Arizona Trip for my day job July 6-9, 2016 · · PAGE 2.

July 8, 2016:  This Friday in Tucson has only one customer sales call from 8:30 AM that lasted until 10:05 AM local time.  I met most of the data / telecom staff at Graybar Electric in Tucson and gave my usual introduction to RF over single-mode fiber presentation.  The best part about the meeting is showing them visible light optical reflections from a blue (FLAT) optical connector vs. the GREEN connectors that do not propagate reflections.  After that, the demo stuff shows them the difference between an optical transmitter (laser device) and an optical receiver (optical detector).  There is a job going on at the Tucson Airport that may have some RF over single-mode fiber that needs to be done.  I hope to know if that is true soon.

I spent Friday afternoon at the Pima Air & Space Museum.  I had been here back in the 1980's on a cross-country road trip when I was in the commercial satellite business.  Since this trip is in July, the oppressive heat kept me indoors except when I had to get from the parking lot to the main building, from there to another nearby building, and back to the car at the end of the day. I mentioned Jerrie Mock to the lady at the main entrance and she talked about their exhibit about women in aviation in the hangar attached to the gift shop.  Here are some photos taken with my Galaxy S4 Mini cell phone.  Jerrie Mock is the only entry on the wall for the year 1964.

The image above is part of a larger display seen here about Women in Flight.  Take notice this list did not exclude the men as you can see Chuck Yeager is there for 1947 as the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound.  My apologies for the soft focus on this image as I am trying to keep the phone steady.  I just noticed the words "NO STEP" to show this display board is shaped like an airplane wing.

This F-14 Tomcat was the fleet defense fighter/interceptor for the U.S. Navy for many years and was featured in the movie "Top Gun".  They were used to defend the battle group of ships and aircraft carriers at the center of the battle formation of ships (flotilla).  That red and white Lear Jet model 23 in the background was donated by a woman pilot when she quit flying well into her 80's.

I turned to the right of the Tomcat and found this carrier-based Grumman TBF "Avenger" torpedo bomber.  It is like the one that was flown by George Bush during World War II in some of the Pacific Ocean naval battles.

When I turned back toward the Tomcat, this gentleman was standing there. He put the size of this airplane in perspective.  The wings are swept back to the position used in the hangar deck to conserve storage space.

This Boeing B-17 is located in a separate hangar / museum for the 390th Bomb Group based in England during World War II.  There are a large number of exhibits on two levels in this building about the men who flew with the 390th, including the stories of some who were POW's in Germany.

This is what you see when you exit the museum for the 390th Bomb Group.  That large airplane in the center of this photo is a North American Vigilante.  Jerrie Mock reported seeing a couple of these big fast birds when she was about to take off from Port Columbus Airport on her around-the-world flight in 1964.  At that time, North Aviation built these airplanes there along with a few more types.  You can read that link above to Wikipedia for the details about the Vigilante.

With all I have been doing on my Google Earth project for Jerrie Mock, I realized Tucson was the last overnight stop on Jerrie's trip around the world in 1964.  This control tower cost $535,000  when it was built in 1958.  I took this picture while standing in the FAA employee parking lot at about 6:20 PM local time on this Friday afternoon.  The tower is still in use today.  I spoke with an employee who came off duty while I was taking this series of photos.  Jerrie Mock landed here and parked her Cessna 180, N1538C nearby.  The vertical TUCSON sign is also on the opposite side of the tower.

A new control tower seen in the distance is more than twice as high as this one and is almost completed on the other side the main runway.

I took this photo by placing my camera up to the fence and pushed the zoom factor to get some detail of the new control tower still under construction.  There is a cloud shading this side of the airport, while the new tower is in direct sunlight along with that white water tower at the left side of this image.

The shadow of the cloud overhead is seen in the subdued lighting on the side of the tower with the letters spelling Tucson vertically are seen here.

I thought I would take some photos to emphasize the clouds and their effect on the surroundings near the control tower.

This image is looking East from the FAA parking lot with general aviation hangars beyond the fence and the mountains beyond the nearby Davis-Monthan Air Force Base just north of the Pima Air Museum.  The air base has a "bone yard" where aging aircraft are taken to be salvaged for valuable parts to keep similar airplanes in service.  The A-10 Warthog that dominated the battlefield in Desert Storm is one of the older models still in service because of the salvaged repair parts from this base.  I saw two pilots flying A-10's doing takeoff and landing practice when I was over at the Pima Air Museum.  Learn more about this unique airplane HERE.

Last, but not least, is the reason I came down to the Tucson Airport this afternoon.  This was the on-airport motel where Jerrie spent her last night away from home in 1964.  The motel rooms here have been converted to offices for aviation-related businesses.  The shadow of my rental car is visible at the bottom of this photo.

I found a restaurant nearby where I had some fast food and I also found a Denny's restaurant that will be open early on Saturday morning before I come back to the airport for a 6 AM flight back to Atlanta, then on to Melbourne, Florida.  When I was leaving the Denny's parking lot, I looked up to see the Moon and Venus in the western sky.  Again, this is the best I could do without a tripod for my camera.  I held the camera in my hands and put them on a car to get this shot.

The next page will have some photos from the airline trip back to Atlanta.