Airborne mysteries...
Oct. 11th, 2002 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishAs I was finishing the last entry, I suddenly started hearing jet engines. My office is right next to the Los Alamitos National Guard Air Base; a month or two ago we saw Shrub's plane parked over there all afternoon (if you remember I posted a picture about it). This sounded like multiple planes taking off and the noise just kept on going. I turned off my computer, covered it up for the weekend and went downstairs; I met M. in the hallway and mentioned "what's the deal with the jets?" She morsely mumbled something about WW III starting and went back upstairs. I headed out to the parking lot, looking for the planes as I went. It turned out there was only one, flying around in a circle, at what must have been an excrutiatingly slow speed for an F15. I stood watching it, and a car pulled up and parked - an older man got out and started watching, too.
"How long has he been doing that?" he asked.
"I dunno- that his third time around since I've been watching," I replied.
He told me he had been driving down the 405 and thought it might be interesting to see it land, but here it was just going around in circles.
The jet made one more circle and once again flew parallel to the runway, but several hundred feet up. As it passed over the end of the runway, the pilot must have hit the throttle; I saw a burst of exhaust, the roar suddenly increased in volume, and the plane leaped away as though stung, heading southwest. Probably halfway to San Clemente Island or some aircraft carrier out at sea before I pulled out the parking lot.
As I headed toward down the road, I noticed another F15 sitting on the runway, canopy open with two neon yellow fire trucks sitting beside it. The airborne bird's wounded comrade?
As I write this, I remember that shortly before all the jet noise, there was a loud bang that rattled all the windows. V. speculated a duck had hit the glass again, but I noticed the local murder of crows had all taken off as though alarmed. Maybe it was a sonic boom from one of those planes.
So, are we at war yet?
"How long has he been doing that?" he asked.
"I dunno- that his third time around since I've been watching," I replied.
He told me he had been driving down the 405 and thought it might be interesting to see it land, but here it was just going around in circles.
The jet made one more circle and once again flew parallel to the runway, but several hundred feet up. As it passed over the end of the runway, the pilot must have hit the throttle; I saw a burst of exhaust, the roar suddenly increased in volume, and the plane leaped away as though stung, heading southwest. Probably halfway to San Clemente Island or some aircraft carrier out at sea before I pulled out the parking lot.
As I headed toward down the road, I noticed another F15 sitting on the runway, canopy open with two neon yellow fire trucks sitting beside it. The airborne bird's wounded comrade?
As I write this, I remember that shortly before all the jet noise, there was a loud bang that rattled all the windows. V. speculated a duck had hit the glass again, but I noticed the local murder of crows had all taken off as though alarmed. Maybe it was a sonic boom from one of those planes.
So, are we at war yet?
