Warbird Information Exchange

Actually one is arriving and the crew is taking another one away. If you are in the Long Beach area today you might want to check it out.

'will be louder than typical airplanes....' now THAT is a classically monumental understatement, the neighbors will LOVE it!!

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Many of the neighbors are surprised to learn that there has been an airport in this location since the 1920s.

Yes it is. I remember when some puny Butter Bar getting ready to graduate from MQT at Dyess thought it'd be a great thing to bring one up to Denver International for one of his cross-countries. They put him out on 35R, and it was fully rattling the windows at the Signature building over 1.5 miles away when he lit full afterburner on departure. It was pretty cool.

Sorry for the false alarm, today's arrival and departure seems to be cancelled due to unusual weather- i.e. there is a cloud in the sky.

And what was your final USAF rank?

Really, they weren't that bad. I was at Dyess for about 7 yaers, and hey would set off a car alarm near the flightine on takeoff, but not bad at 1.5 miles....unless you compare it to a late model 737.
Still, it's less annoying than a Cessna 185.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

Funny thing is, the COANG guys (who were staying at the South DeIce pad at the time while they finished repaving Buckley's runway) were the ones who called him "puny" because he was using such a big runway for 1 touch-and-go. They said something about "no guts to try Cheyenne" or something to that effect. I actually loved it because it was the first really interesting visitor we'd had in a while since I'd gotten used to seeing the AN-124's coming in for LocoWeed and the Algerian IL-76's annual trip in to pick up flash-bangs and stuff.

Reminded me of a story I emailed home from the desert a couple years ago. I looked it up to share it with you guys:

Here's a neat one. We're coming in from a mission in the middle of the night. The goggles have long been back in their cases; our runway is lit well and it should be a plain jane night visual approach.

My copilot is flying and turns final at about 6 miles. Tower calls us and asks if we can slow to minimum speed to permit a departure. Sure we can - in fact, flying slow is right up our alley. I see some strobe lights in the hammerhead; another airplane is in fact awaiting departure. Tower is normally kinda stingy with spacing, so I'm guessing this airplane must have some priority.

The strobes slowly roll out onto the runway and sit. Each passing second we are getting closer. The guy has been cleared for takeoff but, so far, I see no movement. Then a light. A BIG light. Like a cluster of stadium lights. BRIGHT. A blossom of blue-white flame bigger than a downtown bus. What-the? Oh, I know, it's a B-1 and he just lit all four of his afterburners.

The B-1 starts his roll and it looks like a kid on a bike could pedal faster. He must be real heavy. My copilot is getting a tad antsy and wondering aloud if we need to go around. Just a moment, I say. With four big motors pushing out who knows how many kajillion pounds of thrust, I'm guessing the Bone (B-One's nickname) is, as they say in the South, fixin to get gone. I do concede that if the Bone aborts to be ready to offset and go around, but, to be honest I was just tickled at the view.

I wish words could convey the sight. We're talking the back end of Han Solo's Millenium Falcon and every Cylon fighter you've ever seen on TV. The 4 motors sit side by side, so the flame, as we get closer, takes on an almost rectangular/oval shape. If I were telling you in person I'd join my fingertips as if holding an imaginary set of binoculars to describe it.

Indeed, the Bone really accelerates, picks up speed and lifts off. We slip in behind and land. I speculate aloud how much air has been stirred up in the touchdown zone. There's a slight burble at 50 feet, but our landing is normal. Looking out ahead, I can still see the blob of flame jetting out into the night on a trajectory like a javelin. They seem to stay in burner forever. It's a teenie bit orange, slightly more blue, but mostly white-hot light. Pretty darn cool, (no inverse pun intended). I can't decide if I've just seen an airplane takeoff or a moon shot.

And I wonder who was on the receiving end of that payload; they don't fly those things around for show, you know.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

For my B-1 flight we were light and it did accelerate very quickly...though it climbed out with less drama than a 727.

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

For me, the only thing that beat seeing the B-1B (although it was at midday) was coming into work early one April morning in 2003 with the typical Denver fog. I look out on the ramp and see a pair of red lights flashing in the distance. I think it's strange because I don't remember a tower in that location with white beacons on it. I ask the other guy in the line office if he knows what it is and he agrees, someone must've just lit up a new tower out there or finally fixed some lights that weren't working (there were several towers like that SE of DEN). So we think nothing of it, but for some reason, my eyes keep getting drawn back to the lights. After about 10 minutes, several white lights suddenly pop on out of nothing. First, two widely spaced ones, then another, lower and between the other two. That one told me what it was. It was the Volga-Dnper AN-124 leaving for Kennedy Space Center. They'd been sitting out on 35L doing their departure checks (as they always did, but usually on 35R to stay out of everyone's way when it was during the day). The red beacons switched to white, and the wingtip strobes popped on, now making me notice that little green light that'd been on the whole time. The big monstrosity then lumbered down the runway without a whole ton of sound (they're significantly quieter than the C-5 and not much louder than a 747-200) and disappeared into the early morning darkness. Everyone in the line office just stood around speechless for about 3 or 4 minutes after that. It was just one of those really cool moments that reminds you why being in the industry can be so fun.

Looks like the arrival has now been rescheduled:

AND????????? Inquiring knows want to mind

_________________
Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

It departed at 11:52 AM, late as these things usually are! Didn't actually see it, but heard it from inside the orifice.