"Regnirps" wrote in message
...
My old stomping grounds. Your C-141 looks like the old Kuiper infrared
observatory. A school chum of mine spent thousands of hours on that thing
chasing eclipses and such all over the word.

Does the NASA U-2 still take off every morning? It must be a lot quiter at
the
golf course without the Orions coming in overhead.

-- Charlie Springer

I recall the day I was out running on the Palo Alto baylands and stopped
to watch the U-2 take off from Moffet about three miles away. The tiny
spec disappeared from my view directly overhead. Clear sky.
Several years earlier I lived under the landing pattern of those Orions
and they could be very quiet when they wanted them to be, but they
sure screwed up the TV picture. Then there were the night sounds.
I've heard several people comment about the different sounding
aircraft at night that they never heard or saw in daylight. Again, when
out running the baylands but just across the creek from Moffet, I heard
one of those night sounds, but in broad daylight. I stopped to watch.
Coming toward me was a twin propeller aircraft, but those blades
seemed unusually large. After it passed overhead and was over Moffet
it made it's change and landed. First time I had ever seen an Osprey.

Just by chance, before bringing up newsnet, I tuned in WCT201,
1700 on your AM radio dial. A canned announcement listing all of
the AMES Center gates and the hours they are open under the
present Homeland Security Threat Level Yellow.

JK