Regular readers may have noticed a lack of posts in the past few weeks. With the main airshow season now over and done with I’ve still got a few major events to catch up on. Those reports will follow as soon as I have time to get through the photos.

The past two weeks I’ve been on a (largely non-aviation) holiday in the states which allowed me to take in some incredible aviation sights along both coasts. Notable highlights included Planes of Fame at Chino, which was almost surreal to finally visit.

I also visited Yanks at Chino and the incredible March AFB museum which features an incredible outside flightline exhibition with all manner of aircraft including an impressive collection of warbird bombers (B-29, B-25, B-17 and an A-26).

On the east coast I fitted in a (sadly non-flying due to weather) trip to Old Rhinebeck, with a good chance to look around their collection of WW1 aircraft. This was a real highlight of the trip for me, albeit a shorter visit than I’d planned with less action.

One advantage to only spending the morning at Old Rhinebeck was the chance to return to the American Air Power Museum at Republic airfield which boasts a lovely collection of airworthy WW2 machines including Mustang “Jacqueline” and P-40 “The Jackie C”. The Intrepid Museum in New York City was another highlight.

I even managed to pop into the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum at Reading on the way to Washington which offered the chance to get up close to the only airworthy C-97 from the Berlin Airlift Historical foundation.

A few days in Washington closed the trip, which brought the chance to take a look at the Air and Space Museum in town (which was partly shut, though still had great access to the original Wright Flyer and Spirit of St Louis) and the Postal Museum, which had a few great aircraft.

Perhaps the best museum of the whole trip was the Udvar-Hazy centre, the Air and Space museum’s annex out of town by Dulles airport. Its hard to do this museum justice and it will certainly benefit from a full post of its own. Highlights here included the HE219 Owl, which is almost complete again and the recently airworthy Sopwith Camel donated by Javier Arango’s family.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this catch up post, I can promise that further airshow reports, alongside full articles for each aspect of my American trip will follow in due course!