The Clearwater station is right in my backyard. My bro in law got this shot today.
See this just about every day, but it is still pretty damn impressive in person.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater
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The Clearwater station is right in my backyard. My bro in law got this shot today.
See this just about every day, but it is still pretty damn impressive in person.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater
Whoa it flew right through those wires.
The ones that shuttle between McMurdo and the Pole are pretty impressive too:
http://i.imgur.com/5t9lY0p.jpg
I saw, no shit, a crop duster fly underneath a set of power lines last week.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
Last summer on a caribou hunt several miles off the Denali Hwy, we start to hear this humming. Turn around and here is this C-130 bearing down on us. If they were 150' off the deck I'd be surprised. Super cool, even if they scared of the herd we were staring at.
Also, I was on the 4th pitch of a Climb in southern Arizona, maybe 550 ft off the ground and hear propellers, turn, and see one below the horizon, flying through a gap a quarter mile to the south of me with another hot on its heels. So cool to be looking down on them.
I don't mind seeing them low, but from experience I would advise not being under them when they drop retardant.
They're called special needs now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCIJ0F62og4
If it's a C-130 thread, I apologize. But Sunset Beach at St. Maarten is the ultimate airplane viewing experience!
+1 that's for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by grrrr
This guy came in even lower...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfQwDizpRo
Several many times while skiing/hiking/hunting in WV I have had A-6s, F-14s and F-18s fly directly over me or below where we were at.
They do mock bombing runs at the Mt. Storm power plant and then map of earth flying on the egress. Lots of times after they get out over the Spruce Knob area they will fly striaght up and then dog fight with each other.
The Martinsburg National Guard fly 130s and C-5s over the house often, its amazing to see the C-5 flying around cause its looks too big to even get into the air.
We were loading boats at Hecla Junction in Browns Canyon when a pair CH-47's came thundering down the canyon about 25ft off the water. The crew chief standing in the door was waving at us. Pretty cool.
Yeah, no shit:Quote:
Originally Posted by grrrr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7kr6o1s9sI/
Used to work real close to McClellan in Sac, stationed a few coastie C-130's there since they could reach the coast or Tahoe quickly. Things would go over on approach at 150'. We shared the lot with a car dealership and the damn thing would set off every fucking alarm on the lot. Always made for a hellofa racket.
I hated those fucking things flying low over the barracks at all manner of ungodly hours.
Saw a pretty cool show on the 109th Airlift Wing a few weeks back: http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/arcti...e-109th/349946Quote:
Originally Posted by MakersTeleMark
First summer after we moved to the Sierra Foothills (2000) there was a fire in the canyon of the North Fork of the American about 3 miles from my house. Got the scanner for the CDF air attack frequency and went to an overlook where I could see the canyon rim and chilled for a while.
The big CalFire planes (C-130s, WWII-era bombers [I seem to remember a B-29], etc.) were based out of Chico and the smaller guys (S-2s, S-3s, helos, etc.) were out of Grass Valley.
I was sitting there watching the action when a C-130 came in perpendicular to the canyon rim and dropped in out of sight above the river. He emerged from the canyon upstream, flying parallel to the river. To this day it's one of the coolest feats of flight I've seen--a ~90 degree turn in a really tight spot with a retardant drop in the middle of it. It was pretty cool too to chill out there after dark and see the canyon rim glowing from the fire below, with occasional flares when a big pine went up at the top.
Family friend flew helicopters for the Coast Guard for 20 years out of Sitka, FL Panhandle, and LAX. He's got some sweet stories.
I used to live in Pasadena, and on New Years day we would always go for a mountain bike ride up into the canyons - the same canyon that the stealth B2's would come down through for the Rose Bowl flyover. Pretty badass to be in the canyon and essentially above the bomber as it came through.
Been buzzed by C130s a few times traveling along the east edge of area 51 from tonopah to caliente. Had one fly right in front of me 50 feet off the deck and I almost wrecked it was so freaky. When you see one of those coming at you at virtually ground level while doing 100 mph (no cops out there) and it first appears in the corner of your eye, your mind tries to comprehend it, then you deduce that you are on a intersecting course with it and your body just wants to perform a gigantic physical twitch that will surely careen your rig into a tailspin....you just suck it up and get the rush, which is intense.Quote:
Originally Posted by grrrr
What caused the wings to fold up on that one in the video? Looked like it was in mostly level flight, had just dropped it's retardent and then the wings fell off. WTF?
Never been buzzed by a C-130, I can imagine that would be pretty intense, but have been buzzed plenty of times by A6s, EA6B Prowlers, F16s, F15s, and F18s flying low-level maneuvers over the Cascade Mts. while out backpacking.
Got treated to a spectacular show when I was standing on top of The Citadel in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and a flight of five T-45 Goshawks came up the valley, broke apart and started chasing each other and mock-dogfighting around all the local peaks and through the valleys. Got one kind of lousy picture of one with my film camera and wide angle lens when he flew through the pass between me and Mt. Daniel.
