Since I was 15 years old I have wanted to go to Marana A.Z. or Victorville C.A..  I think it is weird that I love aviation so much but love to look at old retired aircraft even more than aircraft that are in service.  I always wanted to see an old 707 or DC-3 that had been sitting in the desert for years. July of 2003,  I had the opportunity of going to Arizona to visit my parents for my fathers birthday and as going to try to maximize my trip by visiting airports in the area in hopes of seeing old aircraft.  While I was in Arizona I received a message a friend that I talk to online asking if I would like a tour of some bone yards in Tucson A.Z.  Of course   On January 6th, my father and I headed down to Tucson to meet with my friend Mike.  We were hoping to see the Mats Connie at Tucson's Ryan field.  The weather forecasted at a warm 113 degrees with fires in the mountains that have been burning for the last week.  Mike was fighting the fires for the last few days and still did not mind taking me and my father out for the day. 

On the way down we passed Marana Airpark and could not help but think about when my wife and I tried and get a tour six years earlier but were turned around at the gate because visits were not permitted.  A snap shot on this trip from I-10 doing 70MPH was the best I could do.

We arrived at the cracker barrel off of I-10 just North of Tucson and had some lunch and immediately left for Marana (Tucson) Northwest Regional now called Avra Valley.  We stopped on the outskirts of the airport and looked upon the memorial of the 14 Marines that died during the MV-22 Osprey training mission on the airfield April 8th 2000.  At the time I took these, I was unable to grasp the depth of what happened.

 

When we arrived at the airfield and I was quickly overloaded with two Lockheed Connie's and many fire bombers that were grounded.  We did not see the Mats Connie that I was looking forward to seeing but saw something else that caught my eye.  One of the two C-121 Constellations at the airport was named the Columbine. This was one of three aircraft that was made for President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the most famous of all three.  The plane I was now staring at was made famous in  a 1953 incident where Eisenhower's aircraft was callsign "Air Force 8610" and an Eastern Airlines plane was callsign "8610" were confused.  It was decided that the presidents plane should not be able to be confused with any other aircraft and they needed to devise a unique call sign for the presidential aircraft. The callsign "Air Force One" was classified during the 1950s to identify not only the president's plane, but when he was aboard. Later it was leased to Pan Am as N9907F, then N9007E where it was transferred to government of Thailand. Returned to USAF Jun 1955. Retired from USAF Apr 1968. To Christier Flying Service as N9463. Now registered to Columbine II of Santa Fe, NM, where it has been parked since 1998 when it returned from an unsuccessful sale at auction at Scottsdale, Arizona.

           

           

The other Connie was a originally delivered to the U.S. Navy on September 28, 1953 as N2144Z. This Ex-Aerochago (HI-583CT) Super Constellation arrived at Avra Valley January 7th 2001. During the restoration of this aircraft, the old paint was removed and revealed U.S. Navy paint job. The plane was being restored by the Super Constellation Flyers Association who planned to fly her to Switzerland but were unable to do so because of problems receiving a standard airworthiness certificate from the FAA.  The restoration was quickly halted.

           

           

     

 

  

There was allot of old water bombers that have been sitting in the desert because they are no longer flight worthy.  It was very weird looking at a mountain fully engulfed by fire and all these water tankers sitting on the ground in front of me.

           

           

           

           

           

           

There was a Douglas C-54 Skymaster with a damaged left wingtip (N67040).  This occurred in January of 2002 when its another C-54 (N67062)  sunk its main gear in the dirt and the crew used full power to try to move it.  The aircraft came out of hole and the brakes malfunctioned.  The #4 prop sliced through the wingtip of N67040 damaging the prop.  After a Prop change, the ferry flight continued.