Our Events
Bomber Camp
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Mustering with your fellow recruits in the cool morning air at present day Stockton Metropolitan Airport, you will be met by base personnel and transported back in time to 1944, as a cadet at the Stockton Field Air Corps Advanced Flying School. There you will experience sights, sounds and smells that few others have known. Come and join us for a truly unique adventure.
Bomber Camp™ is a one-day camp starting at 0730 and ending at 1800. Gather at the WWII Memorial in front of the Stockton Airport terminal on the day for which you registered. Trainees must arrange travel to Stockton Airport and be fed and ready for transport at 0730. Daytime parking at the airport is free. You will be returned to this spot in the evening when camp is done. Actual dates can be found on the registration page.
Summers in Stockton are generally sunny and hot. Bring sunscreen and arrive in comfortable clothes and shoes. Military coveralls, cap, and canteen will be issued during morning induction. We encourage you to bring period correct sunglasses, footwear and accessories, as well as period civilian clothes for relaxing at the officer’s club after your mission. (We can offer suggestions and links.)
Induction and orientation, followed by classes aerial gunnery, and bombardier training, navigation and radio. Gunnery class introduces you to various weapons familiar to and used by aircrews, especially the famous Browning 50 caliber machine gun. Also includes instruction on how to operate turret and flexible machine guns, and how to aim them by leading your target and compensating for range.
The afternoon includes mission flights and various ground activities. You will train and fly as a member of a 8-person bomber crew assigned during induction. A mission consists of flights of the B17 flying over the target area, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains as backdrop. As a crew you will take up positions in the bomber and rotate through them during flight. Before and after your mission you will participate in ground training activities, including firefighting, radio operation, survival, and ball turret training.
After the missions are complete and all planes have returned home safely there will be a mission debrief, reviewing the success -- or failure -- of each mission flight and its crew. Afterwards everyone will retire to the officer's club for some well-deserved R&R, with snacks, refreshments, music and lots of stories from the crews and cadre about their derring-do. The evening ends with a toast to the efforts of the greatest generation, and especially to those who sacrificed everything.
Bomber camp schedule
Bomber Camp ADD ONS
We also offer additional flights, some even offer official flight training, and some you can take during the other Mission Flight if there's two flights on your chosen day!
Additional flights are available in the Boeing B-17, North American P-51, Beechcraft D-18S, North American AT-6, and Stinson L-5.
Flight instruction is available in the Boeing B-17, and Beechcraft D-18S.
Make it a vacation!
Bomber Camp is conveniently located in the Central Valley of Northern California. Only 80 miles or less to San Francisco and the Bay Area, 20 miles to the Lodi wine region, 60 miles to the Castle Air Museum, 50 miles to the California Gold Country and the Plymouth wine region, 100 miles to Yosemite, and 150 miles to Lake Tahoe.There are lots of places to see and shop in the surrounding area to make Bomber Camp a part of your Summer vacation for family and friends.
Training Camps
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Training Camps are a new immersive experience geared toward relatives and enthusiasts of air and ground crew members, who would like to learn more about what they experienced during training and combat. These courses are custom tailored to your areas of interest. You could choose a full day to go in depth on one subject, or multiple topics as you like. Scheduling is also up to you, even with short notice, should you find yourself to be in the area.
If you want to learn all about how the Bombardier was trained and get hands on experience with their tools of the trade we can accommodate you. Should you want to add in gunnery, Navigation or any of the other subjects, we will set up a course for your needs where you will actually use the very equipment that they did. From seeing how the secret but famous Norden Bombsight works to actually powering up and riding in the Ball Turret. For the ground crew you could learn the basics or go hands on repairing battle damage on an aircraft structure. Do you want to hear what the WWII radios sound like when running? Or try out the interphone through an oxygen mask? We can do pretty much all of it.
These Training Camps are like a national museum opening up its display cases and allowing you to not only touch and feel the artifacts, but in many instances you can operate them yourselves. To be able to see them operate, hear, feel and smell them brings a whole new dimension and appreciation to this history. Living history at its best. Below, you will find the various subjects that we have available. Some can be up to full day courses and some are smaller and will need to be combined. You can choose just one, or all, and request emphasis on certain subjects as you desire.
Scheduling is also on demand as we can accommodate you as long as the schedule is open. Review the Training Classes below and give us a call, and we will begin assembling an amazing experience for you, one on one, or for your family/group.
Pilot Training
It was the pilot’s job to know the aircraft and to be able to operate it under the most extreme conditions. He had to know so many different systems like the electrical, hydraulic and radio so he could safely get the aircraft to the target and back. He was the guy in charge of the mission and had the final word and responsibility for the mission and the crew.
In this course, you will learn the theory of flight and how the controls were used not only to fly but to operate and take care of the engines and other systems. Follow the pilot along and learn about his primary, basic and advanced flight training then progress to crew training where all of the crew members come together to learn how to be an effective flight crew.
You will be able to try on the actual flight gear that they wore to keep them safe from the elements that were trying to kill them at altitude. Flight suit, electric suit, sheep skins, Mae West, parachute, flak jacket, helmet, goggles, oxygen mask etc.
