crunchtastic Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 So me and the mr. are on our porch having drinks and enjoying the early evening, and we notice a DC 3 and a his sidekick a T-38 circling low and slow around downtown and the near east end. At one point they came right over the house, looked to be between 1000 and 2000 feet up. They drifted west on the last loop, and we came inside. Anyone know anything, or see them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelguy_73 Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I was out mowing the lawn and saw the same thing. They circled three times, I think, but you definitely saw more if you could discern the types of aircraft! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 I was out mowing the lawn and saw the same thing. They circled three times, I think, but you definitely saw more if you could discern the types of aircraft!mr. crunch knows these things, not me. I had to ask to make sure I was getting the model number right when I posted. It was cool, though, they were so low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 So me and the mr. are on our porch having drinks and enjoying the early evening, and we notice a DC 3 and a his sidekick a T-38 circling low and slow around downtown and the near east end. At one point they came right over the house, looked to be between 1000 and 2000 feet up. They drifted west on the last loop, and we came inside. Anyone know anything, or see them?I was up in a downtown highrise watching the whole thing. Couldn't make out the types of aircraft, but it looked like a commercial aircraft being escorted by a small fighter, and they weren't giving one another a very wide berth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I was up in a downtown highrise watching the whole thing. Couldn't make out the types of aircraft, but it looked like a commercial aircraft being escorted by a small fighter, and they weren't giving one another a very wide berth.If it was a T-38 then it wasn't a fighter. It's a trainer. That's what the astronauts fly to keep their hours up.Since DC-3s are so old, I'm going to guess the T-38 was filming it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 Since DC-3s are so old, I'm going to guess the T-38 was filming it.that's what we thought, too. Question is, what? They could have been doing DT for close to an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 If it was a T-38 then it wasn't a fighter. It's a trainer.I know, but that's what it looked like from my vantage point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Well, a couple of days ago, I saw a couple of copters (one life flight copter and I THINK it was a black hawk) that were circling for several hours at dusk. They were in close formation and changed positions relative to each other. Another odd thing was that I saw an HPD Fox Unit doing take offs and landings near the GRB and flying REALLY low and slow over 59 El.maybe since the weather is so nice they're taking using it to take some awesome photos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gto250us Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 So me and the mr. are on our porch having drinks and enjoying the early evening, and we notice a DC 3 and a his sidekick a T-38 circling low and slow around downtown and the near east end. At one point they came right over the house, looked to be between 1000 and 2000 feet up. They drifted west on the last loop, and we came inside. Anyone know anything, or see them?A T-38? I don't think so. That is a jet trainer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 A T-38? I don't think so. That is a jet trainer. He was convinced it was a trainer-- I have no idea. But I tend to listen to the navy vet when it comes to plane spotting. I thought the DC 3 was weird. So old and clunky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 He was convinced it was a trainer-- I have no idea. But I tend to listen to the navy vet when it comes to plane spotting. I thought the DC 3 was weird. So old and clunky.Well, I didn't see it, but a T-28 is a prop-driven radial engine trainer that was in service from about 1948 until the mid-60s. It looks sorta like a "generic" WWII fighter plane (P-47 Thunderbolt, for example). They are quite popular in civilian hands as old warbirds go.Here's a good picture: North American T-28 Trojan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 (edited) Oooh, ooh, ooh, what a little Google can do!Apparently the NOAA has a DC-3 that occasionally does air quality monitoring for the Texas Air Quality Study. Or at least they did in 2000:http://www.utexas.edu/research/ceer/texaqs...f/912planit.pdfAdditionally, given the location, one wonders if it had something to do with the Air Terminal Museum.http://www.1940airterminal.org/Speaking of old passenger aircraft, I remember when I was about ten, and, like most boys, very interested in aircraft, especially old ones. About 1972 or so my family attended a wedding in Galveston and somehow I talked my parents into driving over to what was then called Galveston Municipal Airport to see if there was anything big there. This was way before the Flight Museum, back when Galveston was kinda at low ebb before the revitalization and preservation efforts began, and in general Galveston was looking pretty ratty. My curiosity was rewarded, big time, though, as I saw a DC-6, a DC-3, and a triple-tail Lockheed Constellation! Not sure if they were airworthy, but they didn't look abandoned. Don't remember if they had any airline livery, don't think they did.We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread. Sorry, Mrs. crunch, raise a glass of Rosemount Shiraz/Cab to me. (with Mr. crunch, or would that be Captain Crunch?) Edited March 29, 2008 by marmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 Mrs. crunch, raise a glass of