Amazing Sights???

[rhmaddever]

Im only 50hrs into a PPL(H) but my instructor told me the other day when flying throught Wattisham MATZ he saw 2 RAF tornadoes go from right to left about 400ft under him - about 7 seconds from visual to gone!

Just wondered if anybody else has seen some "amazing" things while flying, and I mean amazing, weather near air to air misses, actual air to air accidents, fires, road accidents...

Anybody?

RHM

[paco]

I was doing the usual round on the Niagara Falls, turned the corner and there was a Lanc not more than a couple of miles away (quite safe). Beautiful!

Phil

[NickLappos]

Paco,
A Lancaster? Wow! I had a B-17 pass by me at our Stratford heliport, and it really made my day.

Also had a B-52 pass under me while instructing at Ft. Rucker back in 1971 (before the design for air was formally released). It was on an "Oil Burner" route.

[paco]

Have you ever been inside a B-17? how those guys got around in the amazes me.

Actually, one claim to fame I had was that Concorde always had to wait for me - I used to do milk run from Manchester to Bournemouth in a caravan II, which involved turning right at Woodley at FL 90. This always happened just after Concorde took off and it always had to pass underneath, which was quite good for the passengers.


Phil

[Jarvy]

Sitting in the left seat with another ppruner in the right seat in a high hover in the south of england when red arrows flew underneath us!
Names and places witheld to protect the guilty!

[[email protected]]

rhmaddever, if your instructor was in the Wattisham MATZ then he would presumably have been told of the Tornados by ATC so it shouldn't have come as such a surprise!

[VeeAny]

Jarvy

That'd me being the guilty party then !

Climbing out of Hotel on south coast in the summer, Reds enroute to a display about 20miles away.

But ATC did say .call me in the climb when you lift. (they can't hear us when on the ground at that site). which we did.

1500ft Hover, Reds at 500ft vertical seperation maintained.

Horizontal seperation was pretty much zero.

Climbing 30-45 seconds later would have made the papers and ruined our day at the very least.

Looked bloody good from my seat.

V.

[helicopter-redeye]

1. Once under the control of Cottesmore LARS, I had the instruction, "G-REDI, look out for fast moving jet traffic in your 9, 10, 11,12,1, 2, 3 o'clock position" as a Harrier GR7 shot by at nnnKts. Obviously caught the controller out as well.

2. Emerging from the Lake District, the Reds passed by in front at 4 miles, recognising something else red in the sky, turned on 3 seconds of red smoke "for conspicuity".

3. Passed the BBMF going the other way in Lincolnshire a couple of summers ago.

[Barndweller]

Was helicopter pleasure flying at a show "oop nawth" a couple of years ago, outside controlled airspace away from any NOTAMS and working local military unit.

Whilst on the ground during a turnaround was aware of somthing moving in my peripheral vision and turned my head expecting to see a bird. At that point ten bright red hawks (they had the spare with them) in two flights of five flew over the site at +/- 500' agl. Had i been airborne in my normal circuit, could have been a bit scary.

Freind of mine watching (also a pilot) observed "imagine how much trouble you would be in if you did that to them". I HAD filed a CANP notifying my activity!!!

Looked Bl@@dy impressive though!

[Noah Zark.]

Whilst enjoying a fine summer evening's activities at Netherthorpe several years ago, a Tornado went diagonally NE-SW through the (quite busy) circuit, directly over the airfield, at approx. half the circuit height. (800ft.) at a vast rate of knots.

[BlenderPilot]

I saw a hovering metal looking ball once, it was near the piramids of Teotihuacan (http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/TEO.HTM) , perfectly round metal ball just sitting there, me and my mechanic thought it was a balloon, flew towards it and when we got close we saw that it was definately not a balloon (unless it had auto hover with the wind and all) we didn't even turn our heads and kept on flying,

Then on a night IFR practice flight for which I was riding passenger (in perfect VMC conditions, AS365) flying between Acapulco and Mexico City, me and 5 other pilots saw the sky in front of us light up with some lighted object that took up the whole windshield and it dissapeared upwards in about 4 seconds, it also showed on WX radar as a big red spot at about 5 miles.

