Have you folks ever seen something fly over your town that was real unusual, and you didn’t have a camera with you?
This morning a C-130 flew over Edmonton. Thats not unusual, The Canadian Armed Forces use them and we see theirs frequently.
So I look up and here’s this glossy white Herc coming over in U.S. Coast Guard markings! I’ve never seen one of theirs fly over and it was low enough to make a great shot, and me without my camera!
What have you folks missed clicking a great shot of?
an f 18
There is a WWII plane that flies over here just about every Saturday and from the sound of it and the silhouette of it after it has passed by, I believe it is an F8F Bearcat. I have yet to catch it though. [:D]
Mike
B-17 doing touch and goes at the Panama City airport.
I was coming back from a job site last month. I was riding, not driving, and heard a UH-60 Blackhawk. Distinctive sound, and we hear it a lot this close to Ft. Campbell, KY. Found it out the right side window, and then I heard another distinctive sound that I don’t hear very often. Here comes a P-51, and it does an aileron roll as it goes past the UH-60. As you said, me without my camera!
My father and I were with a friend of his in a Cessna. We had just taken off when we heard on the radio that a B-17, a B-24, a B-25, and a B-26 were all lining up to land at the airport we just took off from. I turned to our friend the pilot and asked if he had a parachute.
This past week 2 V-22 Ospreys were doing touch and go’s at a nearby airport and flew over my workplace. Unfortunately, I was inside and didn’t see them. Drat!
Dan
Me and my family were drivng to las vegas and on the long desert highway my dad suddenly goes “hey, is that the blackbird?” and I’m thinking what blackbird?!?! “they are out from service years ago”, My dad is probebly seeing ufo’s.
I raised my haid up and what I do see?!
A big B1-B bomber accompained by two F-16 flying in formation!
I reached for my camera and missed them![banghead][banghead][banghead]
I held up the camera all the way (for another 8 houres), looking up the sky, but nothig else came up!
A B-17 and P-51 flew right over my car as I was driving down Seawall Blvd in Galveston. As if to pour salt on the wound I had my camera but was on my way to the store to buy film! An empty camera in easy reach.
I was at the lake and heard the droning of multiple aircraft. I looked up to see- a B-17, B-24, and some civil aircraft flying in formation. Pretty cool.
Another instance was when a B-17 and B-24 landed at the local airport (I live down the road from it- the aircraft might have been the same as above. I didn’t see the actual landing.) Anyway, they were offering rides in the B-17 (too expensive for me, alas.), and a batch was getting ready to take off. Engine 1 started up, followed by 2, 3, and 4. It taxied out to the runway- and turned around. Apparently it was raining too hard for a takeoff or someting. A missed opprotunity (spelling) to see a takeoff- because of the weather! [banghead][banghead][banghead][banghead][banghead][banghead]
Last year when JG 73 was on its Fulcrum Farewell Tour of the USA a pair of them flew over the house and, of course, the batteries in the camera were kaputt…
Another opportunity that wasn’t exactly missed, but which didn’t turn out right, was when I was a kid of about 13 or 14. The National Warplane Museum was still in Geneseo, NY and I had become rather friendly with Doc Anderson, the fella who owned the NWM P-40. I had approached him at the Hamilton airshow one year to ask if I could sit in the cockpit, because I loved P-40’s. (My Grandfather worked at Curtiss before, during and after the War.)
Anyhoo, every time he saw me he’d invite me back up to the pit to take a seat for awhile. (The advantages of being a kid, I guess!) This one year at Geneseo I asked him if he’d mind if I took some pictures of the cockpit and generally crawl around the ship. He even offered to open up some of the panels for me.
Well, making a long story a tad longer, my Dad was a photographer and I’ve had a camera in my hand since a very early age. I had become pretty proficient at snapping away, but at that time I still had trouble with such simple things as loading film. I never could get it right. So I asked Dad to load the camera for me because I wanted to make sure that the film advanced correctly.
Well, we got home, he went to process the roll and… he found that the film hadn’t gone through the camera… [V]
You can usually tell by the feel of it if the film’s going through or not, but I was one excited kid that day and just didn’t notice. I felt really bad for my Dad, though. Moreso than the fact of what had happened. He said that that was the first bad load he had made in almost fifteen years and he felt just awful about it because he knew how much it meant to me. Ah, well. Such is life, I guess…
Fade to Black…
I just missed Air Force One a few years ago.
I was about 5 years old (ten years ago). I live in Southern California, and during the summer my family and I would fly out to Lake Mead in Arizona/ Nevada. One time, we were flying along when I looked out the window and flying in formation with us is a UH-60. I remember being able to see everything really clearly, the M-60 mg, the gunner, the pilots, the M-60, the other M-60. I think I was kinda affraid at first[:D]. Anyway, maybe taking a picture would have been illegal, and if they saw a flash coming from the aircraft? Well, like I said, I saw a M-60[;)]. But it was really neet. I don’t remember why they did that though. We had flown the same route a lot of times before.
Other times, in the distance, we could see F-18’s making practice bombing runs in the desert
about five or six years ago we had a detachment of blackhawks in the area. to this area that is extremely unusual. they were temporarily based at a small airport two blocks (approx) from where i live. all i have of their visit is a cracked winshield from one of their flyovers.
joe
I work out in the Gulf of Mexico on an Oil and Gas Produciton Platforms and have seen the F-15’s and F-18 out of New Orleans “mixing” it up. They got down pretty low a few times I’m sure they “busted” their minium “hard deck”. They occasionally use the flares and it is pretty neat. The best one was when I looked up as a jet flew dead overhead from my back and instead of an F-15 it was a B-1B at about 1500 ft. moving pretty good. About that time he made a sharp right turn and I heard two sonic booms. A couple F-15s rolled in on him and me with no camera! But I would have need to fill out a “Hot Work Permit” to have used it! Still remember that profile!
a couple weeks ago while driving i10 in between houston and san antonio i saw what looke like a t 38 flying really low probably no more than 300-400 feet, shot passed me and then peel off and disappear into the clouds. it was so freakin sweet!
In my hometown of Northam (just outside of Perth, WA, Australia) we have an old 7-storey ex-hospital building thats been closed down for about ten years. In late 1999, there were 2x Army Blackhawks with possible SAS soliders practicing a helo extraction onto the roof-top. I didn’t see it, but my father did as he could see it from his office building across town. They were practicing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The SAS use an Army Base just outside our town for various training purposes. I sure wish I got a photo!
Air Force One has delayed my flight more than once. I would trade either of those experiences for yours anytime!
here’s an oppurtunity, I didn’t miss. downtown Phoenix these passed over the interstate.
I have no idea what they are, can anyone tell me???
my crew and i were nailing on roof sheathing on a house i was building when all of a sudden an F-15 strike eagle all but took my cap off my head. man was it loud, but you couldn’t hear the sucker until it passed overhead. i thought i was going to have to change my drawers, but luckily all was well. all i would’ve been able to catch was a blurr anyway if i had’ve had a camera. later.