Flight Paths to Futures: The Aerospace Museum of California Inspires Change for Generations.

Tom Jones: [00:00:00] I like to think of the museum as this gathering place for all of our community partners, whether they're a school district or a big university. They can't see a rocket engine up close. You know, we take the cover off of this one rocket engine that we have and they can touch it. They can feel it and it's just, you can't get that experience anywhere.

We're one of the few museums that offer that type of thing.

Jeff Holden: I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Our purpose and passion is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story. In their words, to better inform and educate the respective communities they serve, as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors.[00:01:00] 

Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local non profit organizations. through podcasting. Thanks to our founding partners for their foresight in helping us transform the way conversations start. CAP Trust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations.

Runyon Saltzman Incorporated, RSE, marketing, advertising, and public relations creating integrated communications committed to improving lives. And Western Health Advantage, a full service healthcare plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Sacramento is rich in aerospace technology and development.

That history transcends generations as the region's been home to multiple air bases. Mather, McClellan, Beale, and Travis. Our national space program for many years was powered by rocket engines engineered, built, and tested by Aerojet. The U 2 spy planes and our surveillance craft are based near Marysville at Beale Air Force Base.

All this doesn't even begin to scratch [00:02:00] the surface of the related industry that serve all these programs. With such depth in history, it's only fitting we should have a museum to both memorialize and educate our youth on the wonder of flight and technology. The Aerospace Museum of California does that and so much more.

STEM programs stimulate creativity and curiosity. Flight simulators and private pilot training literally engage those interested at all levels. If you've never stood under a Titan IV rocket engine or climbed into the belly of a massive transporter, you've simply got to experience it to believe it. Tom Jones is president and CEO of the Aerospace Museum of California.

He's a Navy veteran, former high school teacher, and a very experienced pilot. He's going to share with us the incredible value the museum brings to our community in so many ways well beyond the exhibits we see on the property. And may I add, they are incredible. Let's get started. Tom Jones, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network.

Well, [00:03:00] thank you very much, Jeff. It's an honor to be here. Well, it's exciting because we're going to be able to take off and learn some things with, I think, a lot of elements that people don't realize about the Aerospace Museum. The museum's great at helping people take off. I love that. Yeah. All right. So let's get started down the runway.

All I can't help it. There's going to be a few of these throughout. Yeah, it's all good. Some people may question why an aerospace museum in Sacramento. And really the question should be, why not? And if you would explain, because we have such a rich history in aviation and 

Tom Jones: flight and aerospace. Yeah, for people that are new to Sacramento, they may not realize it, but this region, Sacramento specifically, has a very rich aviation and aerospace history.

It goes back over a hundred years, actually. You know, Mather, if it had still been open, it was, you know, it was open for a hundred [00:04:00] years, basically. And then we had four major military bases around here, plus B. T. Collins, plus Sacramento, you know, the Reserve Center. There's been a tremendous amount of military and aviation specific history around the area.

In fact, McClellan specifically was a hub for military flight operations. All the way prior to World War ii, you know, it was a Sacramento Air Logistics Center, initially starting in 1935. It was even McClellan was a key part of the Doolittle raid. You know, if you go back and for those people that understand history and and how important the Doolittle raid was to US, success in World War ii.

Mm-hmm . Jimmy Doolittle and that crew stopped at McClellan on their way to Alameda and if you ever come visit the museum I'll show you some very interesting things that we take that personal 

Jeff Holden: tour. I've been yeah several times My father was an aficionado on all things World War [00:05:00] two and he didn't actually participate he was in the Korean War, but just was fascinated by every part of it and In specific, the flight and aviation and just the technology that was so quickly evolving as that war 

Tom Jones: went on.

Exactly. You think about, we went from basically non powered flight with gliders. and kites, non powered flight to powered flight in 1903 with the Wright brothers to flying to the moon in, you know, less than half a century. I mean, we're, we're doing things now, hypersonics that are. Just unbelievable, right?

We never thought that we would get to that place. But, you know, Sacramento's had this incredibly rich history of air crew and maintenance, crew training for, you know, almost 90 years. And it goes way back. Also in that, we've got Aerojet. Aerojet was a huge part of the, huge [00:06:00] part of Sacramento economy, huge part of the Sacramento history, and we've got several Aerojet items that were created and flown at Aerojet, or used with Aerojet.

Hanging inside the museum, you know, engines that powered the Mercury, Gemini, Saturn rockets, the space shuttle. You know, these are really important pieces of American history and specific to Sacramento history as well. I remember 

Jeff Holden: when we first moved here in 85. Aerojet was still open and we lived in Fair Oaks and they would send warnings, notices to you that you're going to hear something on such and such date at such and such time and they were firing rockets literally on the ground and that far away from Fair Oaks to where they were in Folsom, maybe 15, 18, 20 miles, The rumble and the sound, you still heard it.

