Reaching Lifelong Goals

The oldest continuously operating airport in the WORLD is in College, Park Maryland.  Founded by Wilbur Wright in 1909 when he came to give flying instruction to the US Army’s first military aviators.   The College Park Air Museum is a wonderful facility that is partnered with the National Air Space Museum.   They have a great little collection of civil aircraft and some replicas of the first planes that were used for the US Military.   Another high point of this museum is its child friendly exhibits.   My niece, Natalie who is 3 had a wonderful time there while her Uncle Mike was drooling over the airplanes.   She had a great time, they have pilot uniforms and hats for the kids to try on, and a cool exhibit (right) that floated balls in a jet stream.   All of the photographs in these posts can be clicked on for a larger look.   Be sure and check out my niece, she is a cutie!!  Many of the aircraft on display are from the golden age of aviation and have ties to this old airfield.   One special exhibit that I found fascinating was an unrestored original experimental Berliner Helicopter from 1924 (above left).    The Berliner Helicopter, on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, is the culmination of the experiments in vertical flight by Emile Berliner and his son Henry. On February 23, 1924, this helicopter achieved an altitude of 15 feet (at College Park Airport) with a maneuvering radius of 150 feet, while maintaining a speed of about 40 mph. This flight, in front of U.S. Navy officials and media, was acclaimed as the first controlled helicopter flight. The collection also contains some wonderful replicas of early (1909-1911) aircraft that were used to train the first military aviators in the USA.

This 1932 Monocoupe 110 is typical of the popular civil aircraft that frequented the airport during the 30s and 40s.   This aircraft is suspended from the ceiling and makes for a colorful display.   The museum has a number of these private planes from the mid-century, really a fun time for an aviation buff.   I also was very impressed with a small-scale diorama of the College park aerodrome circa 1911, the scale was about 1:87 (HO railroad scale) and the model work was superb!  The photo at the right shows a small section of the diorama, click to see the detail!

At the end of our visit to the Air Museum we were treated to a tour of my Brother in Law Joe’s laboratory on the University of Maryland campus.   Joe is doing his post doctoral work at the U of M and his field of study is in evolutionary genetics as a Biochemist.   Way over my head, he is a brilliant individual.   The Terps, for Terrapins have a claim to fame that I found wonderful.   Muppet founder Jim Henson was an alumnus of this university.   So I would suppose that Kermit the Frog is as well.   They have a statue of Kermit and Jim Henson on campus by their memorial union.  Natalie likes Kermit, and enjoys visiting this statue when she is on Daddy’s campus.

All in all, Labor Day 2010 was quite wonderful.   The whole family had a wonderful time and Aunt Patty was able to get some real quality time with her niece as well.   With the “all about me” nature of our vacation schedule of going to museums, ships, trains etc. it was nice to spend a day just having fun and visiting family.   This was of course the main purpose of our vacation, family time with Patty’s brother and sister.  Tomorrow we will visit my über bucket list item….the National Air and Space Museum on the Capitol Mall of Washington, DC.

This installment begins my journal of my History Major Dream Vacation series.   During the first two weeks of September, my wife and I went on a cross-country vacation to visit her brother in the Wash DC area, a sister in Oley PA and my daughter in Columbus OH.  Our first stop was in Ohio to visit my Daughter Heather.   She lives about an hour north of the USAF National Museum in Dayton, OH.   Of course, this air museum is near the top of my “bucket list” of places to see before I die.   This is one of the best air museums in the US and has many very significant, famous aircraft.   I was so excited when I walked through the doors of this facility that I kind of left everyone in my party behind.   The first gallery of the museum has the WWI collection as it’s center piece.   Spads and Fokkers and Jennys, oh my!!   There are some very important aircraft in this collection, one WWI fighter used by the Allies and flown by our US pilots both before we entered the war in the French Escadrilles and the fledgling Air Corps was this SPAD VII.   This early version of the SPAD is very rare and the restoration is absolutely wonderful.  I was spellbound by all of these WWI aircraft as this is my primary focus in my Historical research.   The collection also contains artifacts from WWI that were of great interest to me

