That reminds me of a T38 low level as a student. I was flying with a Guest IP, a Lt. Col. who had flown A10's previously. We had never met, I was kind of an orphan because my T38 IP was also the sq. scheduler, so I got passed around to many guest IP's.

Anyway...I've got my strip chart all prepared, we meet, we sit down and he says, "Brief me." So I show him the chart, talk about turn points, time, altitude, etc. and when I'm done, he looks at me, stone faced, and says, "What is the threat?"

I think for a minute, and I say, "Well, we are going to be down at 500', going 500mph, so buzzards, if we hit a buzzard we are toast."

He says, "No, what is the threat?"

I think about it another minute, and I say, "Cessna's, there could be some light aircraft out there, we'll be too low for radar, so we have to watch out for them."

Again, but with a little more effort, he says, "NO, what is the threat?!"

I hem and haw, I say, "Well, we should be the only T38 on the route..."

He can't take it anymore, and he says, "The GROUND!! THE GROUND IS ALWAYS THE THREAT ON A LOW LEVEL!! DON'T HIT THE GROUND! We have lost too many guys who were busy looking over their shoulder, or down in their lap, while they flew into the ground!"

When ever I fly light airplanes down low, I hear his words ringing in my ears.

 

Closest I ever came to being a self-induced mort.
Of course I had reason to look over my shoulder as I had another airplane bearing down on me - but still - not a situation that you would like to be in - stuck between a CFIT and a possible mid-air

 

I've got to tell you the rest of the story.

So, we get out in the middle of nowhere, far west Texas, Big Bend area on our low level. I'm staying kind of high, maybe 700-1000' because I don't know this Lt. Col. He takes the airplane from me with a quick, "I've got the jet" and rolls it over 90 left, the nose drops, he pulls down to put the pitot tube pointing down at a road.

I don't know w-t-f he's doing, or why, he's not talking, but then I see a yellow school bus coming down the road from the left. He holds the nose down and pushes the power up, I've still got the levers in my hand, I can feel them moving up to the stops. We were going 500 before he rolled in on the bus, now we're really moving, and here comes the bus. He points the nose directly at it, and says, "Hold on" as he hits the blowers and pulls up hard, no more than about 400' over the top, maybe lower.

Nice 6G pull, and now we are going straight up, through about 10,000' he rolls it over on it's back, levels off, rolls it upright, and says, "You've got the jet, take me home".

Well...OK, but where the fk are we? We are way off my strip chart! I point it in the general direction of Del Rio, and start tuning the vor...

Great fun, if you can get away without being caught! I never heard about any school bus going into a ditch, so I guess they lived through it too.

 

My IP and I ran up from behind a semi-truck heading down a desolate stretch of highway out near Fallon, NV. We went a few more miles down the road and then turned back to do a head-to-head with him (probably 50 yds off the road). When we came back by at about 100-200' the truck driver was half hanging out of the window and pumping his arms up and down!
It was either great-American appreciation and motivation or a non-verbal butt chewing (but I'm sure there were words I couldn't hear!)

I was at Del Rio yesterday. That lake looks nearly bone dry!
The guy I was flying with had gone through training there back in the late 70's. He had some great stories to share. Then we headed over to Corpus and Kingsville and I was able to share some faintly similar stories

 

Nice! Sounds like great fun. Too bad about Lake Amistad, that's where I learned to windsurf while at UPT. At that time (1983-4) it was getting low, we could see a church steeple poking up in one spot, but it sounds like it's really, really low now? Is Laughlin still open?

 

Absolutely!

 

I have $100-to-your-$1 says it was this...

I have another same bet he is still telling that story somewhere.

 

Oklahoma Championship Quarterback Davis Killed in Plane Crash - Bloomberg

Guess the rumors were unfortunately true.

 

No hard deck? Did you get some actual ACM?

 

It was LAT training (LATT) - not BFM/ACM
I was the IP in a chase plane with a VERY senior student (DCAG-14) on one of the solo flights.
I called for a Turning Oblique Jink (TOJ) and then made my maneuver to get into position for his eventual dive towards the ground. I got a little acute, he pulled a little to far in the right hand slicing turn which put him at about my 7-8 position and 'bearing down on me'. I was watching him over my left shoulder as I tried to maneuver furhter to my right to make the geometry work out - but after my RadAlt went off at about 150' and I looked back inside at right hand nose slice, I whipped the wings level, pulled out with moxy, and called a 'knock it off'.
We both climbed up, ran an ops check, I asked the USNA middie in the backseat if he was enjoying himself (with an answer of "YES SIR! This is the greatest ever!!!"), and then back into the hop!