Big C-5 Galaxy flew over school, very low to the ground

yea. im outside doing my practice a a huge c5 galaxy flew over head, at around 800 feet, adding to it is was a very cloudy day so it was dipping in an out of cloud one moment it was there 2 seconds later it was gone then appeared again.

Strangest part is it had very little sound it was almost surreal for it to be that low an had no more than a slight low pitch swoo sound as if its engines were off.

Being in a military family I was like ,eh it must be dropping something off then i realise i live more tha an hour or so away from the nearest army base an its going the opposite direction of that.


Is there any report of a Galaxy or other big military cargo planes the came over the suburban atlanta/snellville,GA area

or is it just the government testing there holograms again,

[edit on 22-10-2006 by DalairTheGreat]

an hour away? come on dalair, you can do better than that. snellville is less than 30 minutes from dobbins air force base and hartsfield international, both of which would be less than five minutes from your location by air. on top of that, a c5 at 800 ft would have blown your socks off. they are big critters and look alot closer than they are. i'd bet he was more like two or three thousand.

Originally posted by snafu7700
a c5 at 800 ft would have blown your socks off. they are big critters and look alot closer than they are

Big critters? Nah, they are just baby planes, heh.

An aircraft that can do this (pic) just might have taken the sole of his feet along with those socks, lolol



The larger it is, the close it looks.

Misfit

Years ago I lived less than a 1/4 mile from the end of a runway at Kelly, AFB in San Antonio, TX.

C-5As and B-52s were very common in the sky overhead, and at Very low altitude. Highway 90 (I believe it was) passed less than 200 yards from the end of this runway, and we often sat on the side of the road just to watch these behemoths takeoff anf land. Heck they passed directly over the road when perfoming either, at a height much less than 800ft.

The B52s literally shook your innards when taking off, yet the C-5As were surprising quiet by comparison. When coming in for a landing the C-5As were quite the sight to see, if only due to their enormous size, yet aside from the whine of their turbines/engines they seemed to almost "glide" onto the tarmac.
Impressive, Yes, but they certainly didn't blow your socks off, physically.

While Dalair may have misjudged the altitude, considering it went in and out of cloud cover and obviously wasn't landing in the near vicinity, having one pass over at an altitude of 800ft is certainly not uncommon, nor will it rip the soles or socks from your feet. It is truly a "sight to see", but we often observed them at lower altitudes from the side of Highway 90.

Anyway .. for what it's worth.

Try viewing one at 300 out and 300 up. Thats what I get to see very often from the roof of the office building I operate near Dobbins.

The weather was very low overcast for several days this past week so its no big surprise the C-5 was lower than normal.

Originally posted by snafu7700
an hour away? come on dalair, you can do better than that. snellville is less than 30 minutes from dobbins air force base and hartsfield international, both of which would be less than five minutes from your location by air. on top of that, a c5 at 800 ft would have blown your socks off. they are big critters and look alot closer than they are. i'd bet he was more like two or three thousand.

maybe if there was only one car on the road

Originally posted by Phoenix

The weather was very low overcast for several days this past week so its no big surprise the C-5 was lower than normal.

yeah, but think about it for a second....snellville.....stone mountain. dont think youre going to see a c5 within a few miles of stone mountain below it's peak. i think the minimum safe altitude in that area is something like 2400 ft.

Originally posted by DalairTheGreat
maybe if there was only one car on the road

i grew up in that area.....snellville aint that far from either airport, even at rush hour. and again, by air it's only a few minutes.

EDIT: according to my charts, minimum IFR altitude in that vicinity is 3100 ft.

[edit on 22-10-2006 by snafu7700]

the reason the c-5 is in the area is there being retrofitted with new engines over at Dobbins I have heard both new and old the new is much quieter. there is about 5 over there right now .