I also saw a gasoline truck that had been hit by a train explode, a saw a French guy jump off a building to remove himself from society, I saw a DC3 make an emergency landing in the middle of the most populated city in the world without killing anyone,

And most recently I saw this (I am flying the blue helicopter)

The video is about 3.4 MB

Download HERE (http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/LTE.mov)

[Ascend Charlie]

While on SAR duties I watched 2 Mirage fighters being abandoned in flight - with the first one, the nose kicked down from the force of the ejection and it spiralled down into a swamp. The second continued unaffected, glided well out of the safety area and splashed down on a beach directly in front of a populated area. Nobody hurt (other than the pilots with spinal crushes.)

Been buzzed by F18s while on powerline inspections, been attacked in the circuit by dopey students in planks who only ever look into the circuit direction, Been attacked by a crapduster who didn't bother turning his radio on when entering a circuit.

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

While near misses are the subject, had an unidentified military jet pass maybe 50' in front of me from left to right at 1500' near Ashford, Kent, at exactly the same altitude while in a H300. Also over the Long Island Sound in a plank had another one miss by 100' or so. Taught me all about head down in the cockpit - i'll never forget them ! That's 2 in 500 hours ! God knows how many you old timers must have had and not even known about them ! Safe flying !

[the coyote]

Had a Piper pass 6' under me in a R22 in the YMMB training area.... I can remember seeing the rivets and hearing it, once is enough.

[rotaryman]

BlenderPilot:

Down loaded the Video.!!..Only one word truly describes it......
.............................F%&K... :mad: :ok: :E

[Whirlybird]

near air to air misses, actual air to air accidents, fires, road accidents...

I flew one of the Traffic Watch helicopters in the LA area in California for a week when I was hour building. For those who don't know, they fly over the freeways during rush hours, reporting on traffic conditions for the radio stations. Well, we saw lots of road accidents, a frightening number really. But when you consider that we were looking for them, in the sense that if there was an obvious traffic snarl-up we headed for it to see what was happening, I suppose it's not surprising. Scary though. :(

If considering "amazing things", I've never forgotten, several years ago now, flying through a completely circular rainbow, over the Valleys in South Wales. I thought it was amazing then, and I still do. :ok:

Oh yes, looked down once to find the Red Arrows a few hundred feet beneath me too. Marvelled at them, then wondered if I was supposed to be there or not. :eek:

[CyclicRick]

I noticed a slight movement between my feet at about 1500ft near RAF Gütersloh in Germany whilst flying in a Gazelle, looked again and it was four Harriers! Good camouflage, I could hardly make them out if it wasn't for the movement.
Had a Tornado do a right to left barrel roll in front of me aswell, I passed through the hole!

[slowrotor]

Perhaps the most amazing sight for me was on a cold winter flight in Alaska on a helo medivac. I noticed the distant mountains had been transformed from the very familiar shape into somthing that looked like vertical cliffs over 10,000ft high.
I thought maybe I was having a religous experience or going crazy. Finally I asked the pilot next to me what he thought was going on. He had no idea either.
Later I found out it was an atmospheric allusion or mirage called Fata Morgana.
Looks very real.

slowrotor

[Bell47Boy]

While Iwas training at Mangalore, Oz I was on finals to land parallel to the runway and had 2 Strikemaster Jets do touch and goes next to me - very impressive!

[ShyTorque]

In 1991 I was flying on an operational flight in NI around midnight, using NVGs. Suddenly, the view through them went very strange. I lfted the goggles to see the whole sky ahead was a bright traffic light red! It took a good few seconds to realise it was an unusual manifestation of the Northern Lights! I'd only ever seen them as a pale green/ blue light before. Absolutely spectacular, I'm sure I'll never see it occur like that again. Awesome. ;)

[coorong]

Many moons ago, I was instructing a student in the art of low level navigation at 100 feet.
Whilst passing over a large reservoir at said height, we were underflown by a Hunter [of the Fleet Air Arm ] doing about 400 kts.
Made my heart flutter a little. I intended to file an airprox on return to base until I discovered it was being flown rather exuberantly by an old mate of mine!!!