Never been able to get a pic of any of the other encounters as you usually don't hear them 'til they're right on top of you and more often than not I'm down in the trees or in a lake basin so only see them for a second or three.
I was supposed to be on that fire that plane crashed on. Crash site is in Walker, at the foot of the Walker River Canyon on 395. See the memorial every time I go to Mammoth. Stress fractures caused the wings to sheer off was the determination. That crash and a couple others grounded a good part of the West's air support for fire fighting.
Wing spar snapped. Positively ancient C-130A, the A-models were produced in the 50s and that aircraft had been flying in very thick, bumpy low-altitude air and just got overstressed with time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chainsaw_Willie
That crash was a big watershed moment for the USFS air tanker industry, there used to be a whole lot of different types of aircraft doing it and now they're pretty much down to a handful of Neptunes and Trackers. IIRC in the aftermath it was determined that aircraft operating on USFS contract were immune to federal safety regulations and a lot of maintenance and inspection stuff had been ignored...that all changed after that crash.
Now, Neptune Aviation of Missoula will be using BAe-146 airliners, and the company from Oregon (can't remember their name) will be using MD-83 airlines...same as Delta and American fly! Crazy.
MD-83s? Dropping fire retardent is probably the only good use for those as carrying people in them is cruel and unusual.
Holy shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
I guess somebody skipped "tighten wings down" on the checklist. That's crazy, RIP.
This is supposed to be one of the best jetwatching sites in the world. USAF F-15Es out of Lakenheath.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsHQ4zOnPL0
When I was a kid, I was at the Gary Bailey Motocross School; it was a 3 day seminar at Byron racetrack in Rockfod, IL. His son, David (who would go on to MX champ, paralyzed, and Ironman fame), was showing us a cornering technique.
He then gets on his bike and gets ready to take the corner...we start to hear a loud buzz getting closer...Bailey is about 1/2 way through the corner...this C-130 buzzes us about 100' feet off the deck just over the trees...Bailey eats shit in the corner....he said he laid it down b/c he thought we were being bombed or something. I believe him.
I will also note: a C-130 is not very impressive when you fly in one from Okinawa to the Philippines. In fact, it sucks.
-Smarty
Great F-15 vid! My nephew is driving Eagles out of Lakenheath. Pretty awesome.
When I went to Montana State University in 1982, we used to get our early season turns on Hyalite Peak. The B-52's would come roaring by so close that you could see the pilot's heads in the cockpit. They were on a low-level practice bombing route, Cold-War style. Probably pulling 350 knots, they made quite a racket!
Since this has morphed into different aircraft--one of the most impressive things you'll ever see is a C-17 short field landing with thrust reverse. Landing at 0:40. C130 can do this too, but something about those jet engines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNRXAHasFvk
a few years ago we were playing golf outside of Beaufort at Secession and there were war simulations taking place out of Parris Island. Fighters escorting bombers, bombers hauling ass. Pretty cool to watch. My caddy was a marine with a 2 handicap.
I hope you gave him shit for taking a video in vertical format.Quote:
Originally Posted by warthog
Living in Death Valley, we'd sometimes head west through the Panamint Valley, to Ridgecrest, which is home to China Lake NAS. Most all of DV is still designated military air space, although DV proper has worked it out to not have aircraft below 2000'agl. Panamint Valley is wide open, and i've been buzzed at 100' or so a dozen times by different fighters. Couple times freaked me out, i'm sure the pilots were laughing their asses off...
[cool thing about that is that because it's military airspace, there's no commercials flying over unless they're way the fuck up there. This contributes to some of the most intense 'natural quiet' i've ever experienced. No trees or bushes to even rustle with the wind. Not. A. Sound. /threaddrift]
Hell yeah, one of the most impressive flight demos I've ever seen. Guy was slinging that thing around like it was a Pitts or something. Like watching an unexpectedly athletic fat guy doing gymnastics.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberridge
ok, aircraft jong here...how the fuck do they see behind them? Cameras?Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberridge
If the runway was so short that they had to land like that would it be long enough for them to take off again?Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberridge
They use treadmill assist.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
I was thinking they were the military so they just said "Fuckit, leave it there, we'll just buy another one."
but bringing in the treadmill was good
Apparently some tired USAF pilots mistakenly landed one at a small civilian airport in Tampa last year.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
Here's a video of it taking off again. There's also a video of it landing at the airport on U-tube somewhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi58Ds3Krgw
Yes, yes they did. It was a big fuckup.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberridge
Read an article in Men's Journal last year about these guys that do just that with the Soviet version of C-130s. They don't care about getting em back out so they just leave em there.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
Crazy job, basically mercenaries that will fly anywhere deliver anything and laws, military, terrorists be damned - as long as they get paid enough.
Lots of ransom drops, arms and human smuggling, crazy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThoZNxy2JZk
Just wasted 20 minutes on youtube and was impressed by the balls on this pilot.