Amazing. Yeah, 

Tom Jones: amazing. Yeah, it is incredible. And so this region fostered incredible innovation in aviation and [00:07:00] aerospace and all kinds of cutting edge technology. And we continue to do that today. And so I like to think of the museum as this magical place where you can bring kids from. ages two to a hundred and two that want to be students and study aerospace history, all of the incredible, you know, advances in aerospace technology, you know, for the past hundred years or more.

Jeff Holden: You know, what's amazing is museums. are more often than not static. You go and you come and you see something and it's typically historical. That's not the case at the Aerospace Museum. You have all kinds of interactive opportunities, right? 

Tom Jones: Oh, yeah. We're, we're a very much hands on, STEM focused, STEM education, science, technology, engineering, and math.

Uh, STEM focused activities and programs, education programs that are very much focused on students and [00:08:00] also the 5th grade science standard, that's our key. Um, demographics, so to speak, our key market is we try and encourage all the school districts in the area. Some school districts go all the way to San Francisco and spend thousands of dollars on buses when some people don't even know that we have a huge, beautiful aerospace museum right here.

in Sacramento that you can get to a lot easier than driving all the way to the city. Certainly for their benefit too. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And we, so we built our education program based on next generation science standards. We've got handouts for teachers and programs that are built to support the teacher and the students as they learn about aerospace and flight.

Jeff Holden: Do those programs enter into the classroom as well? Do, do they transcend the museum, or do they spend more time in the museum? 

Tom Jones: They spend more time in the museum as a class. Okay. Yeah, generally. But, you know, students have to learn about forces, for [00:09:00] example, and that starts early on in elementary school.

But that, all of that knowledge can transition to the four forces of flight and a vast array of other things that we learn about in aerospace. Oh boy, I can only 

Jeff Holden: imagine. Yeah. And you also have, The, the 

Tom Jones: simulators on campus, right? We do. Yeah. We've got eight simulators. Seven of them. We have, we have, excuse me, we have one helicopter simulator and six aircraft simulators.

And then we've got one simulator that was just donated by an FAA grant last year that is actually used for pilot training, more specifically for instrument training. for pilots because it is rated to be able to log flight time in that simulator and it's just a fabulous piece of equipment. 

Jeff Holden: I'm certainly aware of simulators.

I didn't realize they would be certified as if in flight. 

Tom Jones: Yes, and that's a big deal, you know, I [00:10:00] can imagine there are this particular simulator that I'm talking about is a it's called an AATD, Advanced Aviation Training Device. There are also BATDs, Basic Aviation Training Devices, but this is an advanced aviation training device.

It's got a full glass cockpit. It's a Diamond DA40. aircraft, single engine aircraft, but I'm a flight instructor and certainly, uh, instrument instructor. I was going to ask you, so what is it from your perspective, sitting in this cockpit of But I've got, you know, almost over 4, 000 hours of flight time and all kinds of different airplanes, from helicopters to big Navy C 130s and many other things.

But what's fascinating about that simulator to me is when I take my students in there, I mean, they By the time we're done after about an hour session, I can give them emergencies, all types of different failures that I can't do in the aircraft. Right? But it makes them think. It makes them consider what the issues and the possibilities are if they have this [00:11:00] problem for real in an aircraft.

We can't possibly do that in a real, like, in the clouds, like, a day like today. Consequence might be a little bit worse than sitting on the ground. It wouldn't be fun to do that for anyone. But it, you know, it makes it really, very real. And, you know, quite often they come out of their sweating, you know, they're, they get a real workout.

Yeah. And it's, uh, it's good for, for them to see that in a simulated environment. It really makes it very real. 

Jeff Holden: Tell me a little bit about the collaboration that you have with the community, because you are really deep. And again, I think people see the surface of what is a museum, but they don't realize all the The tentacles and the involvement in the organizations and the people and the students that come through.

What does that look like? 

Tom Jones: Yeah, you know, this year we have already crossed, we've set a new record for the museum of 45, 000 students. 

Jeff Holden: Oh my gosh, congratulations. 

Tom Jones: Thank you. [00:12:00] Yeah, and so when I first got there a little over seven years ago, you know, we were We had about 10, 000 students a year coming through the museum and now we're up to 45, 000 students and we crossed 100, 000 visitors as of the end of November.

So, and that's up from about 30, 000 way back when. So, that involvement with the community comes in, it's not, there's never just one thing. There's no silver bullet with how the museum works or operates or what makes it tick. Yes. A zillion different things that we're juggling to make it all come together.

