Closest Personal Encounter with Military Aircraft

Have flown in a U.S. UH-60 BlackHawk, British CH-47 Chinook, Canadian Ch-146 Griffon, Canadian UH-1 Iroquois, Canadian C-130, Canadian C-177 GlobeMaster and have done a trap and launch on a C-2 Greyhound on CVN-77 in the NAG. That still gives me smiles to this day..

Sat in the cockpit of a retired SR-71, CT-114 Tutor (Snowbirds), CH-124 SeaKing, German F-4 Phantom. My cousin flew CF-188m ( F/A 18 ) for years, but I never got a chance to go up in one.. the bastard.

The best close experiences I've had was working AD OPFOR during a Maple Flag and getting buzzed by Tornadoes that were so low they broke branches on the tops of trees above my position, seconded only to being 300m from CF-188m's doing gun runs on targets at Cold Lake AB (Part of Maple Flag).

Saw and experienced ALOT of fast air and attack helo support in Afghanistan, mostly Apache's, Harrier's, Mirage's..that type of thing.

I have Blackhawks over my house almost daily, about 500' AGL. :ufo:

Seriously, I live near a facility that works on avionics systems for them.

I fell out of the parachute hatch on a Blackburn Beverley once in Aden (now Yemen), without a parachute. The RAF AirCrew had left the wooden hatch cover off by mistake. The hatch is in the tail boom where the few seat are and I was busy looking for somewhere to throw my kit !!

Luckily I am para trained so no big deal and no damage done, I landed on my head. :(

It was still on the taxiway at the time ... but I had you wondering ???? :megalol:

...no damage done, I landed on my head.

No offense mate, but are you Irish?