T-38 - Long Beach, CA

[Seth]

So I'm having breakfast at 8:00 in Long Beach before a 9:00 meeting, and looking out the window from my hotel that overlooks Long Beach Airport (yes, I'm on the west coast for business, no, I didn't fly the Mooney out here, but am planning a trip for September), a White T-38 with a green stripe taxi's past. 

I have never seen a live civilian owned T-38 in operation.  Not only does it Taxi past, but it then turns on the runway and shoots into the sky.  Then a Gulfstream takes off, then a Jet Blue A320, all in about a 10 miutes period.  Made my day.

-Seth

[NotarPilot]

You must be staying at the Holiday Inn.

[Parker_Woodruff]

Can't say I've seen a civilian T-38 either.

[Seth]

Quote: Parker_Woodruff

Can't say I've seen a civilian T-38 either.

[Seth]

Quote: NotarPilot

You must be staying at the Holiday Inn.

[rbridges]

Quote: Seth

 I've seen one on the ramp before parked, but never in action - I wanted to be that guy!

[fantom]

Sorry guys, but probably a NASA T-38 paid for by us.

The aircraft are used by NASA Dryden's research pilots for proficiency and mission support flights. Dryden operated two T-38s for a number of years, replacing them with newer F-18s. Coming full-circle, the current cost of maintaining and operating the F-18s make the fuel-friendly, lower maintenance T-38 an attractive addition to Dryden's fleet, and they converted back in 2006. Formerly assigned to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. for a number of years, the T-38's had supported various aeronautics research projects there.

Believe it or not, at a 1995 Mooney fly-in in Asheville, we had a civilian fly a NASA T-38 in for a presentation. It was a two day event, he was alone, and I was really tempted to borrow the beauty for an hour. He rocketed out into a low overcast, just in front of me, while many of the Johnson bar guys stayed grounded.

[1964-M20E]

Maybe if I win the lottery. :-))  I've allways wanted to fly a T-38.  Wanted to go USAF but they denied me a pilot slot.  The good thing was I got my PP on my own trying to get an edge.

[fantom]

Quote: JimR

I thought about NASA's T-38s, too, Gary, but their stripes are blue and not green as Seth reported. 

[KSMooniac]

I don't recall seeing a civilian T-38 either, but it wouldn't surprise me, actually.  I'm surprised we haven't seen any surplus T-37s either.  Anyone know what happened to them after they were replaced?  They would probably be a fun runabout, but limited range and no storage space for an overnight bag limits the utility.  I used to fuel them in college and if I never *hear* one of them again that is fine with me.    They came in bunches of 4-12 at a time, were very slow fuelers, and took 250-275 gallons at a time for ~2 hours of flight IIRC.  9.0 GPH sounds a lot more attractive to me than 100+ GPH!  

We have an outfit locally that rebuilt a surplus A-4 or two for civilian sale at my home base.  They also acquired an F-18 to do the same, but I think that got squashed before they got very far.

[Seth]

No the T-38 was not the Nasa paint scheme and it was odd to me that it was white with green stripes.  But, I did like the comment on the sunglasses   Unfortunately, I was not wearing any at the time. 

It was great, it just taxied by (I was on the 7th floor looking down) held short, canopies lowered, took the active, and zoomed away.

There's an outfit in Chicago, Gauntlet Warbirds, that gives training in either an L-29 or L-39, you can look up the website and figure it out.  They also let you fly a T-6 and other warbirds. 

That would be a fun but costly operation to set up.

Take care,

-Seth