Ever get buzzed by a Tomcat or Hornet?

Buzzed in a Sunfish

I grew up summering at the grandparents shorefront place on Vineyard Sound, Falmouth, Cape Cod. In the 60's Otis AFB was still quite active, No Man's Island was an active bombing range, and jets flying low were a common sight. At night I recall hearing one scream overhead, ran to the window just in time to see it drop to the deck and hit the afterburner headed WSW over open water... must have been on an intercept exercise.

One day I was out in the family Sunfish, about a mile offshore, and a fighter jet made a low pass... scared the bejeezus out of me (didn't see/hear it coming), but what I remember most is the smell of burnt fuel and the unexpected jibe caused by the downdraft / exhaust. Not enough to capsize... but warm enough to know something hot just came by....! Overall it was actually a fun experience... I doubt in today's climate one would ever encounter that again!

Sorta the same thing when passing the Patuxent River Air Base.
We were fairly well South of the targets and there was no action as we went by.
It was during the week, no one on the bay, real hazy in August no wind and flat and hot.
I was alone on the bridge, listening to my babies run, minding my B.I. bidness.
All the sudden CRACK. I too nearly soiled my scivvies.

Never saw him come or go and I don't even know how close he was but it seemed like he was right on top of us !

Offshore here is a practice area and we often get a great show watching dogfights overhead while we're fishing. Sometimes they do practice straffing runs on the charter fleet too which can be somewhat disconcerting if you don't see them coming in for the run especially if they happen to be above mach, the rooster tails in the water behind them are awesome and a giveaway to cover your ears fast!

We carried a lot of Harrier and F-15 pilots on charters and they tell stories of locking up 8 or 10 targets in their attack computers. One time a bunch was out and we were really drawing attention. Seems their buddies aloft searched till they found us and really hammered us all day. A few of them jumped up on the fish box and gave a "moon shot" for the gun cameras, hope their CO didn't recognize them!

Most memorabe time was when a B-1 did a dive bomb attack on us out of the sun and pulled out and bored a hole in the sky going vertical right on top of us. I'll never forget the feel of raw power as we felt the heat of the exhaust and continuous thunder tried to shake us apart at the seams. He then proceeded to do the same to several more boats.

Most forgetable time was when two accidentally collided overhead. We heard the explosion and watched one spiral down and the other limp away trailing smoke. Everyone scrambled towards the crash site and we found the canopy and a deployed chute but sadly when I pulled it up there was no one attached. Searched all day along with the whole fishing fleet and numerous military choppers but unfortunately the pilot was never recovered.

Yes he did, bottomed out of his dive maybe 100' above the water and poured the coals to her and went straight up directly on top of us, the heat, smell and noise was and unbelieveable display of raw power! Walked through one on display during the air show at Cherry Point and asked the crew if they ever did that and they just smiled. Told them we loved it and to feel free anytime!

When I was at Ft Irwin for a training exercise, our convoy got buzzed by an F-111 that was either supersonic or real close to it. I was in an M577 command vehicle and it shook as he went by. Pretty impressive shock wave.

Yes, but I never personally tried it. It does have bilge pumps and some shrouds over the tracks. You steer it the same way you do on land, with the tillers controlling the tracks.

As a young lad in the late 50's, I was intrigued by airplanes and especially military jets. Some friends and I would ride our bikes out to Downsview Airforce Base and sit outside the fence off of the end of the runway.

Some days there were only a few planes to be seen, mostly prop driven. And then one day we could hear and see a white jet fighter taxi to the far end of the runway. With a roar that shook the earth it started its take-off. It passed directly overhead at about 50 feet with the noise and air pressure just about flattening us to the ground. I didn't realize until many years later that we had witnessed one of the last flights of the Avro Arrow.

They were two different planes as I recall. The Avro Arrow was a design exercise for the CAF that never made it to production. It was supposed to be a Mach 2 capable aircraft. The Vulcan was a subsonic bomber. Both aircraft were delta-winged though.

We were buzzed by a number of F-14s but only because we were out when they were testing DFCS in the F-14D SuperTom back in the 1980s - so they were just following orders. My uncle was the DFCS engineer and had the final sign-off before any F-14 flew its maiden or refit test flight. Got up close to a lot of Navy experiments over the years.

Looking the other direction, we also had the Nautilus broach off our bow. I was a young pup, and I believe it was just before she started her last tour prior to decommissioning... so it had to be late 1970s. Swamped our bow and I recall everyone aboard thinking we were sunk in the Long Island Sound for sure.