Holy cow!! I was just stepping out of my front door when I heard what sounded like an old F-4 in afterburner coming from McClellan business park (old McClellan AFB, I live about 2 miles away).

After doing some minor adjustment of the Christmas lights around one of the front windows on my house, I heard a loud whistle and roar approach and I knew I was about to see a jet, but didn't recognise the sound of the engine. I'd never heard a jet whistle like that. The 15s and 16s I worked with in the AF had more of a scream to 'em from certain angles, and this was a distinct whistle that was more shrill than any Gulfstream or Lear that I've heard.

Suddenly, less than a thousand feet up, whaddya know! An old F-100 with a grungy aluminum finish with a greenish sheen flew right overhead! He was in a bank, rolled over probably near 40 degrees, and I could see right inside the cockpit. I looked for some identifying numbers or markings, and couldn't see any on the side. The tail appeared to have a small string of numbers running horizontally in small, dark letters, but it all happened a little too fast for me to be able to read em. MAN, that was cool!

Living near McClellan, I do see some great stuff quite often; there's a B-17 and a couple of B-24s that come around every summer, a P-51 that I've seen a couple of times, some privately owned experimentals, corporate G-IVs and the like, and I see the occasional T-38 from Beale. But to see an old Century Series jet like that was just awesome!

I'm going to check out the F-100.org website to see if I can find out anything about that particular bird, I'm sure there aren't THAT many left flying these days.

Clear skies and keep looking up! I'm off to my last final for the semester!

Pex