Coolest traffic you've seen in person

I see blimps all the time at kosu. There was 3 at one time once during the summer. Coolest thing I seen was a p51 fly under me. He was going to where he was going a lot faster than I was in the 172
 
I was about 2000' at the mouth of Charleston harbor and a C17 crossed by at less than 500'agl over the water. He was screaming by and banked at about 45deg heading to their practice area.
 
For me, a tie between getting passed by an AF A380 heading into Dulles, or Air Force 1 returning to Andrews AFB.
 
C-GZYT said:
Taxiing out for departure, shared the run up area with a Lockheed Electra.
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My view of an Electra was from the inside - as a paying passenger in 1969 from Madison, Wis. to D.C. The next leg was in a Martin 404 on to Lynchburg, VA.

I was also a passenger in a DC3 from Denver to Reno. I think that was in 52 .

(Sorry, some folks just can't follow rules)

Just reviewed the OP's rules. I think I am in compliance. It depends on how you define "traffic". That is probably easier to define than "is".
 
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Bald Eagles at KMIV and KCGE (do we count them as traffic?)
F-18's on my way to Nags Head, NC.
C-5 around passing by opposite direction
Blimps and hot air balloons
AH1 Cobra. I asked the pilot for a photo op since I had a CAP youngster on board and the Cobra quickly climbed to our altitude for a photos.
 
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Flying through Nevada, C185... out of nowhere comes a F16 or F18 from underneath, same direction, and loops up and disappears, upside-down, the other direction. I wake the real pilot up, he's sure I've strayed into a restricted area. Nope. A minute later, another one flies overhead, upside-down (waving... finger?) and peels back underneath us heading the other way. They were just screwing with us...
 
B-25 passing to the right of me going north at 1/2 a mile, me going south in a Cub. It was my 3rd lesson.
 
When I soloed the local museum's F4U was cleared out behind me. He was still doing his run-ups when I came around for my first T&G. The next time around I had the unique view of looking down on an airborne F4U. :D

Then a few years later we were returning home on the weekend of the airshow and my wife snapped the attached picture. We were on short final to 26 as the B-17 was taking off on 17. Yes, there's a B-17 off in the distance in the picture. :yes:

Got a good look from above of a C-17 as it passed us last summer before he was cleared higher.
 

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Yesterday I shared the pattern at Orlando Executive (KORL) with this:
 

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In 1986, I was flying trail with another h46 over the ocean at 500 feet and a flight of two f4s went under us, hit the burners and went straight up in front of the lead 46. I saw them go under us, but it was so fast that I didn't have time to warn my lead. You could see that it startled him.
 
Yesterday, sharing the pattern with a Bald Eagle at 800AGL. Was flying parallel to the wingtip inside my turn, about 50ft away. Gorgeous.
 
I don't always see awesome traffic, but when I do, it's my own shadow. :)
 
I was at the beach in NC a couple of years ago. Took some cousins to Kitty Hawk, VFR along the coast and around the Hatteras lighthouse. Went back south IFR behind some storms, changed my destination twice as the weather blew out to sea and I could go further. This was complicated by the grass strip I was visiting not having any approaches, and my briefing said the Restricted Area overlying the field, charted to start 1500'agl was "hot to the ground" but that I could still go in.

As I slowed down and flew by to look at the windsock, I turned onto what became an upwind leg and the Blackhawk behind me turned right and circled over town. When I turned downwind and dropped my gear, he obligingly sidestepped so I wasn't going at him. My base was between his first orbit and the field, and I set her down over the trees. He hung around, clearly visible out the windshield as I back-taxied to the parking area.

Guess the Marines were making sure everything was okay.
 
Over the holiday break, I took a hop across Dallas from McKinney (TKI) to Stephenville (SEP). Was flying VFR with FF, and expected to get routed either south-then-west, or west-then-south to keep me out of the bravo. Instead, I got cleared in and they took me right over the top of DFW, which was a treat by itself (both for the direct route and for the view).

