Crossing the Eaton's Ferry bridge on lake gaston

I had heard they did practice attack runs over the area and thought it was a bunch of hogwash, till I just now got buzzed by two jets. either a-6 intruders, prowlers or those viking jets. all three look roughly the same to me at that speed. i think it was the intruder.

First thing that went through my head was "wtf" then I saw him do that high arc bank after he swooped in on me. Then I was all like "oh this guy is pretending to kill the mortal shit out of me while i cross this bridge. how nice"

pretty fun though I did wonder if he was going to crash into the water

1/26/2010 1:56:47 PM

tww is not a blog

cool story bro

etc., etc....

1/26/2010 1:58:01 PM

at least you aren't the oklahoma city federal building

1/26/2010 1:58:39 PM

If this was facebook I would "like" this.

1/26/2010 1:58:47 PM

pics or it didnt happpen

you know how shit works here

1/26/2010 1:58:52 PM

I know the area well. You know Goat Island?

[Edited on January 26, 2010 at 1:59 PM. Reason : .]

1/26/2010 1:59:11 PM

[Edited on January 26, 2010 at 2:01 PM. Reason : k]

1/26/2010 1:59:58 PM

More than likely an Intruder...prowlers can't bomb shit.

1/26/2010 2:00:48 PM

Pictures or this dint happen!

1/26/2010 2:01:43 PM

More than likely not an Intruder...those haven't been in service in over a decade.

Unless it was an EA-6B just dicking around.

1/26/2010 2:33:54 PM

def not an intruder (lol)


probably prowlers from cherry point

duke must have recognized your car

1/26/2010 2:42:07 PM

must of

1/26/2010 2:44:25 PM

must of

1/26/2010 2:44:27 PM

must of

1/26/2010 2:44:54 PM

happy children?

1/26/2010 2:47:04 PM

looks like the viking is retired too...so my money is on a prowler

1/26/2010 2:52:57 PM

are you sure they were american?

1/26/2010 2:53:50 PM

Your money is on one of two retired aircraft?

1/26/2010 2:58:14 PM

Quote :

"Your money is on one of two retired aircraft?"

prowler is far from retired

1/26/2010 3:00:59 PM

Prowler's are not retired, they're being phased out for the Growlers

1/26/2010 3:02:01 PM

Quote :

"Prowler's are not retired, they're being phased out for the Growlers"

wikipedia says only the navy is transitioning now...usmc hasn't made any decisions (not sure how current that is though)

Quote :

"Currently, the aircraft is expected to remain in the active inventory through 2018 to support USMC operations."

https://acquisition.navy.mil/rda/home/programs/air/ea_6b

1/26/2010 3:02:56 PM

1/26/2010 3:03:10 PM

Shit. I was thinking intruder, not prowler.

1/26/2010 3:04:44 PM

is that ^^ like getting bombed on alcohol?

[Edited on January 26, 2010 at 3:04 PM. Reason : &^&%W^%^]

1/26/2010 3:04:45 PM

or a growler...

1/26/2010 3:05:35 PM

Back in the 80's they used to do flyovers over my trailer at Lake Gaston so low that they looked like they were barely above the tree tops. I don't know what it was for, but it happened so often and with such precision that it appeared to be a planned route. It was awesome to be sitting out on the deck and see a jet screaming across the lake at hundreds of miles per hour straight towards me only to fly over at what seemed like less than 100'. Haven't seen that in a long time, although I do see jets flying relatively low on occasion.

1/26/2010 3:31:47 PM

1/26/2010 3:32:50 PM

^epic hermaphrodite.

1/26/2010 3:34:23 PM

1/26/2010 3:34:52 PM

I, too, came here to post that it wasn't an Intruder.

1/26/2010 5:02:23 PM

You shoulda pulled out your niner and been like "BLADOWW" on those fools for swooping on you.

1/26/2010 5:06:37 PM

could have been a harrier, considering you don't know dick about airplanes.

1/26/2010 6:46:42 PM

Not an Intruder (retired after Desert Storm in the early 90s) or a Viking (retired probably about a year ago). Probably a Prowler out of Cherry Point...very good (like 50%) chance it was from my squadron (and I probably knew the people in the jet even if it wasn't)...out of the 4 squadrons, one of them is in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and 2 are home.

a few other things to clarify:

Quote :

"Prowler's are not retired, they're being phased out for the Growlers"

The Navy Prowlers out at Whidbey Island, WA are being phased out for Growlers, but that's far from complete. The USMC plans to keep operating the Prowler for the better part of another decade and has no current plans to acquire Growler.

Quote :

"Back in the 80's they used to do flyovers over my trailer at Lake Gaston so low that they looked like they were barely above the tree tops. I don't know what it was for, but it happened so often and with such precision that it appeared to be a planned route"

It was almost certainly a planned route. In general, you aren't allowed to exceed 250 knots at altitudes below 10k'...for military training, they have military operating areas (MOAs) and military training routes (MTRs). MTRs are usually a winding route corridor about 6-12 miles wide, although in many cases you end up flying over lots of the same spots on the route pretty much every time, due to terrain features and stuff.

Typically we fly those routes at 420 knots (indicated), but sometimes if you get a couple of guys feeling froggy, they'll push it up to 480 or 540 (well over 600 mph).

1/26/2010 8:04:13 PM

Why would a Prowler be performing such a maneuver? They don't carry any weapons.

1/26/2010 8:10:29 PM

1/26/2010 8:12:22 PM

anyway, you wouldn't need to pop on a target to shoot a HARM. I'd have to see what the jet did to offer you much of an explanation.

possibilities:

-the pilot did a simulated bombing run just for fun, even though we (Prowler community) are prohibited from doing it

-more likely, they were just yanking and banking their way around a low-level route...that's pretty much par for the course on those flights.

1/26/2010 8:16:10 PM

fucking sweetness

1/26/2010 8:23:56 PM

no weapons my ass

1/29/2010 11:30:27 AM

I never said they didn't have weapons, the don't have bombs. They do have missiles. That's an AGM-88 HARM, it's used to kill radar sites. It is not a close range weapon either, it has a range of 60+ miles.

[Edited on January 29, 2010 at 11:49 AM. Reason : a]

1/29/2010 11:46:03 AM

that was in response to:

Quote :

"Why would a Prowler be performing such a maneuver? They don't carry any weapons."

1/29/2010 1:31:00 PM

Ah my bad, I didn't see that idiotic comment.

Apologies.

1/29/2010 1:37:02 PM

duke will probably back me up on this

intruder was decommissioned back when i was like 5 or 6. im 23 now.
prowlers, probably
growlers are having a very big issue because they are having a lot of problems and are unable to do the mission of the prowlers.....thats a generic explanation.
so prowlers are not retiring in the next 10 years like they planned. They will still be around for a much longer time.

and the viking jets wouldnt be out that way anyways...atleast i dont think so.


an A-6 Intruder


[Edited on January 29, 2010 at 2:56 PM. Reason : .]

1/29/2010 2:52:52 PM