Noise in the Neighborhood

So late this afternoon, I was in the living room, reading, when I heard a roar go down the street, and what sounded like a train tooting.  It surprised me and disoriented me a little bit.  I grew up next to a train track, and got used to the noise, so much so, that I ignored it.  And, when I have lived near a train track in Texas, I did not notice the noise much, either.  

This is an interesting phenomenon.  When my best friend from college came to visit my family home, the train noise bothered her.  I got.  And, when I went to visit her, I learned that her family lived under the flight pattern of their city's airport, and I heard every plane that went by. She did not.

Today, after I heard the noise, I went outside to look.  And there was a semi-cab with smokestacks on either side, heading west. This made sense. It re-oriented me. And, a neighbor from another block often has a semi-cab parked out front of his house. 

Sully - The Movie

I went to see the movie Sully http://www.sully-movie.com/#home today. It is a story many if not most of us will remember:  A US Air plane from La Guardia Airport http://laguardiaairport.com/ is disabled by birds shortly after take off, and lands in the Hudson River. All 155 aboard, passengers and crew, were saved with serious injuries and hypothermia to just a few, even though this occurred in January 2009.

The movie focuses on the PTSD reaction of the pilot Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger who has nightmares about crashing the plane into buildings in New York City.  He and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles, who is similarly affected, by his reports, are questioned by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) http://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/default.aspx about their decisions.  It turns out the computer simulations indicated they could have safely return to La Guardia airport, or gone on to the Teterboro Airport http://www.teterboro-online.com/airport/. The suspense in the movie is about the conflict between the NTSB and the pilot and co-pilot. 

I cried during most of the movie. Sad, happy, relieved, honored, grateful.

This is a good movie to see. And teaches us a lesson about human beings. 

Overhead Air Traffic

So, late this afternoon, I was enjoying the weather, sitting in my back yard, reading.  Although it was daylight, the moon hung in the East. 

There is sometimes overhead air traffic, sometimes commercial airliners, sometimes military planes, especially very high over head, leaving con trails.  Sometimes, sadly there are the red Aerocare emergency airlift helicopters on their way to either University Medical Center, or Covenant Hospital. My house is 3-4 miles south of each hospital, and just a few blocks east.

Today, a whitish/silver helicopter came from the southeast, hovered north of my house but south of the hospital districts, and then, moved west.  Twice after that, the same or different but similarly shaped and colored helicopters came in from the southeast.  While that was happening, three times a very small plane or more than one very small planes flew north from the southeast, sort of arcing to the northwest, also towards the hospital district.  The plane was short, and had a stout wing span that seemed almost as long as the length of the plane. One time, the plane and a helicopter, now moving to the southeast, were on what looked like intersecting trajectories, albeit at different altitudes.

This was different for me. But for all I know, this is a very common air traffic pattern for this time of day in mid-Lubbock.   Hmmm.