Unless you're raising a rhetorical point the quesiton is - to most I would supppose - obvious. Training.
Aircrews do this on a regular basis but they don't always fly over the same locations. Why in the middle of nowhwere? Because there aren't as many people around to complain. Or - if you are bloody minded - not as many people to get hurt if they plow into the ground.
Shuttle is carried around by a modified 747, however, not a C-5.
Culvert actions are a drain on democracy.
Go click on the web site I provided. It shows a photo of one of these monsters carrying the Space Shuttle.
Ha.
As for my story, I dodged death once. They annoy me, like lightning bolts, I grit my teeth around these sorts of events.
Go click on the web site I provided. It shows a photo of one of these monsters carrying the Space Shuttle.
If you are talking about the fas.org site .. I looked. Nary a Shuttle did I spy. Shuttle is a big thing, white, with wings. Has the word "NASA" stampted on it, in places.
For Brian - here's another site re the C-5 :
http://www.vectorsite.net/avc5.html
From that site :
Two C-5As were modified for NASA to carry space shuttle payload bay container cargoes, and were given the new designation of "C-5C". They are also known as the "Space Container Transport System (SCTS)", "Space Container Modifications (SCM)", "SCM Birds", or "Scum Birds". They are flown by Air Force crews but under NASA's operational control, and the USAF has to ask NASA for permission to use them for non-NASA-related missions. They are also rumored to be used for ferrying top-secret cargoes to isolated bases for testing, but of course the government has no comment on such matters.
Further, for comparison I looked up the stats for the 747, which you can find here : http://flyaow.com/planes/
744airc...cifications.htm
You will note that the C5-B has both greater wingspan and length.
And a space shuttle payload bay container is not the space shuttle.
The site I linked clearly shows the picture of the time they used it to haul the Space Shuttle on top just like they do with the other, smaller 747.
Gads. They didn't have the Shuttle piggy back when they nearly flew into my house that day. Thank god.
The site I linked clearly shows the picture of the time they used it to haul the Space Shuttle on top just like they do with the other, smaller 747.
Clearly you are seeing something I am not. I'd love to see those pictures, truly.
I know how you feel.
I live on St. Simons Island of the coast of Georgia. When Bush brought his traveling police state down here for the G-8, in June of 2004, we had to endure three months of low-flying, military air craft, over our houses in the middle of the night and all day as well.
We were also treated to the site of anti-aircraft artillary, bristling everywhere. The causeway and series of bridges leading from the mainland to the island were rigged with explosives, just in case.
Meanwhile, the local residents and business owners were being whipped up into a fever pitch of fear and loathing for protesters of any kind. The weekend before Bush and the foreign dignataries were to arrive, there was a full-scale, mass, voluntary evacuation. Even Hurricane Floyd did not instill that kind of fear in the people.
Here is the real kicker. Because it was a given that businesses would be extremely hurt by having the G-8 here (like landscape companies and others who would not be allowed to cross the bridge at all, at various times during the day, because of security concerns) and that those "evil" protesters would, no doubt, create such havoc that no one would be out and about much to shop in their stores or do much business, period, the State of Georgia promised that businesses would be reimbursed for some of their losses
Well, that never happened, and it never will.
As a Vietnam Vet, I cannot possibly explain what it did to me when I was literally rattled from my bed around midnight by a black hawk copter that seemd to damned near land on my roof. Suffice it to say that I was out of my bed, standing with a service revolver in my hand, not sure where I was or what decade I was in. I thought I had put those demons to rest long ago, and with alot of work. I guess some demons just will never completely be gone.
It caused me to wonder about other vets, and how they are doing. I reached out and found that many are hanging on by their fingernails, have started drinking again, after years of sobriety, mainly just to get to sleep, have returned to psychiatric care (thank God), or have resorted to other old coping mechanisms, some of which killed many of our generation of soldiers long ago.
My sanity would be a sacrifice I would glady make for my country if it was really warranted, but it isn't; just as it wasn't 35 years ago.
The C5, while very large, isn't the largest in the world. Most observers think this one is.
From the link, it looks like a couple of C5 squadrons are based pretty close to you, so it's not surprising you'd see them around.
As to why - I bet they're saying, "Hey - let's go see if the cute chick on the mountain is around!"
The C5 has never been used to transport the Shuttle Piggy back. You probably saw a picture of the Soviet era BURAN on it's AN-225 Transport
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/
rsa...buran_an225.jpg
A C-130 at 1500'? That's not low level for them.
Be thankful you don't live around a Brit training area. To them the difference between low level flight and high speed taxi is whether or not they have their landing gear down.
I lived by Davis Monthan for years and years.
They plowed a military jet right into my front yard.
Six people died on the ground, mostly in cars.
Scary as all hell.
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