Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - Space Shuttle Fly-In

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freqhopping

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There may also be a C-9 flying in ahead of it.
FlightAware > NASA932

If so, tune in 235.4 and you may hear the pilots talking to each other.

For the initial Dulles flyby I'll be listening to 124.65>125.8>120.1

I'll be watching in Chantilly.
 

gcgrotz

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I know they showed it "live on the news this morning but neither plane is showing up in flight on flight aware. They show them both still at KTTS as of 09:10.

I have all of my Buck's Elbow freqs in scan.
 

gcgrotz

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PLUTO 95 on 124.650, something about tactical freq, unable on 4 freqs, need relay on VHF, down to 5000 at this time. I guess that was them?
 

redburgundy

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Listening to the MWAA public safety feed--Dulles Ops reports 9:54am ETA.
(later edited to say that the info apparently came from MWAA personnel at DCA, not IAD).
 
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freqhopping

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The first pass happened about 9:45. Then it flew around DC before passing over Fairfax and out west to flyby the TRACON facility at Vint Hill. Then it did another flyby of Dulles and turned to the NW to loop around for the landing. The second flyby wasn't initially planned. Part of the reason for NASA to get some more photos in case the first weren't good.

PLUTO99 was N955NA
PLUTO98 was N967NA
PLUTO95 heavy was the SCA N905NA. Apparently if it has mode-S, it wasn't turned on because I didn't log it on my Radarbox, same for N932NA.

I heard lots of comms on 235.4.


SCA_0081a.jpg




SCA_0095a.jpg
 
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gcgrotz

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Love the pictures! I think one of them will end up as my new wallpaper!

I'd love to hear what you recorded, I only heard the few brief transmissions after they handed in to 124.65 controller. I can't hear the ground but can hear arrivals down to around 3000 from my location here in C'ville,

Was NASA always using callsign Pluto or was it just for this, the last flight of this great explorer?
 

CORN

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This just goes to show how far ahead the US was over the Russian space program. They had to build a whole new aircraft (AN-225) to carry their version of the shuttle, which didnt go very well I think, and all we had to do was modify an old American Airlines Boeing 747. Wow! I'll sure miss the shuttles.
 

mikev

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I was down the road at the Westfields Marriott... And while I didn't get any pictures myself, a co-worker of mine got some GREAT shots! This is the one I like the best, nicely framed by some out-of-focus trees.

Shuttle2-small.jpg
 

freqhopping

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This event and the T-38s scoping out the area a few weeks ago are the only instance I know of NASA using the Pluto callsign. All other flights I've heard were NASA###.

T-38 NASA955 departed today. NASA904 arrived from Seymour-Johnson at 1053 and departed for Huntsville at 1220. NASA967 may have gone with one of them as a 2-ship with no active transponder.
 
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zob-slantzero

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I hope that you don't mind my two cents, but I heard the tower controller use the callsign (once) "N A nine oh five heavy" and "NASA nine oh five heavy". Note that the word zero is not used.

All in all a great day, here are a couple of mine.

DSC_0542ss.jpg


DSC_0089ss.jpg


I forgot to mention but I guess that the extra pass caused this problem. The second T-38 landed fuel critical.
 
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CORN

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This event and the T-38s scoping out the area a few weeks ago are the only instance I know of NASA using the Pluto callsign. All other flights I've heard were NASA###.

T-38 NASA955 departed today. NASA904 arrived from Seymour-Johnson at 1053 and departed for Huntsville at 1220. NASA967 may have gone with one of them as a 2-ship with no active transponder.

NASA 967, after the shuttle transfer departed for Ft Campbell as a single ship. I logged him into KHOP. After that he was cleared to Ellington Field.
 

Airfire

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I've enjoyed the photos from the flyover. Here are a few of mine.

First one is climbout from KSC. Second is the welcoming crowds at IAD.
 

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freqhopping

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I've got a recording of 235.4 today. At first I was wondering why it's so scratchy. Then I realized both the SCA and T-38 were still on the ground when the comms first started.

I'm still not sure of the callsign. Listening via liveate this morning it sounded like BOBBY. On my recording it sounds more like BOBBICK. Suffix for the SCA was 15, 10 for the T-38. I'd really like to know the actual callsign.
 

Airfire

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I've got a recording of 235.4 today. At first I was wondering why it's so scratchy. Then I realized both the SCA and T-38 were still on the ground when the comms first started.

I'm still not sure of the callsign. Listening via liveate this morning it sounded like BOBBY. On my recording it sounds more like BOBBICK. Suffix for the SCA was 15, 10 for the T-38. I'd really like to know the actual callsign.

Freq,

The callsign was BOBIK. 10 was the C-9, no T-38 for the departure.
 
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