But after we got past DFW, we noticed a C5 in the distance on approach to Carswell from the north (I'm not sure what it's called these days, but it'll probably always be Carswell to me). My Cherokee is slow enough that when we realized the C5 was shooting a practice approach and was going to keep flying, it began to loom large in my side window. Approach kept us comfortably separated, of course, but it's a C5...it's going to loom large anyway!

The Galaxy then proceeded to fly an entire circle around us as it got vectored for another approach, this time from the south. Was fun to see this flying behemoth in our vicinity for several minutes!

Oddly, Approach never called out the traffic to us. Maybe they figured that if we hadn't already noticed a C5 right out the window, it probably wasn't worth trying to point it out to us...
 
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Crossing the Charleston harbor at 3000' just outside the Class C, the Boeing Dreamlifter passed underneath me at about 2000' turning onto final for 33. It looked huge!
 
Jim_R said:
Oddly, Approach never called out the traffic to us. Maybe they figured that if we hadn't already noticed a C5 right out the window, it probably wasn't worth trying to point it out to us...
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Roger that! I remember years ago living in Napa and once in a while we'd see one working its way into Travis AFB. Darned things looked like they were parked in the air. Something that big sure looks slow, even when it is booking along.
 
HighFlyingA380 said:
Training right next to Whiteman AFB I have seen quite a bit of fun toys: Flying alongside B-2s and Blackhawks were a weekly occurrence, with the odd C-130 and C-5 thrown in there; Was in the pattern with a B-1 "Bone"; Was on approach into K15 over the lake and two A-10s shot under me. They were about 100agl and I was 600agl. And they had to be doing about 400kts; Departed the north runway at KSUS as 4 Blue Angels F18s and Fat Albert departed from the south side.
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Yeah, I was flying toward MCI one morning and Whiteman Approach told me to deviate 20 right for traffic, a B-2 turning for what must have been a 20 mile final. It was eerie seeing a big bird up close in the turn, then when he rolled out it was almost like he wasn't there due to the profile. Although that morning, it much more worrisome flying a Skylane and being slotted in between two 737s for landing at MCI. :D Keep that speed up through touchdown and take the first available turnoff!
 
First long solo XC as a student flying KSVE to KWMC over the Black Rock desert in Nevada, saw an A380 above me... Probably heading for LAX.
 
I've had a lot of cool ones over the years.

Flying down the Hudson River corridor at 1000', a C-5 coming up the river at 2500'. I went around the the Statue of Liberty and headed back up the river and there's the C-5 coming back down the river.

The Concorde both taking off and landing at JFK.

An F-117 coming in from the Atlantic to land at McQuire AFB.

One day while flying over the Chesapeake Bay at 5000', I happen to look down and see a flight of 3 C-130's down on the deck.

On short final at OSH, a flight of P-51's taking of in front of me.

And on last one that was both cool and funny. One day while T & G's with a student, we are on final, and I notice a flight of four Cobras about to transition by our uncontrolled field. I was about to point them out to him when I decided to see when he would notice them himself. We land without him seeing them and takeoff again. We had a strong crosswind and he is overly concerned with our ground track to the point that he is looking behind us so much that he still hasn't seen them. We turn crosswind and they are at our 12 o'clock and a mile, but he is still looking on the ground and commenting on the wind.

We turn downwind and they are just off our right side. I finally ask him if he has been scanning for traffic and of course he says yes. I respond, "really, if you were, there was no way possible you could have missed them". You can imagine that 4 helicopters that close, especially when you don't expect to see them, look huge, about as big as his eyes got when saw them. I got a good laugh and he learned a valuable lesson..




