Mike and I have been trying to fly to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton for six weeks now! We kept booking vacation but had to cancel ever week due to the cruddy weather. It finally happened today, with totally clear skies.

On the way, we saw a truck on fire which appeared to have caught the nearby building on fire as well. Hopefully no one was hurt:

I haven’t flown into the Hamilton Airport in years. It’s only about 25 minutes away by air. It certainly has much larger runways than I’m used to at St. Catharines.

Notice how we didn’t touch down at the end of the runway. This runway has a displaced threshold line, as indicated by the white arrows and white horizontal line a bit further down. A displaced threshold is usually to give landing aircraft clearance over an obstacle. It can also be created for noise mitigation.

We taxied over to the glorious Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum:

We had an appointment for 10:00 to use the Virtual Reality Flight Simulators, called the Fly Zone. They were upgraded simulators from what we used there a few years ago.

The person who runs the simulator was awesome. She was so full of energy and encouraging! They definitely hired the right person for the job. She got Mike and I set up in a couple of the simulators – I think there were five in total. We started flying the P-51 Mustangs and were sent on our way to shot down other aircraft. Then we moved to the Spitfires. I’m not sure which one I enjoyed more as they were both a blast to fly. After I killed a bunch of enemy planes, I decided to go after Mike. I managed to sneak up behind him and blast him out of the sky. I told him I was sorry. I accidentally shot him down again a second time. Then we were set up for a dog fight. After yelling “Come at me, bro!”, I quickly ensured I manoeuvred behind him for a fairly quick kill. Mike got a couple points after I inadvertently crashed into the ground. I think she said the score was four to four, and the fifth kill would be the winner. Poor Mike tried desperately to get my off his tail, to no avail. I blasted him full of lead and watched him quickly head downwards. I asked him if he turned his smoke system on and was going to do some aerobatics, as he had a lovely grey and black smoke trail behind him. He ensured me that the smoke was from his crippled plane, plummeting towards the ground. He actually had a bit of control of the plane, and got it down to the runway. He said he tried ejecting just before the plane impacted the runway, but the system for some reason, put him outside of the bullet-hole ridden body of his plane. He stood there on the runway and watched as I dove towards him and blasted both him and his plane carcass with a few dozen more rounds. What can I say – I’m thorough! So I ended up winning the incredibly fun dog fight! We received our kill number and I had 28 aircraft and 2 ships. The highest kill number was 30 – I was so close! We had an amazing time and are looking forward to going back very soon!

After the simulators, we met an amazing group of veterans and volunteers in the Radio Room. They showed us all of the radios they were restoring and gave us an amazing history on everything. I’ve was interested in ham radios many years ago – before I started flying. They certainly made me interested once again. One of the volunteers showed me a picture of him at the 100 year Air Force event, receiving an award he didn’t even realize he was getting for all of his work at the museum. One of the presenters of the award was someone I used to work with when I was an Army Reservist with 705 Communication Squadron in Hamilton. What a small world!

We then perused the gift shop and I noticed the Stella’s Stories – Stella and Lizzy Take Flight book for sale!

We purchased a few items since it’s impossible to leave there empty handed, and headed back to the plane.

We talked non-stop about our awesome trip to the museum during the short flight back. It was certainly worth the six week wait!

Today’s symptoms: I felt quite good today, thankfully! I had a decent amount of energy all morning for our museum adventure. Not surprising at all, after all the excitement and time spent in the museum, plus the two flights, I’m quite wiped out and lacking energy. This always makes the rest of my MS symptoms worse, such as the pain and spasms. I’m certainly just going to chill for the rest of the day. I’ll probably feel it more tomorrow, but it was totally worth it!

It was such a treat to see Freya open her cute little eyes:

This was the start of a whole new world for her. I couldn’t believe how quickly she was growing. It’s amazing to think she was hours away from death and now she’s thriving.

Her sister, Abby, made sure that she was safe in her cage at night:

She slept like a little angel.

It’s like she was getting cuter by the day.

I still can’t believe how much work goes into raising such a tiny little thing. Constant feedings and poop disposal – I don’t know how mother robins do it!

We were quite disappointed about the cloud cover today, knowing we would likely not get to see the eclipse. I took my mother up for a flight around Niagara and over Niagara Falls, around 2:00. It certainly wasn’t the chaos they were expecting. I feel bad for the folks who came from across Canada and the States to see it in Niagara. If only the weather was as perfect as it was this weekend. As you can see in this pic, the parking lots weren’t full and there wasn’t much traffic (around 2:00pm):

It was still awesome to go flying today. Once back, my mother and I went to Sunset Beach, along with over a hundred other folks, hoping to get just a glimpse of the eclipse. The clouds parted enough to give us a couple views for about three seconds. Everyone cheered and it was so neat to experience the ambience and excitement.

Today’s symptoms: I actually felt pretty decent today. The fatigue didn’t really set in until later in the afternoon, which was nice for a change. Paws crossed this continues throughout the week!