Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A-10 flyovers

Yep.....when hunting SW of Boise very close to MH AFB.....they have a targeting range down there (not live fire...just a bunch of containers and mocked up personnel carriers and tanks) You can drive/hunt right next to it and watch them come in low over it (guessing they are doing targeting exercises). I've been on top of some of the hills out there as they circle around for another run and been close enough to easily see the pilot. Memorable experience for sure. Pretty common to get a close look at fighter jet out there too.....last time I was there I spent a good part of an afternoon watching F-18's fly over.

I live about 1.5 miles north of the east end of Gowen Field. Often see them taking off in pairs on Saturdays.

Ten years ago when I was taking flying lessons my instructor and I were waiting for clearance to take off since a flight of six A-10's was coming in. We sat at the edge of the runway and watched them peel off one by one and land right in front of us while listening to the tower chatter with them. Their calls signs were Ugly 1 through Ugly 6.

I was fascinated, my instructor reminded me it was costing X dollars per minute to watch the show but I didn't mind.


Turned the tables later when a pair were waiting for us to land, the instructor had me waggle the wings of our little Cessna 172 at them as we came in on final. He was a retired Air Force E8 and thought that was pretty funny.

They had a couple at the local air show a few years ago. Impressive.

I always work at the local air shows and my favorite is the C17. I always stay long after the show ends and all the aircraft have departed. They always have a C17 on display and it is the last to leave. I realize it is empty, but I'm amazed at how little runway such a large plane needs to get off the ground. They always do low level fly by just over the runway then make a 270 degree turn and fly by across the runway before heading home. A plane that big shouldn't be that maneuverable.

We see them quite often here in central MO. During spring turkey season if 2-3 come over low they can really get the gobblers going.
I've been on Truman Lake fishing and seen them do practice attack runs on fishing boats.

I like the Warthog, truly.

That said, one of my all time favorites was the A1 Skyraider.

Don't know where they come from, but they fly over us at least weekly.

Usually a pair.


I live on a ridge that point to a mountain gap about a half mile away.


We hear them and go running out in the yard.

They lay over on the port side as they go around our ridge, we can look almost horizontally ring down into the plane. See the pilot inside.
Then they flop onto starboard and shoot around the mountain.


One day I was coming home from work and saw one come out of the gap.
That day, it came straight down the road toward me. I could watch it come for about a mile. All I could think of was some poor dumb bastard, in a military vehicle, seeing that thing coming!




We have a neighbor whose cousin works(ed) on Blackhawks and Apaches at the Johnstown airport. On test flights they would come over here and circle the cousins house. Our house was just outside the orbit.

Everyone knows how loud a helicopter is.
I don't think many know how loud they can be when the pilot lays it on its side and pulls a tight orbit. The Whomp, Whomp, Whomp, slows down, but gets louder.

The widows shake and pictures would rattle.



That went on for quite awhile, then suddenly, we quit even seeing them.
Don't know if they aren't over there anymore, or maybe someone got in trouble.

Owls Head Transportation Museum had one at a show and B2 fly-by. I was impressed by the redundancy of the controls so they could take a lot of battle damage. Titanium bucket to sit in is cool too.

Saw one static at Edwards too and a 37 mm gatling gun in the museum. Cool place to spend a few days while my sister was working with NASA flying an instrument on a Global Hawk.

Another great CAS plane.

Had one roll up our 8 1mm firing line one night at Ft. Campbell.

Summers up home we used to be able to hear their cannon fire at Fort Drum from what must be 30 -35 miles. At that distance it would sound like a big, 2 or 3 second groan.

Here we see mainly AF C-17’s on the approach, sometimes very, very low. Occasional fighters of one kind or another. Have seen Ospreys a few times, my neighbor used to fly those. I’ve been surprised to see P3’s a few times, once in the past week. I’d just assumed they were no longer in service.

i've seen the Warthog when i was going thru basic training in Ft Lost in the Woods (Leonard Wood).

Wot about the skids?
Short term passengers.

No A10s here.

A lot of Ospreys, a few blackhawks, and Zoomies about daily......

https://youtube.com/shorts/5JipoLXqrXU?si=m2KYR3cC5x2vIhbE

The Budweiser blimp drifted over a few yrs ago

Yep. Seen a few, including gun runs and ordnance drops. Very capable plane and not one I’d want angry with me. Insurgents hated them, for good reason.

Old70

Can't say for sure but they might have been lining up on us doing training runs. We were touring a cranberry marsh near Tomah, Wi.

I don't believe anyone posted that claim. Maybe I missed it. Specifically, which campfire member, or members, made the claim that Apache gunships seat 4 passengers?

I believe Hans-Ulrich Rudel had some say so in the development of the A-10.

I flew the Challenger 604 back in the late 90's, which had the exact same engines as the A-10. First day of type training, our ground instructor pointed at the engine and said, "this is a GE CF34 engine, the same one that powers the A-10 Warthog. It's the most reliable piece of equipment on the aircraft and that's all you need to know about it". He was half joking of course, but then proceeded to show us pictures of A-10 engines that had ingested FOD from low level bombing and strafing runs. The amount of external/internal damage was incredible, but the engines never failed, just kept on running. Supposedly, often times the damage wasn't discovered until performing routine inspections. Ended up logging 1600 hours sitting in front of those engines without nary a hiccup.

That completely bogus Apache claim came from the Texas National Guard crash thread.

The Air Force is determined to eliminate the A-10, despite there being a mandate for them to support the Close Air Support mission. And there is no other AF plane or training for CAS. There have been claims that the F-35 is the A-10's CAS replacement, but the F-35 has neither the loiter time nor the weapons load for that mission. More importantly, there is NO part of the F-35 training syllabus devoted to CAS. It is not simply having airframes that counts; it's the training. We learned in Vietnam that Forward Air Control and CAS is the most difficult, most demanding, and mentally most challenging air mission ever performed. It is NOT something you can simply do on a whim or sideline.

If the A-10 is completely retired, there will be no USAF CAS support for ground troops. None. That's going to cost a lot of lives.