Traffic

frfly172

frfly172

Touchdown! Greaser!
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ron keating
while flying up the coast fro kvnc to Ksrq. Tampa approach gave me a traffic alert . Traffic at your 12oclock at 3500 ft,two F16s . What a wonderful sight.
 
That is a great sight! On the way to OSH last year we got vectored to get close to a flight of 2 A-10's. Was impressive we even got a wing rock out of them.
 
I got the "traffic 12 o'clock 3 miles 500 feet below you landing Qounset. It's a c130. Report that traffic in sight," after taking off from Qounset, RI, KOQU last week. I had a passenger along with me and tried to get him to take some pictures but none came out all that great.

My response to ATC was a simple, "traffic in sight" I felt like saying "holy cow is that a big plane really close to me!" :)
 
back in 1984 I had two F4 Phantoms scare me out of an MOA that wasn't supposed to be in use... Can you say "Holy Sheet!?"
 
We get that here sometimes but it's "flight of 2 F35s"
 
Different flavor of military, but once got "traffic 3 oclock, 3 miles, indicates same altitude".

It was a B-17, converging from the right. Ended up passing and turning in front of me. Freaking awesome.
 
Had a flight of 6 F-16s called out 1/2 mile away while flying up the Maine Coast last year. Afterwards, I regretted not responding with "Skyhawk 72G has the bogeys in sight - permission to engage?"
 
We were flying northbound east of Norfolk when ATC called out 'Top Gun, Cessna at your 12 o'clock at 8,500 ft' (We: That's US!!!) and seconds later we saw two fighters crossing our path below us... Pictures turned out to be blurry... :(:(:(

We just got our tickets two or three days earlier and were on our way from Florida to New York... :)
 
Eons ago, (1961) on my student pilot cross country, passing just south of KLNK I got a call from the tower "maintain altitude, flight of F-86's passing below you. Hate to admit it but I fudged upwards, but was impressed. :)
 
"Cessna 10H, traffic is a flight of six, 12:00 to 1:00, four miles, same altitude."

"10H, traffic in sight."

"Blue Angel 1, traffic is a Cessna, 3:00 at four miles, now no factor."

It was a cool moment for me, anyway.
 
I was coming back from Placerville, CA yesterday and Oakland Center told me there was a pair of F-18's circling Lake Tahoe. Never did see them even though they were only 1,500 feet above me... :(

We get a lot of military traffic at Reno with Fallon NAS being close by. It's freakin' awesome (and loud) when the F-18's come in. :D

Cheers,
Brian

Sorry for the crappy lighting, best we could do getting close to sunset. I was heading out after getting fuel at Atlantic when this pair came in.

IMG_3225.JPG
 
I remember in college we would fly over Barksdale AFB often at 3,000. The B-52s would be cleared to 2,500 on takeoff. Do you have any idea how big a B-52 looks just 500 feet below you climbing?
 
While training (first 10 hours) at Gray Army Airfield (KGRF) I was sequenced in the middle of a flight of 3 C-17s. Until then I thought that the field looked short and narrow but i made my best landing that day with the controllers saying something like "keep up your speed, C17 gaining, cleared to land, follow C17 to fuel".

In Alaska I was sequenced in the middle of 4 C130s for T&G practice, hoped that the gaining C17s turned base to JBER (PAED) before they overtook me while on my way to Merrill field (PAMR) and provided an impromptu intercept for a pair of F22s at their request.

it was an interesting first 100 hours of flying.....
 
Got stuck waiting for departing "flight of four" at Barnes once, A10s from the Guard. They now fly F15s which used to be at USAF at Otis. Saw the KC135's at Pease doing touch and goes. The Angels were doing their fam flight at Brunswick. Flew out of No Las Vegas and caught a "flight of two" Raptors. Saw more than a few C5s, some in Chicopee, some at So Weymouth. Down on the Outer Banks, a "flight of four" F18s passed overhead. Couldn't catch them if I wanted to. Same flight, had a CG C130 running down the beach stopping at all the bank's airports, ahead of me. Another I couldn't catch.
And while at the Centennial of Flight, Kitty Hawk, '03, was treated to a high speed flyover by two Raptors, one going full burner and straight up. And another flyby was AF1, low and slow.
The C5s, no matter how far away from them you are, they still look big. The A10s just look mean.
American air power. You have to love it.
 
