Like in Top Gun
Maverick: Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby.
Air Boss Johnson: That’s a negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.
To Aviation Geeks, this is a memorable quote from the blockbuster motion picture Top Gun, which featured the F-14 Tomcat crewed by Maverick and Goose buzzing the tower in one of the most famous scenes of their all-time favorite movie.
But has anything similar ever happened in real life?
For instance, has a fighter pilot ever did a flyby above his or her house?
Flying over your old town/homes
Pete Bowen, former USMC AV-8B Harrier II Pilot/instructor (CLICK HERE to checkout his Podcast and blog), recalls on Quora;
‘Back in the day (late 1950’s- early 60’s), my father (Marine A-4 Skyhawk pilot) would do cross-country flights back to his childhood city of Toledo, OH. He and his cousins (also Marine aviators) would let my paternal grandparents know they were arriving by flying low over their home in north Toledo. Legend is that arrival notifications often included flipping neighborhood clothes lines.
‘It’s generally a bad idea to focus on flying over your old town/homes because pilots tend to take more risks (cool factor) and pay attention to their home instead of flying the plane. More than one pilot has died flying over their neighborhood.
‘That said, in the early 1990’s, as an AV-8B instructor, a student and I did were heading to the Southwest Florida Air Show in Punta Gorda to do a static display. We took a two-seat TAV-8B Harrier for the flights. The last low-level on Thursday (arrival date) ended over Charlotte Harbor, adjacent to Punta Gorda.
‘We did the route at 200′ and 450kts. The student planned and executed a simulated target attack at the end. Then it was time to head a few miles (remember, 450kts = a mile every 7.5 secs) to the airport. The end of the low-level route and the airport runway were only five miles apart—and within the low-level route structure.
Pulling USMC TAV-8B pilot grandmother out of the way
‘We stayed at 200′ and 450 kts as we headed towards the airport. Just so happened that a 5 G turn at 450kts to line up for the runway took us directly over my grandparent’s home where we would spend the weekend. Of course, as professionals, we were fully focused on flying the aircraft and not distracted by the second house on Hibiscus Court and the canal we were flying over.
‘We maintained speed and climbed a few hundred feet as we approached the pattern at the airport and did a 5.5 G turn (max allowed in the TAV-8B) downwind, followed by a delayed hover over the approach end of the runway. After 10 secs of hovering, we accelerated up and out of the hover, turned downwind, and did a precision RVL (rolling vertical landing) to complete the flight.
‘My grandparents were there to meet us—which means they missed the Harrier over their house—but neighbors told them. Ground crew had to pull my grandmother out of the way because she was standing right where they were parking us.’
Bowen concludes;
‘Airshow weekends are always great weekends, even when you stay with grandparents. NOTE: The student later became a two-star general and wing commander.’
Photo by Lance Cpl. Graham J. Benson and Marine Assault Training Squadron (VMAT) 203 / U.S. Marine Corps