Headed to Oshkosh a day early to get a prime parking spot by Theater in the woods. Not a care in the world, the 1941 j3 was barreling through the warm muggy skys at the advertised 70mph , with the doors open of course. When something caught my attention at 3 o'clock!!

Can`t be! Three C130 bombers at my lofty altitude of 500 feet less than a mile and closing reeeeeal fast! OMG...AAAAH.. OMG!! I instintively dive the Yellow insect to the deck as they roar past ooooso close! The prop turbulence really put me on my ear as they went right over me, Either they were oblivious to me being there , or just enjoyed the entertainment.

" Note to self: when following powerlines as nav aids, Beware of Military Low Altitude Training Routes!!" Before you judge and think I am completely without a redeeming thought, I did pack clean underwear.....Woody

Heard on the inter-plane freq: "look at that big yellow bug"......

Woody - had that happen to me in the Super Cub a couple times down near the old Jordon drop zone (south of Flying Cloud) when running the Minnesota River. You look casually off to the side and there are 4 big prop disks with a lot of smoke coming right for you - but the closest time was motoring along down next to the water between the trees and the sky turned Olive Drab above me...

Brad

A strange feeling I will never forget. Woody

Just doesn't happen while you are in the air! I was in Algonquin Park, Canada this past August sitting in my campsite on top of a 50 ft rock outcropping. Lo and behold I hear the thunder of big engines and five seconds later this C130 comes right over me in a shallow left bank! His wing was just about in the trees and I can clearly see the pilot looking out the side window with a big old grin!

I have no idea what he was doing up there but there was no doubt he was clearly having fun!

Skystrider wrote:Just doesn't happen while you are in the air! I have no idea what he was doing up there but there was no doubt he was clearly having fun!

Down here in the vast desert wastelands of sunny Nevada, I was riding my four-wheeler back towards home from the old ghost town of Marietta. It was June or July, mid afternoon and hot, and I had just ridden out from underneath a thunderstorm, and had gotten drenched in a little gully washer rainstorm and looked like a drowned cat. Once the sun popped back out I stripped off my shirt to soak up some sun, and was tooling down the trail fat, dumb, and happy.

I crested a ridge and started down this big, empty, open valley aiming at a little spring called Rattlesnake Well. Being the careful, conservative trail rider that I am, I had my ball cap on backwards, a cigar in my right hand, and a cold beer from the cooler in my left. Just a little slice of perfection. It smelled good, I could see forever without a single sign of human mess except for the trail I was riding, just one of those glad to be alive moments. I gave the bike it's head, and rode along daydreaming about nothing, sipping my beer and savoring my smoke, just completely wrapped up in the moment.

Then somebody hit me between the shoulderblades with a two by four. My beer went flying, and I damn near swallowed my cigar. As my head snapped up I saw a blurred image of rows and rows of gray rivets, and then just noise.

F/A-18. From Fallon. That sumabitch must have spotted me, put the pedal to the metal, dropped down to the dirt, and swung in from behind to make the kill. He came over the top of me at maybe 30 feet, down the mountainside and across the valley floor kicking up dust as he went, then pulled it up to the vertical and poof, was gone. Of course I was sporting wood by then, and yelling at him to come back and do it again. But the guy must have been afraid I was someone who didn't like airplane noise or appreciate a good buzz job, because he fled the scene.

Gump

Gump - that reminds me of the time my Dad was ripping along one of your fine Nevada highways in a Mustang, ( giving it it's head as you say...) when in the far distance a small shape descended from the sky in a hard bank levelling out just above the ribbon of asphalt. Soon he saw what appeared to be a black hole coming right for him up the road, it grew larger and larger and then all he could see was intake - rrrrrrrRRRROARRRR!!! Shake Shudder and Rock the 'stang. It was an A-7 having too much fun

(Dad actually had something similar happen a couple more times but this was the coolest - another guy I knew when up in Alaska had an A-10 beat his boat up several times after being caught fishing inside a range and his buddy gave the pilot the bird...not smart...)

Brad

You know that given the chance, with the right equipment of course, there probably isn't one person on this forum that wouldn't do the same thing!

Skystrider wrote:You know that given the chance, with the right equipment of course, there probably isn't one person on this forum that wouldn't do the same thing!

Got that right!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gump

got spilt? Another blatant military waste.. woody

Gump .... great story. You had me right there on the back seat with you. John

very minor similarity;
Winter, frozen rivers and the periodical snow machine cruising up or down one of the same. On the way out to a friends cabin, following one of these rivers, I spotted a couple of machines that were flat out moving. I was doing 145 mph and they were a little slower but not by too much. They were maybe 105-110 and steady. They came to a very long straight stretch and in line with ourselves. Made a position report on 22.9 and not hearing anybody in our area, lowered myself to a bit above their level. It would have made for a great strafing run. They were more than a little suprised when we crossed overhead from behind. Ran into the same guys a day later and they were saying that they had been out-running Cubs the whole day and appreciated the come-uppance. A good laugh by all.

mount bayonets on your skis for wolf shis-ka-bobs? Woody

When on submarines, we were being harased by a Russian Trawler outside Apra Harbor Guam. Every time we wanted to come to periscope depth, there he was. The old man got really pissed so he went into the sonar shack and order active sonar, single ping full power right at the trawler. There Rusky sonar operators still probably do not have their hearing back.

Tim

There I was.... in the mighty mini van with the whole troop. Driving in the Juniper low moa. When the call of nature sounded. Dad how much farther,... I have to go.... So I slow down from mach .5 out in the middle of no where. Pull the van over, doors pop, slide open, girls to the back, boys to the front. Not a car in sight for miles, long straight stretch in the Eastern Oregon desert. Just in the full release mode, when out of the sky came two fast movers. I can still see the lead looking down, I'm sure laughing. My wife with a full moon They may have been 150 off the deck. I still laugh about it now and then. I told her they couldn't see much at their speed anyway.

See ya, Bub

There I was this summer on the Matanuska River in Alaska headed up to the glacier on a jet boat with 2 other friends. It was my first trip on the river and in a jet boat. We were bouncing up the river having a good ol' time scraping rocks, bouncing off logs etc.

All of a sudden out of nowhere we were strafed by a red Super Cub. Glad no one was standing up in the boat or someone might have gotten hit in the head with one of those Alaska Bushwheels. Needless to say it was a great flyby and if I wasn't so busy hanging on in the boat I might have gotten a picture.

We never made it up to the Glacier because the flow from all the rain had the river running to fast and we didn't have any spare fuel on board.

Lots of Fun!!