A-10 tidbits....

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I got to see two of these aircraft up close and personal at Bradley International airport in 1980.  I was asked to work at their air museum one night, which was damaged in the Windsor Locks Tornado.  The museum had free access out to the tarmac and the runways.  Before seeing the A-10 I and my two female hosts went out close to the runway and saw a 747 take off right over our heads, the roar was amazing and it was no more than 100 feet above us.  Airport security checked us out but cleared us since we were with the museum.  It was a great night, I enjoyed it immensely, it was the night before I flew home from JFK back to SFO.  I was staying near Hartford with the two women one night and my cousins the rest of the two week trip.

John

https://thegrizzled.com/a-10-thunderbolt-facts/1/?v=2

[jon b 2,047]

I remember many years ago as an 18 year old private pilot I too got to see a couple of A10s, four in fact , much too up close and personal for My liking.

I was flying into Brough in the U.K. , which is a BAe airfield where they make the Hawk trainer. I was in my little Cessna 152 at maybe 1000- 1500ft and talking to Brough approach outside controlled airspace. The controller it seems was also in contact with the A10 flight on UHF which I couldn’t hear.He informed me that there was a flight of A10s approaching from the south but not to worry they had me in sight. I frantically searched to my right for the A10s but couldn’t see any sign of them in the sky.

Then suddenly I spotted the first one as it came straight at me climbing almost vertically from below me, it went straight above and slightly  in front of me,rolled inverted and pulled down descending rapidly back down low level on my left side.This was closely followed by his his wingman doing the  exact same thing, while the last two A10 went straight underneath me, making me into a sandwich.

I can’t remember my exact words to the controller as this  happened but I remember my 18 year old voice went all squeaky!

 

[John_Cillis 2,406]

1 hour ago, jon b said:

I remember many years ago as an 18 year old private pilot I too got to see a couple of A10s, four in fact , much too up close and personal for My liking.

I was flying into Brough in the U.K. , which is a BAe airfield where they make the Hawk trainer. I was in my little Cessna 152 at maybe 1000- 1500ft and talking to Brough approach outside controlled airspace. The controller it seems was also in contact with the A10 flight on UHF which I couldn’t hear.He informed me that there was a flight of A10s approaching from the south but not to worry they had me in sight. I frantically searched to my right for the A10s but couldn’t see any sign of them in the sky.

Then suddenly I spotted the first one as it came straight at me climbing almost vertically from below me, it went straight above and slightly  in front of me,rolled inverted and pulled down descending rapidly back down low level on my left side.This was closely followed by his his wingman doing the  exact same thing, while the last two A10 went straight underneath me, making me into a sandwich.

I can’t remember my exact words to the controller as this  happened but I remember my 18 year old voice went all squeaky!

 

Kind of like Elliott and his first encounter with ET, eh?  I would have found that an experience that would have stunned me silent too.  I do not like close calls either as a pedestrian, a bicyclist, a driver and certainly not while flying.  And because I was such a business traveler and holiday traveler, I had about seven very close calls during my life that all could have ended me and my fellow pax, just like that, and the worst was one where a dead heading pilot hurried off our fuel starved aircraft that had declared an emergency, almost landing in the trees in Pellston Michigan, and he kissed the ground. 

My colleague waiting for me in the airport saw us just slide in after three go arounds and had fingernail imprints in his hands, my boss said if they lost me they would lose the whole darn Holiday Inn and IBM contract they had back then, in the early 90's, because I had rewritten our installation plan while out in the field but had not turned it in, so we could get the contract done before Holiday Inn's fast approaching deadline.  After that happened, they had me upload my whole plan onto their Unix servers in Maryland, just outside of DC, since we were also a government contractor on what I was never told.

I hate car near misses the most, especially when caused by "random recreational violence" types of drivers.  But the last time my current car was just lightly tapped by someone who rear ended me running a red light, I pulled into a parking lot and the guy actually pulled in after me to see if I was OK and needed his insurance.  I did not see any marks on my bumper, I told him it felt worse than it was, and told the shaking young man no worries, and to go on his way.  I told him I had one minor at fault accident once and that was the way I was treated by the person I hit, so I wanted to return the favor and give a kind memory to my unintentional assailant, which all rear ender perps are according to law. 

In the air it is harder to establish fault in a near miss or a collision.  I recall the movie Airport 75, the poor Baron pilot just had a heart attack, nothing else.  It was sadly a (fictional) accident and they nailed the media in that movie, making a mountain out of a molehill which is what the media is famous for, for ratings, as they hammered the sim hobby after Sept 11 and also after the Alaska-Horizon recent incident near Seattle.  I was interviewed on that one.

John