But we have community partnerships with the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Police Activities League, the Sheriff's Youth Programs, Sacramento County Sheriff's Youth Programs. We're open to partnerships. I, my best estimate, we've got well over 300 different partnerships with other organizations around the area, but we're open to partnerships all the time with organizations from other counties, local counties, or [00:13:00] we've got educational partnerships with all the local community colleges.

whose students have done projects and exhibits for the museum. Sac State internships and projects that have been done by Sac State students at the museum. UC Davis, we've got a very close and long term partnership with UC Davis, in aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering. And so, and all of those were built, you know, five or six years ago.

And they've just been fabulous for all the students involved. In fact, this UC Davis program that got built probably five to six years ago. Those graduate students, so they're working on master's degrees and PhDs in aerospace engineering and or mechanical engineering, and they mentor the seventh grade students down the street from the museum.

In a program called SOAR, where they, it's an academic enrichment program. And it's [00:14:00] just incredible. And so, you know, graduate students joke that they're learning more about all this than this, you know, the younger kids are. That's true. When somebody puts 

Jeff Holden: you on the spot with questions, you have to think on your feet and learn.

That's right. Oh, that's fabulous. Yeah. So 

Tom Jones: it's, it's exciting. We have dozens and dozens of partnerships, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, you know, across the board. There's a lot going on at the museum. 

Jeff Holden: Well, what I especially like about that, when you bring youth into the situation that maybe they've never been aware of, maybe they've never even seen a plane up close, haven't ever been on a tarmac, or in your case, they get an opportunity to visit the interior.

You know, of some of these planes and sit literally, 

Tom Jones: you know, in a cockpit. And so when school tours come, we take them inside of a couple of aircraft that we own that belong to the Aerospace Museum. It's just a fabulous experience for these kids because, you know, like we were talking about earlier, these are not your normal passenger aircraft on Delta Airlines.

Right, right. It was [00:15:00] pretty sparse inside the aircraft and, uh, cold for a lot of the, the, uh, passengers way back when that were flying on some 

Jeff Holden: of these aircraft. Well, and they get a whole new appreciation for it. And on the flip side, because you have the contemporary element, as we know, our, our kids are, are more and more video game oriented.

Exactly. So, you know, the simulators and, and things of that nature really give them the ability to, to see that. Maybe there's an opportunity for them. There's a job they didn't expect or see, or they can at least dream into a space that maybe was never in their purview. 

Tom Jones: Right. You know, and, and that's where, and I spent 25 years in the Navy, and when I retired I went to be a, a teacher at a local high school, Luther Burbank High School.

Sure. In South Sac. And we had incredible students in that program. And what I saw with those teenagers was they needed to be involved in a hands on, education [00:16:00] environment. And the more hands on we could make it, the more engaging that we could make all that program, the more involved and inspired they were.

So we brought a lot of that to the museum and all the activities and all the different things that we do. And, you know, we've really reached out and done tremendous amounts of outreach with all the school districts in the area with the superintendents of Almost all the school districts, we're still working on a handful of other ones, uh, but we've got very close partnerships with San Juan Unified School District, Twin Rivers, Gateway Community Charters, and, and several other school districts where those kids, you know, they come to our summer camps, they, It's educational enrichment programs, they come on school field trips, they get involved.

Some of those students come, we've got probably a hundred students that are student volunteers. So from age 13 up, students can volunteer at the museum and be a [00:17:00] docent. So some of them get trained by our drosens who were retired airline pilots, retired military pilots, and on and on Oh, it's incredible.

And so, a lot of the students like to volunteer in the flight zone, in those simulators. Because, you know, I always joke that they speak kid better than I do. Oh, yeah, absolutely right. And, uh, you know, so they can sit down with a ten year old. And kind of walk them through the process. How do you fly an airplane?

What makes an airplane fly? And then show them on the simulator. And by the time they're done, you got a 10 year old flying a jet. And it's pretty cool. And can you imagine 

Jeff Holden: going home and sharing that experience to your parents? Oh, yeah. I guess get excited. It's exciting for me. I would love to sit in one of those simulators and play it.

You know, I've done the F1. Simulators and they're a blast. I can only imagine what the flight ones must be like. You know, they're, they're very 

Tom Jones: realistic. I mean, people, you know, sometimes the kids will crash the plane or whatever, and they're, you know, they, it's just very [00:18:00] real around a little bit. Well, they feel like, you know, that you see them flinching, you know, because they're, it's real.

Yeah, it feels real. Yeah. Yeah. So I like to think of the museum as this gathering place. You know, it's a gathering place for all of our community partners, whether they're a school district or a big university. You know, UC Davis brings their aerospace engineering students to the museum. They can't see a rocket engine up close anywhere else, right?

