For the past 40 minutes or so, three A-10 Warthogs (at least, that’s what I think they are–I’m certainly no military buff, but they’re pretty distinctive looking planes…) have been flying in formation in a circular pattern that’s taken them almost directly over my house several times. They’re quite low–maybe 800-1000 feet.
What base would these things be flying out of? Is there an Air Force base near Dallas? Also, is it common to do practice manuevers like that (I assume their training, and not hunting for terrorist beef cattle…) over populated (albiet sparsely so) areas? I’ve only been here a few months, and this is the first I’ve seen them.
Carswell is now the Joint Reserve Base.
I would think they might be practicing for an airshow, maybe to coincide with the IRL race at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Just my WAG.
I used to live on the northeast side of Baltimore, near Martin State airport, which happens to be home to a bunch of A-10’s. When I lived there, they would fly over our neighborhood every day. Sometimes they would head out towards the bay (maybe up towards Aberdeen), other times it looked like they were lining up to do practice strafing runs on I-95. I imagine they could cause quite a traffic jam if they ever decided to go with live ammo.
They are practicing their timing and route familiarization before they have to be over “show center” at a certain time.
They are picking out prominent landmarks and figuring out how long it takes to get from each point to Speedway Center at various speeds. On race day they will be holding over one of the landmarks waiting for the word to come in.
If you see A-10s doing the flyby over the IRL race this weekend, then we’ll be right.
BTW, Sheppard AFB is a pilot-training base and only flies T-37s and T-38s. The Carswell Naval Joint Reserve Base (or JRB) has F-16, C-130 and C-40 units based there but no A-10s.
It’s possible that they are T-37 trainers. To the untrained eye, one straight-winged jet could be confused with another. Of course, if Metacom definitely saw external engine pods on the rear fuselage and twin rudders, A-10s they were.
Carswell is a unique situation. It was originally an Air Force base for something like 50 years. In the mid-90s it was made the first joint reserve base, and given over to the Navy for control. Even though the Navy is in charge of the base, though, its mission as a joint reserve base is to provide air training for all branches of the military in order to try and reduce overhead costs.
So, long story short, the Navy “lets” the Air Force keep some Falcons on the site, but they don’t have much of a choice in the matter.
The Texas Motor Speedway is pretty close to me (about 25 minutes by car, and it’s not a straight-line route by any means).