MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 57,819
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
Air Command on wild fires circle for hours, although they follow the perimeters of the fire. Very common to see a similar pattern though on the big fires we have out west.How'd you like to be the pilot covering a college football game?
I'd get sick.
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We drive down I-80 nearly weekly between home and ranch. More often than not we see huge aircraft heading east from Travis AFB (@ Fairfield) at moderate altitude then make a U-turn within 10~20 miles. Sometimes turning over Travis and repeating the same pattern. Never reaching cruise altitude. This has to be crew keeping up their flight hours, no?We get all kinds of interesting aircraft with odd names, as well as no name, in the greater Sacramento, Ca region.
... Travis AFB is just to the west; lots of activity there. A lot of Heavies like C5, C17 fly out of there.
You know, it really is a small world.We drive down I-80 nearly weekly between home and ranch. More often than not we see huge aircraft heading east from Travis AFB (@ Fairfield) at moderate altitude then make a U-turn within 10~20 miles. Sometimes turning over Travis and repeating the same pattern. Never reaching cruise altitude. This has to be crew keeping up their flight hours, no?
Yes, they're staying proficient. Grissom Air Reserve Base (used to be Bunker Hill) in Peru, IN had a bunch of B-58 Hustlers, and KC-135 tankers when I was a kid. A-10s for a while, now it's air force reserve base with the largest group of KC-135s in the reserves. It's quit common to see them doing touch and goes for hours down there. Just flying endless ovals. Once in a while they'll fly up here and do approaches over and over. What's interesting about those is that they'll do them from all directions, I'm guessing to get proficient at different wind conditions. Headwind, tailwind, left and right crosswind. They only have 1 runway at Grissom, and here we have two at 90 degree angles, so they can get all of the experiences in one session and we're only about 70 miles north, and not as busy as Chicago or Indy.We drive down I-80 nearly weekly between home and ranch. More often than not we see huge aircraft heading east from Travis AFB (@ Fairfield) at moderate altitude then make a U-turn within 10~20 miles. Sometimes turning over Travis and repeating the same pattern. Never reaching cruise altitude. This has to be crew keeping up their flight hours, no?
There was one of those used in the movie Wind, with Mathew Modine and Jennifer Gray.These are odd sounding birds as well. Pusher prop. Just heard this one while out in the yard.
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Piaggio P.180 Avanti - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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Yes. I saw the first one that was made. I knew a man that did a lot of the design on the props and wings. He lived here in South Bend and they flew him here in it. I met him when I worked at the airport in the late 70's-late 80's. When he heard my last name, which is quite unique, he asked if I was related to XXXXXX, and I said yes. He started laughing and told me his mom and my grandmother were 1st cousins. Part of his compensation for his work on the Starship was they gave him a Duchess, which I cared for for several years.There was one of those used in the movie Wind, with Mathew Modine and Jennifer Gray.
Cool movie about the Americas Cup sailboats.
Ever see a Beech Starship?
There used to be one based at Muncie.
Beech eventually bought all of them back, except for one or two that the owners wouldn't let go of.