{"id":88,"date":"2023-08-31T18:51:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T00:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/?p=88"},"modified":"2023-09-01T11:05:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T17:05:19","slug":"space-shuttles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/?p=88","title":{"rendered":"Space Shuttles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Space Shuttle Endeavour made its final trip across the U.S. in 2012 on top of a Boeing B747, with numerous stops and fly-by\u2019s at various points along the route. It\u2019s a sight to behold this marvel of NASA\u2019s technical accomplishments. It also reminded me of the time we encountered a Space Shuttle while flying a C-172.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"427\" height=\"324\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/shuttleb747.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/shuttleb747.png 427w, http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/shuttleb747-300x228.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 427px) 100vw, 427px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(NASA photo)<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My parents were in Houston for a visit. They hadn\u2019t flown with me much at that point, and I thought it would be fun to fly us all to San Antonio for the day \u2013 see the Riverwalk, remember the Alamo, eat some fajitas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>While westbound on V198 somewhere near SEEDS intersection, I heard ATC ask an airliner, \u201cWould you like to see a Space Shuttle?\u201d The airline pilot responded with a definite, \u201cSure!\u201d, and ATC gave him a 10 degree vector off course for a few moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"754\" height=\"285\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ifrsnip.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-90\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ifrsnip.png 754w, http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ifrsnip-300x113.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 754px) 100vw, 754px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>We were at 4000\u2032 on an IFR flight plan, but the weather was clear and beautiful. I asked my folks, \u201cDid you hear that? Keep your eyes open for a Space Shuttle!\u201d They looked at me with an expression that clearly said, \u201cHuh?\u201d I told them to keep their eyes open and pointed upwards and ahead.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-brown-color has-text-color\">Sure enough, a few seconds later I spotted a Space Shuttle ahead and perhaps a few thousand feet above us, flying eastbound on top of a B747. My passengers didn\u2019t see it right away, so I pointed to it. Then they said, \u201cWow!\u201d Plus some other questions about what it was doing up there. (I should have said, \u201cMaybe they went for fajitas too\u201d, but it didn\u2019t come to mind.)<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not sure what shuttle it was, however my guess is it was on its way to Ellington Field (KEFD) for a stop-over look-see for the Houston NASA folks just like Endeavour. We only saw it for about 5-10 seconds, yet it was an experience we will never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We didn\u2019t see anything spectacular on the return trip, although the fajitas were great and I did make a very smooth landing. Flying is cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Space Shuttle Endeavour made its final trip across the U.S. in 2012 on top of a Boeing B747, with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gpsaviation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}