I was at an airshow this saturday in Louisville KY. I was sitting on the bank of the Ohio River. Near the end of the show, a pair of F-15s came over the river. Both F-15s had drop tanks and were using afterburners. They then began to do circles within the width of the river, flying directly over the crowd (and me). The g forces must have been tremendous. At one point, I looked straight up, an F-15 was on its side in a hard turn directly over me, its altitude couldnt have been more than 300 feet. I imagine both F-15s used up their drop tanks by using their afterburners for so long.
Then a pair of F-16s came in and did the same thing, except these had two drop tanks. They did several very low turns right over the crowd using full afterburners and then departed.
The noise was tremendous, and the air was full of the smell of kerosene. I think airshows rules were bendable because these aircraft were technically supposed to be over the river. I was at one airshow last year where I was high on a river bank, and I actually was level with the cockpit of the F-16 that was performing a few times.
