My 6 year-old son and I had a mommy-son date to Hiller Aviation Museum this week. With the pandemic cancelling our favorite local airshow this summer, we missed the contact high that the online platforms showcasing airplanes and flying just couldn't deliver (though they valiantly tried).
So we headed out of the ever-present San Francisco summer fog toward the bluer skies of San Carlos. We passed active SFO (San Francisco International Airport) en route, and tracked the heavies on final approach, paralleling the freeway.
Arriving early afternoon on a Tuesday there were few cars in the museum's free parking lot. We slid into a spot just feet away from a metal statue of 19 year-old Thaddeus Kearns and his 1910 biplane glider. The outer walls of the rectangular cement building had been recently painted in an inviting royal blue and silver. Donning our masks we entered the glass front doors.
We heard the happy buzz of summer day camp as we bought our admission tickets at the gift shop cashier counter. The museum's large gift shop was packed full of aviation-themed toys, models, books and clothing, easily enticing my son.
Steering my son out of the shop, we walked through the atrium to the main gallery. Here we were immediately drawn into the character of Stanley Hiller, Jr., the helicopter pioneer that started his aviation design and assembly career in his teens and went on to successfully launch the Hiller Aircraft company.
My son stood beside the XH-44 1-seat helicopter, built by Hiller Industries in 1944. The XH-44 was the prototype for Hiller's low cost easy-to-fly helicopters and was designed by Hiller when he was only nineteen years old.
Even better than standing beside a "Hiller-copter" is getting to sit in one. Both my son and I got to walk right up to a Hiller OH-23 Raven and climb aboard.
Set up with a flight simulator that takes off from the area of the 1915 San Francisco's World's Fair, we flew over the dome of the Palace of Fine Arts and towers of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. It only took a dozen crashes on land and sea to coordinate our stick movements.
Helicopters are tricky! And so much fun!
My son also got to interact with the effects of thrust and airspeed on stalls, spins and stable flight. With the push and pull of a throttle lever he could watch on a screen as his plane leveled off or banked.
Beside him, a character from one of his favorite mommy reads came to life. Black and white photos of Hazel Ying Lee adorned a display of the biography of this Chinese-American aviation pioneer.
We went on to chair-fly a 747 into SFO and then walked outside to the reconstructed 747 nose section open for exploration in the museum's courtyard.
We walked through the spacious first class section then climbed the spiraling steps to the the more exclusive, upper level, first class section and the cockpit. We sat in the captain and first officer seats, then I took a turn in the flight engineer's seat just behind.
We pushed buttons, flipped switches, and pulled on the yoke to our heart's content. My son couldn't reach the rudder pedals, but, happily, I could.
Then the tangy smell of a sunny day by the Bay and the drone of small plane lured us back outside. A grandstand was set up at the east fence of the courtyard, overlooking the run- and taxiways of San Carlos Airport. Home to over 500 aircraft and 25 aviation businesses, the airport was active with flyers coming and going.
As our full, fun afternoon came to a close, we found ourselves thirsty and hungry. Luckily, a nearby In-and-Out offered the best follow-up snack: shake and fries!
Until the next mommy-son date!
Pssst. I think the next one will include an actual flight and an airshow.
Stay tuned!