# Interesting Things You've Seen From the Air



## syscom3 (Dec 28, 2008)

Most of us have flown, and seen cool things from up there in the air.

What are some you've seen? Ive seen quite a few, so heres a couple of mine to start things off.

*B1's being refueled*. ....... I was on a flight going to Minneapolis and at 30,000 feet above NW Nebraska. I saw the white outlines of a DC-10 going perpendicular to us, about 10,000 feet below us. I then noticed a pair of black shadows behind it, keeping pace with the DC-10. I then recognized the shape of the shadows were of B1's. Dang, that was neat to see a refueling taking place *FROM ABOVE!!!!*


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## comiso90 (Dec 28, 2008)

I was flying over the Grapevine in a Cessna and I saw a B-2 about 2000 feet below us ... that was neat.

I had my "knees in the breeze" at 1200 feet and my finger tips on the outer skin of a C-130 when I was in door position at Ft. Benning jump school. It seemed that I was there 2 minutes and the trees looked awfully close!


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## FLYBOYJ (Dec 28, 2008)

During my first solo at Edwards AFB I was flying the South Base pattern (500' AGL). In the North Base Pattern was a B-1 and F-16 in a loose formation, both were about 2000' AGL and flying a way wider pattern than I but still right in front or along side of me as I did my 3 solo touch and goes. Hell of a thing to see during your first solo!

Living in the Antelope Valley, any and all combat or older warbirds were common place. Probably the most impressive thing I've seen was the SR-71 flying out of Plant 42 and one taking off out of Edwards (the NASA bird). B-1s, F-106s (Chase planes) F-5s, F-4s, F-117s, B-2s were common place, then going into and out of China Lake you had F-18s and AV-8s. Name it and you could see it when you're around Palmdale/ Lancaster CA.


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## comiso90 (Dec 28, 2008)

this would be cool!


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv5J5cBwwFc_
.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Dec 28, 2008)

Lets see:

Saw a C-130 flying NOE. I was flying a training flight in a Blackhawk at about 5000ft and the C-130 was below us in a training area doing NOE.

Saw the Swords of Saddam (to me it was really cool). We were flying a mission about 20ft over the swords in Baghdad.

Was buzzed by German Luftwaffe F-4 Phantoms. We were flying a training mission at about 5000ft and a pair of F-4s flew no more than 500ft over our rotor.


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## Matt308 (Dec 28, 2008)

On a 747-400 test flight over Oklahoma. Just happened too look out the window while standing at the port forward door and saw a KC-135 refueling a B-52 below us. Like Syscom, you don't often get that view live.


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## Matt308 (Dec 28, 2008)

Right after 9/11, I flew out of Reagan International in Crystal City, VA (right across the river from Washington DC). The river route takes you right over the Pentagon. I could see the whole facade destroyed and multiple Hummers with stinger missile turrets all over the frickin' place.


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## Matt308 (Dec 28, 2008)

Oh yeah here's another one. Can't recall the aircraft that I was in, two engine civvie with an ex-Vigi driver as pilot. We saw a cargo aircraft about 5000ft below us. He did a wing over and executed a "gun run". And then quickly knocked it off.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Dec 28, 2008)

Oh to add to my list.

I was flying a night C2 mission in Iraq and got to see an AC-130 light up the sky (and make someone have a very bad day )


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## ccheese (Dec 28, 2008)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> Oh to add to my list.
> 
> I was flying a night C2 mission in Iraq and got to see an AC-130 light up the sky (and make someone have a very bad day )



You should see them from the ground, Chris ! In Da Nang you could see
them working Monkey Mountain over. Quite a sight..

I guess the strangest thing I've seen is, flying over the Sahara in 1954-55,
there was still quite a lot of armor laying around in the desert. British, US
and German. No one had any big helo's, and it was too much of a trip to
go tow something in. I'm certain a lot of it is still there !

Charles


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## ToughOmbre (Dec 28, 2008)

The George Washington Bridge.....from below.

