Somebody tell me if I was mistaken....

[Total]

Concluding a business trip, I was driving back home to Alabama today from Roanoke, Virginia.

 

About 30 miles south of the Roanoke area, I saw a jet flying around 400 feet off the deck. Twin tail, duel engine. What really caught my eye, as this thing was moving across my field of view extremely quickly, was that the engine intakes appeared to be under the wings....

 

ding ding ding....

 

SU-27 or MiG-29.

 

About a second later, another object caught my eye. This one was unmistakable: F-15E at high speed, tilted right which showed some of it's inderside (bare pylons), about 100 feet lower than the first aircraft. The engine rip was sweet, sweet music :thumbup:

 

Now, my question is this:

 

Is there a MiG-29 or SU-27 in or area the Virginia or DC area or was I mistaken?

 

I was at a stop sign and couldn't grab my camera fast enough, but I am 75% positive the engine intakes were on the enderside of the first aircraft.

[Fleshpiston]

I spent a fair bit of time in VA and saw some interesting things and what you describe could be possible but alas I cannot confirm today's sighting.

Edited March 29, 2012 by Fleshpiston

[aaron886]

I feel pretty confident that you just saw two F-15Es. :noexpression:

[Total]

I wish I could be as confident lolConsidering the 2nd one was unistakably an F-15 and I had a moment where both were in my view from a side perspective, the lead aircraft almost definitely not an F-15.....

 

I was statoned in both Newport News and Norfolk and saw some cool shtuff while I was up there.

 

again, 75% certainty lol

[RIPTIDE]

[aaron886]

Can't rep, but... yeah.

[topol-m]

Considering 2 su-27s (former Ukrainian) are in possession of US collectors, I wouldn't rule this out completely.

[TheThumper]

I live in that area... Pretty sure you saw 2 F-15s.... they buzz my house daily, almost ripping the shingles off (which, btw, I don't mind at all!). Used to see F-18s a good bit also, but mostly 15s. They use this area for low level flight practice, gotta watch out when I'm buzzing around in the ole Cessna 152!

[Viper101]

You should lay off whatever the drug is you are on. There are no F-15E's based around the DC/Virginia area, nor the Roanoke area. The closest location would be Seymour Johnson which is more than 150mi SE. Even then, you wouldn't be seeing two random F-15's low and fast if they were on a route between Seymour and Langley.

 

Maybe you saw a really large RC plane?

[GGTharos]

That is a possibility since the company that bought the 27's is probably leasing them out to the USAF as practice targets (the company flies the aircraft, the USAF planes intercept them etc).

 

Without pics though it's hard to tell what you saw though, obviously - don't worry about it too much :)

 

Concluding a business trip, I was driving back home to Alabama today from Roanoke, Virginia.

 

About 30 miles south of the Roanoke area, I saw a jet flying around 400 feet off the deck. Twin tail, duel engine. What really caught my eye, as this thing was moving across my field of view extremely quickly, was that the engine intakes appeared to be under the wings....

 

ding ding ding....

 

SU-27 or MiG-29.

 

About a second later, another object caught my eye. This one was unmistakable: F-15E at high speed, tilted right which showed some of it's inderside (bare pylons), about 100 feet lower than the first aircraft. The engine rip was sweet, sweet music :thumbup:

 

Now, my question is this:

 

Is there a MiG-29 or SU-27 in or area the Virginia or DC area or was I mistaken?

 

I was at a stop sign and couldn't grab my camera fast enough, but I am 75% positive the engine intakes were on the enderside of the first aircraft.

[GGTharos]

You should lay off the insults. There is nothing that you have said here that is informative or otherwise useful.

 

You should lay off whatever the drug is you are on. There are no F-15E's based around the DC/Virginia area, nor the Roanoke area. The closest location would be Seymour Johnson which is more than 150mi SE. Even then, you wouldn't be seeing two random F-15's low and fast if they were on a route between Seymour and Langley.

 

Maybe you saw a really large RC plane?

[Viper101]

You should lay off the insults. There is nothing that you have said here that is informative or otherwise useful.

 

Because your below statement makes anymore sense and includes more information than the fact that I stated there are no F-15E's stationed near Roanoke, VA. Do you enjoy making yourself look bad when attempting to troll everything I say?

 

That is a possibility since the company that bought the 27's is probably leasing them out to the USAF as practice targets (the company flies the aircraft, the USAF planes intercept them etc).