[407 Driver]

SlowRotor, I've also seen that phenomonon once. It turned the southern Canadian Rockies into something that resembled Monument Valley Utah, It was unbelieveable !

Other notable occurrences...

..got buzzed in a deep mountain valley ( 500' AGL ) by 3 - F-18's..one went by my (206B) nose at 1/4 mile eye level, second went over me, the third veered off behind me. So fast and sleek..


...similar mountain valley, 500 AGL with a 2,000 OVC layer, saw a white object just ahead of the 206B, fluttering down from above like a falling leaf...initially thought it looked like a part of an aircraft, maybe a DC-10 cargo door :p ? closer observation showed that it was a Swan, with a Bald Eagle on top...the Eagles talons dug into each "shoulder blade". The Eagle, about 1/2 the size of the Swan, was steering it down to the rivers edge below. I circled wide a few times, and watched them land. Then departed as the Eagle started a great meal.


Flying a game count one winter, saw an Elk running down the road at full speed, right on it's tail was one Wolf. Not sure if Mr Wolf would have succeeded in the hunt or not, as we "intervened" in the situation. Sorry Wolfman, perhaps next time..

[bauldrik]

I managed to down load video after a bit and think the same as the rest , ho f**k , nice work .

[David Earley]

When just a new Army pilot, I was tasked with transporting a Brigadier and ADC down the east coast of OZ. Thought to stay well inland of the Evans Head gunnery range. 1500', 60 kts, and out my left window, approaching rapidly at the same level was a giant orange cylinder...from memory about 30m long and 6m diameter...with no visible means of propulsion. Slammed the collective down to see the "UFO" pass over the rotor head with maybe 50' to spare.
While trying to handle the overspeed, calm one very unimpressed Brigadier, and avoid having to change underwear, I saw a flash off a wing 2 miles away going in the opposite direction out to sea. Turned out the "UFO" was a target being towed by a Mustang 1500' above and at least 1 1/2 miles ahead. The Mustang was heading east when the target went over me heading west.
Turned out the day before he had taken out two rural power lines by getting too low!
Imagine if I had cyclic climbed instead of dropping the collective.

[Thomas coupling]

Flew a 5 ship IMC GCA in Gazelles at 1 rotor span, formating on the tail anticol:D

Ripped the tail wheel off an S61 manouvering it with bear trap on a Canadian frigate at -35 degrees.

Flamed out an engine on deck when the frigate rolled in bad weather and a wave washed completely over the whole a/c.

Got hit by a Cb at night with a 4000'/min ROC and full power applied. Descended from 3000 to 1000' in 'passenger mode'!

First on scene at the Air India 747 crash in atlantic - bomb on board. 300 souls.

Been shot at while evacuating civvies out of Haiti.

Tornado flew above me coming other way in a steep ravine...upside down... Pilot waved!!!

Attended >300 serious road traffic collisions.

Attended landslides/floods/fires.

Left the cooker on once ...went flying for an hour :eek:

[ooh by the way - well done Q for flying to the Pole in an R44 too :bored: :E .....had to get that one in].

[Head Turner]

I don't know if this comes under the heading of 'amazing sights' or not as my thoughts at the time was 'how stupid'.

There I was transiting from Bergen Hohne range to Gutersloh in my little Skeeter Mk12, passing through the Minden Gap with the statue of Wilhelm gazing upon me when I was passed on the starboard side by an F104, then one passed on the port side, again very close, BUT then one passed underneath and I was at 600 ft AGL.

