The Starport Dive

[Thumper]

I used to take B-1 students up there for Touch and Goes.

I mistook CSM for the Command Center.

[joertexas]

I used to take B-1 students up there for Touch and Goes.

I mistook CSM for the Command Center.

I've never worked a BONE, but I did see a lot of C-5s, C-141s, T-38s, T-37s, and whatever the FAA had at Will Rogers. We'd also get the odd airliner training flight and a smattering of GA aircraft. At one point, we had a non-radar approach control until ZFW took it over and ran it as one-in, one-out. I was the last FAA controller out of there in early 1991 before they went to contract controllers. We also got to drive on that police course they talk about on the website. That was a lot of fun.

[Thumper]

Oh cool! So you’re a tactical driver! That must’ve been a blast!

I started going there in 1994. Never a noise complaint, even training at night, long fat runway, and a couple of approaches each direction. It was very suited to Bone training needs

[joertexas]

Oh cool! So you’re a tactical driver! That must’ve been a blast!

I started going there in 1994. Never a noise complaint, even training at night, long fat runway, and a couple of approaches each direction. It was very suited to Bone training needs

I'm a civilian who will never even consider running from the cops The instructor did say I did pretty good for a civilian, though, and yeah it was fun.

I always thought the FAA should have installed a new tower with radar, and run all of their terminal specialty Academy grads through it before sending them elsewhere. Everyone was training, so sending someone around wasn't a big deal, and there were all types of aircraft to mix together. It would have been perfect. They could have hit up DoD and even some airlines for a lot of the improvement costs, and DoD was already chipping in for our salaries and the ARFF guys.

The place is in the middle of nowhere, but it was a blast to work there. We had weekends off, and we all worked the one shift. We were all young, so we got into trouble on occasion, like when we had a T-38 buzz the tower. He made a low approach to 35R, and lit the burners on go-around. He came out of AB at the last second, blasted by the tower at our cab height, and pitched up in a 4g climb. No one on the ground saw him, but everyone in the facility sure heard him. The workers on the ground doing maintenance on the ramp were scared out of their minds. Our manager chewed us and the IP up and down, but it was totally worth it.

[Thumper]

Burner go arounds are common on the Bone. Normal ops and simulated engine out approaches.

Yeah, fly-bys are always fun…and a formula for getting in trouble. I’ve narrowly talked my way out of problems on several.

One was down Tiglath’s way. Eastborne Airshow in 2005. Operated out of the UK for several weeks worth of NATO exercises. Did airshows on the weekends. Flew high-speed around Beachy Head below the cliff line from the West of Eastborne, hit show center, hit burners and pulled up. Of course, with a steep climb angle and a relatively low altitude cap, I wasn’t doing an un-coordinated/anpproved aerobatic maneuver. “I was performing a nose-high recovery…see I momentarily stopped the roll in the inverted to pull the nose level to stay within your ridiculously low altitude cap. That wasn’t a real roll.”

The Sunday flyby (flown as scheduled by another crew) was much weaker.

Of course, for me, the best part of that flight was returning to base in East Anglia from Britain’s south coast via a passage at 500 feet over the Channel under London Airspace…went VFR and slow up the Cliffs of Dover. A tribute to those who fought before!

[joertexas]

Burner go arounds are common on the Bone. Normal ops and simulated engine out approaches.

Yeah, fly-bys are always fun…and a formula for getting in trouble. I’ve narrowly talked my way out of problems on several.

One was down Tiglath’s way. Eastborne Airshow in 2005. Operated out of the UK for several weeks worth of NATO exercises. Did airshows on the weekends. Flew high-speed around Beachy Head below the cliff line from the West of Eastborne, hit show center, hit burners and pulled up. Of course, with a steep climb angle and a relatively low altitude cap, I wasn’t doing an un-coordinated/anpproved aerobatic maneuver. “I was performing a nose-high recovery…see I momentarily stopped the roll in the inverted to pull the nose level to stay within your ridiculously low altitude cap. That wasn’t a real roll.”

The Sunday flyby (flown as scheduled by another crew) was much weaker.

Of course, for me, the best part of that flight was returning to base in East Anglia from Britain’s south coast via a passage at 500 feet over the Channel under London Airspace…went VFR and slow up the Cliffs of Dover. A tribute to those who fought before!

I'd like to see those cliffs from the air. They were a beacon to so many WWII pilots.

[Thumper]

Burner go arounds are common on the Bone. Normal ops and simulated engine out approaches.

Yeah, fly-bys are always fun…and a formula for getting in trouble. I’ve narrowly talked my way out of problems on several.

