Both the USA and USMC use Fort Bragg for artillery practice. I sometimes see notices when the Marines will be visiting with their 155's but I have never seen a notice for USA use of the range. We are pretty far from Bragg but I swear I can here them sometimes. It is not often but one time I know the Marines were firing and I could hear the booms off in that direction.
We frequently see Apaches and Black Hawks flying over from RDU which has a reserve copter unit. I saw three black hawks this week on the way to work. The wifey told me that earlier in the week two C130's flew low right over the house. THAT does not happen very often, though years ago, I did see a C130 refueling Jolly Green Giants. The big one I missed this week was around 2200 hours, a flight of 12+ C130 flew over our county. Many people reported it and one guy said he was driving and he noticed cars driving out of their lanes. He thought they were drunk until he saw the lights from the C130s. I would have loved to have seen a dozen of those flying at one time. It sounded like they flew real near us but we somehow did not hear them which is odd.
Last year I was taking photos of Osprey's on a nest. The nest was on a tree that was just in the water of a local lake. I spent hours waiting for the birds to do something and for the most part it was pretty quiet except of a boat going by every once in awhile. I was near a causeway that blocked my view of part of the lake. All of the sudden I could hear VERY loud engine noise. I have heard some big engines on this lake before but this noise was much louder and it was getting closer and closer yet I could not see a boat that was making that amount of noise. What the heck?
All of the sudden a C130 popped OVER the causeway on the opposite side of the lake. I was slacked jawed for a second and it took awhile for sanity to return. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: The camera was setup on a tripod with a remote release so all I had to do to take photos of the birds was push a button. I did not even need to look through the view finder to take a photo since everything was setup waiting for the birds to do SOMETHING.
This setup was not quite aimed at the C130 and I finally got the camera off the tripod, but even with a quick release, I was not fast enough to get a photo of the C130 heading towards me that was in focus. The plane was so low, I could see INTO the cockpit! They were that low and getting LOWER. The thing is that there is a ridge on the side of the lake where I am standing so that plane had to pitch up and climb out pretty quickly.
I was wondering if he would clear the ridge because he was so low. The C130 eventually banked a bit and climbed to get over the ridge. They did not fly directly over me by a few hundred yards but it still was awesome to see. :thumbsup:
Speaking of ridges. Decades ago I was bear and boar hunting in TN. We were up high up on some ridge and I was sitting there listening and watching. It was peaceful and quiet. There was a deep valley to my left that I could look down into. Out of nowhere an F4 flew BELOW me. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: I about pooed in my pants!
It was nice and quiet then there was that F4 zooming below me!
It has been years but I swear the pilot and rear seater had white helmets. I know I could see them. My guess was they were from Memphis? I think Memphis had a NAS back then but they could have been from anywhere I suppose.
Later,
Dan