Not easily, but they've got it there at the museum. Same thing, Sac State's engineering students come to us. And so we have lots of those types of partnerships, you know, the Kiwanis Club of Carmichael, they're volunteers, they're. People and those co audience come volunteer for museum events. And it's just a fascinating, wonderful partnership between us and them and, you know, all these different groups.

Jeff Holden: And that's what makes the museum so rich. Oh, yeah. And such a value to the [00:19:00] community is the integrations that you've got and the exposure that you give to so many who would otherwise never see. You know, back to the technology of a dated ancient rocket engine where You know, these UC Davis students are coming and saying, ah, there's, I get it how on earth back then, did they ever do that with a slide 

Tom Jones: rule?

Right. They built all this stuff and a slide rule and it made it to the moon and back. Right. Right. And now we have, you know, we struggle sometimes with some of the basics, right. But it, it helps to see it hands on. And, you know, I've had, I've stood there in those class settings with, With students, and I hear them go, Oh, I get it.

The rocket that's 2, 000 degrees, the rocket engine, is being cooled by the fuel that's coming right down the side of this rocket engine. You know, and you can see it. It's right there. You know, we take the cover off of this one rocket engine that we have, and, and they [00:20:00] can touch it. You know, they can, they can feel it, and it's just, you can't get that experience anywhere else.

In fact, we're one of the few museums that offer that type of thing to anyone. That very tactile, hands on learning. Yes. Right? How do you keep the exhibits fresh? You know, that's a, that's a constant challenge, but we're very good at it. We have a highly creative team of staff, volunteers, and board members that, That we, you know, people think up things and go, what if we did this, you know, and sometimes those ideas stick and, and they generate a tremendous amount of energy and we start moving down the path.

Our longest exhibit development, we, we build most of our own exhibits and we have a very, very small team. So it's, it's, how many people do you employ? We, we have eight employees, eight full time employees. And, uh, six part time employees. We have about 350 [00:21:00] volunteers and, and then we've got 18 board trustees.

And so, you know, it's, it's corralling and, and directing and motivating this crew to, to bring all these things together, not just on the exhibit front, but then on the funding side of the, of the museum. That keeps it going, that keeps, you know, you can't, a museum that size, I would love to be able to operate it with just volunteers, but that's not possible, right?

You have to have full time staff. We've got a seven acre property and it's keeping all of the, you know, the grass cut and all the maintenance things that happen to the building, to the property, to the aircraft and the air park. It's a full time job. 

Jeff Holden: And so people know it. It's at McClellan. Yes. It's at the former McClellan Air Base, right?

A huge complex of a variety of different businesses. 4, 500 acres. Okay. At McClellan Park. [00:22:00] And you have seven of them. We have seven. Yes. So you, so you are at what wasn't, you know, an airfield. So you have the ability to display both in and outside. 

Tom Jones: Correct. Yeah. So we've got a 4, 000, excuse me, a 40, 000 square foot building.

And inside of that building, we display aircraft and rocket engines. And then outside it, we have an air park, about a four acre air park in the back. And it's got a little over 40 airplanes in the air park. And so you can walk around and walk up and touch them, walk up and, you know, Hey, that's what a prop feels like, you know, this big propeller.

It's like the size of your body, you know, it's like, wow, this is cool, you know, to see this walk inside of airplanes. We have two days a year that are open cockpit days. And so we've coordinated with all of our partners that we borrow, you know, the Air Force, the Navy that we borrow aircraft from to be able to let people look inside or in some [00:23:00] cases go inside of some of the aircraft and we own several aircraft as well.

Jeff Holden: So does any of the. This is just a curiosity aside, not one of our questions, but do any of the planes that the Aerospace Museum owns still fly? 

Tom Jones: You know, we just got a donation of a 1942 Ryan PT 22, and it does fly. And it is, yeah, we've got other planes that we could get to fly, but they're, you know, funding is always such a big issue for us.

It's just not really cost efficient for us to be flying the airplanes. But if we had a major donor or unlimited funding, I would love to see a lot more flying airplanes with our museum. 

Jeff Holden: Let's fly into the recognition of the people who make this program possible. I was in the media business for over 35 years and had the great privilege of working with Runyon Saltzman, RSE, Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations.

We [00:24:00] collaborated on many different campaigns, but their commitment to the non profit sector hasn't changed since their founder Gene Runyon started the agency. Over many years and many campaigns, Runyon Saltzman has been committed to improving lives by tackling California's most challenging issues.

Guided by research informed strategies and insightful, creative solutions, RSE develops innovative communications campaigns that raise awareness, educate, and reduce stigma in diverse communities throughout our state and beyond. To learn more about RSE, visit rs e. 

