Low Passes

flyingron

flyingron

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Catawba, NC
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FlyingRon
One of the reasons I like living where I do because my office looks out over our runway and I get rewarded with low passes from time to time. Just after I moved in years ago a blackhawk helicopter shot by at eye level. We've also had Chinook formations and of course our usually mix of neighbors who had everything from Beech18's down to very hot homebuilts.

I'm sitting in my office just now and I hear jet engines. I look up to see the belly of a large green four engine plane (C-141 I think) going by...
 
It wasn’t a C-141. Maybe C-17.
 
flyingron said:
One of the reasons I like living where I do because my office looks out over our runway...
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I saw this property recently and pointed it out to my wife. It would be nice to be on the water so close to an airport. I still don't have the means to pull it off.
 
I did a low pass once. Questionable gear extension. Tower said it looked good to them.
 
My ex-military neighbors tell me it was a C-17. They also identified that the pilot was the son-in-law of one of my neighbors...

Another neighbor caught a photo it as it fkew away...
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Mahneuvers said:
I saw this property recently and pointed it out to my wife. It would be nice to be on the water so close to an airport. I still don't have the means to pull it off.
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I have close friends who live two doors down from that property.

We're up the lake a bit. The careful placement of the drone (over the top of my neighbor's house) makes it look like we're the only house on the runway...

 
I was stuck by weather for two nights at Klamath Falls (KLMT). The first next day, I watched a U-2 out of Beale AFB do a low pass on 32/14. FBO put the comms on external speaker. I was standing by my plane on the ramp. About 2/3 down the runway the U-2 hit the throttle. A sound you feel in your chest. The FBO's plate glass shook. I turned to look at the rattling pane and could see the glass flexing with the vibration. Amazing.
DSC_0069.U-2.Approach.jpgDSC_0070.jpg
 
flyingron said:
Another shot someone posted on facebook ...
Apparently, some of our non-airport neighbors weren't amused.

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I can just imagine the posts on the neighborhood FB group or Nextdoor (full name Nextdoor to 10,000 Whiny Karens). “OMG it was a giant airliner that almost crashed into the trees!” “It went right over my roof and I felt the jetwash!” “It’s a secret invasion by the military black jets!”
 
I’m right under an MTR and an exit point on a C-130 Slow Route. No one really complains around here.

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ateamer said:
I can just imagine the posts on the neighborhood FB group or Nextdoor (full name Nextdoor to 10,000 Whiny Karens). “OMG it was a giant airliner that almost crashed into the trees!” “It went right over my roof and I felt the jetwash!” “It’s a secret invasion by the military black jets!”
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Don't forget all the, "Why" is it over our houses...which I never understand this type of post..."Because it's an aircraft, that's why".
 
Country Flier said:
Don't forget all the, "Why" is it over our houses...which I never understand this type of post..."Because it's an aircraft, that's why".
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no no no. It's because us pilots have a map of all the whiny NIMBY twits and we get points for causing noise complaints.
 
One of our neighbors (an ex-AF United captain) wrote a pretty good response to the social media about the service that military aviation does for the country. It pretty much shut people up.
 
flyingron said:
One of our neighbors (an ex-AF United captain) wrote a pretty good response to the social media about the service that military aviation does for the country. It pretty much shut people up.
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Good! I'd love to see what he wrote.
 
Country Flier said:
Don't forget all the, "Why" is it over our houses...which I never understand this type of post..."Because it's an aircraft, that's why".
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“Well, you’d be even more upset if it were IN or ON your house, so be glad it’s over your house.”
 
eman1200 said:
I do a low pass by you now and then. uh, I mean a runway inspection. for wildlife and other hazards, of course. safety, you know.
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I confirmed…..no wildlife this evening, runway 5. There was, however, a Sasquatchy lookin dude on a lawnmower, runway 32.
 
We have a local grass strip that's been there for ages and the suburbs have grown up around it. A guy with a house right off the end of the runway complained and asked the owner how low planes are allowed to get when landing. He replied, "all the way to the ground". Fortunately most of the new homeowners love the airport and the variety of planes that visit. The airport does a pancake breakfast a couple times a year and attendance from the surrounding houses is huge.
 
Punkinhead said:
We have a local grass strip that's been there for ages and the suburbs have grown up around it. A guy with a house right off the end of the runway complained and asked the owner how low planes are allowed to get when landing. He replied, "all the way to the ground". Fortunately most of the new homeowners love the airport and the variety of planes that visit. The airport does a pancake breakfast a couple times a year and attendance from the surrounding houses is huge.
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I told my mother that my flight instructor had the state altitude record in gliders. She asked "High or low?"
 
Not quite as nice as the Lake Norman property, but here's my backyard at Lake Oconee - 32GA. It was a lot more affordable than the Lake Norman properties. And yes, with all those trees around, we regularly do low passes looking for wildlife runway incursions.

32GA.jpg
 
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