This basic course can be a half-day course ending with you getting to start up a radial engine in an aircraft where you get to see, feel, and smell the whole living history experience. We can also offer a full day advanced course where you could get actual flight instruction in a WWII aircraft. You can receive flight instruction in everything from a Stinson to a North American AT-6 to a Twin Beech 18, Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon and even a Boeing B-17. Please inquire about more details and pricing and scheduling for the advanced pilot course.
We can tailor these courses in a nearly unlimited fashion to meet your needs and desires; all it takes is a phone call.
Gunnery Training
The aerial gunner was tasked to protect the bomber from attacking enemy aircraft. It was his job to allow the bomber to get to and from the target safely. To do this the gunner had to have extensive training in the theory and learn the weapons that he was going to use. He first learned to shoot with shotguns trying to hit moving clay targets and then he progressed to flexible and turret gunnery.
In this basic course we will teach you just what they had to learn, and you will get hands-on experience with the weapons, different sights and even powered gun turrets. One of the moat rare gun turrets is the famous Sperry ball turret. We have one of the only operational ball turrets that you will be able to try on for size and take for a spin. We have several other turrets as well as flexible guns so you will get quite the range of training.
We also offer an advanced course in gunnery where you will be able to actually shoot the prolific weapons of WWII namely the 45 automatic, M1 carbine, M1 Garrand, M11 shotgun and the venerable Browning 50 cal. You can try your luck hitting flying targets with the training turret or the E-5 turret truck.
This is a wonderful experience with lots of hands-on work with the actual equipment that the aerial gunner used. Nowhere else will you have access to these rare museum artifacts and see, hear and feel them as they come to life just as they did in WWII.
The basic gunnery course can be a full day experience or shortened as desired to fit in other courses that you may choose. The advanced gunnery course will need advanced scheduling and has special pricing.
Bombardier Training
The Bombardier was one of the most important crewmen on the bomber team. It was his job to get the bombs on the target otherwise they would have to come back again to knock it out. He would work closely with the Navigator to find and identify the specific target and set up the aircraft to drop the bombs at the precise point in space so they would hit the target.
The bombardier’s training was extensive as he not only had to learn the bombing theory but its practical application with the newly developing bomb sights and systems of the day.
This course will teach you the theory of dropping bombs and all of the problems that needed to be solved to get the bombs on the right path to hit the target.
You will also learn about the different types of bombsights that were used and will be able to try out the famous Norden Bombsight powered up on the one-of-a-kind A-2 trainer or calibration stand. Crawl into the A-26 nose to see what the bombardier’s office was like. Go hands on with all the different types of WWII bombs and fuses and see just how they were dropped by the bombsight on the bomb rack trainer.
This can be a full day course or can be abbreviated should you want to include other topics. We also offer an advanced course during the full bomber Camp in May where you will be able to drop dummy bombs from a flying Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress.
Ground Crew Training
The air war would have ground to a complete halt if it wasn’t for the ground crew who kept the aircraft flying, shooting and dropping the bombs. We offer courses covering most of the different ground crew and their specialties. From Bombsight or radio mechanic to armorer and aircraft maintenance technician. You can take apart the Norden Bombsight, field strip the mighty .50 cal machine gun, fix battle damage on an aircraft structure, work on a radial aircraft engine, and even start one up yourself!
You can learn about the ground support equipment like the giant 7.5 ton C-2 Wrecker truck or driving a WWII Jeep. Check out the Cletrac or the generators and compressors that they used to service the aircraft.
Ground Crew courses can be tailored to your specific needs. These courses can include specialized training in systems, sheet metal, armorer, airframe and engine maintenance. The course can be a half day or a full day as desired where so many subjects can be looked in to.
We can put together a course that will satisfy your thirst for information. This can be a half day or a full day course. Full day coursed include a GI lunch.
Radio and Radar Training
The radio operator course will cover the basic radio theory and the training that they received. The radio operator was responsible for not only using the equipment but also for troubleshooting and keeping in running in flight. He was responsible for monitoring the radio communications and was to log the radio traffic for intelligence and possible countermeasures.
This course will give you hands on experience with all of the Liaison and command radios and some of the radar gear they used. Some equipment will be operational for you to use and to hear what they heard in WWII. You will be able to try on the actual flight gear that they wore to keep them safe from the elements that were trying to kill them at altitude. Flight suit, electric suit, sheep skins, Mae West, parachute, flak jacket, helmet, goggles, oxygen mask etc. as well as learning about many other things that were important to the Radio Operator.
This is a half day course that can be combined with another half day course of your choosing or an abbreviated gunnery or bombardier course. We will gladly tailor this Basic experience to suit your needs.
Navigation Training
The Navigator had a critical responsibility to make sure the Bomber flew on the specified path and found the target. He would direct the pilot and then help the bombardier to identify the exact target they were attacking. He had to be excellent in math and working under pressure. He kept track of the aircraft’s location constantly and logged their position every 5 minutes or so. If he was off by just a few degrees on a long flight while flying across the pacific he might just miss a whole island chain and easily get lost. The Navigator was arguably the busiest and most important part of the crew.
Your Navigation course will discuss the theory and the different types of navigation used to keep the aircraft on course. You will get to see and work with the navigator’s tools of the trade like one of the many sextants he could have used, Astro compass, direction finding radio equipment and even the precision watches, computers, logs tables and gear.
The Navigation course is a half day course that can be combined with other topics as desired. You will also get to try on the typical flight gear for high altitude flying and survival.