Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024: Day 3 – My Visit to the Pima Air and Space Museum

I visited the Pima Air and Space Museum (PASM) as early in the day as I could. It was going to be another very hot day and trudging around the desert to look at aircraft in the blistering heat was not my idea of fun!

PASM housed around 400-450 aircraft with an objective of educating through the preservation and presentation of the history of flight.

It included access to:

• The Main Hangar (3 hangars combined into 1: Hangar 1, Spirit of Freedom, & Flight Central).
• 3 World War II Hangars (Hangars 3, 4 & 5).
• The Dorothy Finley Aerospace Gallery.
• The Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame.
• The 390th Memorial Museum (a separately run museum).
• 80-acre outdoor display grounds.
• Collection of 400+ aircraft and 125,000+ artifacts.

I was there for about 8:30 with it opening at 9am. At a price of $19.50 for 1 day and $26 for 2 days, it looked like pretty good value for money.

I paid an extra $8 for a Tram Tour ($8) which lasted for 45 mins. They left at specific times and looked like they got booked up pretty quickly.

I waited along with a few other guests in front of the entrance. I’m a bit OCD like that when it comes to opening times. There were signs all over advising care in the extreme heat.

But bizarrely, there are two doors into the museum. The one everyone has to queue at is in the blazing sun. The one for wheelchair users was in the shade. Why not either cover the queuing area or share the one door early on?

A number of large families arrived just after me. I understand it was a school holiday.

After paying $17 entry, I had to walk around to a different building to pay for a ticket to ride the guided tram tour.

The lady told me that they had cancelled all but the first two (10am and 11am) due to the heat, so there were likely to be a lot of disappointed guests.

As soon as I was booked on the tour, I took the opportunity to walk around some of the exhibits outside, whilst the temperature remained in the 90s.

I’m not one for reading many of the signs, or hanging around at exhibits, so it didn’t take long for me to whizz around the many aircraft on display.

I moved on to the exhibits in the hangars. Nothing deserately exciting. I noticed there was a B17 hangar, which didn’t open until 10am.

I jumped on the tram tour at 10am, which was a tad dull if you are not that close to some of these aircraft.

It was clear that the tram I was on had some ex pilots of the C130 Hercules, which is one of the stalwarts. Big cheers went up when we stopped at two if those.

In respect of the bombers on display, I learnt that the longest ever bombing run was 35 hours long. Left from Louisiana, refuelled 4 times, 3 sets of flight crew. Flew to Iraq on a bombing run, then flew back.

I visited the B17 hangar. Nearly acosted by a vet (don’t worry kitties – not that kind of vet) that wanted to guide me around.

My managed to escape for a quick look around, then it was time for my second sbux of the day.

I ended up at a Safeway store. I chatted with the server who made me a 5-shot macciatto for the price of a 4-shot! I know how to influence people in power, don’t I!

I headed back to the hotel for a shower and a change of clothes. Then I was off to my next hotel. This time it was the Hilton Garden Inn, Tucson Airport.

I had to resolve an issue that the app told me I needed to report to the front desk. Unfortunately, they were busy, so I decided to head into The Cheesecake Factory (TCF) in the north of Tucson.

I took my time and enjoyed a bottomless TCF lemonade, a spicy chashew chicken dish and I took back to the hotel my favourite cheesecake: a lemon raspberry cream cheesecake.

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