U.S. Coast Air Station, Clearwater, FL

Chris, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), once again (see USCG Group Tour) came through with another great ASME tour. Every so often they have a tour of some local place of interest. This time it was the U.S. Coast Air Station in Clearwater, FL, (also see this) and Chris was nice enough to ask if Gary, Tom and I would like to go along. Why, yes. As a matter of fact, we could do that. Would there be a breakfast involved? Possibly lunch?

We met at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Unfortunately, Gary had to work that Saturday so he wouldn't be joining us on today's tour. However, since there was a breakfast involved, he somehow managed to get away from work to join us for the morning meal. Who'd have figured that? After packing away enough to keep all of Ethiopia going for a few weeks, off the the Air Station we went.

The USCG Air Station occupies the northern part of, and share the runways with the St. Pete/Clearwater International Airport. They have a bunch of C-130 Hercules aircraft as well as HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters, both pictured above. More info on the 130's is here, and on the 60's is here. The hardware may be different that what we found at the USCG Station at St. Petersburg, but the people seemed just the same. Very knowledgeable and helpful, with that air of confidence that comes from a large dose of competence. It's the biggest USCG Air Station in the world. The area that gets covered by them is impressively large. From the Florida panhandle to the Bahamas to the islands in the Caribbean, they cover all that and everything in between.

I took a few pictures while I was there. Here they are.

What a great trip!