Day 3

Today we went to the Steven Udzar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum. This is a more traditional aviation museum in a hanger out at Dulles Airport.

There were probably 300 different aircraft, helicopters, and rockets spread out through the museum, some of the famous, but more of them just representative of their type. Not nearly as crowded as the one on the mall, this part of the museum was more populated with aviation enthusiasts such as me and Pop.

After exploring the museum, we went to an hour long IMAX movie, Fighter Pilot, which followed an F-15 pilot through training exercises known as "Red Flag" out at Nellis Air Force base near Las Vegas. I was one of the better IMAX movies I have seen; lots of intense aerial footage, but no obvious attempts to get the audience motion sick.

In that vein, I watched someone emerge from one of the motion simulators and get sick right on the floor beside it. I don't blame her. I have an absolutely cast iron stomach, never been seasick or airsick in my life (while I was taking flying lessons, my instructor twice had to cut a lesson short because he was airsick, but never me), but I get queasy on those motion simulators.

Pictures of the day here.