Unexplained

[HavocTM]

I know we have a lot of military and civilian pilots and air crew here.

I would be interested to know if any of you have ever seen anything unexplained, such as bizarre aircraft or technology?

I know there is a lot of unexplained behavior in the game, but I am interested in the real, outside world.

[Golfer]

Chairboy got his pilot certificate.

[slimm50]

Originally posted by Golfer
Chairboy got his pilot certificate.

Heh, I think he 'splained that one as he went along.

[HavocTM]

LOL

[Pooface]

my granddad was a naval officer, and said that a german uboat went right underneath them, with 5 ft of clearance, and didnt notice them (this was 2 o'clock in morning)

[HavocTM]

Damn!  I would have needed some new trousers.

[Golfer]

I haven't seen anything unexplainable.

I've been intercepted by an F-16 and almost a year to the day later had another one pull alongside and then light the burner.  I would've asked for a rematch but that race was over before it even began.

July 4th 2003 (was for "Red, White and Boom" in Columbus.  May not have been the 4th but that's the holiday) my buddy and I were in a 172 "holding" about 10 miles away from the fireworks show.  Our legs were about 5 miles long each way and about halfway through the main show.  We could see the fireworks for 4-5 different little suburbs going on as well as lots of amateur firework displays in backyards happening.  It was pretty cool to see all that "antiaircraft fire" below us.  We were at 2000' MSL which put us over 1000ft above the ground so we were pretty safe.  Not long after discussing our altitude we had one of those big "bottle" rockets explode not very far away and damn near on our altitude.  This sucker was close and then we decided to put another 500' between us and the ground.  Completely unexpected with a very bright blue flash.  We were over the middle of nowhere and never did see where it came from.




After giving some thought I'd like to know this.  I've had an autopilot quit on me twice.  Both times I was in cruise and both times I was in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions...clouds for ya non-flyin' types) and rain.  What gives?  I've been lucky enough to lose an Attitude Indicator (Artificial Horizon) in perfectly beautiful weather and seperately a vaccuum pump on a lovely clear morning.  Why do autopilots only die in clouds

[GreenCloud]

not really unexplaind..but cool


i was on base to final...my airport Lincoln  is about 10 miles south of Beale AFB..Home to the U2's....I had a U2 fly over my c152 ..we were both going around 80...tooo funny..that thing was about 1k above me..moving sooo dam slow


Dam i love flying

[Maverick]

Had two neat instances of "flyby's".

First I was on the way to Laughlin Nevada and was just Northwest of Phoenix. I looked off to my left as part of my scan ands saw 2 flights of 2 F16's coming towards me. One pair flew above me the other dropped down below me then they joined back up after passing me.

Second was on a trip to Carlsbad Ca. I was in cruise just past Yuma and had a P51 that had left an airshow in Phoenix earlier. I knew about the airshow but never expected to see anyone in heavy iron at my altitude. He flew by on the south side of me and passed me like I was standing still. I just know he "shot me down". I tried calling him on ship to ship but no answer. He must have been doing at least 300 MPH when he blew by. Was a sweet sight.

[Toad]

RC-135, way up North of the USSR near the Pole.

Nightime. Big 2 foot ball of St. Elmo's forms on the end of the radome and sits there for a while. Slowly, ever so slowly, it starts rolling towards the windscreen. We're thinking this is pretty cool.

It gets to the center bar dividing the two front cockpit windows and hangs up for a few minutes. Put you finger to the window and spidery lines trace out to your fingertip.

Then it starts to roll inside. Hmmmmmmmmmmm... what's this going to do. Rolls across the glareshield, down over the fire T-handles, drops to the center stand, rolls over the throttles and down the center stand to the floor.

At this point, the Pilots and Navs are all shrunk back away from it as far as possible.  It's rolling aft, towards the cockpit door.

We ring up the EWO's (sitting on the other side) of the door on interphone and tell them to watch the bottom of the cockpit door and they'll see something pretty neat.

Ball hits the doors, eases through and disappears on our side. We wait. Nothing from the EWO's. A few minutes pass, EWO calls up and says "what are we looking for?"

The ball just disappeared as it sank into the door. Never showed on their side, didn't see any more St. Elmo's that flight.

Didn't bother the aircraft/instruments/anything as far as we could tell.

[Octavius]

Had to google that, never heard of such a thing.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

Ball lightning... floating in your cockpit?  You could touch it?

[NUKE]

I know I'm on Toad's ignore list, but THAT was an interesting story. That's almost spooky.

[Toad]

St. Elmo's, not ball lightning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_Fire

We didn't touch it directly. As I said though, if you put your finger to the plexiglas and move it along, thin tendrils would follow the trace.

That's as close as we got.  

[DiabloTX]

Originally posted by Toad
RC-135, way up North of the USSR near the Pole.

Nightime. Big 2 foot ball of St. Elmo's forms on the end of the radome and sits there for a while. Slowly, ever so slowly, it starts rolling towards the windscreen. We're thinking this is pretty cool.

It gets to the center bar dividing the two front cockpit windows and hangs up for a few minutes. Put you finger to the window and spidery lines trace out to your fingertip.

Then it starts to roll inside. Hmmmmmmmmmmm... what's this going to do. Rolls across the glareshield, down over the fire T-handles, drops to the center stand, rolls over the throttles and down the center stand to the floor.

At this point, the Pilots and Navs are all shrunk back away from it as far as possible.  It's rolling aft, towards the cockpit door.

We ring up the EWO's (sitting on the other side) of the door on interphone and tell them to watch the bottom of the cockpit door and they'll see something pretty neat.

Ball hits the doors, eases through and disappears on our side. We wait. Nothing from the EWO's. A few minutes pass, EWO calls up and says "what are we looking for?"

The ball just disappeared as it sank into the door. Never showed on their side, didn't see any more St. Elmo's that flight.

Didn't bother the aircraft/instruments/anything as far as we could tell.

That's just freaking cool.  Call Mulder.

[slimm50]

Originally posted by Toad
RC-135, way up North of the USSR near the Pole.

Nightime. Big 2 foot ball of St. Elmo's forms on the end of the radome and sits there for a while. Slowly, ever so slowly, it starts rolling towards the windscreen. We're thinking this is pretty cool.

It gets to the center bar dividing the two front cockpit windows and hangs up for a few minutes. Put you finger to the window and spidery lines trace out to your fingertip.

Then it starts to roll inside. Hmmmmmmmmmmm... what's this going to do. Rolls across the glareshield, down over the fire T-handles, drops to the center stand, rolls over the throttles and down the center stand to the floor.

At this point, the Pilots and Navs are all shrunk back away from it as far as possible.  It's rolling aft, towards the cockpit door.

We ring up the EWO's (sitting on the other side) of the door on interphone and tell them to watch the bottom of the cockpit door and they'll see something pretty neat.

Ball hits the doors, eases through and disappears on our side. We wait. Nothing from the EWO's. A few minutes pass, EWO calls up and says "what are we looking for?"

The ball just disappeared as it sank into the door. Never showed on their side, didn't see any more St. Elmo's that flight.

Didn't bother the aircraft/instruments/anything as far as we could tell.

Faeries.