This is the most beautiful piece of news I’ve heard in quite a while.
Good for you, Spiny Norman! I wish I could have gone with you. As I said in the GD thread, I used to live in Lancaster. Went to high school at Quartz Hill. I learned to fly at Fox Field at the FBO owned by Bill Barnes – the son of the famous Florence “Pancho” Barnes. (Sadly, he died in a P-51 crash before I started training; but I and my dad knew him, and Bill’s widow Shouling came to my dad’s memorial service at my relatives’ hous in Orange.) I’ve made several landings at Mojave Airport in dad’s trusty Cessna 172 and 182. I’ve walked the ramp, back when the big companies were just moving in and security wasn’t so tight. I went to the Rutan Aircraft Factory when I was thinking of building a Long EZ. I worked at Edwards Air Force Base on, among other things, the Space Shuttle program. In high school dad took me out to see the landing of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. On the Shuttle Support Team I went to the FAA hill by the hangars to watch the landings. In the 1990s I chatted briefly with Burt Rutan as he and his girlfriend were flying a large kite at the park off the freeway at Avenue L.
Oh, I wish I was there this morning! As tired as I grew of Southern California, I’ve always had a soft spot for the desert. I remember taking the 172 up on a calm, cool “see-forever” morning and flying to the western end of the Antelope Valley. Turning eastward, I felt I was King of All I Survey. The great blue bowl of the endless sky felt like a homey roof over my head.
I’ve flown low over the yellow desert with the blue sky above in a Robinson R-22 or a Schweizer 300CB. (Here I am, landing at Fox.) I’ve seen where the springtime water flows, and laughed at the people who built houses in the obvious-to-me-from-my-perspective flood plains. I often daydream about glying in those skies again.
Yes, Spiny Norman, I envy your trip!
Hats off to Burt Rutan and Mike Melville, for their wonderful achievement in one of the most special places on Earth for aviation enthusiasts! It’s people like Rutan and his team – thousands of them – that make the Antelope Valley and the Mojave Desert special to me.
(BTW, Spiny, the poppies should be blooming full about now. Definitely worth a look. Stop by Avenue K and 20th Street West and have a huge breakfast of ham and eggs at Crazy Otto’s. Check Nasa Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards to see if they’ve started giving tours again. You can see the original M2-F1 Lifting Body – which proved concepts for the Space Shuttle – and one of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle. The NASA building was shown as Tony’s workplace on I Dream of Jeanie. There’s also a museum on Rosamond Boulevard on the way to NASA, on the base. It’s hot out there in the summer, but enjoyable enough if you see it as part of the beauty of the desert. Oh, those arthritic joshua trees!)
Rutan’s new “toy.” Notice the specs on the thing
That’s huge! Gotta wonder what he’s going to be building with that thing.
It’s stuff like this that made me get into engineering in the first place. I’ve been following this as closely as I could, and these folks have made me a happy, happy boy.
Simply everything about this project appealed to me. One of my favorite images is a picture of some adjustments made after an unpowered test flight when they were checking control response:
Rutan modifying control surface geometry with a chainsaw.
Bruce, Burt just called me, he said they´ve found your cell phone up there.
From what I heard on the radio yesterday, they have to have 3 people on board for the flight to qualify for the competition. Then repeat that within two weeks.
They aren’t going for the prize just yet.
This is too cool for words.
And, um, Ex? What the hell are you talking about? I’m just an engineer in title. I don’t speak Engineese.
I think Ex is refering to how Rutan altered the control surfaces(those flappy thingys stuck on the end of wings that go up and down when you move the stick to redirect airflow, altering the crafts course - think rudder on a ship) using a chain saw.
A major cool thing!
Apparently according to this story:
On landing, pilot Mike Melvill was greeted by none other than Buzz Aldrin, who shook his hand and welcomed Melvill into the club.They did a bunch of drop tests (just dropping the spacecraft from the carrier without lighting the engines) to see how it handled.
Then they made adjustments to the steering and stabilizing thingies by firing up a chainsaw and chopping bits off.
I wish I could have been there. This is just too damn cool.
Finally, the 21st century begins to seem like it actually IS the 21st century!
Ahhhhhh. You’re purty smart.
So… we’re right on schedule 
Re: Exgineer
I always thought he was kinda “ugly” smart.
Shhhh! We’re trying to boost what self esteem his girl friend hasn’t destroyed.
As promised, I’ve managed to throw a few pictures up (sorry there are no captions to describe them yet and there will be more images to come later, as time permits), which can be seen here.
I would like to take this opportunity to state that Ponder Stibbons is quite an astute fellow.
View from the cockpit upon approach to landing. Man, I’d love to have been there!
