Endeavour Flyover...

Oct. 16th, 2012 07:20 pm
senoritafish: (dreams on a 'chovie can)
(Backdated post - occurred 9/28 - it's now 10/16 and I never posted this to LJ)

I went out the docks Friday morning with one of our new scientific aides, who's still being checked off; while heading to San Pedro, he mentioned, "Mostly just squid's coming in - we'll probably be back before the Shuttle flyby at 11:00."  He pointed out the Queen Mary as we passed, and remarked that she was supposed to be one of the flyover points.  Sure enough, we collected our squid and were heading back to the office by 8:30.  I checked the LA Times website and noted she was also supposed to fly along the beach in Huntington Beach (where I live) as well, on the way to Long Beach and to LAX.

Drove home to get the big camera, called runsamuck to see if he wanted to go along, collected him and went down to the beach, about a mile away from home. Very hazy and warm - runsamuck was a bit cranky from the heat and tired from working graveyard. Lots of people already there waiting, consulting phones calling people in the flyway, checking progress of the shuttle. Someone told us they thought it’d be an hour - she was supposed to fly over Disneyland, then head to the coast and fly north along the beach, back to Long Beach and the Queen Mary, thence to LAX.

IMG_2784
Hundreds of people along beach and lining the pier

After a good long while, finally we heard shouts of “I hear it!” but the noise was coming from behind us. We looked the opposite direction and just barely caught sight of her and the fighter escorts between a few of the houses across the street.



shuttlebox
Original shot...

shuttlecrop
Zoomed in from the original shot..

shuttlecrop2
Extreme zoom...


There was a lot of babble around us, one guy had some binoculars and swore he’d seen them turn south over the ocean and they were coming back around again, but after waiting another 10 minutes or so, it was obvious it was not so. Apparently they’d felt they were running behind and cut short the southerly leg, opting to fly straight from Dismalland, over the Boeing (formerly McDonnell-Douglas) plant in the north part of HB, across the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station to the Seal Beach Boeing plant (which used to be Rockwell International when my dad worked there), Long Beach and LAX.




Ah well. Do I get one of those “I Tried” stickers?



Gareth and Avalon's school a few blocks away let everyone out onto the lawn in hopes of seeing Endeavour, but unfortunately, the planes all flew behind some trees. G. was extremely disappointed.

Angus however, was lucky. The Shuttle flew right over his high school. This video, apparently by one of the teachers there, was taken right outside his classrooms!

  • Current Mood: excited, yet sad
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Sep. 13th, 2009 05:43 pm
senoritafish: (Sparkledork!)
IMG_2205

Off to Foster City for work on a Sunday morning. :p I got a cuppa at the airport Starbucks after I found out the flight was delayed for two hours (fog at the San Francisco end). There are a few more waymarks here I thought I'd document while I was waiting; this is a restaurant in the category of "Googie Architechture," (50's-modern style, with boomerang shapes, satellite decorations, vaulted roofs, etc.) I noticed this little detail over the bar is only visible from a few angles. Unfortunately, when I was trying to take this picture, I knocked over my coffee, which did not make me happy. The guy at Starbucks very kindly gave me a new cup.

Oasis Grill and Sky Lounge
John Wayne Airport
Santa Ana CA
13 September 2009

( I liked this jacket worn by a person on my flight. )
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(no subject)

Sep. 13th, 2009 05:43 pm
senoritafish: (Sparkledork!)
IMG_2205

Off to Foster City for work on a Sunday morning. :p I got a cuppa at the airport Starbucks after I found out the flight was delayed for two hours (fog at the San Francisco end). There are a few more waymarks here I thought I'd document while I was waiting; this is a restaurant in the category of "Googie Architechture," (50's-modern style, with boomerang shapes, satellite decorations, vaulted roofs, etc.) I noticed this little detail over the bar is only visible from a few angles. Unfortunately, when I was trying to take this picture, I knocked over my coffee, which did not make me happy. The guy at Starbucks very kindly gave me a new cup.

Oasis Grill and Sky Lounge
John Wayne Airport
Santa Ana CA
13 September 2009

( I liked this jacket worn by a person on my flight. )
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Airborne mysteries...