 

Without pics though it's hard to tell what you saw though, obviously - don't worry about it too much

[vanir]

Sorry to bump a thread that got a little testy, but some relevant information for the OP

 

I was just reading about 21 MiG-29C purchased back in 1997 from Moldava (via Romania) and 500 R73 missiles, "ostensibly to keep them out of the hands of rogue states but kept by the Air Force for testing." They were taken by C17 to Wright-Patterson "then distributed to various sources". (winchester)

[Frostiken]

Because your below statement makes anymore sense and includes more information than the fact that I stated there are no F-15E's stationed near Roanoke, VA. Do you enjoy making yourself look bad when attempting to troll everything I say?

 

Our jets travel over 150 mi just to get to the practice range in Wales. So, what are you saying, that Seymour jets - the home of the F-15E training program - cannot fly anywhere outside of North Carolina to get to the training range?

[Phantom88]

That is a possibility since the company that bought the 27's is probably leasing them out to the USAF as practice targets (the company flies the aircraft, the USAF planes intercept them etc).

 

Without pics though it's hard to tell what you saw though, obviously - don't worry about it too much :)

 

Just to build on this a bit,There's a company in my home state of IL. called Air USA who simulate airbourne threats,They have and fly a Mig-29 Fulcrum

 

[Cali]

Our jets travel over 150 mi just to get to the practice range in Wales. So, what are you saying, that Seymour jets - the home of the F-15E training program - cannot fly anywhere outside of North Carolina to get to the training range?

 

When I went TDY to Savannah Georgia, F-15's came up from Jacksonville Florida to play games with our F-16's. That's about 140 to 150 miles depending on where they took off from.

[lobo]

"The United States has bought two Su-27 Flanker fighter aircraft to help train U.S. air force pilots to cope with the growing number of 4th-generation Russian aircraft sold around the world"

 

Read more: http://www.defencetalk.com/us-buys-su-27-fighters-from-ukraine-for-aggressor-training-18795/#ixzz1rSLYUEh5

 

Here is a pic of one of the Tac Air SU-27's:

 

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogscript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3A36be72c4-1223-493f-bc10-073b0f15112e

Edited April 8, 2012 by lobo**

[636_Castle]

This is a bit off topic...but related.

 

I too have been seeing weird low-passes lately. I never mention them, because I don't want to sound crazy. :D

 

The other week, a 4 ship of C-130Hs passed overhead at about 10 pm. I was in my kitchen when I heard Allison turboprops starting to shake the house a little. We get C-17s overhead every once in a while...Ch-47s at least twice a day...and I knew this sounded different. I was right next to my door, I opened it up, and about 150-200 feet from ground level was a 4 ship...the first two passing a second or two in front, of C-130s. The wind they gave off was phenomenal. The turboprops rattled my ribcage. All 4 were unlit, and barely clearing the trees. Neighbors started walking out of their houses a few minutes later.

 

They were so close to me, that I could make out the shade of gray against the night sky. They went by so fast, and were directly overhead, so I wasn't able to see any tail markings.

 

I also had a similar thing happen to me once with a privately owned P-51 when I was living closer to the bay, he banked between trees, dove below the level of the embankment that led to the beach, and cruised over the water until he blended in with terrain on the other side of the bay.

 

When ever anyone tells me they've seen something incredibly strange regarding low passes, or weird sightings, I never dismiss it. Because I've seen some pretty weird stuff myself.

[vanir]

There's only really an emergency field near where I am, within WW2 fighter range anyway but I think it is used as a fuel stop during air show season depending where folks are coming from.

 

So my unusual sight was a beautifully restored Yak-3 flying low enough to count the rivets right over my workplace. I was pretty excited but nobody else had any idea what I was going on about.

 

Been right dead underneath some Hornet low alt aerobatics before, that was awesome. I got better view than the tv coverage.

 

Anyway I figured MiGs because afaik you've only got a couple of Flankers over there but you've got literally squadrons of MiGs under lock and key, kept for test purposes and flown.

[112th_Rossi]

If it was a MiG-29 or other RU fighter, I would imagine it would have quite a lot of black engine smoke like they do.

[vanir]

The Lyulka isn't smokey.

It'd be nice if some aeronautical mechanics could pipe in to confirm but I believe the Klimov likes some oil in the fuel to cool that trick afterburner it's got located in the bypass. In fact I believe it was designed to run on diesel and kerosine in the field. If you used the Luftwaffe or Russian hot section rebuild (mandatory if you're going to operate them in the US), then you could get away with regular aviation gas and no smokies, or at least they wouldn't be as smokey as kerosine burners at a Russian airshow.