California Flight Museum

12/03/2015

09/11/2012

F-16 Flight Simulator is now flying in Beligium

07/22/2012

Dear Museum Friends , Check out this " Over the Top Gun " group fresh out of the F-18 simulator yesterday doing combat and demonstrating maneuvers never seen before by our Marine co**se hosts . They keep bringing us back so that they can learn and adopt these refined techniques not found in any textbooks ! They are great hosts and we enjoyed their hospitality afterwards in the " Heritage " room where you can debrief without worrying about too much credibility or actual facts . It is the F-18 training squadron VMFAT 101 at MCAS Miramar . See if you can pick me out of the group . ( Hint : I am the best looking one ! ) I hope to fly the F-16 simulator in Belgium next month when we tour and celebrate with the locals in the Lorraine district . They were so glad to see us go they celebrate almost every year at " Kermis " time . I have to get back to my surfing . Sorry ! Reg .

06/23/2012

06/23/2012

Dear Museum Friends , Here are some pix of our flight from Brown Field to the Del Mar polo field last Saturday . The coastal marine layer prevented us from going directly and showing off the beautiful San Diego downtown area . Instead we took an inland route over Gillespie field to a point well north of MCAS Miramar to the coast all the while dodging the complex Class " B " airspace around San Diego . Near the coast we descended below the lowering marine layer , the houses on the approach and snuck in to the shortened Willis Allen Polo field . Champagne never tasted so goood ! Anjuli McDowell took most of the excellent pix . Cheers . Reg.

04/02/2012

Dear Museum Friends, I have attached a short Mig-21 video of our plane made during the Dean Martin ownership circa 1988 narrated by Peter Ustinov and flown out of Burlington Vermont for the Navy Pax River test pilot school. Yes, that was before the curtain came down. Dean is the guy in the blue suit. His "Mig Pilot Vodka" vats inside a metal building near the Burlington airport blew up shortly after, leveling the building, vaporizing priceless Mig parts and leaving a smoking crater in the ground . It was good stuff! We take smaller sips during our debriefs to conserve our dwindling supply. No one was seriously hurt except for a few singed haircuts, eyebrows and a few "What the ..!!" facial expressions frozen in time. They do do things a little differently in Vermont! We are still flying our collection and also enjoy working on these magnificent machines! Visit if you can. Cheers, Reg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhQwaNBXtI8&feature=related

The fighter which came to embody the red menace in the eyes of the west, the Mig-21 still serves with several air forces fifty years after its first flight. ...

01/09/2012

01/02/2012

Happy New Year everyone ! I hope the new year will bring you good fortune , health , happiness and the food for the soul called aviation ! Reg Finch .

12/04/2011

It is an " Ab initio " trainer used in several Pacific countries' air forces , designed by one of my professors at SDSU : The late Ladislao Pazmany . We have been restoring it for several years after we dug it out of a farmer's field in Ramona , California . It was donated to the Museum by the late Mr. Pio who worked with Paz on the prototype and independently developed the only retractable PL-2 , which we have . It is not exactly a Mach 2 airplane , but it has it's charms , including side by side seating , 125 HP Lycoming , sliding canopy and all aluminum construction . Paz was a strong believer in aluminum leading to many lively debates in class as we tried to explore the new ( 1985 ) composite construction methods . We keep our airplanes covered to keep the dust off . It is a handsome airplane resembling the Siai Marchetti 260 . We painted it in the Thai air force colors because they have the best looking paint scheme of all the plane's operators . Much work remains including installing a glass instrument panel , hooking up a myriad of systems and sitting in the cockpit making airplane noises . We have talented individuals such as Dennis Cullum designing and building the radio harnesses and even building an intercom system from scratch ! How many people do you know that can do that ! If you are local please visit and admire this new addition to our collection . We hope to fly it in the airshow circuit next year . Mrs. Pazmany will be proud ! As a good Argentine she likes to be proud !!

12/03/2011

10/14/2011

For those that are not familiar we are at the Brown Field airport . The fly-in will be near the new tower . Follow the signs . We look forward to your visit . Reg Finch .