One was down Tiglath’s way. Eastborne Airshow in 2005. Operated out of the UK for several weeks worth of NATO exercises. Did airshows on the weekends. Flew high-speed around Beachy Head below the cliff line from the West of Eastborne, hit show center, hit burners and pulled up. Of course, with a steep climb angle and a relatively low altitude cap, I wasn’t doing an un-coordinated/anpproved aerobatic maneuver. “I was performing a nose-high recovery…see I momentarily stopped the roll in the inverted to pull the nose level to stay within your ridiculously low altitude cap. That wasn’t a real roll.”

The Sunday flyby (flown as scheduled by another crew) was much weaker.

Of course, for me, the best part of that flight was returning to base in East Anglia from Britain’s south coast via a passage at 500 feet over the Channel under London Airspace…went VFR and slow up the Cliffs of Dover. A tribute to those who fought before!

I'd like to see those cliffs from the air. They were a beacon to so many WWII pilots.

It felt the same to me as walking the beaches of Normandy or walking on "The Bridge Too Far" (visiting Arnhem, Holland- Operation Market Garden)

[joertexas]

It felt the same to me as walking the beaches of Normandy or walking on "The Bridge Too Far" (visiting Arnhem, Holland- Operation Market Garden)

I don't think I could do it. This might sound strange, but sometimes I can somehow sense where battles were fought. When I visited the Alamo for the first time, I knew exactly where the worst fighting had taken place before I saw the model they have depicting the final battle. Gettysburg was terrible for me, and I get the same feeling even looking at video of the Normandy beaches. My mother always said it was my Shawnee blood

[Tiglath]

I'm on the east coast but so far north that the cliffs are brown not white. Sunderland airshow was always a great spectacle as the public were atop the cliffs which meant the aircraft (safely operating over the sea) could get much closer thereby really giving folks a "front row seat" for the display.

Being one village in from the coast our back garden was on the flight path for aircraft performing fly pasts parallel to the coast / over the display area. So lovely views of the Red Arrows, Battle of Britain flight and good looking aircraft like the DC3. It's not until you've seen a Swordfish (size of a double decker bus and just about as fast) that you can truly appreciate the courage of the men who made wave top torpedo attacks in them.

[joertexas]

I'm on the east coast but so far north that the cliffs are brown not white. Sunderland airshow was always a great spectacle as the public were atop the cliffs which meant the aircraft (safely operating over the sea) could get much closer thereby really giving folks a "front row seat" for the display.

Being one village in from the coast our back garden was on the flight path for aircraft performing fly pasts parallel to the coast / over the display area. So lovely views of the Red Arrows, Battle of Britain flight and good looking aircraft like the DC3. It's not until you've seen a Swordfish (size of a double decker bus and just about as fast) that you can truly appreciate the courage of the men who made wave top torpedo attacks in them.

Learning to fly any aircraft safely is a challenge, much less flying a military type in combat. It's truly amazing what those men and women have accomplished.

[Thumper]

We owe that generation a lot!

I've never felt more alive than when my targets were shooting at me...one of us was going to die in the next two minutes. But that seems like a long time ago now. A game for young, brash, and brave men/women...like Growler

[Tiglath]

Heads Up/Advisory. I'll be less available Friday/Saturday but back with the usual disservice on Sunday.

Because: The Battle of the Herrings 1429. Aka an attempt by French and Scottish forces to intercept a supply convoy headed for the English army besieging Orléans.

It'll be like Ben Hur but with the chariots replaced (in glorious 3D 28mm) with... carts.

Carts filled with herrings and defended by English archers with steaks stakes... so medieval "surf n' turf"... ?

[ateno]

Heads Up/Advisory. I'll be less available Friday/Saturday but back with the usual disservice on Sunday.

Because: The Battle of the Herrings 1429. Aka an attempt by French and Scottish forces to intercept a supply convoy headed for the English army besieging Orléans.

It'll be like Ben Hur but with the chariots replaced (in glorious 3D 28mm) with... carts.

Carts filled with herrings and defended by English archers with steaks stakes... so medieval "surf n' turf"... ?

PM me come pictures please!

[Thumper]

Pics or it didn't happen!

[Tiglath]

The Herrings were saved!

Below English longbowmen backed by billmen stand ready to fight from their supply wagons.

Screenshot 2024-11-17 210521.png (1.36 MiB) Viewed 434 times

The Scots pikemen advance towards the gathering (arrow) storm.

Screenshot 2024-11-17 210934.png (1.62 MiB) Viewed 434 times

[terrymixon]

Very nice. Glad you had fun. Now get posting!

[terrymixon]

Garvin might want to hold into this for future reference.

http://www.shoestring-graphics.com/traveller/AlienSex/

[Tiglath]

Hold on - he hasn't worked his way through all of Humanity... yet!

[terrymixon]

Hold on - he hasn't worked his way through all of Humanity... yet!

Well, he was hitting on the Vargr host at the restaurant, so this was needed.

[helvorn]

Hold on - he hasn't worked his way through all of Humanity... yet!

Well, he was hitting on the Vargr host at the restaurant, so this was needed.

Just ask Dzofin!