I was doing touch and goes at Langley AFB in a C172 when I hear a female voice request a low approach. The tower gave Patty clearance and said stay below the 172 at the departure end. I was at about 300 feet when she went under me.
 
Flying VFR through hot MOAs is sometimes a good way to get a personal air show.
 
I like flying out of Colorado Springs, the Air Force uses our field as much as anyone else. I grew up here too so it's totally normal for me to see all kinds of aircraft here.
 
Flying in and out of the home drome (KPOU) we are often sharing, on really close terms, airspace with NYANG C130s, C17s, and until recently C5s using Stewart (KSWF). Really cool!
 
I loved sharing the airport in LNK with the KC-135s and the E-4B when I was out there training with @jesse a couple of years ago.

Interesting stuff to share the pattern with. What's really fun is that they're doing touch and goes.

I was "spun" by a KC-135 off of the approach during my Instrument checkride because he was gaining on us. Approach controller asked if we could break off our approach so he could blow the jet past us.

I looked at the DPE and he shrugged and we did the 360 via vectors and started over on that one. Ha.

[Edit: Unfortunately with a hood on, I didn't get to see him go by!]
 
I'm not normally a one-upper but in this thread I can't resist. While flying a Cessna 152 at Kadena Air Base I was making patterns to one runway while this was flying patterns to the parallel runway.

SR-71A_head-on_NASA_Dryden_1995.jpg
 
Timbeck2 said:
I'm not normally a one-upper but in this thread I can't resist. While flying a Cessna 152 at Kadena Air Base I was making patterns to one runway while this was flying patterns to the parallel runway.

SR-71A_head-on_NASA_Dryden_1995.jpg
Click to expand...

When I worked the tower at Eglin AFB an SR71 landed w/ an engine failure. Plane was here for a few days while they changed the engine. Unfortunately I wasn't there when it took off but the plane stayed in the pattern for a few low approaches. On the last low approach guys on duty said the plane was near knife edge down the runway, roll upright at departure and hit it, gone! We had over a hundred fighters at the base then so I guess the Blackbird pilot was showing off. Another cool one was the Shuttle 747 w/ Shuttle aboard landing for refueling. I was told they only flew around 10-12K feet due to all that drag on top. Don't know if that's true though. Eglin a very interesting place w/ all the various flying units there, including a Test Squadron who test weapons on the ranges adjacent to the base.
 
I saw the 747/Shuttle combo land twice at DM for fuel. That thing left Edwards and needed fuel the next state over?
 
So you do about five touch and goes in a 152 for every circuit the SR-71 completed????
 
Was flying to La Mesa TX from El Paso 3 years ago descending and got "Traffic 12:00 opposite direction 5 miles maintain at or above 5500". As the sun was behind me I could see the target at 5 miles and tried to wake my son in time with the camera as I knew it was going to be a great photo (I didn't know what it was, but figured it was big if I could spot it that far out). Unfortunately, he was slow waking. We both got to watch Fifi fly directly under us ... it would've been the best picture ever:(
 
#2 for takeoff behind a pair of A7's at ABQ. Sharing the pattern with a C5 at Amarillo, Sharing the runway with F-4's and OV-10's at Osan, flight of F18's below us for a Qualcomm flyover, Osprey traffic. My former partner flew the plane to Miramar for static display at the airshow. I'm sure he had some interesting traffic.
 
I can't top a SR-71 but the day I soloed back in 2005 I shared the pattern of the Bar Harbor, ME airport with the B-17 Liberty Belle who was giving passengers a flight around the island. I wish I could have taken some pictures but I was not about to screw up my first 3 solo take-offs and landings. I remember a corporate jet calling up the CTAF and asking if they were seeing things or if that really was a B-17, I recall someone making a comment that it was like it happened every day. Shame the plane crashed, it was a beautiful aircraft.

Liberty_Belle_B-17G.JPG
 
Flying to FL from TX back in the 80's around 9,000 ft close to Eglin, ATC calls informing me of traffic approaching off my left wing. Sure enough, there they were -- the Blue Angels! In true showmanship fashion they slowed, dropped flaps and gear, flew along side for about a minute, hit the after burners and were gone. They were about 200' off my wingtip. I could clearly see the faces of a few of them. Where's a camera when you really need one??????
 