Scott Thomas: Hello, this is Scott Thomas with CapTrust in our Sacramento office.

I specialize in working with local nonprofits and associations. Annually, we survey private and public nonprofit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment. In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments.

If [00:25:00] you would like a copy of the survey or to discuss your organization, look me up, scottthomasatcaptrust. com. 

Jeff Holden: I'm thrilled to have Western Health Advantage partnering with us as they do so much to support so many nonprofit agencies in our community. As a truly local health plan, you'll find individual and family options, employer options, plans for CalPERS and Medicare Advantage.

From medical services to pharmacy, health and wellness support, as well as behavioral health care, Western Health Advantage has a plan that fits what you need. As an employer, for profit or non profit business, individual or family, you can find more at westernhealth. com. You are right, right in the space we're going.

That's right where we're going. Tell us a little bit about your budget. How are you funded? 

Tom Jones: Well, our budget is about 1. 7 million per year. And that All that funding comes from a patchwork of, you know, visitor revenue, small community grants, and, and private individual [00:26:00] donations, kind of like one of our board trustees said to me a long time ago, we start at zero on January 1st.

This is what makes me nervous about this time of the year because I'm back to zero again. But we start at zero every January 1st and we got, we got to climb essentially about a 2 million mountain. The more we can get over that 1. 7, we can add any extra to, you know, any type of an endowment that we would build up.

We currently do not have an endowment. So, you know, this is your, this is your aerospace museum. This is not funded by the military. It's, it's less than 1 percent of our budget comes from any government entity. So it's very much, it's, it belongs to the Sacramento community. Even though it's a private museum, it does, in my opinion, it belongs to this community.

And so we need, we need your help. We need, you know, if you like our stuff on Facebook and Instagram, please [00:27:00] forward it to the world. Make sure everybody knows that the Aerospace Museum of California is at McClellan. It's fun. It's engaging. 

Jeff Holden: It's necessary. 

Tom Jones: Yeah. And it's, and it'll help if you have any interest in aerospace or aviation, it'll help you understand it better.

Careers certainly 

Jeff Holden: can be, if they haven't already been spawned by the, just the experience. of attending the museum. 

Tom Jones: Exactly. And so, you know, I, I use this kind of saying every once in a while, where, imagine, do you think it's fair for us to say that one out of a thousand students are inspired? at the Aerospace Museum of California.

Is that a fair metric to use? Absolutely. Yep. I think it's much higher than that. In fact, I know it is. If that's the case, if we take one student out of a thousand, that means that 45 students a year are having their life trajectory [00:28:00] changed by the Aerospace Museum of California. Okay. And so we are, we sit right in the kind of neighborhood where this museum needs to be.

Right. We are in North Highlands, a community that's been generally underserved, especially after the McClellan base closed. So these are students that need us and they, you know, we need to be there for them and we need to inspire them to do something better and something bigger with their life. So. If, for example, those one out of a thousand students was a student that was headed towards being a burden to society and possibly ending up in jail or, and all of the personal life ramifications that that would have for that person, plus any children that they have and the generational impact of that.

So what if you took that one student and changed the trajectory of their life from being a burden to society? to be in a [00:29:00] value added member of society where they're paying taxes. They've got a good job, where they've got a great, fun, interesting aerospace job. The delta between those two things is well over 200, 000 a year.

Easily. Year after year, across an entire life. Right. Right? So, a dollar invested in the, in the Aerospace Museum of California. Over 20 years, our best calculation is, is that it comes back as 2, 000 back to our community. 

Jeff Holden: Not to mention the generational change you make in that family because that student at 5th, 6th, 7th grade happened to see something and 

Tom Jones: pursue it.

So multiply that times hundreds of students a year. Yep. Your museum brings great value back to your community. Right, so help us, help fund us, help donate to us, help be the future because [00:30:00] we're just getting started with all the exciting things that we could possibly do. And 

Jeff Holden: STEM, you know, science, technology, engineering, engineering, and math are so significant in the future.

Everything we look at, it's, it's where it's going. 

Tom Jones: Exactly. It's gone. It's there. And it doesn't matter if you're an artist, you still need to understand. Aspects, elements of 

Jeff Holden: STEM. And much so, much more so today with AI. Right. It does stuff, but you have to understand the equation of how it's going to benefit you.

Tom Jones: Or is it 

Jeff Holden: accurate? Correct. Correct. Right? Yes. There's a lot of fake things that come out of AI that are close, but they're not quite right. In art, it's not going to be catastrophic. In a plane, Oh yeah. It's not a good thing. Or in an engineering environment. That's right. It needs to be accurate. That's right.

