Interesting Aircraft at TSTC Waco

ezgo394

Post subject: Interesting Aircraft at TSTC Waco

Posted: June 13th, 2015, 1:23 am

Posts: 1332
Joined: July 27th, 2010, 2:39 am
Location: Cappach, Salide

Hello all,

I am going to school at the Texas State Technical College in Waco, Texas and for those of you who do not know, it is built on the old James Connally Air Force Base. The airport is the only one in the area that has a runway that is capable of handling heavy aircraft and is where the Air Force One VC-25B would land to take G.W. Bush to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Along with the flight school that is part of TSTC, there is also a large L-3 Communications area on the East side of the airport, and there is a plethora of military aircraft that do touch-and-goes nearly every week. These include (and I'll try to take pictures the next time I see them) a C-5 Galaxy, several P-3 Orions, a C-130, one of the new C-27 Spartans, and several small military aircraft (and mind you this is all happening alongside Diamond DA-20s, Cessna 172s, and Robinson R22/R44 that are a part of the TSTC flight school).

Several months ago, I noticed this aircraft sitting on the Apron in front of the Servion (the FBO).
Apparently, this is one of the two Czech Republic Air Force Airbus A319CJ, which was at the time being used by the Czech Minister of Agriculture to visit the large Czech population just north of Waco in a little town called West, Texas.
[ img ]

This next photo is not a very good photo, but it's proof! Apparently the Sultan of Brunei ordered a brand new Boeing 747-8i and it was brought to TSTC Waco Airport to be outfitted (I assume) by L-3 Communications. Like I said, it's not the best photo, but there's no way for me to get close to it without having to be an employee of L-3

.

The final photo I have so far is something I saw today. I was riding my bike around campus and I noticed it parked in front of the Servion. I rode over and spent a couple minutes looking at it and right before I left, I noticed something that made it photo-worthy. I raced back to my apartment, got my camera, and drove back over to the airport. If you look closely, you'll see the low-vis stenciling - ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE. Yep! The Aussies are in Waco with one of their C-130Js! If I had stayed a little longer, I could have talked to a couple of them as they walked out to the parking lot, but oh well.
[ img ]

And finally, no pictures for this, but last weekend was the Heart of Texas Airshow. I didn't go because it was packed and hot, but the USAF Thunderbirds were doing their routine both Saturday and Sunday (but I already got to see them practice on the Thursday and Friday before), and there was a B-17 (which is the same one I had my first flight in), a B-25, an A-26, and a C-130, all as static displays. I rode my bike over to the airport around 6:00PM on Sunday and was lucky enough to see the B-25, the C-130 and the B-17 take off! It was very cool!

As I take more photos, I'll post them, but this is what I've seen so far! This is a very interesting college indeed.

-Ethan

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Interesting Aircraft at TSTC Waco

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