AFJROTC cadets learn from pilots
at Shooting Star Museum |
| The Castroville Anvil |
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| United Airlines Pilot Marge Balazs, who regularly flies a Boeing 777 to China, explained all the instruments in the cockpit, talked about what pilots have to know about and be aware of in terms of weather, geography, instument flying, and storm behavior; and answered questions about being a pilot. |
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| Cadets from the Texas 20009th unit of the AFJROTC took a field trip to the Shooting Star Museum to visit the many military and aviation exhibits there and learn more about flying from pilot Marge Balasz. Col. Glenn Larsen (USAF Ret) and Sgt. John Bean (USAF Ret) took the students there because the museum specializes in military and aviation history and knowledge and because both the owners, Balasz and Pat Wegner, are pilots and have planes there, and could share their experiences with the cadets. The airplanes and aviation memorabilia are housed in a hangar and a large library building, where there is also a library of aviation and military history books and documents. There are also antique vehicles and machinery in the hangar. Upon arrival the
students were taken on a tour of the museum’s holdings and then |
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| Cadets examine some of the uniforms. |
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served lunch at the hangar, polish hot dogs barbecued by Balasz and served by Wegner on the side porch of the hangar. While they ate they were treated to an IMAX movie, “The Dream Is Alive,” a NASA film about space flight that was filmed aboard the shuttle and showed astronaut training, space shots of the Earth, the recovery of a satellite in space, and the first space walk of a
woman astronaut. Following lunch the cadets got a ride in Tom |
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| Cadets ride in 1940 Model-T. |
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Campbell’s 1915 Ford Touring Car and Butch Shoemaker’s 1919 Model T Depot Hack down the grass runway and around the museum property. Then Balasz, showed them a large illustration of the Boeing 777 cockpit, which she regularly flies to China as a pilot for United Airlines and the cadets had a chance to listen to her tell them of her own experiences as a pilot and answer all their questions.
For students interested in ROTC and flying it was a very interesting day and a good resource to know about because the museum is open every Sunday from 1-5 and Wegner and Balazs are usually there at that time. The museum’s next
special show, the free annual Toy and Quilt show, will begin December 15 and run through January 6 on |
| weekends. On the 15th and 16th free movies will be shown continuously all day: “A Christmas Story,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “White Christmas,” and “Polar Express.”
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