Right? So you started a little bit down the path, but I want to give you the opportunity to do this in, in a, you know, in the clouds, let's say, what if budget wasn't an [00:31:00] option? What would it look like? 

Tom Jones: What would the museum look like? I think sometimes I sit back and dream about that. I think about that. And I said, if we didn't have to worry about money, how would this museum look, act and feel right?

This is a Smithsonian affiliate. It's one of two Smithsonian affiliates in Sacramento. Okay, that means that this is like a miniature version of the National Air and Space Museum in your neighborhood. Mm hmm. Right? And to me, if we didn't have to worry about money, let's make the museum free. We had a free museum day the last time that we did it, and it was totally free for people to come in.

8, 500 people came in one day. In one day? In one day. Ha, ha, ha. If it was free every day, think about the people that we would inspire in this community. Think about the change, the impact that that museum, our museum, your museum, would have on [00:32:00] your community. Wow. Right? And so that's just one aspect. Imagine we just finished the hosting of a national traveling exhibit.

That exhibit cost us 250, 000. How long was it there? It was there for a little over six months. Okay. That was one of the generators of so much visitorship this year. It was such an intense and educational exhibit and so much fun for the kids to participate in. that we just all practically, uh, we added several thousand people to the, to the roll call this year in numbers.

Just as a result of that, so that would have 

Jeff Holden: been a good return on its investment. Yes, it paid for itself, 

Tom Jones: it made some money. What was the, the exhibit? Uh, it was called Math Alive. And so imagine an arcade that was based on math. Okay. Okay. You go in and you're playing all these games, [00:33:00] you're doing all this fun stuff.

But it was all math based, and you had to think through how are you going to do it better, faster, you know? And all of a sudden math isn't so bad. And math is fun then, right? It answers every middle school boy's question of why do I need to study math. Right. Study, period. Because it's involved in everything you do in life, you know?

That's right. That's right. All right. So. Well, now 

Jeff Holden: congratulations 

Tom Jones: on that. Yeah. So that, you know, but if money wasn't an issue or if there's some donor out there that's listening to this, you think about that, that money, that 250, 000 had to be paid to the exhibit company upfront in advance out of the museum's funding, funding.

Right. Our very limited revenues that we have. Yeah. And so we took a chance. We could have lost our tail on it. We didn't, but you know, it's one of those things that if money was not an issue, we'd have a traveling exhibit every year. The last traveling exhibit we had before [00:34:00] this one was five years ago.

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Tom Jones: Okay, it just it costs a lot of money. We would love to have one. We had the opportunity to bring another one in right on the heels of this last one that left. I mean, literally two weeks later, we just didn't have the funding to be able to comfortably do that. Yeah, and I can appreciate that. But it's it's been tough because we You know, we went out looking for donors.

We just couldn't find enough funding to support it, so. Sure. Well, you only had a little window too, so it Yeah. Makes it tough. It, it was, it was, uh, short notice on their part to tell us about it, and we're still working on it, but, you know, if we've got, if we have donors out there that would like to see another traveling exhibit, the museum, we're, we're all ears.

We'd love to talk to you. 

Jeff Holden: How about Tom, if you look at the greatest need, let's come back to the tarmac. Now we're, we're on the ground and we're back at the museum. What is the greatest need you've got? 

Tom Jones: Money. With more money, we could serve more students and more families. It's that simple. We have an incredible team, our [00:35:00] museum staff, the volunteers, the board of trustees.

We are incredible as a team of people that are leading and guiding the museum to bigger and better things all the time. But we are so, you know, we just, we need more money to be able to do that. Yeah, yours 

Jeff Holden: is more a direct correlation of, of Revenue to performance right and and it's really what it is because you've got all the the assets per se short of these traveling shows to really create an incredible environment and a lot of the environment isn't just the the Mechanical physical piece of it.

It's the educational process and it's the The courses or the curriculum, so to speak, that happens along with the demonstration of the pieces. 

Tom Jones: Yeah. And so, you know, we just discovered this past year or so, every student that we have come through the museum on a tour or, you know, paid admission doesn't come close to [00:36:00] covering the cost, you know.

And, but that's what the market will bear. Right? The schools, the school districts, they have to pay for busing, for transportation, for there's a lot of logistics involved with getting students on a tour to the museum. And so when you add that cost to the museum's cost, the cost gets pretty high for student tours.

You know, so unlimited funding would be every student in Sacramento County would come to the museum for free on their field trip. Right? There's a lot of different things that we could do to really inspire kids and make the museum even better. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and I'm sure teachers appreciate that too, because then it brings back the awareness to the classroom wherever campus happens to be of Remember this at the museum.

