There are many interesting things to do and see at the Museon, and you can read a bit about some of them here. Our short visit to the Omniversum follows on page 3 of this story.
The Museon
The Museon has several different exhibitions, some permanent and some temporary, so there is always something new to look at. The entry fee is also fairly reasonable. At the time of our visit It was € 6,00 for adults and € 3,00 for children. We were very lucky that day as it was a fairly warm day and we had the Museon almost completely to ourselves! And what I was very pleased to see was that there were translations written in english throughout.
Name of exhibition: Test pilots (m/f) sought
This temporary exhibition, which runs until 28 August 2005, was the most interactive part of the Museon where you can learn everything about the physics of flight.
Here I am trying to 'fly' a miniature plane. A lot of air was blowing and by getting the angle of the wings just right would create uplift. Any more wind and I think Julian would have 'taken off' too!
The inside of a jet engine
I was just reading the instructions for operating this contraption when all of a sudden this girl popped out of nowhere, sat me down and strapped me in before I could talk myself out of it! What you have to do is pedal very slowly at first while the machine balances your weight and then you have to pedal very quickly to make the seat lift to the top. All I succeded in doing was making myself look like an idiot. Julian managed with no difficulty at all - well perhaps just a little!
A real plane you were allowed to sit in
Julian sat in this cockpit and flew the plane! Well simulated flying anyway. There was a very large screen out in front and the challenge was to land the plane safely. No Julian, I don't think a nosedive could be considered as landing it safely!
Julian and I both did some tests to see if we could become a pilot! First we sat in front of a small camera which took our picture and then printed out a 'flying licence' which we could then use to mark down our scores as we did each test.
There were five tests for such things as normal vision, colour blindness, co-ordination and stereo vision. I have bad eyesight in one eye so I really didn't do good on some of them. However, it does say on the back of my 'flying licence', "Don't take these tests too seriously; you may be suitable to be a pilot even if the tests showed otherwise". Phew, my flying career is not over then!
