Pulpit Thursday Aug. 19th

[XCanytime]

Late day flight looks good. Bacil

[XCanytime]

Got off from work at 10:30A. The sky looked great on the way up. If you could've gotten in the air at noon it looked like serious downwind XC day. Got to launch around 12:45P to find Rich Heigel chilling by his car after 15 minutes of observation on the ramp. Rich mentioned hitting a rain shower around Mercersburg on the way up. Dave Proctor graciously volunteered to come out to help w/ launches if need be. Dave arrived around 1:15P, and he and I and Rich swapped flying stories on the ramp after Rich and I decided not to fly. After a while Dave left, and Rich and I continued the story swapping. Earlier I had mentioned that 2 years prior an A10 Warthog pilot knife edged 150' above me after I had dropped the glider in the setup area. So there was Rich and I still on the ramp, and Rich says something to the effect "Look what's coming". Not one but two! A10s are heading right at us. They split off and one knife edged over Rt. 30

[XCanytime]

Got off from work at 10:30A. The sky looked great on the way up. If you could've gotten in the air at noon it looked like serious downwind XC day. Got to launch around 12:45P to find Rich Heigel chilling by his car after 15 minutes of observation on the ramp. Rich mentioned hitting a rain shower around Mercersburg on the way up. Dave Proctor graciously volunteered to come out to help w/ launches if need be. Dave arrived around 1:15P, and he and I and Rich swapped flying stories on the ramp after Rich and I decided not to fly. After a while Dave left, and Rich and I continued the story swapping. Earlier I had mentioned that 2 years prior an A10 Warthog pilot knife edged 150' above me after I had dropped the glider in the setup area. So there was Rich and I still on the ramp, facing east, and Rich says something to the effect "Look what's coming". Lo and behold not one but two! A10s are heading right at us. They split off, one knife edged over Rt. 30, and the other knife edged just south of the old ramp. The one above the ramp dropped down into the valley, heading straight at Meadow Grounds Mountain, then popped up and over it, then dropped down again and headed for Sideling Hill. Let's just say I did not regret not flying this day; I sure wouldn't have wanted to be in the air when those two A10s whizzed by. Bacil

[Danny Brotto]

If you look on a Sectional you'll see that there is a VFR Military Training Route (VR708) that goes pretty much right over launch. They can deviate from the route by I believe 4 miles (+/- 4 miles). Those A10s likely are out of the National Guard unit at Martin State Airport. I was in the air at about 700 ft and watched an A10 below me effect an aggressive maneuver (dive) to avoid hitting Brad Hays just below and to my right at about 250 ft over. A second A-10 came in below me, pilot looked up, pulled up, went inverted and flew over Brad. They both then disappeared. A minute or so later another A10 cruised low over by the 16 gap. Brad called the Guard and discussed the incident with the Commander (Commander Tilly at that time.) First A10 pilot thought he had hit Brad. Second one flew in under me and then over Brad (upside down for a good view) to confirm we were both still in the air. After the incident the pilots called their mission short and headed back to KMTN. At that time we were given a number to call if we expected HG activity that day. Commander Tilly actually came out and gave a presentation to the MHGA about A10s. We were on good terms with the Guard unit. Might be a good idea to revisit that opportunity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_training_route

Danny Brotto