I had to go back to my logbook and look this up...

I had to land my 145 hp 1966 C172G in front of a KC-135 tanker at Sheppard AFB/Wichita Falls back in 1996. They told me to keep my speed up (LMAO) and make the first turn off (no ****!).

I just remember looking out my back window and seeing a giant airplane on final with black exhaust trailing behind those four giant engines.

I barely made it across the hold short line in time and I just braced for the tanker's vortices to flip my ****. But I lived! :-D
 
petrolero said:
I had to go back to my logbook and look this up...

I had to land my 145 hp 1966 C172G in front of a KC-135 tanker at Sheppard AFB/Wichita Falls back in 1996. They told me to keep my speed up (LMAO) and make the first turn off (no ****!).

I just remember looking out my back window and seeing a giant airplane on final with black exhaust trailing behind those four giant engines.

I barely made it across the hold short line in time and I just braced for the tanker's vortices to flip my ****. But I lived! :-D
Click to expand...

My Wichita Falls story was the "if you can turn base before that taxiway, cleared to land Runway 35, traffic is an F-16 on a two mile final for 33R. Check gear down."

(And I see they've added a third runway 33 there since I was there last. There were only L/R back then.)

The F-16s were doing laps around the 33s.

It's a good fuel stop for seeing the military kids doing their thing on any XC to Houston from here. Have stopped there numerous times.
 
First XC flight to KSAC a few weeks ago and approach asked us to descend and maintain 3,500 (IIRC). Me, figuring they were just getting us closer to the ground for our eventual landing at SAC began moseying on down at what I thought to be a fair rate.

Couple seconds later I hear the controller call a flight of four trainer jets headed to one of the MOAs and ask them to ascend because a Cessna was taking its time getting down to 3,500. They buzzed by overhead shortly after.

Thought it was a pretty cool experience for my first XC.
 
When I did my long cross country one of my stops was at KACY Airport and I was asked to hold short for these guy's...NG~2.jpg NG.jpg
 
tehmightypirate said:
I can't top a SR-71 but the day I soloed back in 2005 I shared the pattern of the Bar Harbor, ME airport with the B-17 Liberty Belle who was giving passengers a flight around the island. I wish I could have taken some pictures but I was not about to screw up my first 3 solo take-offs and landings. I remember a corporate jet calling up the CTAF and asking if they were seeing things or if that really was a B-17, I recall someone making a comment that it was like it happened every day. Shame the plane crashed, it was a beautiful aircraft.

Liberty_Belle_B-17G.JPG
Click to expand...
I shared the pattern with that airplane once, as a student, as well. The traffic call got my attention. "Cleared for the option #2 27L follow Fortress." FYI, the airplane did not crash. It had an in-flight fire and made a nice emergency landing in a field. It burned up because the fire trucks couldn't get through the mud.
 
Episode 195 of the Omega Tau podcast has a great interview with one of the 747 shuttle...err shuttle pilots.

http://omegataupodcast.net/englishOnly.php

mscard88 said:
Another cool one was the Shuttle 747 w/ Shuttle aboard landing for refueling. I was told they only flew around 10-12K feet due to all that drag on top. Don't know if that's true though. Eglin a very interesting place w/ all the various flying units there, including a Test Squadron who test weapons on the ranges adjacent to the base.
Click to expand...
 
Nothing exciting for me, but for everyone else, when *I* am called out as traffic.

You know the conversation in the other plane(s) starts something like, "Do you know who that is?"
 
cgrab said:
So you do about five touch and goes in a 152 for every circuit the SR-71 completed????
Click to expand...

No, more like the other way around. The SR-71 flew the pattern just as tight as the F-15s and F-4s stationed there. Sure was a graceful bird to watch. I'm glad I got to see it take off and fly several times. At night it would take off and keep the burners lit until you couldn't hear it anymore and it blended in with the stars.
 
EdFred said:
Nothing exciting for me, but for everyone else, when *I* am called out as traffic.

You know the conversation in the other plane(s) starts something like, "Do you know who that is?"
Click to expand...

"Yeah, we read the Hazard NOTAM..." ;)
 
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