Another brush with an F104 in Germany was so close that the I could see into the starboard engine intake and could clearly see all the rivits as the jet passed over me. It was in weather conditions that was bloody difficult for me (viz about 1 mile at best in haze) and I was low level. I had looked out forward and there was nothing there, looked right for a couple of seconds, looked forwards and there it was. I had about 1000 hours at this point. The weather was bad and I didn't expect F104's to be flying. For sure the F104 pilot did not see me. I was in a Sioux (Bell 473B1).

At RAF Ballykelly, parked outside Shackleton Hangar. Went off for military briefing. Came back and Shackleton was being prepared for ground runs. Got into Sioux and during preflight checks, Shackleton proceeded to start engines. I started up and during the run up found that I was being pushed along the concrete towards the hangar by the prop wash from the Shackleton. Frantic call to ATC and Shackleton crew throttled back and I was able to take-off. I was very close to the hangar at one stage.

I too have flown through the ring of a rainbow, it's amazing as you are in a tunnel with colours all around and outside the tunnel all is rather remote.

Was almost hit from below by a Wessex as it climbed out of a field in NI. Just spotted it's rotor blades between my feet, yanked back on cyclic and pulled up the lever and did some sort of aerobatic manoeuvre. Spoke to Wessex pilot later and he was totally unaware of that near accident as I was out of his vision behind his overhead panel.

During some very stormy weather flying up the Great Glen (southern end of Loch Ness) the wind was lifting huge amounts of water up off the surface of the loch. It was like a heavy squall going up rather than down. Turbulance was horrific and threw the AS355 in all directions.

Making a film for the BBC where it required that a Scout would formate on the port side with the camera man and maintain a safe distance during the manoeuvres involved as I flew the 'Star'in a Gazelle. At one point the blades of the Scout passed under the Gazelles blades. At debrief the camreaman liked the close up shot!! but would have prefered to have used a telephoto lens. Scout pilot lack of concentration almost was fatal.

[soggyboxers]

I remember being 50 miles off the coast of Iceland during the UK's contretemps with the Icelanders over cod fishing rights. I was tootling around at 400 feet in my Wasp in lousy weather listening on the radio to an RAF Nimrod which was coming to deliver our mail by dropping a canister into the sea near my frigate. Unfortunately, the 'Wops' was a lousy target so he didn't have me on his radar and he was flying at 200 feet. The next thing I saw was a huge outline which nearly gave me a heart attack as he passed directly underneath me from back to front (or aft to forrard as our Naval bretheren always insisted ;) ). He never saw me, but when I called up was most apologetic, took some lovely photos of my little Wasp in front of the ship and dropped them off for us on his next mail run :ok:

[Heli-Ice]

soggyboxers

Our guys at the Icelandic Coast Guard kicked your b++t back then didn't they, with only the wire cutters and bean guns ? It must have been interesting times?

Once flying a plank on short final at Reykjavik Iceland, got to see the belly of my friends C-152 within a few inches from my windshield, a little to close for comfort! Happened as we were both on final, he on my tail, and he lost sight of me and overtook. Thats the only time I have ever felt that the C-152 was a big aeroplane!

One other amzing sight, my reflection in the mirror this morning!
:cool:

Heli-Ice

[Dave_Jackson]

http://www.unicopter.com/Temporary/HighMoon.jpg

http://www.unicopter.com/Temporary/OhMoon.gif

[Fun Police]

seeing as i am not night vfr endorsed i can not compete with a full moon.
however, i do recall, quite clearly
about getting buzzed by some military fast mover tossers while i was trying to sling bags as a low timer in northern alberta. i may sound like a bit of a pansy but they were in CF-18's and i was in a 500D. i suppose i should have been used to it as my first revenue job was at Suffeild (british army(?) base) that had gazelles that used to chase me around and put laser firing solutions on me while i was trying to earn minimum wage.
it raised hackles but was interesting in the end.
fly safe

[rhmaddever]

[email protected],

Yes he was told by Wattisham MATZ about the Tornadoes - they were just a bit quick - the controller hadnt finished the 'traffic information...' before they passed under,

Good stuff so far ... keep it comming

RHM