450knotOffice over Aspen, Co.

[slodave]

Scott sent a text the other day, letting me know that he was flying the LAX - DEN route, so last night, I drove to the ASE airport, grabbed the handheld radio and twice today we were able to chat for a few minutes as he was flying overhead. As he was heading back to LAX this afternoon, I was able to spot him and grab a pic. Really needed a tripod to get him in focus, but here he is....

A vapor trail in the empty air...

He was at about 35,000ft.

If I had known your schedule far enough in advance, I could have caught a ride home with you tomorrow. I probably would have, but I wanted to stay as long as I could.

I have not used this radio in years. I was really surprised at the clarity of our chat.

[enzo1]

Cool!

[tcar]

Is that a Lear?

Neat pic!

[MFAFF]

That's fantastic...

[Noah930]

Shouldn't he be going the other way? (Right to left?)

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Shouldn't he be going the other way? (Right to left?)

Just flip the image around 180 degrees...

[GH85Carrera]

Dave have you ever played with Flight Aware ?

FlightAware - Flight Tracker / Flight Status / Flight Tracking

If you know the tail number of any airplane or the flight number of a commercial flight you can track it live. Or you can see where they were in the past. It is a really cool site. When my wife flew commercial recentally I tracked her flight step by step. I knew just when to go to the airport to pick her up.

[Joeaksa]

Now you need a pic from him looking down!

You guys and your camera's!

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Now you need a pic from him looking down!

You guys and your camera's!

Ha ha. Won't he have to fly upside down to get that shot? The passengers will just LOVE that.

[Joeaksa]

A gentle bank to the right or left (half bank at that altitude I am assuming) would be fine...

[rattlsnak]

yeah, and we found out i was @ 10 minutes behind him on a smiliar route (although @8,000 ft higher).

tcar, Scott flies an ERJ.

[GH85Carrera]

I always loved this story of flying higher & faster.

The full story is here:

“ASPEN 20” – SR-71 – Groundspeed Check


The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot who asked Center for a read-out of his ground speed. Center replied: “November Charlie 175, I'm showing you at ninety knots on the ground.”

Now the thing to understand about Center controllers was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the "Houston Center voice." I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that and that they basically did. And it didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios. Just moments after the Cessna's inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed in Beech. “I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed.”

Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. “Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check.” Before Center could reply, I'm thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a read-out? Then I got it, ol' Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He's the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: “Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground.”

And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done - in mere seconds we'll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it - the click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: “Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?” There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. “Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground.”

[kevin993]

Way cool. Certainly makes the flying things less abstract when you know which bird it is and who is at the controls. When you get your pilot's license, you'll be dangerous.

[sammyg2]

Scott is a good guy.

this is what my brother flies:


He works for a really rich guy who leases three planes. my brother flies him and his friends around and runs the business that takes charter service to keep the other two busy and all three paid for.