The Flight Of A Lifetime!

On April 28-29, 2010, KTAB anchor/managing editor Bob Bartlett and I had the opportunity to fly to the home of the USAF Thunderbirds at Nellis AFB, located just north of Las Vegas, Nevada.  The Air Force organized the "media flight" to promote the Thunderbirds' performance at Dyess' Big Country AirFest the following weekend.

A KC-135 Stratotanker from Altus AFB, OK, stopped at Dyess to pick us up. The following day, after touring the Thunderbirds' facilities at Nellis, and spending the night on the Las Vegas Strip, we returned to Dyess. The return flight wasn't quite ordinary, however.  We were escorting the Thunderbirds' F-16 fighter jets to Dyess, and the long trip required us to refuel each jet in flight.  So there we are, at 25,000 feet, going 500+ mph, with the Thunderbirds literally feet away from us.  Following are some of the most awesome pictures I've ever taken.  I'll note that Bob and I learned of Abilene Police Officer Rodney Holder's death prior to leaving Vegas, so the day was very somber.....

Here's a link to the story that aired on that evening's 10pm newscast: Aerial Refueling of the Thunderbirds!

And since I had the chance to ride in the cockpit for much of the journey, I had amazing views of the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and the Las Vegas skyline!

 

 

UFOs in the Big Country!

Ok, so we have gotten a ton of calls over the past few weeks about lights in the sky. Every time it happens, the phenomena are not visible from KTAB/KRBC's studios. Usually it happens in the southeast sky. I have yet to capture it on video with our Sony PD-170 cameras. We would love to show the UFOs to all of you on TV. That's why I'm calling on you, our viewers, to capture the lights on your home video camcorders. Cell phone and still pictures are good too, but the resolution on those devices would probably yield what looks like a star on the air. Moving color video is the best. Doing the following will improve the quality of your image:
-Use a tripod
-Zoom in as little as possible; the more zoom you use, the lesser quality image (but you might have to zoom to get it if it's small)
-both of these things impact how shaky your video is...more shake = less quality.
-turn off autofocus as focus will go in and out if you zoom in on an object in the night sky in auto mode.
-stay away from trees, power lines and other obstructions that could hinder you from getting a clear shot of the object.

If you capture something unusual on video, send it to us in the "SHARE IT" section of bigcountryhomepage.com!

Also, join us on facebook and twitter. If you see something, that's a good place to start a discussion with other viewers and compare what you see. It also alerts us to the UFO's presence.

There may be no way of identifying what's out there. I will say this. The military has a rather large chunk of airspace in the southern Big Country it has reserved for its use only. What they use it for is in most cases none of our business. They conduct lots of training and testing that relates to our national security, and that may be what you are seeing.

This happened when I worked in Shreveport. Lots of folks saw UFOs flying low to the ground. At first the military denied they were testing anything. But, after hundreds of sightings and lots of public fear, they did release they were testing an experimental aircraft..of which the details could not be released.

Keep reporting your sightings to us. You never know. Your video could make national news like the sightings in the desert Southwest in the 90s!