27 April 2012

I went down to Pier 84, just south of the Intrepid Air Sea and Space Museum this morning to watch the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft flying the Space Shuttle Enterprise from Washington, DC to NYC where it will eventually be placed on permanent display on the flight deck of the Intrepid. I had my ham radio with me and was listening to 1010 WINS news who were talking about how blue the skies were over the pier while I was standing there under overcast skies and being rained on. They were also talking about all the American flags flapping in the breeze - the only American flag in site was the one hanging limply from the stern of the Intrepid. Had I found the site NYC Aviation before going down I would have had the flight plan as well as the frequencies for the SCA, its escort jet and the control towers at the various airports.

NYC Aviation graphic

Photographing the event was difficult because my camera doesn't have an optical viewfinder and it was bright enough out that I was having trouble seeing my LCD display but I guessed a lot and got the following 19 pictures that are representative of the event. The first group of pictures were made as the SCA and Enterprise came upriver, passed by and continued upriver to Nyack where it turned around to come back downriver.

We noticed a lot of seagulls flying around beneath the SCA as it approached.

That is a NYPD helicopter that flew over the river several times prior to the approach of the SCA and then took up stationkeeping down around the west side heliport which keyed us in to the imminent arrival.

After the SCA flew past and was out of view upriver I made a couple of pictures of the spectators on the pier.

Then the SCA appeared on its downriver run. This set of pictures won't be as clear because I was having even more trouble seeing my LCD so ended up zooming all the way out to be sure I captured the SCA in the image. Then I had to zoom in more before cropping the pictures posted here.

It wasn't until the SCA had almost passed us on the downriver run that we finally say the little escort jet.

As the SCA was shrinking from view downriver Peter made a comment about it being anticlimactic and at the time I took it to mean about the event but now that I think about it it is how I feel about the event in relation to our manned space program.

Here are the dates for events concerned with getting Enterprise on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum graphic

It does not seem to me that it should take a tug and barge two days to get from JFK airport, the purple pin near the center of this map, out to sea, around through the Verrazano Narrows, and up the North River to 44 St. I suspect they will only be moving during daylight hours and will moor overnight in Gravesend Bay or tie up at Stapleton.

Google Maps graphic

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