Hi, first post here, so excuse me if i put it in the wrong forum.
About 10-15 years ago, i always saw F-15's every thursday's and Friday's in the RAF Valley Tactical area over Gwynedd N.Wales. Still see them from time to time, but not as much, only passing through, so to speak.
I remember hearing the very distinctive sound of the engines the F-15 makes, so i went out side, which was my routine whenever i heard these jets fly around, which always used to put on a good show.
I remember one time, at the back of my house, i saw a Hawk, been hunted by an F-15, obviously doing simulated dog fight's, the F-15 dwarfing the Hawk as the F-15 was in close trail of the Hawk. Possibly 50-75 metres behind. I estimated the height of these 2 were 300ft AGL. What i saw was unbelievable, and i was gobsmacked. The Hawk pulled up at a very high pitch angle, and the F-15 followed, with its engines roaring. You could clearly see that the F-15 had a HUGE amount of AoA, as it tried to maneuver like the nimble Hawk. As this maneuver was taking place, the 2 aircraft, especailly the F-15 (because of its larger size) appeared to be travelling so slooowwwww. The Hawk even appeared to be flying slow, so you can imagine how slow the F-15 looked.
All this took place, over a Village not directly above, more on the outskirts, so my question is this..
Is this type of flying even legal over a built up area, where such a big aircraft/high AoA/high pitch/low speed, where anything could of happened? Im certain a stall was not to far away, i've never seen a F-15 fly so slow before, let alone with 70-80 degrees pitch and such a high AoA. If it did stall, it would of crushed a few houses for sure.
If you saw what i saw, you would say the Maverick flying was totally irresponsible of the pilots, maybe not the Hawk pilot, but of the F-15's who should of disengaged IMO.
I think this type of flying would be more acceptable during a real war, where its a kill, or be killed situation, but during a training excersise? sheesh.
Thought, saying that, it was a bloody good show, and i wished i could of snapped a few pics!!