Flying with my uncle (a B-24 pilot in WW II) when I was about 10 years old. We flew *under* the GW Bridge. Pretty sure that might have been an FAA violation but a very cool (or shaky) thing to do.

TO


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## Gnomey (Dec 28, 2008)

Cool stuff guys, I certainly can't top any of those. Only things I have really seen from the air are whales, Kilimanjaro/Mount Kenya/Mount McKinley/other mountains, the Sahara (many times), the Okavango Delta, Ayres Rock, Victoria Falls, Table Mountain/Robben Island, Elephants, Buffalo, Giraffe etc, Sydney Harbour, Paris, London and a few others I have no doubt missed. Most on commercial flight but some on smaller aircraft for sightseeing trips (Okavango + animals + whales).


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## Heinz (Dec 28, 2008)

I think my flight in a Tiger Moth, that was very cool. 

Again not quite as exciting as what has been said above!


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## GrauGeist (Dec 29, 2008)

About the only thing I've ever seen out of the ordinary was back in the 80's aboard a passenger jet, at altitude over the Sierras.

While heading south from Redding to Southern California around midnight, I saw meteor showers for the duration of the flight. If I remember right, it was the Leonids.


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## evangilder (Dec 29, 2008)

I have seen all kinds of stuff in the air the last few years. But then again, that is part of the reason I am up there anyway! 

One of my coolest was the flight over the Mojave desert. Saw the B-2 (photographed it too) and saw a U2 as well, but missed the U2 with the lens.


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## A4K (Dec 29, 2008)

Flying out of Sydney airport for Hungary during the massive bush fires of December 2001. The whole sky was brown from the ground, but the view from above was amazing! 
The smoke rose like a wall at the outskirts of the fire line, roughly 4-500 m in height I'd say (maybe more), then levelled off and was as flat as a pancake on top, covering the entire landscape as far as the eye could see...
Luckily had the 'el cheapo' camera on me, so took a few photos of it.


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## RabidAlien (Dec 29, 2008)

My family was stationed in Guam during the early 80's, so I got to see a lot of B-52's flying around, doing touch-n-go's and popping that little bitty drogue chute to slow down (which I always thought was kinda funny, big plane, little chute...). We would take MAC flights for vacation back in the States, or go to Korea every now and then, and I got to watch some sort of fighter (can't remember which one, now...probably an F4) getting refuelled...from inside the tanker. They would let kids on the flight sit/lay in the seat/pad next to the boom operator, and watch. Once, the fighter pilot made some sort of gesture at the boom operator....the boom operator waved back at him, pulled out a can of Coke, and took a very deep, satisfying swig. The fighter pilot flipped him off.

Seen tons of F-4's and other cargo/transport planes (C-5 with its nose open is an impressive sight!) while stationed in Georgia, as well.


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## 109ROAMING (Dec 29, 2008)

Impressive shots Eric!

about the only slightly cool thing was on landing in an ATR 72-500 I saw a cessna land with us on a different runway


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Dec 29, 2008)

ccheese said:


> You should see them from the ground, Chris !
> 
> Charles



On this particular mission we were only about 300 to 500 ft over the ground. We got to see the whole area obliverated.


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## rochie (Dec 29, 2008)

comiso90 said:


> I was flying over the Grapevine in a Cessna and I saw a B-2 about 2000 feet below us ... that was neat.
> 
> I had my "knees in the breeze" at 1200 feet and my finger tips on the outer skin of a C-130 when I was in door position at Ft. Benning jump school. It seemed that I was there 2 minutes and the trees looked awfully close!



also had my "knees in the breeze" comiso and yes the trees do look very close dont they ?


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## Captain Dunsel (Dec 29, 2008)

Riding home via commercial DC-9, as we descended into Indianapolis, we passed over one of the Goodyear blimps.

Later, got to ride shotgun on several C-130 missions to remote radar sites in Alaska. Looking down into dormant volcanic craters was neat, but better yet was motoring along at minimum altitude over the Arctic icecap, enroute to a strip right on the beach. 

