It's time to buzz the tower....

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 10/31/2016 at 12:47 • Filed to: Planelopnik

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I was up in Abilene this weekend, and when I wasn’t taking pictures of the local !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! I was out at Dyess AFB doing some plane spotting. It was pretty slow until this brace of Bones flew by, one from Dyess and one from Kirtland AFB, wings back and hauling ass. I had never seen them do this on return to base before. After another flyby with wings out, they broke off for the downwind leg and came around for a landing.

Earlier, this Bone had been doing some touch-and-go landings. Note the asymmetrical engine nozzles. The right engines are in afterburner, the left are not. I wonder if he was practicing engine-out landings.

I also caught this Beech 300 belonging to the FAA. The underside of the wings were painted orange with the words FLIGHT CHECK in big letters. He was flying around all day. No idea what he was up to.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 10/31/2016 at 12:51

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Bones in formation on Halloween. I approve.

Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer > ttyymmnn 10/31/2016 at 12:57

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!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Going to guess it was some sort of flight test. ;-)

HammerheadFistpunch > ttyymmnn 10/31/2016 at 12:57

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I miss bone sightings.

ttyymmnn > Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer 10/31/2016 at 13:02

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Now, why didn’t I think of that?

ttyymmnn > Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer 10/31/2016 at 13:07

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I just went back and looked at the unedited photos, and the Beech actually said FLIGHT CHECK under the wings.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > ttyymmnn 10/31/2016 at 16:01

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I had a B1-B fly pretty low over us in Montana back in the 80's. We were in the Beartooth Mtns and that thing came out of nowhere. I had an A-10 fly low over a pass when we were backcountry skiing too, I could see the pilot’s helmet.

ttyymmnn > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 10/31/2016 at 16:18

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My brother told a story about a time the Blue Angels were performing in San Francisco for Fleet Week. He was working in a high rise downtown, and went up to the roof to watch them practice. One of the F/A-18s banked around the building, and he could see down into the cockpit.

If you blow up the shots of the B-1s, you can see the pilot inside. Those are always my favorites. But you’ve got to be out late in the afternoon or early in the morning when the sun is really low.

user314 > ttyymmnn 10/31/2016 at 17:06

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Interesting that the Bone from Kirtland is such a markedly different shade than the other one.

ttyymmnn > user314 10/31/2016 at 17:15

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I wondered about that. The tail indicates that it is attached to a testing and evaluation squadron, while the Dyess Bones are rotating to Iraq/Afghanistan/Syria. My guess is that the Kirtland Bone is used for testing and is older, and not kept up for battle. But that’s just a guess.