Titan Missile Museum

This post was intended to be a trip report on visiting the Titan II missile museum in Tuscon Az, with stops in Sedona and Las Vegas.  We did some of that, but this trip has actually turned out to be about adapting plans on the fly, pun intended.

We planned this trip at the very last moment, barely 48 hours before we left.  When I'm planning a trip like this I try to pack in more stuff than is at all reasonable, much to Carol's chagrin.  She sometimes asks me why we have to do so much stuff per trip.  Well here's the reason:  Plans don't often go right.  There are a million different ways a trip can be ruined if contingencies aren't considered.  I like to have an itinerary that allows some flexibility.  I'll make a stretch goal of ten items, for example.  If I actually check off 6 of them, I'll call the mission a success!

My initial route called for an overflight of the Furnace Creek airport in Death Valley.  A stop at Lake Havasu would follow, and then we would be on to Tuscon in the early afternoon.  The next day would start with an overflight of Meteor Crater, Arizona. We would then hop over to Sedona where we would enjoy most of the day before moving on to Las Vegas in the late afternoon.  After which, we would spend Saturday night in Sin City before returning home to Grass Valley.  Simple, right?

Spoiler alert: There were a few changes.  Here is the route as flown:

I wanted to get started early, but the dog kennel doesn't open until 8:00 am.  And without a lot of prior notice we couldn't get our two children, ah hem, I mean dogs, into their regular doggy spa. So, we had to take them to a new kennel where we were further delayed with forms to fill out and, of course, there were pleasantries to be exchanged.  Eventually, we made it to the airport, but the weather didn't look so promising in the direction of the Sierra mountains when we got there.  I had already received an online weather briefing so I knew that there wasn't any precipitation forecast along our route, but there was an AIRMET (AIRirmen's METteorlogical information potentially affecting safety) for the mid and southern Sierras for moderate turbulence below 15,000'.

Looking out toward the mountains the ceiling looked too low to get across and I wasn't looking forward to the turbulence.  The winds aloft were forecast to be 25Kt to 30Kt at 9000'.  That is usually enough for a bumpy ride on the leeward side of the mountains.  Since our route would be south along the eastern slope of the Sierras, we would be on the downwind side of the mountains all the way to Furnace Creek.  This is almost guaranteed to be a rough ride.  Plus, I wasn't completely sure that we could even get over them anyway because of the cloud cover.

We elected instead, to fly along the western slope of the Sierras until the weather improved.  By not crossing the mountains immediately, we could fly at a lower altitude that would allow us to avoid the high winds and we could stay on the smoother upwind side of the mountains most of the way.

We departed Grass Valley about 9:00 am and flew at about 5,500' all the way down to Fresno under a broken cloud layer.

At Fresno the ceiling was turning into a solid overcast, prompting us to fly higher.  Somewhere around Porterville we turned east and crossed the southern Sierras at 9,500' direct to Inyokern where we had previously attended an ice cream social.  On the eastern side of the mountains the weather was clear.

Below left to right: Inyokern and China Lake airports and the city of Ridgecrest.  At Inyokern, we turned east to squeak through a narrow channel between two restricted airspaces, and then we had another decision to make.  

Furnace Creek airport (elev. -211) lies at the northern end of Death Valley, which would have been right on our way had we followed our original plan. Now that we had taken a different route south, I had to decide whether or not the novelty of flying below sea level was worth backtracking 40 nautical miles? No, of course not. We decided to go direct to Lake Havasu and refuel. After a quick pit stop, we were on our final leg to Tuscon International.

Climbing out of Lake Havasu, We did spot the famous London Bridge, but we were a bit too far away to get a decent picture.  The next hour and a half had us over the Arizona desert, passing west of Phoenix.  We crossed several parachute jumping areas as well as an area congested with gliders.

About 40 miles out I connected with a fairly busy Tuscon approach control so that we could enter the Tuscon class C.  At Tuscon International, we were offered a straight into runway 11 right, which was nice and easy.  The winds were calm and the temperature was 85F.  Perfect!

We taxied to Atlantic, the FBO we selected for this trip.  There were no signs or marshalers directing us where to park, so naturally, I attempted to park on the wrong side of their building.  What followed was a discussion on the UNICOM frequency between me and the receptionist inside:

"...Where are you", she asked.
"I'm right here", I answered. "In front of your building", I added. "Where do we park?"
"I can't see you."
"I'm looking straight at your big sign right now."
"Atlantic?"
"Yes!"
"Taxi to our ramp."
"???"

I was just about to try the other side of the building when a marshaler arrived in his cart.  OK, now we're making progress.  We followed him to the other side of the building and where we were met by the ground crew.

To my delight and surprise, they had special adapters to fit their rather large tow bar (which was accustomed to moving business jets around) to our little airplane.  After we unloaded, they moved our plane to covered parking.  Our rental car was waiting for us when we arrived and everyone was super nice, making our arrival a very low stress affair -- at least it was once we figured out where their ramp was hiding.