CD


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## syscom3 (Dec 30, 2008)

Back in 1998, I was taking a non-stop flight from LAX to Hong Kong. Two great things I saw:

1) The route took us over the Kamchatka peninsula. Looking down below, I saw in the forest and snow, an old cold war fighter base. I could see the outlines of the airfield, reventments and bomb proof hangers. It must have been abandoned or not in use during the winter as there was no evidence of snow plowing.

2) Landing at the old HK airport. Nothing like being in a 747 and go on the final approach to that airport!


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## Glider (Dec 31, 2008)

This probably doesn't quite count but when I was young about 40 years ago My Dad and I were having a picnic on a mountain side when a Lightning went past, below us. I have seen many similar sightings over the years, but that first spot will always stick in my mind.


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## Matt308 (Dec 31, 2008)

Had one of those too, Glider. I was driving across the Mohave desert in 1984. Way off in the distance I see a dot (what else is there too look at in that godforsaken place... surely not the road ahead). Slowly the dot gets bigger and I see this huge smoke trail leading off into the distance behind it. As it gets closer I make out a formation of two F-4s screaming on the deck doing a gun run on me driving the interstate freeway. Must have passed over my head at about 100ft. Shook my old 1979 Toyota Corona like you can't imagine. Now that was cool. 

But that is not in accordance with the thread now is it.


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## muller (Dec 31, 2008)

Technically, I was in the air for this one! Was taking off on passenger jet in Albuquerque, heading for Dallas. Our plane was just off the ground and looking out my window I saw two F-16's in the air after taking off on a runway right beside us. I'd love to have been able to hear them properly.

The airport is beside Kirtland AFB.


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## Captain Dunsel (Jan 2, 2009)

I wasn't in the air, but I was on an airliner (circa 1990), so this should count. I was coming back to the States from my station in Germany, to go to a conference. The airliner I was on was supposted to be the regular rotator, but the airline (I believe it was Northwestern) had provided one of the shorter-ranged 747's instead of the normal model. So, we had to make a stop-over at Gander on the way.

Once on the ground, the aircraft doors were opened as we were refueled. We couldn't leave the aircraft, but we could see the other aircraft stopped around us, mainly Cubana and Aeroflot Il's and An's. As fate would have it, I'd left the disk camera I normally carried in my briefcase back at home, so I couldn't take any pictures of them. 

Never before or since have seen that many Russkie aircraft on one field!

CD


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jan 2, 2009)

Captain Dunsel said:


> So, we had to make a stop-over at Gander on the way.
> 
> 
> 
> CD



When I returned to Germany for the 2nd time back in 1988 we also had to make a stop in Gander. They let us get off the plane though.


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## ratdog (Jan 2, 2009)

i was a passenger in my friends Cessna and saw 2 AC-130's and a handful of F-16's moving above us.... it was very cool


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## Airframes (Jan 2, 2009)

Seen a few things, but the most exciting, in a trouser-wetting sort of way, was back in 1985. I was in freefall, descending past about 5,000 feet. Straight ahead of me, about a mile distant, and I reckoned at about 200 to 300ft AGL, was a rapidly approaching dot. By the time I'd fallen another 1,000 feet, probably less, the 'dot' had materialised into a bl***y big HS Buccaneer, on an exact reciprocal of my 'heading', and it flashed past directly below me! If I'd exited the aircraft a second or so later, I'd very possibly have ended up as his windscreen sticker, as the jet screamed right across the centre of the DZ!
I do believe the crew, on a delivery flight, got a right royal roasting for overflying the centre of an active parachuting site.
Me? I just got a cleaning bill!


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## GrauGeist (Jan 2, 2009)

Dang, Terry! And where was your camera at that moment?

Just imagine the photos you could have gotten!


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## muller (Jan 3, 2009)

Jeez Terry! I bet the bucc pilot had a cleaning bill too!


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