Over the summer of 2005, I went through the necessary training to obtain my private pilot's license. There was a small aeroclub onboard the Air Force Base in Okinawa. I think there is too much material for one post, so I will break it into a series.
The Air Force Base accomodated all sorts of aircraft, from large cargo jets all the way down to our little Cessnas. Consequently, the runways were enormous, each one over 12,000 feet, close to 2 miles long. Our Cessnas could easily take off in a few hundred feet and land in just a bit more. The runways were also quite wide. It was interesting getting used to having all this extra room.
You never knew what other aircraft you might see on the runway, you could take off behind a flight of fighter jets or a large cargo jet. Generally, once you were airborne, you didn't see much other traffic. The military aircraft flew higher and faster than we did. Which was just fine.
On one occasion, I was flying at about 1,500 feet, probably cruising at just over 100 knots. It was a beautiful day, lots of great visibility and I was headed over to one of my favorite island chains to do a little sightseeing. All of a sudden, in quick succession, 4 F-18s zoomed by me quite close. Generally, you have to obey certain speed limits at lower altitudes. However, the military has designated corridors where this does not apply. I was in one of those corridors, there is no prohibition against it, you just need permission from Air Traffic Control. The first one was just a quick blur, I only caught it out of the corner of my eye and wasn't sure what the hell had happened. I was ready for the next few though, they all did a pretty similar maneuver, rolling in really close, hitting the throttles and disapearing. At least I thought they had disappeared.
The view out of a Cessna is relatively limited. Unlike the full canopy covers that the fighters have, you have decent forward vision, no rear vision and limited side vision. Since the wing is above the cockpit, you really have little view of what is above you as well.
It quickly became clear that they knew exactly where I was at all times. I was clueless. Additionally, the military uses a different frequency band to communicate, and I did not have access to this frequency. It was essentially a series of mock engagements as the aircraft would appear out of seemingly no-where and come flashing across. My guess is they came down from above me and were briefly behind me before coming into my field of view. I would sometimes hear them slightly before I saw them, but it was unclear where they would be coming fro. It was awesome. These guys were all professional pilots with thousands of hours of flight time. They knew exactly what they were doing and provided a very safe, but exciting experience. A couple of times, they would fire off the afterburner shortly after crossing and you could sense the raw power associated with it. On some occasions they would slow down and fly next to me. However, try as they might, they simply could not fly as slowly as I could without stalling. They would come by with the gear down, full flaps, airbrake deployed and still they couldn't stay nearby for very long. I think they did it just to make sure I was OK with it, I would give them a quick smile and a thumbs up and the airshow would continue.
There are some pretty good accounts of pilots that have inadvertently strayed into protected airspace over the Capital Region. Those guys are intercepted for real by fighter jets. Once intercepted, you are directed to land at the nearest airport where a group of federal agents with guns drawn are there to greet you. I have to imagine that is not nearly as fun.
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