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!
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!
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