Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: HavocTM on May 23, 2005, 09:40:49 AM
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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.
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Chairboy got his pilot certificate.
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Originally posted by Golfer
Chairboy got his pilot certificate.
Heh, I think he 'splained that one as he went along.
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LOL
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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):lol
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Damn! I would have needed some new trousers.
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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 :(
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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
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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.
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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.
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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?
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I know I'm on Toad's ignore list, but THAT was an interesting story. That's almost spooky.
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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. ;)
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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.
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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.
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Originally posted by 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. ;)
Ball lightning makes more sense though..
St.Elmos wouldn't move..
St.Elmos are basicly constant firing of electrodes..
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Yah, probably so..... nobody in the squadron ever called it ball lightning though.
I didn't ask it for a biz card............. ;)
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I mean.. st.elmo is a good nick.. but wrong nickname..
Balllightning as just as cool though..
I wouldn't want to touch it though..
It's probally more of a staticball..being so small.
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Room mate and I saw something that looked like a bright blue star above a corn field at night. Out walking the dog. This was back in 76 in Prattville, not too far from Maxwell Field. Before we saw it, I had noticed what looked like a falling match in the field about 20 ft away. Five minutes later the blue star appeared. Thing acted like it was following us (or looking) and we hit the deck and hid from it. Even held the dog down we were so concerned.
It was approaching overhead and we thought we were about to take a ride anyway, so what the heck, we jumped up and yelled at it and shined the flashlight at it. We said "We're here. Take us with you! We wanna go with you."
It stopped and shot directly into the sky til it looked like another star. A la Steve Martin's album,
"What the hell was that thing?"
Les
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Leslie, what you saw was a weather balloon :D
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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.
FOO FIGHTERS!
ack-ack
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Could have been a helicopter, but it was completely silent, didn't stir up wind, and the blue star looking object didn't have or display any search beam like lights. It moved too fast for a balloon when it left, unless it had a completely silent jet engine.
It might have been some ball lightning or St. Elmo's Fire.
There had been other sightings of something strange in the area for about three weeks prior to when we saw it.
It was very convincing to us at the time that it might have been other worldly. Made the whole experience more adventurous.:D
Les
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Originally posted by Golfer
Chairboy got his pilot certificate.
Ha!
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Originally posted by Golfer
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.
Why do autopilots only die in clouds :(
I think that's a question for the beneficiaries on your life insurance policy. :eek: :eek: :D
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Originally posted by Leslie
Could have been a helicopter, but it was completely silent, didn't stir up wind, and the blue star looking object didn't have or display any search beam like lights. It moved too fast for a balloon when it left, unless it had a completely silent jet engine.
It might have been some ball lightning or St. Elmo's Fire.
There had been other sightings of something strange in the area for about three weeks prior to when we saw it.
It was very convincing to us at the time that it might have been other worldly. Made the whole experience more adventurous.:D
Les
I was just teasing you. Seems like the standard answer to things like you saw is to dismiss it as a weather balloon.
Actually I thought it was a good read.
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Thanks NUKE.
:D
I knew you were teasing. It makes a good story cause that's what I saw. Whatever it was, it scared me ****less.
Gotta remember, those were the days of Close Encounters and Star Wars when they first came out.
Les
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Only one thing unexplained. Flying from Jackson TN to Memphis on a severe clear day. Radar told us of contact closing on us below our altitude. We couldn't see anything. It came very close but we saw nothing. It made for a nervous few moments. Maybe it was a glitch on the radar. Who knows.
There was the time we were mistaken for a missile over the Irish Sea and other aircraft were told to take avoiding action. :lol