Oregon Air Guard to conduct night training flights
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Oregon Air National Guard's 142nd Fighter Wing will be conducting routine F-15 night flying training on January 12-13.
The missions allow the wing to stay current with mandatory Air Force requirements, the Guard said.
Most training flights should be completed each evening before 11 p.m.
Night flying is conducted almost monthly as training for the use of night vision goggles and other night time maneuvers.
I spent 12 years as Flight Engineer on P-3 Orions. The fighter jocks were always amazed that we would fly for hours at 50 feet off the water... We were always amazed that they could break the sound barrier, and land on a postage stamp. I now fly a Cessna 180 at 130 MPH and it amazes me that I can still fly.. The nice thing about low, and slow that the fast movers miss is the beautiful scenery they miss .
 I'm still envious of those guys though.
@portlandborn83 Â @Khre'Riov Ael i-Mhiessan t'Rllaillieu
You want to talk about thinking that you are going crazy hearing a fighter jet?
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A group of us were climbing Mt Scott and we were above tree line and heard the unmistakable rumble of a fighter and we looked up and all around and could see nothing. The sound was getting closer and closer when I finally looked DOWN.Â
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Yep, there it was a few 1,000' below us practicing radar avoidance. It was weird, but nice to be standing on the ground and looking down at the top of an F-15 while it was airborne.
But no headlights or taillights? How will they see the sights? LOL
What a great photo.
I never get tired of watching these birds take off.
They normally announce night training. Since it's somewhat unusual it keeps people from asking questions. My dorm in collage was right under the approach to Kingsley field and notices would go up on the doors announcing when and how late.
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Some of you may not remember ~10 years ago that there was an alert scramble due to a misunderstanding and for over an hour an F-15 circled North Portland. My house was inside the circle and it was pretty seeing those twin blue flames go by at low altitude.
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(Idiot private pilot made a joke in Scappoose about flying into a building in downtown Portland AND there was a war movie being filmed at the base of the bluff with full pyrotechnics. From the air I'm sure it really did look like a war zone...)
I heard a rumble in the store a few weeks ago, inside the store in NE! And I was like, this is odd...
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And then I head outside with my groceries and it was deafening...the roar of the jets I heard in the sky. It was so loud I was wondering if it was a sonic boom.
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I am very happy I am not going crazy, however, I really do wish they were not doing this training.
 @portlandborn83 Been a few years, but what was cool is they do some training flying through the canyons. We where out hunting on the sweet home side and those jets where flying the canyons through there. So what is cool is looking over and seeing the pilot as they come swooping through!
The sound of freedom.
@bOB If your fortunate to be close enough, you can also get the smell (Jet A) of Freedom!
Why must this be announced? They do training all the time and the rest of their schedule isn't broadcast all over the place. So what if they're making noise later than usual.
 @axpman People aren't used to the sounds at night, which mean a lot of calls into 911 and non-emergency numbers about it. They try to let people know in advance so they'll hopefully get less calls. It also gives those who know they are typically in the path a heads up to have ear plugs or something so they aren't woken up. I know they get really loud out here in NE Gresham.