Here's why we do this. Right. We can engage so, so differently in all the fields whenever those field trips take place. But this one is, [00:37:00] I mean every student sees a rocket ship on television when it goes up and it's such a big experience or if they get the opportunity to fly, you know, what a big experience that 

Tom Jones: is.

Well, you know, it's one of my, the best parts of my day when we have student tours come in and these are kids you know, everything from basically about second grade up to high school students or sometimes even college students come in as large groups. But when they walk in the door And they see huge aircraft hanging from the ceiling, space rockets, and all these different things that we have on display.

And you, you just see their jaw drop open and they're like, wow, you know, it's just, it's overwhelming. And I, I love that part. And to see the excitement and the inspiration in their eyes when they walk in and see what the aerospace museum has to show them, teach them. Inspire them with it's, it's 

Jeff Holden: very 

Tom Jones: cool.

Jeff Holden: And I think the first time I saw that, [00:38:00] and again, the same experience, we had relatives. I lived in Chicago, relatives in St. Louis. We flew to the airport, the spirit of St. Louis. That's right. There's a plane hanging from the ceiling. How does that happen? How can they put a plane up there? It's, it, it's gotta be heavy.

It's, it's really, but it was, it was one of those, you know, moments that I will never forget of, wow. And then, of course, now you, over the years, you see other airports and, you know, those planes hanging all over the place, but it is such a striking and demonstration of something big. And, and, and not to mention, you know, we have the air show here as well, who I know you partner very closely with.

Yes. Just the sight and feel of all of that and being able to now. Come see it on a permanent display at the museum. 

Tom Jones: Exactly. 

Jeff Holden: Is, it's incredible. 

Tom Jones: Yeah. Darcy and I, Darcy runs the Capitol Air, the California Capitol Air Show, and Darcy and Angela, and they just do a fabulous job. Yeah. And I used to, [00:39:00] we used to tease, tease each other.

We have fireworks at our big gala event, but if you haven't seen the fireworks at Capitol Air Show, it is, they actually are even better than our fireworks, which is hard to 

Jeff Holden: believe. Hey, that was, I was gonna say it's true. I've been to both and experienced them both. I love fireworks. So yeah, they're both great.

In terms of the best way to find out more about the museum, more about the things, and before we go there, let me ask you something, because I think I saw we were talking about Not only does the museum offer all these educational elements, but you also have a scholarship, 

Tom Jones: correct? We do. This past year, in 2024, we had two private pilot license scholarships that we awarded.

We ended up having 68 applicants and Wow. And, and two young ladies, actually, were awarded the scholarships. They were just absolutely fantastic. I think R. C. 's thrilled about that. [00:40:00] Young students. Yeah, that's right. Girls in STEM. That's right. We have, you know, tons of programs that are focused on helping girls in STEM education and STEM in aviation.

In fact, we had, get off topic here for just a sec. It's okay. But it's an incredible program that we have with San Juan Unified School District, Twin Rivers Unified School District, and other districts around the area. In September, this program started off, it's called We Can Do It Together, and it's a girls in STEM education experience.

And so, it started off small, we had about 200 or 300 young ladies that came, but there were dozens of professional women. Engineers, doctors, dentists, aviation people, you know, pilots and everything, but these young girls could see themself. In these professional women and say, Oh, I can do that. [00:41:00] I can see myself being that.

So this past year, the program over four years has grown so much, so quickly. We had to break it into two days and we had over 1, 500 young middle school and high school girls and 70 professional women. that were there for these two day event for this, for this amazing thing. That's incredible. Yeah, it was amazing.

And so at one point, I'm standing by the stage and we're going through introductions and there's a lady that's a pediatric neurosurgeon and she's an African American lady. And that particular day, we had a lot of students sitting up in the, in the audience and we probably had 400 students in the audience, but a large group of African American young girls were sitting up by the stage.

And when she said that, it was, you could see every single mouth in the audience just drop open. And one of the girls standing about 10 feet away from me said, I didn't know I could do that. And it [00:42:00] was just, it was perfect. Yes. Right? And so you hear this and you see this inspiration that's going on, and so that's what the museum is there for.

It's your museum to help inspire you and your own family to go out and live a better life, you know, attach yourself to all this exciting stuff that's going on with technology in our world. Yeah. There's amazing jobs out there. And so we like to think of ourselves as this, as a real economic engine. Of the Sacramento community because every in dollar that gets invested.

In the museum, it comes back to 2, 000 to you in the future. 

Jeff Holden: On those scholarships, they're 12, 500 ish? Yes. Okay, and that's probably 

Tom Jones: enough to get you through flight school? It should be enough to get Most students through a private pilot license, a certification, FAA certification for a private pilot's license.

