Air Force Training Exercise - Rainbow Canyon, DVNP

If I'm paying for this, I want them out practicing, and being the best. Many enjoy the show at Rainbow Canyon.

Many years ago the Lady & I were taking a friend into a long abandoned gold mine in a side canyon to the North Fork of the American River in Northern California. The Royal Gorge of the North Fork was visible down canyon through the V of the canyon we were descending. A sudden roar was deafening and the ground shook. We held on to whatever we could find. Visible for only a moment in that V down canyon was a B-52 flying down the gorge of the North Fork. It was 500 feet above the water and 500 feet below us. In places the Royal Gorge is 4000 feet deep. It was an experience we will never forget.
 
ski3pin said:
Visible for only a moment in that V down canyon was a B-52 flying down the gorge of the North Fork.
And that's a 60 year-old design and a decades old airframe!

Popular bumper sticker in and around Virginia Beach's NAS Oceana: I Love Jet Noise. When the Nimitz class carriers are in port over in Norfolk, the air wings train long and hard out of Oceana, and it's a little loud.

Thanks for the link John.

Foy
 
I was out in DV a few years ago when they were flying very, very, very close to our camper spot. I kept commenting that there were probably using us a practice targets. You could see the pilot they were so close. You could hear them coming before you even saw them and then they'd appear out of nowhere and be gone. Crazy.
 
Best story I read was about a couple in a truck coming into the park on a dirt road. Their radar detector was on and starting screaming. That's when they noticed the A10 behind them.
 
They used to fly low over Antelope Lake. I'm sure a few boaters had to clean their shorts. Not sure why they don't fly over anymore.
 
We were driving up Panamint Valley a few years ago when one buzzed us from behind, I thought the transmission had fallen out or something. Then we watched as he did some fancy flying and then came back down the valley straight toward us flying low, very low. I flashed my headlights at him and he gave us a wing wave. It was cool.
 
A casual comment by another camper led us to ask about the Jedi Trench/Transition/Rainbow Canyon and drive up to see if it was all he said it was. It is if fast moving aircraft are of interest. Not used to looking down at fighter aircraft. There was about a half hour wait before the first one happened by.

If I had brought the manual for my new camera, I might have chosen something other than 100 ISO for a fast moving target handheld.

Paul

 
We have been buzzed on Flook Lake in the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge (broke the sound barrier and we almost lost a leashed dog) and on USFS roads Modoc N F. Also, this past trip we were south of Challis on BLM land rockhounding when 4 buzzed by too darn close.
 
About 15 years ago, we were camped with a friend in the Owens Valley, upslope and to the west of Hwy. 395. My wife headed out into the brush about 75 yards away from our camp to take care of some personal business. Suddenly, a fighter heading south down the Valley swooped quite close to our camp and did a wing wag. My friend and I waved and thought he was wagging at us, however, my wife later related that she had been in full squat position, and could actually see the pilot looking at her. That's what the wing wag was about!
 
Years ago before the air base in Merced became a college, we would see the B-52s doing their touch and goes and making the wide circles around the city.
Pretty cool.That 60+ year old technology is still flying.
Frank
 
Casa Escarlata Robles Too said:
Years ago before the air base in Merced became a college, we would see the B-52s doing their touch and goes and making the wide circles around the city.
Pretty cool.That 60+ year old technology is still flying.
Frank
Frank, I read an article that mention some of the pilots were flying the same birds their fathers AND grandfathers flew. The air force went operational with them around 1955.
 
As a side note.
As a kid living in the Philadelphia area ,we lived near two Navy bases. I would enjoy watching one of my favorite airplanes
flying around,the Navy gull wing Corsair a plane that wasn't on paper supposed to fly,much like the S2F (old fire bomber),another favorite.
There are times now that we might be along the beach and one of our F18s comes streaking along the coast,we laugh and say that's out coastal protection flight,little do we know that is probably what it is.
Anyway to stop my rambling here.I always enjoy seeing our planes going overhead.
Frank
 
Casa Escarlata Robles Too said:
Years ago before the air base in Merced became a college, we would see the B-52s doing their touch and goes and making the wide circles around the city.
Pretty cool.That 60+ year old technology is still flying.
Frank
I can remember them doing touch and goes both at McConnell AFB and Wichita Mid -Continent Airport, the airport finally made them stop because they were tearing up the runways. It was cool to see a few Cessnas and Lears waiting for takeoff when a 52 came roaring in.
 

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