Oct. 11th, 2002 08:49 pm
senoritafish: (Default)
As I was finishing the last entry, I suddenly started hearing jet engines. My office is right next to the Los Alamitos National Guard Air Base; a month or two ago we saw Shrub's plane parked over there all afternoon (if you remember I posted a picture about it). This sounded like multiple planes taking off and the noise just kept on going. I turned off my computer, covered it up for the weekend and went downstairs; I met M. in the hallway and mentioned "what's the deal with the jets?" She morsely mumbled something about WW III starting and went back upstairs. I headed out to the parking lot, looking for the planes as I went. It turned out there was only one, flying around in a circle, at what must have been an excrutiatingly slow speed for an F15. I stood watching it, and a car pulled up and parked - an older man got out and started watching, too.

"How long has he been doing that?" he asked.

"I dunno- that his third time around since I've been watching," I replied.

He told me he had been driving down the 405 and thought it might be interesting to see it land, but here it was just going around in circles.

The jet made one more circle and once again flew parallel to the runway, but several hundred feet up. As it passed over the end of the runway, the pilot must have hit the throttle; I saw a burst of exhaust, the roar suddenly increased in volume, and the plane leaped away as though stung, heading southwest. Probably halfway to San Clemente Island or some aircraft carrier out at sea before I pulled out the parking lot.

As I headed toward down the road, I noticed another F15 sitting on the runway, canopy open with two neon yellow fire trucks sitting beside it. The airborne bird's wounded comrade?

As I write this, I remember that shortly before all the jet noise, there was a loud bang that rattled all the windows. V. speculated a duck had hit the glass again, but I noticed the local murder of crows had all taken off as though alarmed. Maybe it was a sonic boom from one of those planes.

So, are we at war yet?
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  • Current Music: Courage the Cowardly Dog
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Airborne mysteries...

Oct. 11th, 2002 08:49 pm
senoritafish: (Default)
As I was finishing the last entry, I suddenly started hearing jet engines. My office is right next to the Los Alamitos National Guard Air Base; a month or two ago we saw Shrub's plane parked over there all afternoon (if you remember I posted a picture about it). This sounded like multiple planes taking off and the noise just kept on going. I turned off my computer, covered it up for the weekend and went downstairs; I met M. in the hallway and mentioned "what's the deal with the jets?" She morsely mumbled something about WW III starting and went back upstairs. I headed out to the parking lot, looking for the planes as I went. It turned out there was only one, flying around in a circle, at what must have been an excrutiatingly slow speed for an F15. I stood watching it, and a car pulled up and parked - an older man got out and started watching, too.

"How long has he been doing that?" he asked.

"I dunno- that his third time around since I've been watching," I replied.

He told me he had been driving down the 405 and thought it might be interesting to see it land, but here it was just going around in circles.

The jet made one more circle and once again flew parallel to the runway, but several hundred feet up. As it passed over the end of the runway, the pilot must have hit the throttle; I saw a burst of exhaust, the roar suddenly increased in volume, and the plane leaped away as though stung, heading southwest. Probably halfway to San Clemente Island or some aircraft carrier out at sea before I pulled out the parking lot.

As I headed toward down the road, I noticed another F15 sitting on the runway, canopy open with two neon yellow fire trucks sitting beside it. The airborne bird's wounded comrade?

As I write this, I remember that shortly before all the jet noise, there was a loud bang that rattled all the windows. V. speculated a duck had hit the glass again, but I noticed the local murder of crows had all taken off as though alarmed. Maybe it was a sonic boom from one of those planes.

So, are we at war yet?
  • Current Mood: anxious
  • Current Music: Courage the Cowardly Dog
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Randomness on a recent trip to Sacramento

Sep. 28th, 2002 12:54 am
senoritafish: (easilydistracted)
- on the back of a Southwest Airlines packet of peanuts -
"Produced in a facility that processes peanuts and other nuts."

Hmm, ya think?

-A recent issue of Style magazine weighs about 5 lbs., has about 600 pages, which apparently about 200 of which are actual articles. (I seldom read this type of magazine so I was just curious)

- a glass of Fetzer Merlot (~4 oz.) costs $8.79 at the San Francisco Airport.

- Removing your earrings, barrettes and changes from your pockets before going through the airport metal detector will guarantee that you will be the random passenger searched before your flight (4x on a round trip between OC and Sacramento). Spread 'em and take off your shoes, please!

