On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 12:47:45 PM UTC-4, wrote:
The Transponder chatter on other threads got me to thinking about who’s got the closest near-miss? Thought I’d kick it off with my incident over 40 years ago. I was flying my homebuilt wooden sailplane over Mono Lake, Ca. Cursing south at 16000’ and 60 knots when I spotted a 4 engine jet below and to my left. Our flight paths were going to intersect, but he was a good 500 feet below me. Two seconds later it became crystal clear that it wasn’t a 4 engine jet, it was a 4 pod jet with 8 engines and the B-52 was climbing fast! Too late for me to maneuver,I’m doing 60 and he’s doing maybe 360, and I didn’t want to throw my belly to him. I just sat there thinking I had a front row seat to my demise! As he passed just under my nose, I could clearly see the copilot reading his checklist! I’m sure they never saw me, but I sure as hell saw them! I figured the wake turbulence was going to tear my little Duster to bits, so I tightened up my parachute straps. Nothing! Guess the turbulence all went below and behind him. How far can you see a man reading a book? I’ll lay claim at 50 Feet!
Let’s hear your story,
JJ

Many moons ago, I was flying my light, unballasted Libelle out of Ridge Soaring, PA. The ridge wasn't super strong that day but strong enough to allow for good speed. Flying from Altona, PA back north-east towards Julian, I was just at the ridge level and coming up on Karl's field, when I spotted a glider's silhouette up ahead. It is hard to tell, if the glider is coming at you or going away from you. Anyways, I had the right wing on the ridge, so I had the right-of-way. The other guy wasn't budging, so I dove just a tad down when 'the glider' passed maybe 20 ft above. What I thought was a big glider far away was in reality a RC-glider close up! Passing by Karl's fire tower, I spotted a long RC-antenna sticking out of the window. Made all sense then and luckily, we didn't hit each other. A large model could do some serious damage.

Uli
'AS'