for my goal of writing a Biography of the WWI Ace Ernst Udet.   Here we have a section of fabric off of one of the aircraft that he shot down.   It has his name and the date of the victory on it.   After the war he returned this fabric to the pilot, a Lt. Wanamaker and the family donated it to the USAF Museum.   More fodder for my book, just one of the many interesting stories about Ernst Udet and his WWI Service.   He survived the war and became quite a celebrity in Germany and in the USA, befriending his former opponents and other aviation pioneers like Charles Lindbergh.   Moving on to the “golden age” of aviation in the 20s and 30s, the collection contains some one of a kind remaining samples of significant aircraft.   I was very excited to see these aircraft. The P-26 Peashooter was an early fighter of the USAAF and during the 30s carried some very colorful markings.   This little fighter served right up until the beginning of WWII in the pacific and were exported to a number of countries.   Wow, I was really getting worked up over theses rare aircraft and I was only in the first main gallery.   In the WWII Hangar, a huge building that housed many great aircraft I was drawn to one of the most historically significant planes in the museums I would be visiting, namely, the  B-29 “Bockscar” that dropped the second Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki Japan to end WWII.   On this trip I was in the presence of both of the Atomic aircraft  when I visited the NASM in Washington which houses the “Enola Gay”.   The “rush” of history was more than I could stand and this aircraft moved me to tears for its major historical significance.    This of course was totally lost on my Wife and she did not have the same experience at looking at this airplane.    Maybe I’m just that much of a Geek…

I am not able to post as many of the photos as I would like, but indulge me for a couple more for this installment of the Dream Vacation.   There were so many important aircraft on display that I ended up taking hundreds of digital images.   I am still sorting through the 1600 or so pictures and I will update them onto my Flicker account and make them available through the Reaching Lifelong Goals.com blog.   The aircraft of the 1950s are also an area of interest to me and I was happy to see some of my favorites in this section of the collection.   One of the last few remaining B-36 Peacemaker Bombers is on display.   This aircraft is incredible.  Six props and 4 jet engines to get this behemoth into the air!   I was only able to get a nose shot!

The spaceflight collection of the museum was also a treat, seeing one of the Apollo capsules (Apollo 15 I think…) that had actually been to the moon and back was a very moving sight as well.   Being a child of the 60s, I watched the NASA flights and built all the Revell models of the Mercury, Gemini and Moon landing Apollo spacecraft.   To actually stand in the presence of one of the command modules that went to the moon was truly moving, again, I was a blubbering fool.    I guess history gets to me more than most folks, as I have been waiting 35 years to reach a lifelong goal of becoming History Major!  Tomorrow we will have another installment of the History Major Dream Vacation.   Washington DC!!

It has been a crazy summer!!   I am taking 16 credits with a Math class and a full year of German.   We just finished our second “term” this Summer.    It works out to about a term (GER111, GER112, GER113) every 12 days.   I received a B+ for my German 111 and a “shaky” B for my second term.   I’ll have to pick up my game and pull an A for the final term if I want to have anything like an acceptable GPA this summer (my standards are a little high, I get upset with anything less than a 4.00)   My math class is the final requirement for my baccalaureate core and I will be getting an A in this class.   Summer term is kind of relaxed in other ways, lots of open space in the library, no big crowds in the book store, and parking availability!    The campus of Oregon State University is quite beautiful with wonderful trees and lots of green areas.   It is a pleasure to spend my days just walking around “My” campus.   I get a little misty eyed, realizing this experience is a culmination of a life long goal.   I do have some free time to walk around and just enjoy the college experience that has been 35 years delayed.   Most of my day is spent in the OSU Valley Library.   My floor is the 6th, where all of the wonderful collection of history books reside.   I will be spending a lot of time digging through the racks, browsing  and researching History projects.   With the pace of keeping up with German lessons, I have tried to limit myself to only a couple of sessions a week.

