P-3 Orion Field Trip

One of the great things about being a homeschooler:

We get some incredible field trip opportunities.

One of the wives in our homeschooling group is married to a navy pilot who is fairly high up in the chain of command and he arranged an amazing field trip for us!

Here is our group of unsocialized homeschoolers in front of the P-3 Orion.

A lot more people wanted to go, but space was limited; we were very fortunate to be among the first families who responded to the invitation and made it into the group.

The absolute coolest thing about the trip was the P-3 simulator. It is just like being in the cockpit of the plane. When we looked through the windshield, we could see the Hawaiian islands down below us. I literally could not have told the difference between the real thing and the simulator if you put them side by side. I really felt like we were flying around, looking out the windows of the cockpit. We could see the military base below us and the waves in the ocean. When we turned the plane in a different direction the horizon would tilt and i would have to hold onto a handle on the wall to stay upright. In Ben's group one of the boys was trying to land and accidentally crashed into the ground.

They even showed us how they could change the weather we were "flying" through. They had rain, lightening, fog, snow, and could even make a (digital) bird hit the windshield although they opted not to show us that one.

The one downside: They wouldn't let me take pictures in the simulator.

We did get to go inside a real P-3 and sit in the cockpit.

For some reason you can take pictures of that.

We also got to try on all the gear the pilots wear.

Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt!