And if you are lucky and you become a docent at an aviation museum, you get to share your knowledge with people from all walks of life. Most, if not all, are volunteers who donate their time and expertise to educate the public about aviation. Museums simply could not function without them.

They may volunteer at a museum once a week (or more) or work alternate weekends. They often wear a uniform of sorts, such as a polo shirt with the museum logo or a jacket or vest and have a museum ID lanyard around their neck. A great many also wear a “fun meter” button with the needle pegged to maximum.

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The reason? They love what they do.

As someone who spends a great deal of time at aviation museums, I can tell you they all have their own character and energy, and they all rely on volunteers to operate. Some of the volunteers bring special skills and restore airplanes to their former glory. But many more are the faces of the museum to the public—the docents. You don’t necessarily have to be a pilot, mechanic, engineer, or retired from an aviation career to be a docent—you just need to bring your enthusiasm.

EAA Aviation Museum (Oshkosh, Wisconsin)

“Storytellers are the best docents,” says Chris Henry, manager at the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. “They can help make the planes pop to life and make you inspired

to learn more at home. A good docent should lead you to wonderful stories, leaving you wanting to know more and wanting to go home and research further.”

Henry notes the museum has a large cross section of society as docents coming from different walks of life and age ranges.

• READ MORE: New Museum of Flight Exhibit Explores Living in Space

“We have everything from WWII veterans to current high school kids,” he says. “It’s helpful if the docent has a passion to keep learning, and they are passionate about sharing what they learn, and they just enjoy showing people new things that they have never seen or heard before.”

Museum of Flight (Seattle)

The larger the museum, the more docents it has.

According to Brenda Mandt, docent programs supervisor at the Museum of Flight (MOF) in Seattle, the docent cadre is made up of 162 volunteers.

“Most of them work one day a week, and they work the same day and shift each week,” says Mandt.

To become a docent at the MOF, a person must take a 12-week basic training class that acquaints them with museum policy and procedures and teaches how to build a tour.

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“Docents have a great deal of freedom to create tours that interest them most,” says Mandt.

Many of the docents either have or have had careers in aerospace or the military and often build tours around their experience.

For example, docents Jim Frank and Dave Cable are retired Navy aviators who served aboard aircraft carriers, so they know about “landing on a postage stamp.” Frank’s talk on the history of carriers is informative and entertaining, and Cable’s tour of the A-6E Intruder, the airplane that brought him home many times, and the F-14 Tomcat are quite moving and bring a smile to the face of museum visitor Jack Schoch, a retired Navy chief who served on five different carriers, including a war cruise during Vietnam aboard the USS Enterprise.

That’s one of the best parts of these tours—the docents are able to make them relatable to visitors.

Palm Springs Air Museum (California)

Requirements for docent training vary by museum.

At the Palm Springs Museum in California, the applicants are required to go through a background check and approximately 40 hours of training, “most of which can be done online,” says spokesperson Ann Greer. They also undergo on-the-job training in one of the 10 different areas of the museum.

“We have over 300 docents, and the museum is run with military precision,” says Greer. “They work four-hour shifts, [and] they may be in one of the hangars or on the hot ramp [where aircraft move] or in the library or gift shop. In the hangars we have a crew chief who keeps an eye on things, and if we want to talk to a particular docent, we have to ask the crew chief. There is a chain of command as the docents’ main job is to interact with the visitors and keep an eye on exhibits and airplanes.”

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum (McMinnville, Oregon)

At the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, docents in training will spend at least 50 hours under the wing of Don Bowie, a retired Air Force aviator who has been with the gallery for 26 years.

Although the facility is most famous as the location of the Howard Hughes HK-1, the flying boat famously known as the “Spruce Goose,” according to Bowie, there is a lot more going on besides that popular exhibit.”

The museum features two buildings—one houses the HK-1, and the other is devoted to the Space race. Bowie works the floor, helping visitors and docent candidates learn about the aircraft and spacecraft on display.

“You are a volunteer here, and the job has to be fun and you have to be a people person,” he says. “You meet people from all over the world.”

Bowie says the best part of being a docent is when someone comes in and asks about a specific aircraft that is special to them, and there is a docent who shares their interest.

Docent Schedules

Because docents are volunteers, they aren’t required to put in massive amounts of hours on the job, but many do because it is a labor of love. Most museums ask for a commitment of at least one day a week, and often the docents rotate working weekends.

The docent’s typical day often begins with a crew briefing before the museum doors open. This is when they learn about special events at the museum, such as school tours or corporate meetings, and when exhibits are being installed or removed.

This column first appeared in the Summer 2024 Ultimate Issue print edition.

The post Ultimate Issue: Being Aviation Docent Simply Labor of Love appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

They adorn the tops of bookcases, and photographs, paintings, and prints are framed on the wall. They range from the Graf Zeppelin to the Zeppelin NT, and  are kitbuilt. So imagine how impressed I was by the scratch-built model of the LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin II hanging from the ceiling of the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The airship, done in 1:36 scale, was crafted by John Mellberg of Menasha, Wisconsin. Mellberg says his interest in aviation began early in life, thanks to his father who built and flew radio-controlled aircraft. Mellberg’s dad spent 17 years building a model of the Spirit of St. Louis, as Charles Lindbergh was one of his heroes. That model, flown 25 times before it was retired, is hanging in the EAA museum near the gift shop.