We had one of the young ladies this year, [00:43:00] in 2024, that was so efficient at using her money. She found somebody that had a really inexpensive airplane to fly and her instructor worked with her. By the time she was done with her private pilot's license, she still had, I think it was about 7, 000 left of her 12.

5 scholarship. Negotiator way. Yes. Some other roles too. Very good on her part. But she asked, can I, you know, can I use this for my instrument rating, my pilot's instrument rating? And we went back to the donor and said, absolutely. You can do that. So she, her goal is to be a Cal Fire pilot, tanker pilot.

Isn't that so, I mean, she is on her way. Right. She's 18 years old and she's just doing great, great stuff. She made it through that program. We, we gave both of them a year to get through and, and they're going to be done in six or seven months. 

Jeff Holden: Fantastic. It's incredible. That's, that's the stuff where you can literally see the application.

Yeah. And she's coming back to be CAL [00:44:00] FIRE. Right. And we know that's right out of McClellan. High paying jobs. And we see those orange planes. We, you know, all summer long they're going to be. You're going to be busy. That's right. That's just fantastic. Yep. Tom, what's the best way to find out more about the museum, the exhibits, the opportunities, classes and scheduling and everything?

Tom Jones: You know, the best way is to go right to the museum's website. It's aerospaceca. org. Aerospaceca, like California, dot org. 

Jeff Holden: And we will put that in the show notes as well. 

Tom Jones: Yes. And we have a weekly newsletter, so if you go to the museum's website, a little pop up banner will come up and it says, Join the Museum's Newsletter.

And that's fabulous because it gives you the opportunity to get a weekly update on what's going on at the museum. We have about a hundred events a year and all kinds of ways for families to, you know, get a family membership and keep coming back and inspiring the kids over and over and over again. 

Jeff Holden: [00:45:00] Okay, I know somebody is listening that's going to say, well, what kind of planes do you have there?

Just because we didn't want to, that would be rough for anybody that doesn't really know. But what might be some of the neatest planes there? 

Tom Jones: Yeah, we've got an A 10 Warthog, an F 14, like from the movie Top Gun. Okay. We've got, like I said, we've got about over 40 aircraft that are on display inside and outside the museum.

We have an A 4 Skyhawk, which is a Blue Angels jet. It's inside the exhibit hall. And that was a three year exhibit process for us because we restored that jet. It was, it was looking very, very rough and, and it got done during COVID. We brought it back to life. It's a gorgeous, beautiful, you know, display example of that, that plane, that plane and that, and that timeline of the blue angels, you 1980s.

A Blue Angels jet, 

Jeff Holden: but that's satisfying a little bit of the, the people who are listening. Oh, wow. Tell me something about a [00:46:00] plane because most of us, we wouldn't know if you're explaining what it is. 

Tom Jones: Yeah. If you know aircraft, I mean, we've got an F 86 Sabre, just, just a whole bunch of different aircraft.

We've got one aircraft, I'd say C 47, C 53. Those are big transport planes. Yeah. And that. That aircraft actually towed gliders into Normandy. That particular aircraft at the museum towed gliders into Normandy the night before the D Day invasion. So you imagine that you're in a glider, right, being towed across the English Channel at night, you know, at midnight, the mess is about to hit the fan the next morning, right?

And you get to fly behind the German lines and then come back and attack them from the rear, right? And to help you quietly. So these are spec op guys that are doing that work and they're going to land in the dark in a glider in a field. Amazing. Unprepared. Amazing. Unprepared field. [00:47:00] Yeah. It's incredible.

And it returned. It came back. Oh yeah. Exactly. So, you know, there are lots of stories. Every aircraft that we have just has a lot of fun and interesting stories. It's, it's a, it's just 

Jeff Holden: a great place. It's a magical place. Yeah, it is. And I can attest having been there. If you haven't been to the museum, it really is worth, even if you're not into airplanes or flight, it's just the understanding and the visibility of it all that changes your perspective on what it's taking and what it took, especially back then.

Right. To, to put these things together. Slide rules. Yes. And very smart people. Yes, very, very smart people. That we trusted a lot. Talking about hands on engineering. That's right. I just love seeing the heritage, the history, the evolution of what you present at the museum. Thank you. What an incredible asset we have when we look at what it does for our [00:48:00] students and the introduction to things way beyond.

flight and planes and the experiences that they get that change their lives. And, and therein lies the greater value. So, thank you for what you and your team are doing, the mighty team of eight. Yeah. Which is incredible. And those volunteers who do so much to keep everything in a presentable fashion over the course of a year.

They are 

Tom Jones: amazing. Our volunteers are just, and our board is just amazing. Well, 

Jeff Holden: we, we appreciate it, Tom, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation to be here.

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