hoffarth.wbst@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (12/10/83)
I arrived at the East Shore Viewing area at Edwards just about 6am and was ready for the 8am landing. Upon entering the base we were informed that the landing had been delayed till 2:30pm. After having driven 2 hours I wasn't about to turn around, so I found a parking space, proped up my pillow, and went to sleep. After awaking, I decided to take a walk to see what the latest new was and to my disappointment found that the landing had been delayed again, this time till 3:52 pm. By now the desert had warmed up from its mid 30's low so I picked a spot near the north corner of the viewing area and set out my blanket. The high for the day must have gotten into the mid 70's and I noticed several people had taken their shirts off to enjoy the sun. The Air Force put on a spectacular show for us. I managed to see the following aircraft during the day: C-130 KC-135 F-16 F-111 A pair of F-15's A pair of A-7's F-5 Several NASA T-38's NASA Gulf Stream Shuttle Simulator I ended up sitting next to a real hardcore. This was his 7th landing! He was quick to point out that the two he had missed were at White Sands and Edwards (STS-8 night landing which was closed to the public). I brought my Minolta XD-11 with a noname 400mm telephoto and a 2X converter. I saw quite a few Celestron telescopes with camera mounts. As the time drew near we all turned our equiptment to the north and waited. Our first tip was a beautiful vapor trail and several seconds later it came into view. I was able to view the shuttle for almost 15 seconds before the double sonic booms. The shuttle then preformed a 309 degree head up alignment turn to place it on runway 17. There was one T-38 chase plane present. Rich