I had originally planned to go straight to the Titan Missile museum thinking that we would do the museum this afternoon and have the entire next day for Sedona.  It was now about 3:00 pm MST.  I failed to account for the switch to the mountain time zone so we had already lost an hour, but I thought we could still just make it. Their web site informs us that the last tour is at 3:45 pm and that they close at 5:00 pm.  Since our timing was tight, we decided to call the museum from the Atlantic lobby.  That is when we were told that the museum actually closes at 4:00 pm.  Since it's a twenty minute drive from the airport to the museum, that was that.

Well, on to plan C.  We will go to the museum in the morning when they open and still try to get to Sedona afterward.

Now our attention turned to checking into our hotel and finding a place to have dinner.  Once we were settled in, an internet search provided many possibilities for brewpubs as has become our custom on a trip like this.  We selected two since it was still quite early.

We drove into a business park not far from the center of Tuscon to find the 1912 Brewing Company.  From the outside, one would have never suspected that there was a celebration going on inside.  When we entered, there were balloons and party decorations on the tables.  U.S. Marines in dress uniforms were milling about looking very sharp, as were their wives and girlfriends.  I felt a bit out of place being dressed so casually as we wound our way through to the bar.  Before we sat down we asked the bartender if this was a private party?  "No", he said, "We're celebrating the Marine Corps 242nd birthday."  Awesome!  I have often marveled at how we run into the best stuff by pure chance.

I had the "Weapons Check" red ale and then Carol and I shared their sampler while we snacked on chips and salsa.  We were having a good time, but we needed to get on to our dinner location, which was Thunder Canyon Brewery in downtown Tuscon.

We had a pleasant dinner and I sampled their Wheat and Blonde ales.  Everything was fine, but I enjoyed the 1912 brewpub a little more than this one.  After dinner, we went for a walk through downtown, which at 9:00 pm, was just beginning to come alive on this Friday night.  I was wearing just a tee shirt and was very comfortable in the warm night air.  I remember remarking to Carol about how we would be wearing coats right now had we been back home in Grass Valley.  After stopping for some Ice Cream, we circled back to our car and then made our way back to the hotel by 10:00 pm.

The next morning we headed south out of Tuscon on the twenty minute drive to the Titan missile museum. The museum is located at the site of an actual ICBM silo and control center. When you arrive, what you see first is this building.   Inside the building is a small display area, a gift shop, and a class room like setting where you watch a short movie explaining the basics of the Titan II missile and launch complex.

Behind the building is a fenced off area that encircles the missile silo and the control complex's top side infrastructure.  The silo is behind the Jeep.

This is the silo door:

On entering the main building, one signs up for a tour and can then browse the exhibits until the tour begins. Here Carol stands next to a W-63 thermonuclear warhead that once sat atop the Titan II ICBMs. At 9 megatons it was the largest nuclear weapon in our arsenal.

When it is time for the tour to start your tour group is invited into a classroom where the scope of the tour is explained by a docent and then a short movie explains the history of the Titan II missile system. In the movie, we learned, how this base came online in 1963 and how it was upgraded while in service, and then finally became obsolete and was decommissioned in 1983. When the movie ends, the docent answers any questions and then the tour begins.  The group exits the rear of the building which is inside the fenced area.

We then walk across the graveled silo area to a simple staircase that leads down into the underground missile complex.  We descend four or five flights of stairs ending at a set of two 6000 lb blast doors.  Beyond the blast doors, the passageway tees into a long tubular hallway that connects the control room with the missile silo.  Turning left at the tee, the hallway ends in the control room.

The docent spends a fair amount of time explaining the function of the various control panels and security the measures that were in place to protect the nuclear missile and to prevent an unauthorized launch.  There were also elaborate physical measures taken to enhance the survivability of the missile in the event of an attack.  The huge blast doors previously mentioned, and the suspension of the entire complex on springs for seismic isolation.  Note the spring behind the docent (red shirt).

The control room portion of the tour concludes with a simulated launch of the missile, beginning with the reception and decoding of the launch order, and ending with the turning of the launch keys.

In this file cabinet, the launch codes were stored.  When a launch order is received, the two officers on duty would each use their private keys to open the cabinet.  If the received order matched the security code stored in the cabinet they were to proceed with the launch.



Looking down the length of the long hallway towards the missile in its silo.

When the control room presentation was complete our tour resumed at the missile silo.  Here the Titan II was visible up close from an open access door to the silo and from a window cut into the silo wall.  Here is the view standing in the access doorway looking up at the missile warhead with the half open silo door behind.

