Port Townsend Aero Museum

The path not taken…
Once upon a time, long before I had a driver’s license, a pilot in Fairbanks, Alaska offered to help me get my pilot’s license. What to say?
Sighhhhhhh…the summer was short, my family was heading home, and it never happened. But…
Had I lived in Port Townsend, WA as a child, it could have. Indeed, it would have. I’d be flying the friendly skies of PT now, even as we speak. But, of course, I might not have time to do this review…
I visited the Port Townsend Aero Museum three days days ago. T’was a bright spring day and I was loathe to go inside knowing that the three day forecast was for snow, snow, snow.
Chipper Unilocaler that I am, I went inside the museum anyhoo, leaving the balmy outdoor weather to a small (teenaged) work crew landscaping the front of the building. If the kids were hard at work making the place beautiful for visitors, who was I not to reward their efforts?
A small admission fee got me inside the new building. Airplane models hung from the rafters, beautifully restored planes had «landed» strategically about the floors. Placards described each plane and its role in history. Several planes (as noted on the placards) were currently in use as training craft for the young pilots who learn to fly at the museum.
My entrance fee (donations from other visitors) is what keeps the fly lessons and the museum going. So I lingered for an hour or so, looking at airplane models, antique cars and some wonderful old flight helmets and gauges. I walked the catwalk around the inside of the tall building, looked at aviation paintings, watched other visitors as they entered the spacious hangar. DIdn’t even notice that I was inside on a balmy day.
I do have a suggestion or two for future museum exhibits:
I’d have liked to have seen a motor, perhaps with its schematic nearby. I would have enjoyed brief «instructions» on the aerodyamics of flight. A checklist of preparations for lift-​off and landing would have been fun to look at. (I am told that these are readily available through airplane manufacturers… so a generic list shouldn’t be hard for the museum to find.)
There once was a wonderful old hand-​lettered sign visible as you exited Jefferson International Airport, which is where the museum is located. It said «Don’t forget to close your flight book.»
Perhaps an actual flight book would make interesting reading. Certainly the visitors’ comment book does reflect the numbers of geographically distant folks who tour the museum but no space is included in it for visitors comments. This would be nice.
But heck. Who am I to tinker with the success of this endeavor?
This is a cool museum.
Kids involved in its programs really *do* get the flight bug and occasionally do solo before they get their Washington State driver’s license. And as for me?
Well, I had a good time. Hopped into my ancient Saturn which was parked in the parking lot. Waved at the kids working on the landscaping. Scanned my gas gauge, speedometer and clock… and said to myself as I exited into the sunny Port Townsend afternoon…
What if? The road not taken. Or rather the runway not taken.
Yet.