New "job"

[Mike Monce - HJG]

So my career as a physicist is ending. I taught my last course a month ago, my lab is shutdown, and I'm on "sabbatical" for the spring which means I negotiated a true sabbatical for my last 6 months of employment; I get a paycheck but am not really obligated to produce anything. By time in service I was actually owed 2 sabbaticals, but took this one as it worked out well for my wife's retirement planning also. I'll still be dabbling in physics some, but as soon as the weather turns warm, golf and more soccer reffing in the future.

Obviously this also means a bit more time for FS. Not quite satisfied with that, I made some inquiries. As of yesterday I am now a volunteer docent at the New England Air Museum. I think this is going to be a blast. All the other docents seem to be retired guys who love aviation. Being Connecticut there are ex employees from Pratt&Whitney, Hamilton Standard, Kaman, Sikorsky, and throw a few airline pilots in. A great group to get to know and hang out with. Of course the biggest benefit is being up close and personal to a lot of planes. The museum is heavy on military, and their civilian section is fairly eclectic. Very thin on any jetliners, which is sad. One mission I will set out on is to find out why the museum abandoned its Caravelle. Anyway, I'm looking forward to spending a day or two per week meeting the public, and talking airplanes


www.neam.org


Mike

[simpilo]

Enjoy yourself at the museum Mike.

[Mike Monce - HJG]

Thanks, If forgot to mention they have a sim section: 6 setups with joysticks running FS9 to let kids fly the 172, and then a not in use section of 7 setups with multimonitors, yokes, throttle quadrants,and rudder pedals. They said they were *paying* a person to run that section and charging $5/hour, but abandoned the scheme so those 7 setups are in a corner screened off form the public at the moment. I told them I would take that over easily for them. Not sure what sim they are running on those machines; director seemed to think x-plane (?), but I'll have to check it out further.

They also have a 707 cockpit but it was chopped off without the FE station, but still has Capt/FO with all the instruments.

Mike

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

I took up retirement during 2015 .... after I sold our business and the CBD building within which it was located.

What I found though is .... I seem to have become "even busier" during my retirement than was the case running a fast moving and high pressure type business.

In your case Mike and in regard to the museum prospect in particular .... "night at the museum" (meaning hangar parties after work) is even better still

About the CARAVELLE .... maybe it was abandoned due to it not being a US aircraft.

The only CARAVELLE I'm aware of in the USA is the ex-UAL example displayed on the Pima flightline at Tucson, Arizona .... and which I have visited.

Mark C
BOG/CO

[Mike Monce - HJG]

Mark, this was an Airborne Express, N902MW Caravelle.

Mike

[christrott]

Mike, congrats on retirement and hope you love NEAM! I hope to get to visit the museum in the next couple of years as I've heard some great things about it.

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

I'd actually forhotten all about AIRBURNE EXPRESS and their CARAVELLE freighter operations .

Here's the bio on that/your CARAVELLE Mike ....

CARAVELLE 6R
C/N # 88
F/F June 26th 1961

Delivered to UNITED AIR LINES (N1003U "Ville DE Marseille") July 2nd 1961.
Sold to STERLING AIRWAYS (OY-SAH "City Of Copenhagen") November 11th 1971.
Leased to EGYPT AIR (OY-SAH "City Of Copengagen") March 1975.
Returned to STERLING AIRWAYS (OY-SAH "City Of Copenhagen") November 30th 1975.
Sold to MIDWEST AIR CHARTER (N802MW) December 20th 1978.
Merged into AIRBOURNE EXPRESS (N902MW) November 1983.
Donated to the New England Air Museum, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, USA November 23rd 1983.

And bugger me running it/"N902MW" just happens to be one of the 3 AIRBOURNE EXPRESS CARAVELLE 6R subjects currently represented by HJG and as follows ....



Mark C
BOG/CO