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I saw this guy flying around a couple of years ago:

navy%2Bblimp.jpg


He was on our CTAF, and someone the grass strip just south of the airport I was landing at (Bay Bridge W29) got on the radio and said something like "Hey, Warlock 7, you wanna come down to Kentmorr, 3W3, and do a low pass? It's just south of your position." And he came back with "Uhhh...yeah, sure. Why not?" Apparently he did a low pass over Bay Bridge too.
 
jpower said:
I saw this guy flying around a couple of years ago:

navy%2Bblimp.jpg


He was on our CTAF, and someone the grass strip just south of the airport I was landing at (Bay Bridge W29) got on the radio and said something like "Hey, Warlock 7, you wanna come down to Kentmorr, 3W3, and do a low pass? It's just south of your position." And he came back with "Uhhh...yeah, sure. Why not?" Apparently he did a low pass over Bay Bridge too.
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I can only imagine what the girls think when this pilot tries to impress them with the ole' "I'm a Naval Aviator" pickup line. He's gotta be darn sure to never let them ask what he flies!
 
ebykowsky said:
I can only imagine what the girls think when this pilot tries to impress them with the ole' "I'm a Naval Aviator" pickup line. He's gotta be darn sure to never let them ask what he flies!
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Or let them see him wearing his uniform with the Naval Airship Pilot 'wing'
 
Some years ago I flew by the Goodyear Blimp. Another time I passed several Russell Stover Candies blimps flying around north of L.A. Went by Travis AFB one time and saw a few C-5s shooting touch and goes.

The most memorable occasion was when I spent the night in Rock Springs, WY on my way to Oshkosh. Also there were a P-51 and a Corsair, travelling together on their way to OSH. Took off in the morning and hit a solid wall of weather to the East. Did the old 180 and there they were - headed straight for me. I got out of the way and returned to Rock Springs. They returned as well.

Dave
 
Was not a very cool traffic encounter..but a memorable one.
Just broke through the cloud layer coming into Columbus ohio on a rainy day only to encounter a hot air balloon floating a few hundred feet below the cloud deck about 1 mile 12:00. Had to quickly divert and query approach regarding traffic..

They stated negative radar contact with balloon and cleared me for the approach....as if I was nuts for making an abrupt heading change.




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Flew in to an airshow and the "traffic control" for departure was climb to 1000" and turn in your intended direction. I did and was about 5nm from the airport when the B17 Fuddy Duddy flew above me and to my left about 500 or 1000". Wished for a second I was flying a P51 instead of a 172.
 
ebykowsky said:
So most other times you'd prefer a C172 over a P51? :)
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Most other times my wallet prefers a 172. Also had my wife in the plane so a standard single seat P51 might not have fit the mission. :D
 
DFH65 said:
Most other times my wallet prefers a 172. Also had my wife in the plane so a standard single seat P51 might not have fit the mission. :D
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Underwing armament racks.

Just sayin' :D
 
I've had tower tell me to watch out for possible wake turbulence from the aircraft taking off on parallel runway and look over to see a big 747 on the upwind beside me with a big United States of America on the side of it.
 
ebykowsky said:
I can only imagine what the girls think when this pilot tries to impress them with the ole' "I'm a Naval Aviator" pickup line. He's gotta be darn sure to never let them ask what he flies!
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They aren't in the military. It's a civilian contractor that operates the airship. That particular model flies like garbage anyway.
 
Theboys said:
I've had tower tell me to watch out for possible wake turbulence from the aircraft taking off on parallel runway and look over to see a big 747 on the upwind beside me with a big United States of America on the side of it.
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Did you get an F-18 escort and a "welcoming committee" when you landed?

FYI, not every aircraft in that livery is Air Force 1. We have a G-III at work painted like that. Don't ask me why it's not in NASA livery like all the other aircraft. We don't get a lot of VIPs, and AFAIK, that G-III has been substituting for the Global Hawk hauling air samplers up 'cause it's (a lot) cheaper to operate.
 
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C130's doing low level, high speed training missions in and around ABQ at night are always cool to see and a somewhat regular occurrence.
 
C-130s and Blackhawks are all I've seen. But some of both are based out of my home airport and St. Pete/Clearwater in FL (KPIE).
 
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