So get this, by the way this is my first real post, I am sittting at the the computer like anyother day an suddenly I hear the load roar of of a jet engine. Now this is a ussal event for me becasue I live very close to the Travis airforce base, but what makes this such a wierd event is I had my music on full blast and heard these planes fine... I went to the porch to look up in the sky and saw that there were two full size jets, not 400 feet off the ground playing what looked like a friendly game of cat and mouse. While one was tailing the other and they made a sharp 180 turn i couldnt make out any markings but I saw that the two planes seemed simalir. Now I do know that this occuring over populated areas is a no no for airforce, but I also understand that Russia and China either had, are having or are going to have joint war games later this week (I'm not sure I think I read it on the Drudge) anyways 5minutes later as I becaem distracted and playing with my dog a blue jet flew over and that brought into mind the blue angels... but then i thought they couldnt have air shows over civilian areas... so I am mistified as to what these guys were doing up there... war games... practice runs... or some large mititary monvment of troops. I am completely lost and am only lookingfor anwsers.

Ive looked at the Travis Air Force website and found nothing.

I would have to say that it was more than likely a practice run. I live very close to Pensacola NAS and I look up and see T-2 Buckeyes practice all the time dogfighting and stuff. It might have been unusual for you though because of how close they are to the ground. Im just saying that they were more than likely practicing

Originally posted by creamsoda
I would have to say that it was more than likely a practice run. I live very close to Pensacola NAS and I look up and see T-2 Buckeyes practice all the time dogfighting and stuff. It might have been unusual for you though because of how close they are to the ground. Im just saying that they were more than likely practicing

but right over my house and everyone around our's? I though that was against the rules or something.

I live near gabreski ANGB and the pavehawks and hercs fly around all the time prety low (like right over my school) all the time. i dont see why it should be diferent with fighter jets

They are all limited to 250 kts below 10,000 feet, and Limited to Mach 1 over the United States I believe.

Probably just a run to keep the engines safe. Thermal compression with the winter coming up (where do you live?), flying low closet to ground, sounds about right. As for the 180 degree turn don't know what to tell ya about that.

How fast did they appear to be flying?

They were probably just goofing off. Fighter pilots are notorious for being the "golden boys" of the air force. At worst they'd get a slap on the hand for doing that, unless something bad happened, like 1 of them crashed or something.

Sorry for that. I was replying to another topic and put it in the wrong window.

Sorry also for double-posting.

[edit on 18/12/04 by Aurora is real]

but right over my house and everyone around our's? I though that was against the rules or something.

I thought it was too. In high school I am required to take a Career Planning class. For Career Planning, we all have to spend a day job-shadowing somebody of a profession we are interested in. I shadowed a fighter pilot for the 122nd Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard. When I was there, 6 F-16's went up to do a mock air battle. They had to do it in a designated air space so I am guessing that there aren't really any people there in case of an accident, but if they don't have any wide open areas like you can find in Indiana, they could just practice over a lowly-populated area.

And that brings up the question of do you live in a highly-populated area?