After a discussion about the missile that included topics ranging from the guidance platform to vehicle maintenance,  we were guided back out of the missile complex the same way we came in.  We were then allowed to finish our tour self guided within the fenced in area where there are several exhibits in addition to being able to look down through the half open silo door:

Note the square cut into the side of the warhead: This was explained as a requirement of a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the former Soviet Union. As a part of that treaty, we (USA) destroyed all of these Titan silos, save this one.  The hole in the side of the warhead allowed the Soviets visual (satellite) assurance that the missile was not armed.  Of course, now that this is a museum, the Russians can just take the tour.

After looking down into the silo we briefly stopped at a Titan II engine exhibit.  They also have a  display showing how the missiles were fueled.

It was already beginning to get hot so we wasted little time getting back to the Tuscon airport.  We turned in the rental car and paid our fuel bill.  The overnight fee was waived because we purchased more than 15 gallons.

It was now approaching noon and nothing had gone wrong yet today.  Clearly, we were due.  OK, so here it is:  It turns out that I failed to turn off my landing and taxi lights when we shut down yesterday.  And, in my haste to leave, I didn't notice they came on when I flipped on the master.

I like to call clearance delivery and ground control before I start the engine because I can leave my tip up canopy open to stay cool a few minutes longer, and I can hear the radio more clearly without the engine running.

This turned out to be a big mistake this time because it took quite a while to get my turn with clearance delivery.  When I went to start up, nothing happened.  Then I noticed the battery voltage was low and that all of my lights were on. Doh!  I was having a flashback to our 48 state trip and all the battery issues we had then.  After that trip, I changed out our battery for a lithium Earth X battery that had been working great until now.  It surprised me that after only about ten minutes of lights on the battery would be so depleted.  It seems that the battery is either run down or broken.  The Atlantic ground crew was very helpful and offered to recharge our battery.  Since it would cost me nothing but time to recharge it, we opt for that and go to lunch.

After about an hour and a half, we return to the airport and attempt to leave once again.  Did the battery take the charge?  I turn the key and the plane rumbles to life.  Yea! Carol and I had already discussed skipping Sedona when we bumped the museum from Friday to Saturday.  Now that we've blown two hours on a dead battery we are in jeopardy of missing Meteor Crater as well.

This time I started the plane before I contacted anyone on the radio.  I wasn't going to take any chances.  The airport was less busy at this hour and I breeze through clearance delivery and ground control.  I'm next in line for departure at runway 21 behind a King Air.  When the King Air starts rolling, I call the tower and announce we're ready.  Nothing.  I call again. Crickets.  I call a third time without a response.  I look up at the tower and fully expect to see a light signal, but see nothing.  There was a Citation waiting behind me and I was feeling a lot of pressure to get going.  I hear someone, probably the Citation, call the tower and say something to the effect that he doesn't think the RV hears you.  At this point, I'm thinking that my radio has failed so I tune my second radio to the tower and call again.

The tower responds right away and has us line up and wait on 21.  While we were waiting, the tower mentioned that he heard all of my transmissions.  I let him know that I couldn't hear him (which I'm sure he had already guessed) and that I had switched to COM 2.

As soon as we were on our way and had achieved our cruise altitude, I switched back to COM 1 and asked Tuscon departure control for a radio check.  Loud and clear.  At this point, the only thing I can think of is that the wing or possibly a landing gear was blocking the radio signal from the tower, but not the Citation.  I guess I'll never know for sure.

Now with even more time wasted, we decide to forego Meteor Crater and just head directly to Las Vegas.  Our route takes us directly over Phoenix, and in a stroke of good luck just in time for Vegas, we are cleared through the Phoenix class B.

In about two hours we are landing at Henderson Executive airport which is about 14 miles from the Las Vegas strip.  The cab ride from the airport to the strip was about $40 plus tip.  Ouch!

After we settle into our hotel, we happen across a nice brewpub called Beerhaus behind New York New York casino.  Later we had a really great prime rib dinner at Lawry's.  I've always loved dining there, it's an experience that should not be missed.

The next morning I parted with another 50 bucks in cab fare to get back to Henderson.  Ouch again.  The forecast looked reasonable so we elected to chance the strong winds and turbulence and go more or less direct back to Grass Valley.  Here is a photo of Las Vegas as we skirt the inside ring of the class B airspace.

The trip home was about 340 nautical miles which we covered in about 2.5 hours with 10kt to 15 kt headwind all the way.  We received a few bumps over the Sierras as expected, but most of the flight was smooth.  

In the end, we visited the Titan missile museum, sampled some fine beers in both Tuscon and Vegas, and we had an awesome dinner at Lawry's.  Yes, we had to skip Meteor Crater and Sedona, but we had a great time anyway.  It's hard to believe that we managed to pack all of this into a trip lasting just a bit over 48 hours. This trip was a success for us in part because we visited some very interesting locations, but also because we were able to do it in a plane that we built ourselves.