[GoldCountryRedneck]

"Way cool!"

Thanks....and my teen tells me that's "k-e-w-l"!! *LOL*!

In follow up, Qiux,there was no 'official Navy' photo as such, but TankerKC's pic post #9 comes from the User Album area of the USS Ranger website (www.ussrangercv61.org).

Ya' know, folks, one would think that with...

(1)Personal knowledge of the photos' source pre-post, (2) the background context post details,(3) comments verifying that nap-of-the-earth is one of but a few of the BUFFs' mission profiles, (4)SampleMans' own knowledge of the event and (5) that second pic from the Ranger website...

....that even the harshest of the FReepSkeptics' would stand down.

I'm forwarding your version,cobra, back to my family as everyone knows that AF B-52 pilots are frustrated Thunderbirds at heart!!!! *LOL*!

Gotta hit the commute All!

~GCR~

[Quix]

Thanks.

I don't mind believing the first photo--though, in my mind, the plane seems smaller than it should.

And, it does help to have your personal connection.

OTOH (you have different fingers) . . . The upside down one strains even my supposedly tin-foil credulity.

In any case, a fun thread. I love Navy related flight ops.

[TankerKC]

Just for the record, I'm not questioning that this happened...only that this particular photo looks a bit out of whack to me.

[cva66snipe]

I believe you. An F-14 pilot from our ship did a maneuver that caused quite a stir. It was real, looked fake, but camera angle means everything :>} This one looked like he was gonna clip the FD but he was close to a quarter mile off.

Getting a size to size comparison of objects to a CV can be difficult. You can put a 50 foot Utility Boat at the base of the ship and it will barely show up in a picture taken from some distance.

[ForGod'sSake]

....that even the harshest of the FReepSkeptics' would stand down.

Have a look at this. It's a 7 frame gif I made just for the occasion:

It doesn't necessarily "prove" anything but the similarities are, well, striking. That is to say, the angles and lighting(such as it is) are virtually identical with one of a landing buff I pulled off the web. Resized and flipped horizontally yields the exact(except for some apparent trimming in a photo editing program off the bottom of the "original" buff. The physical size difference of the original pic and this one could account for some random fuzziness/lighting/detail.

Also note, that overlaying the pic off the web shows the buff in a "landing" attitude(just before flaring one would suspect), just off the deck, er, runway. I left the landing gear(barely visible) on the overlay.

FWIW, comparing the second, smaller pic posted on the thread yields identical results; exact angle and lighting. What are the odds? I say they're fakes ;^)

Also, I spent quite a while(God only knows why!) looking for a pic of USS Ranger that may have been used for the original. The only candidate I found didn't exist any more and all I had to look at was a thumbnail, that when zoomed in lost most of its detail.

Another aside; I probably looked at several hundred pics of buffs in flight and found several that would suggest the fuselage is virtually parallel to the horizon when in straight and level flight. Like when on a bombing run, etc...

FGS