Tanker Intercept

[Ironflight]

I squinted into the gulf coast haze...a small glint, then a tiny white shape began to emerge....a quick glance at the moving map confirmed I was on the agreed upon course, about three minutes out from the rendezvous point. Sure enough, a shape began to form up ahead in the distance - a quick course correction pointed me a little ahead of his track, and the distance was cosing nicely. It's always nice to find your tanker when you need it!

I began flying very precisely as I reached the required intercept altitude and made a few final course adjustments, a few more seconds and ZOOM - I flew right by, a good 1,000' away, with a closure speed of 150 knots!!

Well, what did you expect? The tanker was down on the water, 800' long, doing probably 10 knots over the bottom. Burning more fuel every second than I was burning in an hour, it unfortunately couldn't give me anything I could actually use, even if I could slow down enough to take a stab! This tanker was the USNS Lawrence H Gianella , captained by "Flyrod" of these forums. When he's not driving his "Big Rig" around the world's waterways, offering fuel for naval ships underway at sea, he has his own RV-8 to play with. In years past, I had a chance to cruise on a variety of government/military cargo vessels, so I understood their routine, and what to expect. It was easy to spot this tanker with it's refueling booms - not what you normally see in the Galveston channel!

My cell phone rang about 1330 hours local time..."Hey Paul, we're casting off lines in Deer Park right now, outbound down the Houston Ship Channel. We'll probably be four or five hours getting to Galveston if you want to do a flyby!" Looking at my watch, I realized that I didn't need to be in MCC for a few hours or a late meeting, so I grabbed my stuff and headed to the airport. Just before I cranked up, I called on the phone and said I was about 12-15 minutes out, and found that the ship was just passing Redfish reef. Sure enough, I found him just where I expected, and made a few passes to let them have a good look. It's nice to have a ship that is bigger than the 500 foot legal separation limit - I just stayed twice as far away as the ship was long, and I was clear! After a couple of circles, a wingover off the bow, and a couple of photo passes, I gave a snappy wing rock and headed home.

The only disappointment was that when I turned on my good digital camera to get some pictures of the ship, all I got was a low battery message. Dang! I'd never have this good of view again! Thinking quick, I pulled out my little cell phone and snapped a few images in the blind - too bright to use the display, and I was flying! Cropping out and enlarging the images, this was all I got....Sorry about that - I'll guess we'll have to try again next time!





Of course, it's always fun to meet another RVaiator...and you can run into them in the strangest places - with the most abnormal of vehicles!

[petehowell]

You guys have all the fun in Texas......

[AlexPeterson]

Pete, maybe they do have all the fun in TX... but, they don't ever land on frozen lakes or buzz fish houses (at 500', of course). Or do donuts on the ice with their planes....

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by AlexPeterson

Or do donuts on the ice with their planes....

Yuh know Alex, since I moved down here to Texas, I've learned that they call that a "ground loop".....

[txaviator]

Paul,

Your ground-loop statement was a CLASSIC!

And BTW, for you Minnesota guys...I went to an area of MN last year, which had a lake nearby known as Red Lake? I heard that an Indian tribe had dib's to half of it, and if for any reason you went past their invisible boundary, your vehicle was immediately confiscated, and good luck getting it back!

Now, I was there when it was frozen, but I heard there have been many planes, vehicles, etc, that were seized due to this rule.

Ever heard of this, or is this purely fiction?

And, for any of you who are ice-fisherman....let me know the time and the place! I'll gladly tag along, and I will gladly bring the beverages I am a huge hunter/fisherman, but I have yet to do the ice-fishing / sit in a hut all day/ fishing gig. I'd love to try it! (and it sure sounds nice about now, when it's still almost 90-degrees in Dallas, at 9:00 pm.)

Take care,

[Flyrod]

Paul, that was a great fly-by. We would have gladly filled you up, but I don?t think the Lycoming is going to like JP5. The Houston Pilot got a kick out of it and of course I was proudly claiming to have a plane just like that. It was a thing of beauty to watch, so smooth, quite and agile. Of course much of that smoothness and agility was due to the superior pilot.

Thanks for adding some fun to our passage through Galveston Bay. Now get back to work?. You have tiles to fix and a crew to get back home!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Flyrod01...44084408906962

[Ironflight]

I love the "head-on" shot.....that must have been a nice long lens!! It looked like the Houston pilot must have had his hands full - there was more than a little barge traffic around you.

Let me know the next time you're along, and maybe I'll have the camera charged. I have a few pretty nice aerial shots of the MARAD RO/RO ships my ex-wide used to run.....this was not the first ship intercept I've run....

Paul

[the_other_dougreeves]

Originally Posted by petehowell

You guys have all the fun in Texas......

KDFW 131953Z 06008KT 10SM FEW075 BKN300 40/20 A3000 RMK AO2 SLP148 T04000200

This is fun?