On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:01:55 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

"Mike Granby" wrote in message
roups.com...
[...] I wonder
if this was indeed an interception, but if so, wouldn't the controller
know? Coincidentally, or not, a small plane crashed into the terminal
at Gainesville just south of there around that time, so perhaps
"someone" felt there might be rogue airplanes out there? Comments???

Don't know. But given that I've heard stories of pilots flying
lower-powered airplanes using other airplanes as simulated targets, it sure
wouldn't surprise me to find someone out there in a Mustang, or L-39, or
what-have-you doing the same thing (though, I assume the visual ID rules out
the L-39, in spite of that plane technically being a single ).


Back in the "old days" it was not uncommon to be flying along US
27/I-75 between Grailing and the straights and see fighters up close.
Of course like the traffic cop you never saw them until they were
there. Having a pair of jets pass 100 yards off each wing tip and 500
MPH plus it certainly startling. Often you could count on them not
being a single pair and if not loaded with ordinance they sometimes
.... never mind.

Down in the Grailing area you end up flying between a gunnery range on
the west and a bombing range on the east. It can sometimes be quite a
show from 5000 feet, but the planes now days give us civvies a wide
berth. (usually)

If you go wayyyy back I was up at the brides when the two F-102s flew
under it. As I understand they ended up grounded. I missed the time
Arthur Godfrey flew his plane under it.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
IMHO, the controller should have tracked the airplane to its landing, and
had an FAA inspector find out what was going on. Even better if the C172
pilot could get a good visual on it and identify the type (perhaps that did
happen later).

I would think that ATC would be informed regarding an intercept, and in any
case jet or no jet, I would expect the intercepting aircraft to be flying
slower than 250 knots. Sure doesn't sound like an intercept to me.

Pete