Interesting Things You've Seen From the Air

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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
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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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