- On the shuttle between the car rental and the terminal, there was a doppleganger of my colleague D. in La Jolla - except he was a foot taller and more neatly groomed.
  • Current Mood: back home
  • Current Music: John Mayer - City Love
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Randomness on a recent trip to Sacramento

Sep. 28th, 2002 12:54 am
senoritafish: (easilydistracted)
- on the back of a Southwest Airlines packet of peanuts -
"Produced in a facility that processes peanuts and other nuts."

Hmm, ya think?

-A recent issue of Style magazine weighs about 5 lbs., has about 600 pages, which apparently about 200 of which are actual articles. (I seldom read this type of magazine so I was just curious)

- a glass of Fetzer Merlot (~4 oz.) costs $8.79 at the San Francisco Airport.

- Removing your earrings, barrettes and changes from your pockets before going through the airport metal detector will guarantee that you will be the random passenger searched before your flight (4x on a round trip between OC and Sacramento). Spread 'em and take off your shoes, please!

- On the shuttle between the car rental and the terminal, there was a doppleganger of my colleague D. in La Jolla - except he was a foot taller and more neatly groomed.
  • Current Mood: back home
  • Current Music: John Mayer - City Love
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Shrub within spittin' distance

Aug. 26th, 2002 10:23 pm
senoritafish: (Default)
Yes, that was Air Force One a couple of entries ago; I got one comment on [livejournal.com profile] oc that someone got a 404, but others could, so I don't know what CompuServe is doing. At lunch, M. was showing us her new hybrid Civic, and we noticed a cop in our parking lot near the fence. We thought that was a little strange, but didn't think any more of it. Later, I was sitting at my desk and thought I heard a jet, somewhat unusual, since the National Guard base we overlook is more host to helicopters of various agencies which seem to do training there. Not unheard of since there is the occasional C5 transport flying in and out. A few minutes later, I stood up to stretch, and noticed a jet parked in of the control tower. "That's a 747," I remarked, somewhat mystified - there are never passenger-type planes over there. S. remarked, "Is it Air Force One?" "Nah," I said, then I pulled my binoculars out of my backpack, and sure enough, the plane was blue and white, and said United States of America along the side. This caused a bit of excitement, not necessarily for its passenger, but just because it's a famous plane. Several people came indoors, and said FBI or Secret Service had told them to get out of the parking lot, and someone came into licensing and told them "Keep your people inside and we mean it." Come on, we're a state agency, we're supposed to be carrying guns around?! Well, some of us do, but they're enforcement as well.

Shrub left by helicopter to wherever he was going, fundraising for whoever the Republicans are fronting for governor, and didn't leave until the next morning. So you could've seen The Plane sitting there all evening until yesterday morning if you drove down Lampson to Seal Beach Blvd.
  • Current Mood: bored by now
  • Current Music: ad for "Legendary Orchestras" - Canadian Sunset, anyone?
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Shrub within spittin' distance

Aug. 26th, 2002 10:23 pm
senoritafish: (Default)
Yes, that was Air Force One a couple of entries ago; I got one comment on [livejournal.com profile] oc that someone got a 404, but others could, so I don't know what CompuServe is doing. At lunch, M. was showing us her new hybrid Civic, and we noticed a cop in our parking lot near the fence. We thought that was a little strange, but didn't think any more of it. Later, I was sitting at my desk and thought I heard a jet, somewhat unusual, since the National Guard base we overlook is more host to helicopters of various agencies which seem to do training there. Not unheard of since there is the occasional C5 transport flying in and out. A few minutes later, I stood up to stretch, and noticed a jet parked in of the control tower. "That's a 747," I remarked, somewhat mystified - there are never passenger-type planes over there. S. remarked, "Is it Air Force One?" "Nah," I said, then I pulled my binoculars out of my backpack, and sure enough, the plane was blue and white, and said United States of America along the side. This caused a bit of excitement, not necessarily for its passenger, but just because it's a famous plane. Several people came indoors, and said FBI or Secret Service had told them to get out of the parking lot, and someone came into licensing and told them "Keep your people inside and we mean it." Come on, we're a state agency, we're supposed to be carrying guns around?! Well, some of us do, but they're enforcement as well.

Shrub left by helicopter to wherever he was going, fundraising for whoever the Republicans are fronting for governor, and didn't leave until the next morning. So you could've seen The Plane sitting there all evening until yesterday morning if you drove down Lampson to Seal Beach Blvd.
  • Current Mood: bored by now
  • Current Music: ad for "Legendary Orchestras" - Canadian Sunset, anyone?
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