Rosemount Shiraz/Cab to me. (with Mr. crunch, or would that be Captain Crunch?)raising glass now. cool about NOAA. I think the cap'n is going to look more of this stuff up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porchman Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 It's up again tonight, but without an escort. It has circled over my place at least twice so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunsets Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Is it a DC-3 for sure? I thought it was an old WWII plane, like a P-38 or something like that. It had a strange tail. My husband thought the fighter escort was an F5 (which I guess is a T38 in another outfit). The T38's I've seen landing at Ellington were white with orange on the nose, but the fighter escort I saw over downtown was mostly blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 It would be pretty hard to mistake a DC-3 for a P-38, which is the twin-fuselage twin-engine fighter. Now, a B-25 is a twin-engine bomber with a twin-rudder tail, which from a distance might look about the same size as a DC-3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porchman Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Is it a DC-3 for sure? I thought it was an old WWII plane, like a P-38 or something like that. It had a strange tail.It would be pretty hard to mistake a DC-3 for a P-38, which is the twin-fuselage twin-engine fighter. Now, a B-25 is a twin-engine bomber with a twin-rudder tail, which from a distance might look about the same size as a DC-3.Yeah, what sunsets saw, is what I saw. It was not a DC-3. It had 4 engines, twin-rudder tail. Big. Moving slow and low. Perhaps, it was a B-24. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 P-38: B-24: B-25: DC-3: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Heh. Check this out. Too bad it was a year ago. http://www.fly2houston.com/0/199122/0/1906D1934/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunsets Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 OK, definitely not a P-38, I was wrong about that. I swore it had 2 engines, not 4, and the B-25 looks similar to what I saw. I thought maybe B24 at first too, and then I looked for the glass nose cone (my grandfather was a nose-gunner in a B24 in WWII) and it didn't have one. Some of the B25 models had solid noses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Hmm. The Lone Star Flight Museum gives rides on their B-25 and in a T-6 Texan. Wonder if that's what the original poster saw?http://www.lsfm.org/flightexperiences.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Lone Star had all the big boys from Saturday afternoon. They even had an incident with a rare plane who was down for a flyin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Yeah, I saw that. A Spitfire ran into the back of a Hawker Hurricane while taxiing and chewed up its tail. Ouch. Bet there aren't enough of those still airworthy to count on one hand, and they just lost a coupla fingers, at least for a little while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Yep. I meant to say they were all flying last weekend. Seeing them run down Jamica Beach and turn back over San Luis Pass is awesome. Actually HEARING them is almost as much fun. I saw the B-24 making runs and thought "imagine 20 of those coming at you". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Lotta air traffic overhead yesterday. First, Brazoria County was running its twin-engine mosquito sprayer low and fast, (always an impressive sight) followed shortly by a pair of Japanese Zero replicas in formation. Then a few minutes later a lone P-47 Thunderbolt and then one more Zero.Looked like they were heading for Ellington, but the air show isn't for a month. Are they gonna be here for a while, or was it just coincidence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brerrabbit Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 (edited) The two Zero's were probably heading to Clover (Pearland Regional Airport) as that is where a couple are based. If you ever see a couple of "Kates" (replica Japanese topedo bombers) they are based out of Wolf Park (off of 1128 towards Manvel). Tail number I356 "Kate" based at Wolf flew in the movie Pearl Harbor, the latest version from Disney with Affleck, Hartnett and Beckinsale. It flew to San Diego and they put it on a ocean going barge to Hawaii. During one scene in the movie a Kate drops a torpedo while flying between two ships, that was the bird based in Manvel. All of these planes were bought from the production company that made Tora Tora Tora by the then Confederate Airforce, now known under their PC name the Commemerative Airforce. They are all replicas made by taking vintage Texas trainers and making modifications to the fuseloge to make it look like the Japanese planes.The P-47 could be one of the ones out of the Lone Star Flight Museum at Schole Field on Galveston Island that they moved from the storm. There is also a wing of the CAF at West Houston Airport out off I-10 and Highway 6. With the exception of the week of the airshow if you see any vintage warbirds its a good chance they are based around here. Edited September 24, 2008 by brerrabbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Thanks, brerrabbit. That makes a lot of sense. I live in Pearland and all the warbirds I saw were heading ESE, toward Clover Field. The P-47 could have been headed toward Clover, or Ellington, or Galveston. Wouldn't think they'd be in too big a hurry to get any functional planes back given what a mess it is there but maybe they needed to get it out of where it was stored. The P-47 was dark blue, light gray underneath, with the monochrome USAAF logo on the left wing.Besides, it was a BEAUTIFUL day for flying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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