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[pct-l] Re: Jets



Kevin Corcoran wrote:

> I know an old guy who told me a great story from his flight-test days 
> at Edwards Air Force Base:
> Once in the late 60's he was returning to Edwards, at high subsonic 
> speed in, if I remember the story correctly, an F-4.
> Streaking southbound over the Owens Valley, at about Lone Pine, he 
> said something on the right side caught his eye, at his altitude, and 
> it passed out of view so closely and quickly that he almost didn't 
> recognize it as a guy in a hang glider.
> He was at 15,000 ft.
>
>
>
>  
>
I have seen the spot where the hang gliders take off--they  take off 
from a parking pull- off  on the road to Horseshoe meadow, about 15 
miles up the mountain from Lone Pine. They take off from an elevation of 
almost 10,000 feet.  I can imagine the thermals rising from the Owens 
Valley up that mountain wall must be awesome, so I can easily imagine a 
hang glider ascending on those thermals to 15K.  It takes a truly gutsy 
individual to fly that bird.
I was buzzed by a fighter jet while crossing Mosquito Pass in Emigrant 
Wilderness in about 1976.  It came over so low, loud and fast that I 
dropped to my belly in the dirt.  Just another wonderful and 
unforgettable backcountry experience.
Marion