A few years ago the Blue Angels were performing at Coney Island. My dad had a friend who was the manager of a 21 story residential building on the beach. My dad, wife and kids went to the roof to watch at very close proximity to the area they were flying in.

Well. let me tell ya, this F-18 comes from behind in a 90 degree roll straight between two buildings just a tad higher than our elevation. He then turned and we were blasted by hot jet fuel ladened exhaust and the sound was deafening, this plane was no more than 60 feet away!

We could see the pilot like he was next to us. He then buzzed us again and waved.

Quite an experience and very cool.

love the part in Chicago....

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Trust me, had the Warthog pilot been really strafing you, you would not be here to type this. They are very deadly at their job.

A trio that stand out. A B-1 over a 'finger' at Lake Powell, had to be just above the cliffs, a subtle roar growing loader, until he streaked over the cliffs, made a hard right and continued along the channel.

Skiing at Araphoe Basin in Co., mid to late 70's, An A-7 makes a diving high speed pass, kinda NW to SE, I thought he was doing avalanche control...:>), what a sound, he had to be having a ball!!

Again, mid 70's, just south of Ft. Carson, Co., north of Highway 50 and W. of Pueblo. Another A-7 decided our pole setting truck was a 'target of opportunity', at the time I had never seen a jet that fast, that low, and that intent on scaring the crap out of a line (we build power lines) crew.

Karl
88 Targa

I worked just up the hill from the Air Force Museum. They have a runway that they activate when a new plane is coming in for the museum. Our area manager would let us go out to the runway and watch. I saw some awesome planes come in. They usually do a flyover before landing. There is a hill at the east end of the runway that we usually sat on so the planes would fly right over us. About 20 years ago the museum's Blackbird was due to arrive. Right on time this black dot appeared off to the west. The 'bird came in slow and the pilot lowered the gear and we thought, "Crap, no flyover this time." When the plane was about 10 feet off the tarmac he snapped the gear up and lit the afterburners and the Blackbird shot over us at maybe 100 feet. The heat and sound hit us like a concussion. Knocked us flat. I've never experienced anything like it.

Good friend of mine works at Wright Pat, the AF Museum in Dayton. Lots of very nice stuff there.

Will be going there this June and hope to get an inside tour as usual.

Joe A

Trust ME, I know...

They blew our building apart several times a day. The A-10s would minigun us, while the F-16s would hammer us from miles away with guided missiles. I was told that if we had a laser detector mounted on the roof, it would never turn off during daylight hours. :D

The A-10s would carve up the canyons at the base of the mountain. this guy must have seen me coming down one afternoon, and he timed it perfectly to cross my path right as I cleared a berm. I could tell how many of his teeth had fillings...

Obviously I didn't mean that he really strafed me with live fire.

Hell, we had a Blackhawk doing high altitude training once circle the mountaintop site (2 loops around the site, quickly killing all of us standing around watching) before doing touch and goes at 9200 feet. Having seen one of those come over the edge of the mountain in full attack pose from 200 feet away...you understand why they are still the baddest of the bad out there.

When I worked at the base I used to have lunch there and wander around for half an hour once a week. Wandered through the restoration shops with a friend/restoration volunteer a few times. Got locked inside once when Richard Nixon made a speech out in the parking lot ... Lots of good memories of the place. I haven't been in there in 4-5 years, though I drive by about once a week. It has REALLY grown.

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Just like work...

ahhhh the sound of Freedom.

Harry. Thank you.

Karl
88 Targa

Karl:

I thank the guys in uniform. I am just a civilian helping them out.

They do an airshow at Mather Field here in Sacto. Incredible how low those guys go over my brother's house.

When I lived in Texas, a BIG flying boat landed on Lake Conroe a couple of times, pretty trippy to see something like that.

just a few weeks ago...we were hiking AZ canyons looking for deer. we heard a chopper coming, and sat still. a few seconds later, some blackhawk (?) comes ripping by at eye level. he was so low, he waved at us. wish he could have pointed out some deer..

coming back from a weekend skiing at mammoth, on 395; i just put the car into passing an old pick up truck . As i got north of 90 mph, the car started making this insane rumble sound while shaking WTF !!???
just at the moment as i pulled back to my side of the road, i noticed an F4 doing a low altitude banked turn disappearing behind a canyon WOW !!!

incident #2: we went out to Riverside Raceway , towing the 914 for a POC event. While sleeping outside the gates in the motorhome, it starts shaking, we could not hear each other over the noise, and it went on for a while. We looked out the windows and all we saw was a huge wing with jet engines blazing away.
A fuel tanker was coming in low for a landing at the air base not that far away.

I'm just pumped that McConnel AFB will be having their air-show this year, featuring the Thunderbirds. They haven't had one since 2007, I've had to take my son to KC the last few years.

Great stories! I love the F-4 (proof that with enough power even a brick can fly), but my favorite was being on the flightline at Korat RTAFB when a flight of 4 Thuds took off in full burner. Incredible.

Paz - just as an fyi, no minigun on the A-10; it's a 30mm tank killer.

They spin like miniguns, and they make things disappear in a cloud of ash like miniguns...they be miniguns. Maxiguns maybe. Ripperguns for sure...