Camarillo! My flight in WW2 plane! CAF SoCal Aviation Museum

Welcome to Pat Pattinson's Best in California. I'm in Camarillo and I get to go up in the air. This is incredible. I'm at the commemorative Air Force Aviation Museum SoCal Wing. We're going to visit the premier Camarillo outlets here. We're going to go to Adolfo Camarillo's ranch and in the meantime Steve Rider's going to come in and we're going to go up. Yes we are. This is a World War II primary trainer PT-19 aviation experience. And anybody can come do this. So I'm going to put on my helmet and we're going to take off. Let's go. I'm Pat Pattinson and I love California. So here in Camarillo and we are at the commemorative Air Force Museum. This place is unbelievable and I'm nice enough to have Ron Fleischman here with us. One of the volunteers. All volunteer museum. All volunteers. Wow and what you've created here and I know primarily people come to see what's behind us. Tell me about these planes. The silver airplane is a Navion. It's a this is built by the North American people. Once upon a time there were a lot of people there but now there is no more North American airplane company. So we restored it to look like an airplane as this as an airbase it was based here. I got you. The marking on the tail is from the 414 fighter interceptor. You said one of these yeah was that Tora Tora Tora. Yeah the green airplane behind us is a replica Kate. When they made Tora Tora Tora there were no real Japanese airplanes. General MacArthur when he took over Japan he didn't want any crazy kamikazes to get in one of the airplanes and do something. Yeah well he rendered it inoperative and then he said destroy them all. Oh wow. So the bad problem was when they made the movie they needed a Japanese fleet to attack Pearl Harbor. Wow. So they took PT-19s and PT-17s and AT-6 old trainer airplanes. Right. Flew them down to Long Beach and there was a company that spliced them cut them and welded them all together. Wow. Voila instant Japanese fleet. Great well Ron Fleischman thank you so much for doing this work. Thank you for coming. We appreciate you being here. This is amazing. So Commemorative Air Force Museum here in Camarillo you got to check it out. I'm with Sean Broadhead what do you run here at the museum? I run the cadet program the Commemorative Air Force SoCal wing cadet program. And I was so excited to hear about that. So you're working with young people. Yes we are to educate them inspire them and to honor World War II and all veterans but mostly to inspire these youth into aviation either careers private pilots or manufacture or maintenance thereof. So this could be the beginning of a job for them. It very well could be for example last weekend we talked about lift theory in aviation. Okay. And so all Bernoulli's equation and how the you know stem is behind it. Yeah it's the Bernoulli's equation with the stems behind it. I mean why would they need to learn that? I mean all of us already know that. Because if they're if they're fixing to be a pilot or a mechanic they need to know how an aircraft is going to lift. And then we took them over to a simulator and we modified the pressure density variables. The pressure density variables you gotta you gotta love this guy. Pulled off on the science that's that's what we keep the high school guys sharp for. As a pilot you know it's important to understand these things. Because I am glad that the man that's taking me up in a plane knows all that stuff. You are correct. You are correct. At our show we had a World War II veteran sitting right there as part of the show. Yeah. He was here as a visitor and I point out to him that this museum is about him. Yeah. And every veteran that's ever been a veteran for us. Keep that memory alive. We keep that going. But the easy part for me with the cadets program is the resources I have here. Isn't that great? I mean I've got I've got people I literally have rocket scientists. I literally have pilots all over the place. I have people that have their own aircraft. I have people that built their own aircraft. I have people that have history that have forgotten more about some of the history than I'll ever know in my life. There we go. Some of our docents around here and they know more about all these aircraft and everything about World War II. And all volunteers. And all volunteers. That's so so wonderful. I'm here with Jack Luter and Jack is the uniform expert. And a weird thing happened is he and I were talking and we figured out we were both in a movie together. What was the movie? Angels and Demons directed by Ron Howard. Hollywood brings us together. Yes. Because what's behind us? This is a tank display. A tank from the Ronald Reagan Museum. The Ronald Reagan Museum. Mr. Hollywood himself who who played a lot of officers. And he was. And he was yeah. And and and Jack you are in what uniform? What is this uniform? This is basic working khakis for well god it must be 80 95 in this place right now. Right. This would be the same as as it was when this is the airport. What branch is this? This is Army Air Force. Army Air Force. There we go. This was an Air Force base during World War II. Even more fun here at the museum. I'm with Steve Ryder and we're going to go up in a plane. Tell me about this plane. This is a Fairchild PT-19. It's a World War II trainer and it's the primary trainer. But we're going to have fun today. Yeah we are going to have fun. But this is a nice gentle airplane and it's made to train someone that has no flying experience whatsoever. Wow. What's your background as a pilot? I'm a naval aviator. Okay. And so my first takeoffs and landings were in the Navy and got over 200 carrier landings. And so I did a fleet tour anti-submarine warfare and a new Lockheed S3 Viking at the time. And then flight instructor Pensacola for naval flight officers that would go in the F-14 or the A6 or the S3 like that. Well first of all thank you for your service. Yeah that's incredible. And is it my understanding the general public can come do this? Oh absolutely. Oh my gosh. This is a flying experience museum you know. Yeah. So people can be a part of it. That's exactly what it's for. So that was exciting. Steve Ryder got me up and down. What an experience here at the CAF SoCal Museum. You've got to check this place out. Thank you Steve. Thank you for coming. It was incredible. Check this place out. More to Camarillo than I could have imagined. Talk to you soon. So let's take a quick break and check out my Best of California featured getaway. I'm so excited we're here in Camarillo. This is beautiful. And I'm with Yuliana Garcia, the president of Visit Camarillo. And we're at the Camarillo Premium Outlet Malls. This is huge. How many stores are here? We actually have 160 stores. Brand names. Amazing prices. Something for the goes on and on and it's it's close to everything. Yeah. It's the proximity right off the 101 so you can you know stop in, stay at our hotels, shop some more. I'm gonna finally get a new shirt. Yes. So the other thing is that you have a plane history museum here. Tell me about that. Yes. We actually are home to the commemorative Air Force SoCal wing which is a very special and unique museum. It houses, they actually restore World War II aircraft. So military aircraft and they fly. So you can actually take a ride. I mean anybody can. Anybody can. Great prices. They are so unique, rare planes that you don't really get to see everywhere. Yeah. And the name Camarillo comes from a person as with most cities. Tell me about the ranch. Yeah. So Camarillo was founded by Adolfo Camarillo and his family. They were ranchers, entrepreneurs and they really developed the city and along with all the city founders they were really responsible for you know getting Camarillo to where it's at now and their legacy lives on. So lots to do here in Camarillo. Outlet mall, great deals. I love the Air Force Museum. There's also this incredible ranch. I didn't know any of this existed. Visit Camarillo. You gotta stop as you're sailing down the 101. First stop outside of the grade. Coming down. Last stop before you get to LA. Camarillo. Check it out.