An Unexpected Lunch: a brush with history
Something I've grown to appreciate lately is the ability to be spontaneous and enjoy a particular moment that the Lord brings my way. I had a chance to do this recently with my friend Dom Carola. Dom is the director as we have been re-dubbing a much better English version of the Archivo Cero project that we had worked on in 2010 and 2011 (Dom was the director of that animated project and I was the producer).
We were going to meet for lunch to discuss Archivo Cero, but as we met Dom mentioned that he was invited at the spur of the moment to see a vintage WWII C47 land at the Fantasy of Flight museum not far from Orlando. So we changed our lunch plans, did our meeting in the car and headed down to see this plane land...
Dom has done work for the owner, Kermit Weeks, and Kermit was up in the plane flying it to his museum. Apparently it had been restored by the Onasis family and Kermit had acquired it in Europe. But he had to go to great pains to fly it home since c47's are not instrument certified in a manner that fits in with modern rules of aviation.
It was quite a site to see! The airplane was restored to it's original condition and with the marking it would have had on D-Day, when it was used (yes, this actual airplane!) to drop troops behind enemy lines during the invasion in France. This was particularly close to my heart, as my dad was a WWII veteran and was actually trained as a crew chief. In the Lord's providence Dad missed D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge (he did a lot of relief map making for the bomber crews to practice with and later was part of the occupation of Japan).
Oh yes, I had fractured a bone in my ankle, so I was in a walking cast for this picture.
The actual cockpit as pilot's would have seen it during D-Day. There were also oxygen tanks for flying at high altitudes, and heaters that drew excess heat from the engines to keep the crew warm.
These planes were later known as the Douglass DC9.
Dom, in front of part of the museum. Fantasy of Flight is quite an amazing place. We had lunch after the plane landed and Kermit came in to meet Dom. It was great to meet him and his wife! Quite the unexpected and eventful day!
We were going to meet for lunch to discuss Archivo Cero, but as we met Dom mentioned that he was invited at the spur of the moment to see a vintage WWII C47 land at the Fantasy of Flight museum not far from Orlando. So we changed our lunch plans, did our meeting in the car and headed down to see this plane land...
Dom has done work for the owner, Kermit Weeks, and Kermit was up in the plane flying it to his museum. Apparently it had been restored by the Onasis family and Kermit had acquired it in Europe. But he had to go to great pains to fly it home since c47's are not instrument certified in a manner that fits in with modern rules of aviation.
It was quite a site to see! The airplane was restored to it's original condition and with the marking it would have had on D-Day, when it was used (yes, this actual airplane!) to drop troops behind enemy lines during the invasion in France. This was particularly close to my heart, as my dad was a WWII veteran and was actually trained as a crew chief. In the Lord's providence Dad missed D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge (he did a lot of relief map making for the bomber crews to practice with and later was part of the occupation of Japan).
Oh yes, I had fractured a bone in my ankle, so I was in a walking cast for this picture.
The actual cockpit as pilot's would have seen it during D-Day. There were also oxygen tanks for flying at high altitudes, and heaters that drew excess heat from the engines to keep the crew warm.
Dom, in front of part of the museum. Fantasy of Flight is quite an amazing place. We had lunch after the plane landed and Kermit came in to meet Dom. It was great to meet him and his wife! Quite the unexpected and eventful day!
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Irv