Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board milatary jet noise

hi just wondering what the jet noise has been like this year? going up this weekend and hiking on monday. my wife stays with our dog at the family camp but the jet noise wigs out my dog.....

same as usual, it's the sound of freedom.
The Air force has regularly used the eastern mountains for training.

I grew up in the Southern Sierra's, Kernville... For many years the jets have flown in from Edwards AFB and China Lake NWC to Lake Isabella and would do many awesome maneuvers, then peel off up the Kern River and to the Whitney drainage. To answer your question... I was up there nine days ago and there did seem to be a little more than usual fighter traffic, they may have stepped up training some, perhaps due to the Russia/Georgia situation.

P.S. If I were a fighter pilot I would do a "fly over" the mountain as well ....Sorry about your dog maybe Cesar Milan can help, JK..enjoy your trip!

Amen!

We've got Navy and USMC pilots flying over the Eastern Sierra too from China Lake. In fact, when I was taking some of our USMC Harrier pilots up MT Whitney in June, we had some of their fellow pilots fly over us while we were hiking. It was awesome. They are amazing people! And they also rescue many of our mountaineering community friends (VX-31 - one of our squadrons - recently rescued two hikers stranded in the desert and some ice climbers on MT Gilbert). Semper Fi!

Semper Fi!!

I just spent 16 days in the Upper Kern / Colby areas and was a close observer of the military jet activity (a biased disclaimer - I spent 30 years in the Navy flying tactical jets: Lemoore, China Lake, Pt. Mugu, Fallon. Couldn't believe they actually paid me $ to do it!).

Most of the activity was from F/A-18's (two motors, twin tails) out of Lemoore, or F-16's (single motor, single tail) out of Fresno. Also some China Lake / Edwards stuff.

Only saw one F/A-18 who was clearly below the published min altitude. He was sightseeing over Forrester. The rest of them were high - at least 3000 ft. above the ground, but depending upon the weather conditions / cloud cover, were noisey.

One of the facts of life / laws of aerodynamics - getting the most thrust out of a tactical jet airplane requires the conversion of lots of jet fuel into noise.

In 1994 I was at Cottonwood Pass area and managed to get my binoculars on something clearly supersonic on compass heading to Edwards.

I have no idea what it was despite knowing planes. Tail-less, trailing edge of wings like an F-117 (but they are not supersonic). It did a 80 degree banked turn at supersonic speed. I figure it was unmanned, otherwise pilot GLOC. Harvey

CORRECTION - JET NOISE IS MUSIC

We saw six fighters in the afternoon skies on our climb last October and I thought it was pretty cool backdropped against clear blue skies, also somewhat reassuring to see them, particularly in practice mode. Don't see such things much on the east coast. Before that, the last I saw them was flying over my apartment in Manhattan in 2001, in active *work* mode.

I was treated to an "inflight re-fueling rendezvous" while I was at trail camp in June. It was AWESOME!!

We heard the thunder (sonic booms???) and saw the silver crosses of F-16s everyday during our recent 8 day hike from Bubbs to WP. Its a nice reassuring sound of civilization I guess.
Krishna

I was in the area from Aug 17 to 21, summitting on the 20th, and we heard and saw F-18's several times each day, sometimes in groups of four. However, being aviation nuts, my son and I would always crane our necks trying to locate them. Except for one pass that seemed to come fairly late in the evening of the 19th, we never would complain.

We were trudging up out of the Kern still on Funston Creek, when a pair flew up the ditch below us in altitude - and going a hellovalot faster than we were. Well below minimums. Obvious sight seeing on a dare and doing what is not quite in the daily grind. Much too fast/close to catch a tail number.

Rather they would put it in quiet mode and MUCH rather see those kinds of antics at an air show especially when its just over a mile across the canyon at that point.

On a more positive note, they did make all the lizards run for cover.

Having owned a home in Kernville, jets are very, very common. It seemed they flew no matter the weather since they need to be ready for any weather conditions when combat time comes. Oh well. The sound of freedom.

and going a hellovalot faster than we were. Well below minimums. Obvious sight seeing on a dare and doing what is not quite in the daily grind. Much too fast/close to catch a tail number.


yo, the daily grind of dodging enemy missiles far out weighs some lizards discomfort.

oldbob -

Well said and I couldn't agree more. I've watched these heroes launch from the decks of three different ships and I prayed each time that they would make it back. Unfortunately, sometimes they didn't. I can excuse a little sightseeing. They've EARNED it
............................................DUG