PIREP: Flaming trails across the sky
Dylan Smith
Shuttle re-entry. The message said that it'd be visible over Houston at
10:04pm CDT, 17.5 degrees above the horizon to the north as seen from JSC.
I've never seen the shuttle before, so myself and two friends (Paul and
Jenny Reinman) went out in the club's Cessna 172 to get a better look. We
departed under the cover of darkness at 9:15 pm. I would fly the outbound
leg, and Paul would fly back home - so we'd be operating as a 2-pilot
operation.
Paul found out that over Conroe, the Shuttle would be nearer to 40 degrees
over the horizon. We flew up to the north side of Houston, climing to 10,500
feet - above the haze, and north of Houston. At around 10pm, we were over
the piney woods of east Texas, an enormous black hole at night, level at
10,500 - above the haze, with just the moon and hundreds of airliners to
keep us company. Scanning around the sky, we kept seeing lights we thought
might have been it, but weren't. And then it came. It was unmistakable.
It came out of the west, as a bright white trail going across the sky. It
was very impressive. We watched it tracking eastbound, towards Florida,
leaving a glowing white plasma trail as it re-entered the atmosphere. Paul
pressed the PTT and said 'Look! The Shuttle'. I think we were the first to
see it as airliners were asking 'where?'. The controller grumbled that he
was 'stuck in here and couldn't see it'. We watched in awe as it passed
overhead, and I turned our Skyhawk to follow as we watched it disappear over
the eastern horizon. The trail glowed for much longer than I expected - you
could see it go right from horizon to horizon (or in our case, until it
disappeared behind a cloud to the east).
We flew back to Houston Gulf. It was funny to think that the astronauts we
had just watched fly by had landed in Florida before our trusty Skyhawk
touched down on the other side of Houston.
--
Dylan Smith, Houston TX.
http://www.icct.net/~dyls
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"
Rick Miller
Must have been beautiful!
A few years ago, I was flying at night over NW Pennsylvania and saw a meteor zip
past. It was probably 50 miles away but the trail was very impressive -- but I
bet nothing like seeing the shuttle.
Rick
Hans-Georg Michna
>I got word from a friend who works across the road at JSC about the Space
>Shuttle re-entry. The message said that it'd be visible over Houston at
>10:04pm CDT, 17.5 degrees above the horizon to the north as seen from JSC.
>
>I've never seen the shuttle before, so myself and two friends (Paul and
>Jenny Reinman) went out in the club's Cessna 172 to get a better look. ...
Dylan,
thanks for sharing this! I liked to read it.
Hans-Georg
[No mail please]
Andrew Sarangan
>
>
> We flew back to Houston Gulf. It was funny to think that the astronauts we
> had just watched fly by had landed in Florida before our trusty Skyhawk
> touched down on the other side of Houston.
>
Great story. Once I went to watch a shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral. I
remember thinking on the way back that the shuttle would have already
made one orbit around the earth by the time we hit the highway.
--
Andrew Sarangan
CP-ASEL-IA
http://lights.chtm.unm.edu/~sarangan/aviation
Road Runner
Last night, knowing Columbia was due to land at 10:24pm CDT, I went in
the living room and turned on NASA TV on cable about 9:50pm. They
showed the graphic of the shuttle track moving east as it came out of
orbit and it was right over my house central Texas. I thought, hmmm, I
wonder
if we can see it. I walked outside and got the shock of my life. It
was a clear night and there was a huge bright contrail blazing across the
sky
like something out Armegeddon ! I think it was light up by the Half the
neighborhood was outside looking at it, and as it went down to the eastern
horizon, it started a right turn. The contrail went all the way from the
western to the eastern horizon. I
ran back inside and the track was over New Orleans headed into
Mississippi and turning right out over the Gulf, altitude 32 miles,
speed 4,900, making S turns to slow down. For the first time I've
ever seen, NASA TV showed the entire landing sequence all the way to
touchdown through HUD in the cockpit. You could clearly see the
lights of the city, the turn to final, the runway coming
into view, the HUD altitude rolling off, and the impossibly steep
approach to land. Amazing.
Road Runner
remove the "I think it was light up by the "