I Swear My House Must Be A Waypoint

For general, commercial, and military aviation, because they ALL fly directly over my yellow house. The military flights are my favorite. Multiple pairs of F-15 Eagles out of Barnes AFB. Mostly during the day but also night training. They'll spend a good half hour at a time some nights "dogfighting" high above my house. If you happen to be outside when they head back, you can observe the parade of jets heading northwest at their cruising altitude. I have counted as many as 8 in four pairs. Then there are the CT ANG C-130's out of Bradley. Always in pairs they head out to the east around mid-morning, and west back to Bradley in late afternoon, again right over my house. Every once in a while, they do the low altitude stuff on the return flight, zooming over my house at 500 feet. THAT is extremely cool, but tends to upset some folks in town. My wife saw one do that while driving once and she thought it was going down. She came in the door and asked if there was a plane crash. Then there are the helicopters. Blackhawks, Chinooks, and private/charters. The non-military ones are pretty regular, and we see mostly single Blackhawks for military. Which takes me to why this post.

Earlier today, I heard helicopters coming from the west. It was a flight of six; 3 Blackhawks followed by 3 Chinooks up around 2500 feet. Normally I see them solo. Then, about 1/2 hour ago I heard a low vibration that got louder and louder. I went out on the deck and sure enough, it was the 3 Chinooks heading back to the west. Their altitude was lower than earlier. A few minutes later, I heard the distinct sound of the Blackhawks as they went by at about the same altitude.

I only flew in a whirlybird once, and that was in the military. It was an aircraft familiarization flight in a UH-1 Huey. We took off from Westover AFB and headed north along the Kommiecticut River up to Vermont and back. We flew just over the treetops and I remember waving to some kids in their backyard. I was seated in the bench seat on the side facing out the open door, with a canvas strap across our laps "for safety." The pilot banked pretty steep a couple of times, where first I was looking at the sky, then at the ground. It was very exciting.