Hi Nige,Quote:
Originally Posted by noyakfat
yea - the roof reticule has an interesting back story. I do a lot of wheeling on the remote dirt roads in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, the Inyo mountains, White mountains and the western sections of Death Valley. There is not a lot of 4 wheelin traffic out there - and I rarely see any vehicles on the trails. The air space above these locations is restricted for use by Navy jet fighter aircraft practicing air combat maneuvers. (dog fighting). (many of the training scenes in the movie "Top Gun" were filmed in this area.) They train during the day and at night. Most of the time they are F-18s flying at 10,000 ft to 30,000 ft. (the Inyo's top out at around 9,000 ft.). Occasionally I can see them pulling air maneuvers - but most of the time you just hear them. (they move pretty fast and you can't see them well because they are grey). When they are done practicing they usually fly back doing low level terrain avoidance. If they see me while I am out there driving they usually make a point to do low level pass right over my truck. Those pilots have a lot of fun -on one occasion I was in a boulder field photographing one of the nearby mountains. I had watched a couple fighters going at it on the other side of the Owens valley. When they were done one bugged out to the south the second dropped down to take a look at my truck. He flew directly above me 300 ' off the ground inverted- then hit his after burners and disappeared into the sky. It was after that encounter that I decided to paint the reticule on my platform to have a little more fun with them. One night I was out in Eureka valley (part of death valley) to make an image of star trails above the Dunes in Eureka valley. it was about 10pm (good and dark). Just after I got my camera set up two jets set up an oval shaped orbit path about 4 miles long & about 5,000' above the ground.. It was pitch black out there so they must have been using targeting sensors to see me. For about 15 minutes they took turns dive bombing my truck. It was a pretty good air show. I use to tell these stories to my wife - but she always seemed diss interested. On one of our trips to the southwest I drove her through Death Valley . We were on a paved road stopped in string of cars 1/2 mile long (due to road construction). I was standing outside the truck scanning the horizon, I saw a couple jet fighters (F 16s) change course and head our direction. They passed right over the truck doing 6 or 7 hundred mph. The engine noise and air turbulence shook the ground and my truck. Everyone jumped out of their cars and were jumping up and down for the personal air show they just received. My wife now listens to me when I share other aircraft encounters with her.