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Mellberg, who had a career creating models for General Motors, began the zeppelin project by doing research. His fascination was triggered in childhood by a photograph of the Graf Zeppelin II, the sistership to the Hindenburg. He has a fond memory of getting a Hawk Model plastic kit of the D-LZ127 Graf Zeppelin for Christmas in 1955. 

“I promptly built it,” he said.

Among the other airships he has built are a D-LZ127, which sits in a display case at the EAA museum, a tissue/stick model of the LZ126, the ship given to the U.S. Navy as part of reparations from World War I by Germany, and other plastic-kit models of the Goodyear Blimp, the Navy K-Airships, and tabletop models of the two Graf zeppelins, the Hindenburg and the British R-100.

The Graf II

“My model of the D-LZ130 Graf Zeppelin II was built as a flying model, and it is built to a scale of 1:36 because when I was considering its size, I was advised that the model would need at least 150 cubic feet interior volume for helium to provide lift to deem the model airworthy,” Mellberg said. “The 1:36 scale would give me 156 cubic feet of volume and would lift 9-plus pounds of model structure.” The model did not fly beyond being hung from the ceiling of museums.

The model weighs 8.5 pounds. As there was no kit for something that large, Mellberg had to create his own plans, and for that he needed to do research in his spare time.

“I began thinking about the model while working at General Motors Styling in the late 1960s, and I utilized the GM research library over my lunch hour to go through old Scientific American magazine albums to find the many articles they had written about the zeppelins and their technology to gain further insights,” he said. “I started making my 1:36 scale drawings in 1972, based on a ‘side-view’ drawing of the Hindenburg that was in a book I got from Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH that was printed honoring the 50th anniversary of the LZ. The drawing was roughly 6 inches long, and I enlarged it with a drafting divider tool to the 1:36 scale of my planned model.”

Today research is easily done with the click of a mouse and Google search. Back then, it was done by writing letters that could be painfully slow. Mellberg wrote to the LZ requesting drawings. 

“Eventually, they sent me blueprints that were of a larger size that I used to cross-check that which I had already drawn,” he said.

Once he had the drawings, he began building the more detailed and tedious parts of the airship from Vacuform plastic, such as the control car, four engine cars, two landing wheel assemblies, and the 12 gas vent hoods that were atop the hull.

Most of the model is made from balsa wood. If you have ever worked with it, you know that it can be unforgiving—measure twice, and cut once carefully.

The bulk of the build took place in Mellberg’s garage, which was space limited, so he decided to construct the hull in three sections. The model has 48 ring frames for the bulkheads, from nose to tail.

“I also built the 36 longitudinals, which ran through all the bulkheads from nose to tail, and the fabrication of the cruciform tail fins,” he said. “Each section was built on a vertical column/fixture using a cross-hatch scaffold arrangement, which could be removed when each section was completed. Then each section was lifted over and off the column/fixture, and the next section began.”

To facilitate the process, as Mellberg crafted the components, he put them in numbered bags, similar to the way mass-produced kits are done. These were then assembled in half sections where each segment butted up against the next.

“I placed and glued a U-shaped, three-ply aircraft plywood gusset at 1/64-inch thick for reinforcement, and a place for all the longitudinal sticks to fit during the assembly process,” he said, noting that he also drilled out lightening holes with a stainless-steel tube with a knife edge on the drill ends to reduce the weight of the model.

Building the assembly column and fixture jig was no small effort: It consisted of a tower 8 feet tall and took about eight hours to build.

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Like many experimental aircraft builders, Mellberg realized he didn’t have the space to perform the final assembly. Like so many builders, he opted to move the project out to the airport.

“Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero [in Lyons, Wisconsin] offered his hangar for the final assembly,” Mellberg said.

A small army of aircraft modelers were recruited to help with the application of the outer fabric covering and painting.

“The skin is aircraft Dacron that could be ironed on to the balsa skeletal structure, and then stretched tight using a heat gun, and then sprayed with a metallic silver coat of paint,” Mellburg said.

The model was finished in October 1989. In the museum there is a sign thanking all those who helped it along its 17-year journey. Mentioned are the Mellberg family along with Klaus Brink, Eric Brothers, Franklin Buckley, Robert Deschamps, Harold Dick, Chris Fenger, Arthus Forester, Mark Forss, Bill Kerka, Earl Kiernan, Hans Georg Knausel, William  Kramer, Ed Kurek, Daniel Maust, Bauken Noack, Benjamin Page, Vladimir Pavlecka, Bob Petak, Dick Pop, Douglas Robinson, Mike Robson, Admiral C.E. Rosendahl, George Schroeder, Dave Schrubbe, David Smith, Max Spielberg, Joe Stanton, Hendrick Stoops, F.W. Von Meister, Captain Hans Von Schiller, Elisabeth Pletch Von Schiller, Ralph Warner, Bernard Weisbrod, Richard Wagner, and the Wagner Foundation volunteer team,  Bud, Dave, Ernie, and Earl, Bill Walsh, and Hepburn Walker.