The whirlwind pace of German in Summer Term is a real challenge, but I can recommend this type of total committment to a language first year if you can swing it.   I am packing a lot of information into this old non traditional student head, it is nearly full, not much more room left!   When you start dreaming about conjugating verbs and vocab tests, it must be a sign of information overload…   One benefit of this type of class schedule is that you really get to put learning skills to work in a major way.    Starting in the fall, I’ll be heading into second year German, only taking one section per term.   I will have to shift gears and make sure to study a little German every day and not put the homework off til the night before a class.

One of the buildings on campus that I will be spending many hours in is Kidder Hall, which is located across the Quad from the Valley Library.   This facility is one of the older buildings on campus and it has a “vintage college” feel to it.   I am taking in all of the experiences of being in college with an appreciation of what I missed so many years ago.   Even the creaking floors and windows excite me!  Being a non traditional student is more to me than just returning to school.   It has become a life changing experience, and I am trying to get every last drop out of it.   Older students returning to college is the overall theme of Reaching Lifelong Goals.com, but I’m finding the experience to be so much more than that.

Ich muss mich verrückt!!   As a Nontraditional Student, I always set high expectations for myself.   Taking a full year of German in the space of one Summer Term may just test this theory.  Hence, the title of this post which translates to German class is not impossible!!  Here it is, only Thursday, 4 days into the class and we had our first exam this morning.  I felt pretty good about my results, but results will be in tomorrow.  The second day of class had a vocab quiz and already the second vocab quiz is tomorrow!   Herr Stehr, my instructor wrote the textbook and program we are using.  It is an award-winning language course and it’s methods are quite innovative.  Our instructor teaches the rules about German sentence structure and grammar, not just rote memorization.   It is a little daunting in such a fast paced setting as Summer session, but the total immersion factor is a plus.  My wife and I drill each other (her drilling me is more accurate, really…) on the way to campus every morning.  I’m not sure that I would be making this kind of progress alone.   The supportive spouse actually taking a class with the non trad is definitely not the norm, so I am truly blessed.  In fact, we are both Non Traditional Students.  My wife has already graduated from Oregon State University and is a CPA, so she really is going out of her way to support her non trad hubby.   Non Traditional Students need all the family support they can get.  I’m actually getting extra special support!  I’ll have to ask Herr Stehr how to say “non trad” in German…  Ich muss mich verrückt translates to:  I MUST BE CRAZY!!

Time to study more German Vocab for tomorrow’s test now.  Tschüss!!

This post comes to you from the Valley Library on Oregon State University main campus!   This may not seem like a big deal to most of you, but it is HUGE for me.   As a Non Traditional Student Reaching Lifelong Goals, (catchy title, yes?) my coursework is now all on the OSU campus.

Yes, this non trad has made it to “big boy” college, although some 35 years late, I am a proud OSU Beaver!   Clicking off bucket list items is more rewarding than you could possibly imagine.  My summer will be a fast paced initiation into college life, as I am pulling 16 credits during this term.   I am finally going to finish my math requirements for my baccalaureate core with Math 105.   This will be a math class that I can sink my teeth into.   Opened the textbook and there were no polynomials or quadratic or any of this number mixing with alphabets nonsense!!    Numbers and letters just do not belong in the same math problem!!

My main focus this term will be my beginning of two years of a foreign language requirement.   I am taking a full year of German (GER 111, 112, 113) all packed into this summer!!   It works out to about a Term every 12 days!!   This will be a huge challenge.  Two days into the class and we had our first vocabulary test.   First mid-term will be on Friday!   My brain hurts.    One positive note here is, my wife is taking German with me!!   She is an employee of Oregon State and is using vacation time each day to be a Non Traditional Student just like me.   So far she is kicking my butt in this class, but the competition will soon morph into cooperation I’m assured.   The sharing of this goal with me is very special and I am blessed to have Patty as my wife.   I will be posting about our progress in this endeavor throughout the Summer Term.   I have the whole afternoon each day to do my homework and study.   I ride to school with my wife and after she goes to German class with me, she goes back to her desk and spends the day catching up on work.   I spend my time just enjoying the experience of finally reaching one of my goals in life, attending college.   As a History Major, I’ll use my spare time (if there is any) to begin researching my thesis topic here at the fine library at OSU.   I think I’ll take a walk around MY campus for a while.    More later…