Moose135

Let me know when you're visiting and I'll try to meet you there.

Yes, that's the Carolinas Aviation Museum. They have a nice facility - although I haven't been there since they did a major renovation a couple of years ago. Outside, as you can see, they have a DC-7 - that's the one out of Florida, it had been operating, and actually had an engine problem while at CLT. It's parked at the museum waiting funding for a new engine. They also have the final Delta (former NW) DC-9, a C-130 from the local guard unit, and various fighters. Inside, they have the US Airways A320 that went down in the Hudson River, along with a bunch of other aircraft.

Enjoy them while you can, Dylan - almost all of them are going away. In fact, the two "American" jets in the post were US Airways jets that have been repainted. Love the shots of the Mosquito!

Spent a little time at the new hourly parking deck at CLT to catch some 36R departures. Maybe the new "signature shot" for CLT?

I don't know that it's a formal program, but there have always been "backseaters" who have been selected for UPT. My class leader back in 1983-84 had been a B-52 navigator, and I know there were one or two others in my class. It's certainly a possibility.

I caught the first PSA CRJ-200 to get new AA colors at CLT today.

50? Man, I have underwear older than that... :wacko:

The Donald was in town today to speak at some business convention. I caught him here two years ago for the same convention - it was snowing here that day! This year, the snow isn't due until Monday night... Insel operates a weekly flight on Saturdays, although times seem to be more of a "suggestion" than a schedule... Finally! This was the only US special scheme I hadn't shot already. Now it will be here every day... NC ANG C-130 arriving on 18L US Airways Heritage scheme A321 Who knew CLT had a Space Shuttle spotting area? I'm still not a fan of the new AA colors,

Airbus no longer offers the A340 as a new build aircraft, not that it would be an option in any case.

I'm betting you saw an EA-6B - the A-6 is retired.

Variations on US Airways Heritage schemes Iberia A340 laying down chemtrails over Charlotte... ;-)

I love the description: This is a scale figure for scale model vehicles. It is not a real dog.

Took a road trip over the MLK weekend... Jacksonville, FL Tybee Island Lighthouse, on the coast outside of Savannah, GA

A Giant arrives in CLT. Atlas Air 744 passenger jet arrives from Cancun Monday afternoon. It flew from CLT to CUN on a charter Friday morning. We get Atlas freighters in from time to time, but it's rare to see one of their few pax 747s here. Challenger 300 owned by a manufacturing firm in Memphis.

What a ridiculous article: The speed of sound has nothing to do with ground speed - they were most likely flying somewhere around the typical cruise speed of 0.84 Mach, not even close to being supersonic.

RIP... And to bring this around to model building - Taylor co-starred in the series "Bearcats!" in the early 1970s. MPC put out a 1/25 scale model of the Stutz Bearcat as a tie in to the show. In a box somewhere, I probably still have what's left of the kit I built back then.

I found the write up on the incident that I alluded to earlier - someone had shared it from an internal AA/US employee site. The incident happened at 5am, in the dark - they were looking for an aircraft they were scheduled to service, and in keeping with their standard practice, pointed the truck towards the aircraft so the headlights would illuminate the number on the nose gear door. This wasn't the aircraft they were supposed to service, so he continued down the line, however he failed to allow proper clearance when passing this aircraft. Everything I've read (from legitimate sources) say

That actually happened about a month ago down here in Charlotte. It was on the ramp outside the US Airways maintenance hangar, and happened at night. Shortly after it happened, I saw photos and a diagram of how it happened (which I can't find now...) As I remember, there were a line of aircraft on the ramp, the truck was driving from one to another, and his headlights didn't pick up the A330 that he ran into. Despite what the title says, the airplane isn't 3 months old, it was delivered in October 2013, is worth much more than $30 million, and is expected to be repaired.

He has some very interesting stuff, and I've been tempted to order a few sheets from him. I'd heard it's not something you want to if you are on a deadline to finish a model, and I'm not, but a four-year wait? That's crazy!

First day of the year, and the first spotting visit to CLT brought big results. Three of the US Airways heritage jets, now with AA titles. America West was also there today, but sneaked out on a different runway. PSA is getting a bunch of these new CRJ-900s, and we are seeing them at CLT. The highlight of the day - the US Airways Nevada scheme. I've been chasing this for a while, and it has managed to elude me until today.

Last spotting trip of the year on New Year's Eve. I had to wait until sunset, but I caught the new US Airways Heritage jet. It's the current US colors with AA titles added, on N578UW, the last A321 delivered in US colors earlier this year. Looks like the Google Street View car paid a visit to the overview. I'll have to look for myself there in the future!

Very nice - too bad you had to endure bagpipe "music" to catch those! <_<

Probably the same thing that would happen today if you had a boom malfunction - or any one of a hundred other malfunctions - on the way to the rendezvous.

Just about... ;-) I have refueled them off the back of the KC-135, but airspeed is an issue. I don't have my old A/R manual handy, but I think we refueled them at 220 knots (it's been 25+ years...) and if we were too heavy, we couldn't safely fly that slow. For a comparison, B-52s and cargo jets were in the 255-275 range, and fighters could be up over 300 knots.

Thank you very much! It was 60 degrees today - yes, as a New Yorker, 60 degrees two days after Christmas doesn't make sense to me either - and I spent a few hours out at the overview. While we get Republic E-170s as US Airways Express all day long, we only get mainline US Airways E-190s on Saturdays, and they usually end up on Runway 23, so I was happy to catch one on 18C. FRG fans will recognize this bird - it used to run the Atlantic City charter flights, operated by Charter Air Transport. It now operates under their Via Air subsidiary, offering daily service between CLT and Beck