I used to see intercepts occuring all the time where I'm located. I usually heard them more than saw them, but I knew what was going on by the manner in which they flew (If you're familiar with Military Craft, you know the distinct sound of Afterburners).

I've seen plenty of awesome flight displays in my time. I could most likely write a book on them, but one of the most random was two F-16's on Afterburners flying overhead at night, they cut-back and slowed down, then alternatively cut their running lights off, lit back up and re-engaged afterburners taking off on a common FLT Path nearby. I was just getting out of my car after parking it in front of my house, when I heard the Jets on Afterburners. I looked up knowing I'd see them, and then all of that occured. It had to be one of the most random but most awesome encounters at the same time. I always get hype seeing Fighter Jets performing manuevers overhead, it's one of my favorite spectacles to witness. As all ground pounders in the Military say, they are the "Angels Overhead", and you truly feel a sense of awe and protection when witnessing such displays.

I guess I could say I'm like the OP in the sheer fact that I just happen to experience a lot of this cool stuff randomly. Some of it is because I've purposely been to see these craft, others when I was near an AirBase but just by chance came across flight displays, and some were seen just while chilling near my house (No, I don't live near a base).

Also, to reply to a few of the issues on this thread:

No, B2 Bombers are not scrambled for intercepts, only Fighter Craft are. The B2 would be about as useful as a Mid-Air Ram, unless of course it was armed with an Air-to-Air Missile that as of yet remains Classified. Simply put though, I've never seen a B2 Scrambled for anything but bomb runs.

As far as Bomb runs, the B2 has changed since the F-117 of the First Gulf War. It now hits ground targets from 60 + Miles out, so the overflight of targets is not a necessity anymore. They can still Carpet Bomb, but that is only done from High Altitude.

ShatteredSkies, as for the 500 FT ALT rule, that would apply to all Airplanes under normal circumstances. If a Passenger Jet for instance became crippled and couldn't meet that criteria, or a Mil. Jet found it necessary to hit the deck, then of course all rules are out the window. It seems like you've done your HW though

I once witnessed an F-117 flyover my High School Football game at night. No one else seemed to notice it, but I saw it due to the glow produced from the field lights. I don't remember hearing it, but then again it was a loud game. It was flying only a few hundred feet off the deck, but it didn't frighten me as I've seen quite a bit.

If anything SoLaR513, I would chalk the entire experience up to an amazing opportunity to see what many will never witness. You should feel lucky.

[edit on 2-13-2008 by TheAgentNineteen]

It was pretty amazing. Weird stuff seems to follow me around. I have a knack for being in the right place at the right time to witness the bizare. I seem to have this sixth sense for looking up at just the right time too, because Ive seen all kinds of things in the sky.

wut else have you seen?
because about 1 week ago, it was 10:30 p.m. and I was just falling asleep when two red lights caught my eye. These lights were moving very fast (disappeared across horizon within seconds) and it seemed like they were low, but they didn't make any noise. I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but it really got me thinking and I haven't been able to tell what they were. Maybe you know?

The lights were not flashing and were actually like orbiting around each other. I can assure you this was no commercial aircraft-I know their speeds and flight patterns. This object(s) also looked low and were moving INCREDIBLY fast-disappearing across the horizon in a matter of seconds. It just baffles me, because I have seen so many planes in the night sky, but never anything remotely close to this.

Interesting. I live used to live about 2 miles from a private airport. usually just those single engine sesna's and some corprate jets would land and take off from there. but one day about 10:00 am. I heard something way off in the distance that didnt sound like your average sesna or corprate jet. so I run outside and it gets louder and louder untill this f-16, or what i assume is an f-16 ( i dont know much about aircraft) comes zooming by really low. the house shook so much I thought it was gonna collapse. you could hear it land at the private airport. I went up there later on to try to find out what was up. I didnt see the jet anywhere and the most I could get out of anyone was that they werent allowed to talk about. At the time I lived about 45-50 miles away from fort hood. I never did figure out what the deal was.

He could broke in flight and was landing at the first available airport. He had to set it down, and they were available. Private airports are very closed off to outsiders in some cases. They won't just talk to any person off the street that comes "nosing around". They also might not have KNOWN anything, but people don't like to admit that they don't know something, so it sounds a lot better to say you can't talk about it.

actually, your story is highly credible. i was just outside, it was maybe 8:25 to 8:40 eastern time (NJ) and its summer so it was still fairly light out. i hear a loud thunder and i turned and looked around. i didnt see anything until about 45 seconds later. i see this black figure, the stealth bomber, come out of the sky from the east, going towards the west. it flew over me and my house, kept going straight, and made an extremely sharp turn about half a mile to a mile out. and i still heard it even when i couldnt see it. my brother who was working at a gym about a mile and a half away heard it and people were coming in and telling him that there was a stealth bomber overhead. 30 seconds later a helicopter come from the same direction, and went in the same exact direction as the bomber. i live maybe 25 to 30 minutes from NYC. and that plane (or UFO when the government doesnt want to talk about it) was very low. it turned so sharply, that i could see the reflection of the windows. strange, very strange. what was going on? i dont know.

I got buzzed by every exotic aircraft we have. It was 1991 and I lived in an apartment on Oahu on the side of the crater where the military graveyard is. The president visited, and they put on a show.

The jets flew in so slow they looked like they were almost hovering, I had the impresson they were moving about 20 miles an hour. Soundlessly gliding level with me about a half mile away. I am pretty sure that there is no conventional plane than can do that. If they aren't recycled UFO technology, the aliens must wish they had them!

They did tilts left and right. And I had a better view from the balcony of my Appartment on top of the hill than the president down in the harbor.
What speed is something moving if you can see it for about 30 seconds within an 8 mile space between mountains? My math says 16 miles an hour, you can argue about the subjectiveity of the approximate time I saw them, but even if you double the estimate, that's just 32 miles an hour.

I guarantee you will not find that speed listed anywhere. They looked like balloons floating over Oahu! It wasn't aerodynamics holding them up, I feel pretty sure of that. I don't know one jet from another but there were about 20 different stealth styles.

I was there for that flyby. There was an F-117, and a B-2 involved. Everything else was conventional. There was just about everything in the inventory there for that ceremony, including many old warbirds that they flew in off a carrier just for that.