The first time, and I think their call sign was Gunfighter (sounds a little too much like motion picture call signs, doesn't it?) I was coming across into Los Angeles airspace from Salt Lake when I heard "Center, Gunfighter 42, I think we are going to need a 360 on course to burn off altitude before we can descend into Edwards."
"Gunfighter 42, Center, roger that. How much room do you need?"
" Utah and Arizona would be nice!"
The last time I was farther east on Salt Lake Center, middle of the night again on a very slow night, when the voice came up: "Center, Gunfighter 51, we would like Flight Level 650."
"Well, Gunfighter, if you can climb to 65,000 feet, I can tell you, it is all yours!"
"Uh, Center, this is Gunfighter 51. We would actually like to DESCEND to Flight Level 650."
I heard one of the last SR71 pilots for NASA Dryden speak a few years back. He was asked what a typical mission was like.
"Well, we would take off from Edwards (California desert north of Los Angeles,) get up to altitude, hit the tanker (for refueling), then fly over to White Sands Missile Range (not far from El Paso, Texas) and check our telemetry, then fly up to the Canadian border and commence a Peacekeeper missile profile back to White Sands to calibrate their equipment, then fly home again."
"And how long did that take?"
"About 35 minutes."
Impressive airplanes.
Bar by Mees
.....all of them.