Mellberg estimated the model required more than $1,000 in materials but said the cost was not terribly painful because, like the build process, it was spread over 17 years.

In 1989 the model was put on display at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (KMKE)  at the Mitchell Gallery of Flight Museum. In 2019 the Mitchell gallery was relocated to a smaller space. 

“The model was placed in storage, later to be given to the EAA’s Aviation Museum in March of 2020,” Mellberg said.

Bonus Display

The EAA museum hung the Graf airship from the ceiling in the main gallery near other historical aircraft. Along with a 1:36 scale model of a Douglas DC-3 nearby, it represents the beginning of commercial air travel. 

The DC-3 was also used for commercial travel in the 1930s, and sometimes it worked with the airships. 

The model was built out of aluminized paper by Bob Lutz. It wears the livery of American Airlines, which used DC-3s to carry passengers to and from New York City when the Hindenburg, the sister ship to the Graf II, arrived and departed from Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey.

The last trip of the Hindenburg—and its violent demise—put an end to airship travel, and Graf II never saw passenger use. The LZ-130 and  its namesake LZ-127 were both scrapped in 1940, and the zeppelin factory was taken over by the Nazis for the war effort.

The post The Labor of Love That Gave a ‘Graf Zeppelin II’ Model Lift appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

FLYING spent the better part of a month reaching out to aviation museums across the country, following up on tips from our readers about replicas that they’ve worked on and where they ended up. These are a few places to see one of the many Flyer re-creations out there:

EAA Aviation Museum: Oshkosh, Wisconsin

You could say the Wright Flyer was the very first experimental aircraft, and as such it makes sense that the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has a replica built by members of the EAA and Blackhawk Technical Institute in Janesville, Wisconsin. The project took approximately 10 years to complete. The replica was installed in the museum on December 17, 1978, the 75th anniversary of the Wrights’ famous flight.

Wings of the North Museum: Eden Prairie, Minnesota

The Wings of the North Air Museum in Eden Prairie has a full-scale replica of the Wright Flyer built on commission by Flight Expo Inc., a volunteer nonprofit group in Princeton, Minnesota. The Wright Flyer is on loan to Wings of the North. The first aircraft shares space with another famous replica, one of Minnesota native Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, a highly modified Ryan M-2 monoplane.

• READ MORE: Where Is the Original Wright Flyer?

Museum of Science and Industry: Chicago

You will find a replica of the Flyer on the east balcony of the Transportation Gallery at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. The replica was built by the Glen Elly, Illinois-based Wright Redux Association to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wrights’ first successful powered flight. However, since the winters in Chicago tend to be snow-laden, the decision was made to attempt the flight in September 2003.

The Association told the Chicago Sun-Times the plan was to “attempt to fly it multiple times in the morning for a period of two hours or until they broke something.” The replica, named The Spirit of Glen Ellyn, never made it into the air because of a lack of wind.

The Dakota Territory Air Museum: Minot, North Dakota

The Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot boasts a replica Wright Flyer that was built on site like a ship in a bottle.

“Construction began in 2001, and it was completed in 2003 in time for the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight,” said museum director Jenna Grindberg. “There were quite a few people involved in the building of this replica, including several EAA chapters. Gordon Valgren was the project coordinator, [with help from] Warren Pietsch, Paul Sonnenberg, Don Larson, Jerald Burtman, Jesse McMurty, Mike Nass, Phil Hall, Gary Johnson, Keith Johnson, Al Botz, Dr. Bob Roswick, Judy Valgren, Jim Bergo and Ray Buel.”

Several businesses also donated time and supplies to support the project. 

“The Diamond Chain Company made the chains for many of the replicas that were being built, and that is where we got ours,” Grindberg said. “The wires were provided by American Welding. North Dakota State University built the fittings and brackets. Dakota Drug donated trucking by hauling parts back and forth between Minot and Fargo, and Roger Ward North American provided the moving van to take sections of the Flyer out to Minot AFB for an exhibit at Northern Neighbors Day Air Show in 2003.”

• READ MORE: Remembering the Centennial of Flight

March Field Air Museum: Riverside, California

The replica of the Flyer that is on display at March Field Air Museum was built between 1979 and 1993 using plans from the original aircraft published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1950. The craftsmen were members of the Los Angeles Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The replica was built for wind tunnel tests.

The replica traveled around the country as part of the buildup to the Wright brothers’ centennial in 2003 and was eventually installed in the museum in 2018.

Florida Air Museum: Lakeland, Florida

The Florida Air Museum has a 1903 Flyer replica hanging from the ceiling in the main building. The replica is a centerpiece in this well-appointed, eclectic collection. Stand beneath it and turn slowly in a circle and you can see the history of aviation from first flight to jets.

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