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Hmmm..do you like low flying aircraft?....then here ya go!

USAFSS-ColdWarrior

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The Atithesis of LOW FLIGHT

This photo presents the "opposing view" of the whole LOW FLIGHT topic about which this thread is focused. I thought it appropriate to share this counterpoint here, amongst those subscribed whom I trust will surely appreciate it's poetic message.

11885302_10152842324696191_8358697255614724431_n.jpg

HIGH FLIGHT

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gillespie_Magee,_Jr.#High_Flight
 

74M35A2

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That one reminds me so much of the movie "The Right Stuff", where a pilot wanting to be an astronaut took a jet straight up until the engine could not breathe anymore and shut down. He did get to see the stars during daylight, at least in the movie. One of my favorites.

Back to low, some great ones here, but the is one of the most impressive I have ever seen. Sorry if it was previously posted. Inverted, and so low, the rudder nearly becomes a rudder, in the water. I won't spoil the rest, but I would buy this guy a round if I met him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaPrTmwGSg
 

marchplumber

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Not exactly "low to the ground" but certainly so low to the cloud cover that I've titled this


"TU-95MS DISTURBING TURBULANCE"

View attachment 575702


Carry On, Comrades.


Wonder what would create such a dramatic and "sharp" trough from an aircraft in straight and level flight? I see a "wake" type disturbance. In the pic, it appears that the bomber has her nose up, which would cause her prop wash to blow back and down. Maybe??? Good photo, Chaplain. =)
 

USAFSS-ColdWarrior

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Wonder what would create such a dramatic and "sharp" trough from an aircraft in straight and level flight? I see a "wake" type disturbance. In the pic, it appears that the bomber has her nose up, which would cause her prop wash to blow back and down. Maybe??? Good photo, Chaplain. =)
Tony,
I'm surmising that since the aircraft in the pic is a TU-95 Russian Bomber, and SOMEONE had to be in front of if to capture this picture, then the photographer was probably in the tail gunner's position on a leading aircraft - presumably also a TU-95 Bear Bomber. Since the lead plane is probably on the same track, it looks to me like they've both recently taken off, or at least climbed through the cloud layer. There may even be multiple other aircraft in the departing flight formation. The wake(s) of multiple aircraft, along with the slight air temperature increases due to all that engine exhaust may have changed the immediate conditions JUST ENOUGH to cause the moisture in the air (clouds) to no longer be a visible vapor.
I'd even go so far as to say that the OTHER trough we see bisecting the in-line trough may be from other planes climbing or descending in a nearby pattern - maybe even from/to intersecting runways at the same airfield unseen below the cloud layer.
 

Piper Cub

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That's the one "good" thing about fire season here in CA. I live 10 minutes from one of the main firefighting air bases for Socal(Gen. William J. Fox Airfield in Lancaster). I can sit in the restaurant at the airport and watch the planes come and go refilling their tanks for a long time. It really is an impressive operation. Lots of neat pictures too during fire season. Some day I'll sort through all my pictures and post some of the ones with MV's in them.
 
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