You said "
Funny you said that. I was driving from Charlotte to Indiana today. I was a few miles into the Virginia/NC state line and I saw what I thought was a bird or something very high up. But it was moving very quickly.
It was descending and then banked in front of my car so I could see it's profile pretty well. It was what I think was an F35. I-77 goes right along the side of the mountains. On the other side it drops off and is flat as far as the eye can see (it's a beautiful view). It was coming from the west and as soon as it got to the mountains, it banked east.
It was very odd - I've never seen one do something like that. It was almost like a practice for strafing or bombing run.
Then, when I got to I-64 in Charleston, WVa, as I was leaving the downtown area going east, I saw a large propeller-driven cargo plane (a C130, I think) flying pretty low. There is an Air National Guard base around Charleston, but this was flying along the interstate and very low.
Just odd to see both those planes today when I've driven that route regularly for about 6 years now and have never seen any planes, must less flying that low."
I was flying through Charlotte last week. With a long"er" lay over I watched a C17 doing pattern work, intermingled within the commercial flights on the main runways. The C17 would come to a full stop, pause and then do a short field take off. Circle the pattern and repeat. Did it 4-5 times.
It's damn cool to see at anytime, BUT... in current times I knew they where "staying fresh". Doing that within civilian commercial flights and ATC coordination was another OH WOW moment for me!
It may have been part of what you were seeing. Obvious signs of heightened preparation maneuvers.
Funny you said that. I was driving from Charlotte to Indiana today. I was a few miles into the Virginia/NC state line and I saw what I thought was a bird or something very high up. But it was moving very quickly.
It was descending and then banked in front of my car so I could see it's profile pretty well. It was what I think was an F35. I-77 goes right along the side of the mountains. On the other side it drops off and is flat as far as the eye can see (it's a beautiful view). It was coming from the west and as soon as it got to the mountains, it banked east.
It was very odd - I've never seen one do something like that. It was almost like a practice for strafing or bombing run.
Then, when I got to I-64 in Charleston, WVa, as I was leaving the downtown area going east, I saw a large propeller-driven cargo plane (a C130, I think) flying pretty low. There is an Air National Guard base around Charleston, but this was flying along the interstate and very low.
Just odd to see both those planes today when I've driven that route regularly for about 6 years now and have never seen any planes, must less flying that low."
I was flying through Charlotte last week. With a long"er" lay over I watched a C17 doing pattern work, intermingled within the commercial flights on the main runways. The C17 would come to a full stop, pause and then do a short field take off. Circle the pattern and repeat. Did it 4-5 times.
It's damn cool to see at anytime, BUT... in current times I knew they where "staying fresh". Doing that within civilian commercial flights and ATC coordination was another OH WOW moment for me!
It may have been part of what you were seeing. Obvious signs of heightened preparation maneuvers.
