ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Alongside a highway behind the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport, folks on Thursday gathered to get the most effective view of a large 747 airplane.
“It was awesome,” stated Tyler Unger, who got here up from Rushville to see the plane. “It was loud. It was an excitement seeing something that big.”
“It flew over my head,” Thomas Andrews of Rochester. “I saw him parked there so figured I’d come take a look.”
“We were notified by the Air Force that a 747 plane from Andrews Air Force Base was going to be coming into Rochester doing touch-and-gos,” stated Greater Rochester International Airport director Andy Moore.
The drills are used to coach pilots, getting them wheels up in a duplicate of Air Force One.
“Just gives the pilots, you know, a good flow and good information on how to work with air traffic control [and] how to work with the different airport organizations like here in Rochester,” Moore stated. “[It] allows them to taxi, and take off and land and just get more comfortable operating that size of an aircraft.”
The plane belongs to the U.S. Air Force, and airport officers say they have been briefed by the Secret Service concerning the coaching Thursday morning.
The vital practices make for a one-of-a-kind expertise for aviation lovers.
“It was pretty cool, pretty cool,” stated Andrews.
“Chills,” stated Unger. “…Goosebumps. It was awesome.”
