🙁
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The TWA museum is still open at MKC, they don't have any airplanes to walk through but they did get a bunch of stuff from the old TWA training center that is kinda neat to see. They also have an Electra 12 but I don't know if you can get inside that. You also get to walk around where I stated out my aviation career when that was Executive Beechcraft, I have been all over that hangar and condemned office part in the back where TWA's operations and dispatch were back in the old days.

If you are into WWI history then check out the National WWI museum and memorial. It is defiantly worth a visit and will soak up more time if you have it.

twamuseum.org

The TWA Museum at 10 Richards Road

twamuseum.org twamuseum.org

Home

theworldwar.org theworldwar.org
 
Last I heard the TWA museum at KC was padlocked because they got into some kind of urination contest with a big money FBO over rent.

Might be old news tho.
 
Richman said:
Last I heard the TWA museum at KC was padlocked because they got into some kind of urination contest with a big money FBO over rent.

Might be old news tho.
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There are/were two different museums there, the Airline History Museum which was the old Save A Connie and the other is the TWA museum.

The Airline History Museum is the one that got shut down due to a fight with Signature. I don’t know what the status of that is these days. They have been struggling for a while with money though. I think @WacoFan would know more.
 
arkflyr said:
There are/were two different museums there, the Airline History Museum which was the old Save A Connie and the other is the TWA museum.

The Airline History Museum is the one that got shut down due to a fight with Signature. I don’t know what the status of that is these days. They have been struggling for a while with money though. I think @WacoFan would know more.
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Here's film showing what it looked like back in the day. There's a couple versions of this film. This is the unedited version, but all the copies I've seen have crappy and/or out of sync audio. The later versions were edited for other uses. This one is the best of the lot, but has a nasty 300hz buzz in it.


View: https://youtu.be/etnLVvvyeTA?si=1VtLKGInzM3fvFyP
 
Richman said:
Here's film showing what it looked like back in the day. There's a couple versions of this film. This is the unedited version, but all the copies I've seen have crappy and/or out of sync audio. The later versions were edited for other uses. This one is the best of the lot, but has a nasty 300hz buzz in it.


View: https://youtu.be/etnLVvvyeTA?si=1VtLKGInzM3fvFyP
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At 17:14 you can see them walking into 10 Richards Rd which is the address of Hangar 1 at MKC and where my first aviation job was as a ramper for Executive Beechcraft. That was one of the first buildings built there and the oldest one still standing. It was a MX and operations facility for TWA, the operations offices were boarded up long ago but before they were we would climb up on the roof and get in and snoop around. It was in complete disrepair but there still was some stuff like chalkboards on the walls of the dispatch office, TWA's jet stream logo embossed on the fixtures, and world map wallpaper with their routes on them fading away. Brings back a lot of fond memories thinking about that place.

Also at that time you can hear the narrator introducing the crew and in particular the flight engineer and he goes out of his way to let the audience know that he is a licensed mechanic. That turned into a big debacle when the jets showed up as a turf war ensued between ALPA and the FEIA.
 
First trip on the new fleet. JNB.

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arkflyr said:
Also at that time you can hear the narrator introducing the crew and in particular the flight engineer and he goes out of his way to let the audience know that he is a licensed mechanic. That turned into a big debacle when the jets showed up as a turf war ensued between ALPA and the FEIA.
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That was highly dependent on what the particular airline did with FEs. A short time after the DC-6 started service, a couple of bad accidents got some government hearings going, and the FE was required for most post-war designs.

Some airlines put pilots in those positions, others put mechanics.

But, yes, the FEIA thing was a debacle to say the least.
 
Richman said:
Some airlines put pilots in those positions, others put mechanics.
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I know that TWA had the mechanic engineers because I know old timer pilots there that were hired in the 60's as pilot qualified second officers. They rode around on the jumpseat because there was a requirement that all jets had at least three pilots on the flight deck, and since the engineers were mechanics they didn't count.

On a side note I know that ATA had PFE engineers on their 727s and L-1011s and when the 72s where phased out those guys got the opportunity to get their ratings and ATP and move up to the right seat of the 737. At the time the flight school that I was working at in MKC had a PCATD simulator and we were doing initial training for Central Air before they took guys up in the Aero Commander. Central Air had a pay to play SIC program back then and some of those ATA guys came down to get there time and ATP before going back to the 737. It's been a long time but I think ATA paid for the whole thing to get those guys checked out and their time to get back.
 
arkflyr said:
I know that TWA had the mechanic engineers because I know old timer pilots there that were hired in the 60's as pilot qualified second officers. They rode around on the jumpseat because there was a requirement that all jets had at least three pilots on the flight deck, and since the engineers were mechanics they didn't count.

On a side note I know that ATA had PFE engineers on their 727s and L-1011s and when the 72s where phased out those guys got the opportunity to get their ratings and ATP and move up to the right seat of the 737. At the time the flight school that I was working at in MKC had a PCATD simulator and we were doing initial training for Central Air before they took guys up in the Aero Commander. Central Air had a pay to play SIC program back then and some of those ATA guys came down to get there time and ATP before going back to the 737. It's been a long time but I think ATA paid for the whole thing to get those guys checked out and their time to get back.
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Different outfits handled it in different ways. The places that had pilot engineers had no issues, but the places with A&P engineers all did something different. I seem to recall that Eastern offered to rate all the mechanic engineers, and some retired as captains.
 
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