Some NASA dude on TV (when he should be RVating)

admin · #1 09-20-2006, 07:16 AM

Cellphone picture of Texas RV-8 builder/driver Paul Dye talking on NASA TV this morning (watching online from the day job).

I wonder how long it will take him to see this, having just gone off camera (0815am Dallas time)?

related: Paul's Virtual Hangar listing

Mr. Mikey · #2 09-20-2006, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by admin

Cellphone picture of Texas RV-8 builder/driver Paul Dye talking on NASA TV this morning (watching online from the day job).

I wonder how long it will take him to see this, having just gone off camera (0815am Dallas time)?

related: Paul's Virtual Hangar listing

Just heard him on the radio.

Shuttle crew in good hands.

RV7Factory · #3 09-20-2006, 10:53 AM

I heard him on XM too... Mark Davis played a clip on his radio show today. Pretty cool!

On a related note... one of our IT guys here at the office is a huge space-geek (I mean that in a nice way). He has a model of the space station hanging above his desk and he buys add-on kits and mimics the real life changes to the station. When the shuttle launches and docks with it he even adds a shuttle to the model. Anyway... I mentioned to him that I knew of Paul Dye from my RV building circles, and he went ape. It took a few minutes for me to convince him I only "knew of" Paul not "knew" him personally. He was soooo disappointed in me.

Ironflight · #4 09-20-2006, 11:06 AM

Monday I pulled what was supposed to be my last shift on the mission, and turned my team over to the Entry Flight Director (we have a couple guys that specialize in just the Ascents and Entries) for the last two days. Worked all night, got off at 0900 and stayed up all day to shift back to normal hours. Got up early Tuesday because they'd scheduled me for the first part of my physical that day. Checked in with MCC and they told me about the mystery piece flying formation with us. The nurse doing my EKG said "Hmmm...this looks a little odd - are you under any stress this morning??"

Went in, helped decide we weren't going to land Wednesday (weather at KSC was lousy anyway), and came up with an outline of an inspection plan. Went home and caught a three hour nap, then went back in for the overnight shift because my Entry counterpart had no current training in the robot arm or inspeciton techniques. Spent all night on console last night, did all the inspections - didn't spot a single problem, so whatever the thing was, it wasn't critical - did my press confernce (gloriously enshrined by Doug above), went home, took a brief nap, and then went flying.

So I'd have seen this sooner, but I was doing a low-level pass up my favorite twenty miles of wild Texas coast.....weather was too good to miss!

Weather looks good for KSC tomorrow morning - time to get this one on the ground.

Paul

lsu-rv · #5 09-20-2006, 11:42 AM

Paul, I have seen the shuttle enter the atmosphere 2 times at nite and there is NOTHING like it. From what i understand, plan is to land in Fla. tomorrow 622am eastern time? if that is so, will i be able to see it over N. austin area about 5am central while still dark?
Please inform if you have time.

jeff h.
austin tx

DeltaRomeo · #6 09-20-2006, 11:45 AM

Negative on that, Jeff.

It looks like the landing ground tracks for attempt 1 and 2 pass well south of Texas
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...s/landing.html

Let's see....Dallas to Belize via RV is about 1200sm. I'm gonna need aux tanks and I need to leave now.

I've see a couple evening/morning returns and that plasma trail is IMPRESSIVE!!!

b,
d

PS: Landing the Shuttle 101 and lots more info on landing it HERE

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsu-rv

Paul, I have seen the shuttle enter the atmosphere 2 times at nite and there is NOTHING like it. From what i understand, plan is to land in Fla. tomorrow 622am eastern time? if that is so, will i be able to see it over N. austin area about 5am central while still dark?
Please inform if you have time.

jeff h.
austin tx

bumblebee · #7 09-20-2006, 01:31 PM

As I was watching Paul Dye on the NASA channel the other day, it hit me that I'm only 4 degrees of separation from being on the shuttle. Which puts Doug Reeves a lot closer than me.

I fly an RV.
I've met Danny King several times
Danny flew Paul Dye's plane
Paul Dye has some minor connection with the space shuttle

Gotta love the RV community.

RV8N · #8 09-20-2006, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bumblebee

As I was watching Paul Dye on the NASA channel the other day, it hit me that I'm only 4 degrees of separation from being on the shuttle. Which puts Doug Reeves a lot closer than me.

I fly an RV.
I've met Danny King several times
Danny flew Paul Dye's plane
Paul Dye has some minor connection with the space shuttle

Gotta love the RV community.

Maybe closer than that. Most RVers probably don't know that there is an astronaut that owns an RV. Ed Lu bought a completed RV-4 several years ago and keeps it at Ellington airport. You can read his biography here:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lu.html

On the other hand, I work with the astronauts on a daily basis and don't feel I'm even close to getting a ride. Not a chance in He!!. Most are real nice folks though.

Karl

Low Pass · #9 09-20-2006, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RV8N

On the other hand, I work with the astronauts on a daily basis and don't feel I'm even close to getting a ride. Not a chance in He!!. Most are real nice folks though.

Karl

Speaking of getting rides... I've had a couple of military pilots compliment my RV over the years. I always ask if the want to trade. For some reason, I never get a reply!

Mel · #10 09-20-2006, 02:58 PM

Speaking of trading rides, I had an American Eagle pilot offer to let me fly his twin turboprop if he could fly my RV-6. I told him that I didn't think his passengers would go for that. He said, "Just put this hat on and they won't know the difference." (This was before 9/11)