Cross-traffic

[telerib]

I commute home past Andrews Air Force Base. Aircraft coming in for a landing fly fairly low over the Beltway right there. It's a little unnerving, but I've finally got accustomed to seeing executive-style small jets zooming over my car.





At least, I think that's what it was. Holy crap, does it look big a few hundred feet up and coming down.

Comments

[siobhan1214.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yes. I believe that's a C-130 cargo plane. Aren't they beautiful? ;)

[moliarity.livejournal.com]

Only a small transport. I've been sitting in gridlock on the beltway at Rt 4, watching a C-5 pass overhead coming in for a landing. Wingspan was wider than all 8 lanes, the median, and the shoulders. It was only a couple hundred feet up also...

Another time I was driving (parked) south on 4 past Andrews, I was right under the takeoff strip for the jets. 3 of'em, about 5 seconds apart, with the engines at full power, trying to get out of the way of the one behind them. First 2 were F-16's, the third was a British Tornado. Looks wierd staring right into the engines... Since the windows and sun roof were open, I also got a hint of jet wash (heat).

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Maybe what I saw was a C-5, too... the first pictures I found of it looked like the wrong body-shape, but now I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure it didn't have props which the Hercules seems to have... *shrug* Yesterday traffic was good (unlike this morning!) so I only got a few seconds' worth of staring at it.

Main trouble is I've never been looking at one of these things and had someone knowledgeable tell me, "That is a ----." (Then again, it took like ten years of my dad pointing out turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks in flight before I could tell one from the other, so maybe I just suck at identifying things in the air.)

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

If you really want to go plane-watching for USAF birds (or USN, or USMC, or USCG), I'll be happy to sponsor an excursion.

While it's possible you saw a C-5, it's more likely that you saw a C-17, which is the Air Force's new long-range workhorse transport (pics available here). Angles can do funny things to how you perceive an aircraft, especially one that's landing.

[devreux.livejournal.com]

We regularly get buzzed by these guys at Pennsic. This year we were also visited by a string of attack helicopters, which was novel. ^_^