Aviation Geeks Rejoice

Pilots are a jaded bunch.

Oshkosh:

Oh, look, a P-51.

Yeah whatever.

Hey, a Pitts doing a snap roll.

Seen it.

In 97 they had an SR-71 do a flyover. Its the only time in the 26 years I've been going that the place stopped. Everything. Everyone. No one moved. It was otherworldly.

In reply to 02Pilot :

I know I didn't appreciate Bob Hoover's show when I saw it as a kid. It wasn't until later in life when I read up on him and his routine that I had a better appreciation and understanding of just how amazing that was. 

Shadeux (Forum Supporter) said:

I used to live out in the woods, which was on a bombing run flight plan. It was not often, but occasionally you're outside doing stuff and RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA right over head. Never heard them coming. Always made me E36 M3 my pants too.

Rural here as well and we were in the A10 path from Grissom to Crane where they'd practice dropping bombs and strafing runs. They'd run from Grissom all the way down at tree top level, throttles to the stops (probably not but damn they popped up and were gone fast). The little lake across the road from us was a turn point for a group of them and they'd be on their wing tips over the house just above the trees. I can still remember seeing the different helmet colors and schemes of those guys. We used to always say we were glad we weren't the bad guys. Because you never heard them until the first one was over the house. I could only imagine the amount of carnage they'd have wreaked if they'd ever needed to hold the Fulda gap from the Soviets. 

In reply to bobzilla :

The Soviet name for the A-10 was Devil's Cross.  You wouldn't know it was doing a strafing run on you until it pulled up after the run looking like a cross.  At that point you were already starting your time in hell with the Devil.

In reply to bobzilla :

I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Maryland. Not sure what the related air bases were, but we were a low-level training ground for all manner of intersting aircraft.

We got A-10s, usually in 2 or 3 pairs.  Each pair would fly a very low level search pattern of criss-cross zig zags involving near-vertical banking.  2 or 3 pairs would fly parallel vectors.  My house was on top of a low hill and they figured out my dog would run around the yard chasing them and barking her head off.  Once they realized this they would usually orbit our house a time or two laughing at her.  Like Bob, I could see the helmet colors.  Usually couldn't hear them coming until they were almost on top of us.

We also got C-141 Starlifters at pretty low altitude.  These always came in groups of 4.  The first 3 were in camo paint, flying in moderately tight V formation.  They were always trailed by a 4th C-141 painted flat black, and usually about half a mile behind the lead V.  Never really figure out what was up with that.

We got tons of ANG C-130s doing low-level, tight formation flying practice all the time.

My nearby neighbor was Pat Foley of Summit Aviation and Iran-Contra semi-fame.  Tons of CIA stuff there.  We lived about 10 miles from Summit Airpark.  When Summit was converting Cessna 337s into the Summit Sentry (essentially an O-2A clone fitted with underwing hardpoints), they would do customer training for Nicaragua and other Central American buyers.  So I'd get buzzed by groups of those things all the time, practicing extreme low-level ground attacks.

In reply to Duke :

Starlifters may have been associated with Dover AFB, which is the receiving point for US personnel killed overseas. Never heard of one in black paint, but what you're describing sounds awfully ceremonial.

02Pilot said:

In reply to Duke :

Starlifters may have been associated with Dover AFB, which is the receiving point for US personnel killed overseas. Never heard of one in black paint, but what you're describing sounds awfully ceremonial.

Yeah, we're not far from DAFB, so we see C-5s all the time, and now C-17s, which replaced the C-141.  I know we are the KIA reception point.

I always assumed the black one was some kind of ECM platform.

In reply to Duke :

No C-141 was used as an EW platform that I'm aware of. Could have been a SOLL II spec-ops variant, though I don't recall seeing any version of that airframe in black.

bobzilla said:

I've heard the bone and the concord both and I think they're pretty close in terms of raw screw your ears you're now deaf. I watched the concord shake people out of their lawn chairs at Oshkosh back in the 90's. 

Same. Those two were the loudest planes I've ever heard. Once I was #2 behind the Concorde was depart Dulles. We were in a Baron and popped the door open to get the full effect. It was so loud, the vibration blurred your vision. It was awesome! For once, I actually had my crappy little 110 camera with me that day as we followed him to the runway.

BenB (Forum Supporter) said:

bobzilla said:

I've heard the bone and the concord both and I think they're pretty close in terms of raw screw your ears you're now deaf. I watched the concord shake people out of their lawn chairs at Oshkosh back in the 90's. 

Same. Those two were the loudest planes I've ever heard. Once I was #2 behind the Concorde was depart Dulles. We were in a Baron and popped the door open to get the full effect. It was so loud, the vibration blurred your vision. It was awesome! For once, I actually had my crappy little 110 camera with me that day as we followed him to the runway.

that. is. awesome.

In all fairness, the first pass the Concord made was justa normal slow airshow pass. They circled around, wheels and nose down and airshow people being airshow people "yeah OK." Halfway down the runway they pulled up the wheels and nose and lit 'em up. That was when people started falling out of lawn chairs and I experienced for the first time what an earthquake must feel like. This (and the bone) at least look cool making all that noise. The Harrier is just  obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious. 

Oh, I forgot one. This was more recent, and local. Went up to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome for their WWI show. They started off with a couple of Tiger Moths that were going to go up, do some aerobatics and the stunt where they drop a roll of toilet paper and then cut it with the prop on the way down. Never got that far though. One of the planes swung back down and came along the strip fairly low, and by the lack of noise it was clear he'd lost engine. He slowed as much as he could, but he was still going to overshoot, which meant either the road and some power lines, or the trees. He chose the trees.

Broke the prop, did some other minor damage, but nothing serious. Pilot walked out like it was just another day at the office.