Strange things afoot in Central Cal.

Two things,
Yesterday I was in the Sierra Nevada Mtns of Central Cal. on a motorycle ride and we got a rare sight indeed, around 4 PM an F18 was haulin ass up the canyon at tree top level. I'd say he just sub sonic.
In all my years of roaming that area I've never seen any military aircraft flying like that.
Then at 11:33 pm the foothill/mountain experienced a "sky quake"
People along a 75-100 mile track experienced a passing rumble that shook houses and windows, but not the ground. Windows rattled and stuff, but chandaleirs didn't swing. People said they could hear/feel it coming and then pass, while leaving a "sub audible" grumbling/growling for about 20-30 sec afterwards.
Some of the descriptions were essentially the same as what I experienced during a sky quake in the mojave in the mid '90s.
So, is there some exercise going on and a fighter jock got a little throttle happy over the mtns, or was it something else.
BTW no earthquakes of sufficient strength were recorded at the time and many people said they did not feel it in the ground.

The naval air base in Lemore Ca. which is where the " Top Gun" program went after leaving San Diego, does their war games/bomb runs in the nevada desert, and crosses the Sierra Nevada mountains multiple times daily, though usually at high altitude.

a reply to: Knapperdude

Topgun is run out of Fallon NAS in nevada, and the sqaudrons based at Lemmore NAS do their gunnery training at the offshore Pacific gunnery range.
Like I said they never fly that low and that fast, considering that at that altitude (6000'asl) he was only1/2-2/3 up the San Joaquin River canyon(14000'asl at its highest point.)
The F18 was just an oddity, the later sky quake was more than an oddity.

F 18's out of Lemore regularly hop over the Sierra's multple time daily, as I live at the base of the west slope directly in their flight path, generally they are loudest returning from the range. My neighbor who retired from Lemore says it's because when they come down the west slope their nose is up? so once they fly directly overhead, the engines point slightly down? I imagine a bit like the shuttle?...not sure but a flight of 2 had flown west overhead since writing this?

a reply to: punkinworks10

This morning around 10 a.m. in Central Cali just 20 min south of Fresno, I saw -- what I'm guessing -- was a very unusual looking military aircraft, and this thing was making VERY little noise. It was a charcoal black color and looked like it had a triangular shaped cockpit. Also, when I saw it it looked no more than 100ft off the ground and was approx. 150ft away. It was so strange. Where I live I constantly have the National Guard doing routine flying overhead and helicopters flying low overhead as well. Never have a seen something like this.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

Really?
This past summer has been active for odd aircraft sightings around here.

a reply to: punkinworks10

Remember in late 70's early 80's they used to do that all the time in Lancaster Palmdale area,seems like they flew about 5 feet off ground about 1000 mph,Mohave desert good place to do that then,now it's populated

a reply to: Oldtimer2

I had the pleasure of seeing a B1 doing nap of the earth stuff out in the antelope valley in the 80s

a reply to: Knapperdude

Actually top gun is where it has always been. That's in fallon Nevada. Naval air station Lemoore has the sfwsp. Or strike fighter weapons school Pacific.

They regularly go to Fallon to work at top gun but they are not the to gun program.

Jaden

This morning we were treated to a nice sky show.


I saw it going on about 8:30-9ish, on my way to work. I stopped and watched it go on for a minute, but got interrupted by work.
Then I was going to take pic when I got to work, but got interrupted again by work.

I saw it with one or two loop in it, 2 aircraft appeared to be chasing something, by the way they were moving.
At one point the two aircraft split and appeared to be following separate targets.
The above pic was taken by a person 100 miles to the southwest of me, which was the direction I was looking to see it.
We are under a busy n/s west coast air corridor and I've only seen something similar once, 3? years ago. It was a single aircraft that appeared to be chasing something.
The weird part is that I thought about that incident just a few days ago, in terms of the serial UFO sighting reported by the USN over central cal. in 2014-15?

F 18's and other aircraft out of Lemore regularly hop over the Sierra's multiple time daily and use the ranges at china lake an d R-2508 Complex.

Lemore does not have the bombing ranges, supersonic corridors, low altitude high speed maneuvers, radar intercept areas, and refueling areas in the central valley that are just over the Sierra's in the R-2508 Complex.

a reply to: punkinworks10

Duuuude. I snapped a pic as well.
I tried my best with the editing to make it easier to see but I'm no pro.
I wasn't as fortunate to see what had happened, so I was assuming it was some sort of airshow? That's interesting what you said, that 2 jets were chasing something. I can totally believe it. Seems like alot of weird stuff has been happening around my town lately. The other day at like 1a.m. I was walking through my local park that is located in the middle of town, when I see a group of people (40's to 60's in age?) in a circle dressed in formal wear, chanting in a language I've never heard before. I was able to get about 20ft away from them -- with the help of coverage from bushes and trees. They never broke character the entire time I was watching them until right when I was leaving I had dropped my phone out of my pocket and alerted em. They just stared at me with out a sound... i picked up my phone and ran away.

a reply to: ANNED

ANNED,
I'm aware they go over the sierra, but they never fly through the canyon to to the other side.
And this guy was hooking it up, only a couple hundred feet above tree tops.
Helmet and ear plugs in, riding trail in the forest, we stopped to see if we could catch a glimpse of what ever it was.
After thinking about it, I have a question,
Do the navy or marine corp paint their F18s a very dark color, like a dark dark field grey?.