Naval Air Station Oceana

[DDGator]

Had the privilege of shooting at a little skeet and trap range outside Virginia Beach yesterday that bordered on Naval Air Station Oceana.  NAS Oceana is the home of 17 strike fighter squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets.
 
As we shot for a few hours, the F/A-18s were constantly taking off, circling, landing--even practicing carrier landings.  Then they really opened things up.  A few times, a fighter would pass over the range at maybe 500 feet -- so low you could see the pilot -- then turn 90 degrees and go vertical just over the range.  Other times they would fly over at just a few thousand feet at high speeds, then bank 180 degrees left or right.  At times they were doing things that seemed aerodynamically impossible...
 
I asked a local who lived nearby if the noise bothered him.  It was so loud, you couldn't hold a conversation when they went by.  He just said that you get used to it, and that "Its the sound of Freedom."  No doubt.  
 
An awesome sight.  Glad to know they have the money and the resources to be out flying.

[tracker]

It's like anything else, Duane; use it or lose it. Thanks for sharing that.

[CaptBW]

My family's cabin is on property that abuts Camp Grayling. I love to sit on the end of the dock and watch the F/A 18s and Warthogs practice.

[Richard S]

Here are a couple of links to videos of those amazing F-18s Duane described:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBuIidllusc

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2621095832030338250&ei=oAspSrLSEYK2rgLp78W6Cg&q=F-18

(Now 'fess up, Duane. Just what effect did those things passing close overhead have on your skeet and trap scores?   )

[kjtrains]

Great links, Richard!  Thanks!!      

[DDGator]

Didn't effect the scores too much...  We all stopped shooting when one came by and watched in awe.  

[kjtrains]

Great picture!!      

[DDGator]

How about this one?  They were going so fast, I was panning with the aircraft and got the tree too...but you can actually see the pilot in the cockpit.

[kjtrains]

That's a super great shot!!  

[theirishguard]

Duane, good photo, is that tracker in there??   Tom

[tracker]

I wish! That is a very low altitude but it is probably a restricted
area and not subject to minimum altitude requirements. We used
to fly "Sandblower" navigation flights in the A4 using charts on a
knee clip board at 100'AGL until someone got nervous and raised
us to 300'. This was in the Nevada and California high sierras,
Utah, and Oregon.
One young Lt. jg. took out a power line at 150' AGL with his vertical
stabilizer at Pine Flat Reservoir and shut down power for the entire
town of Pine Flat Ca., 35 mi. east of Fresno. He denied it until his
damaged stabilizer was discovered back at Lemoore NAS.

[Richard S]

@#$% power line shouldn't have been put there in the first place where it could damage a perfectly good aircraft.  

[tracker]

I think he had similar thoughts. He might have gotten his wings
clipped over that one, but he at least was subject to a pilot
disposition board. Failures in flight training, which were not uncommon,
resulted in a student pilot disposition board, which was called a
"speedy board". Some received a second chance and some did not.

[Richard S]

We had similar cases in USAREUR, often involving damages caused by M60A3 Patton Main Battle Tanks during maneuvers near the borders of what were then East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

I remember one time, when I was on my way to Nürnberg to try a general court martial, pulling off the road to allow an armored column to pass only to see one of these beauties side slip a little to the right on the rain-slick cobblestones of a village square and rip a new VW "Bug" in half. It didn't even slow down -- just kept rolling down the road, spitting out VW parts.

At times like that I was glad I was the division's chief of military justice and not its chief of civil affairs.  

[DDGator]

When that photo was taken, the aircraft was directly over the Oceana field, so altitute was no problem.  I later heard from an inside source that those guys were practicing for "Blue Angels" try-outs coming up, and that the whole area was restricted airspace for them.

They screamed across the range quite a few times -- perhaps they felt the vibrations of a very enthusiastic audience!