Civilians Get Top-Flight View at Ohio Base

The car begins to vibrate as two F-16 jet fighters go screaming down the runway, lifting into the sky directly over a smiling Brian Halk.

“Right at us,” Halk says from the driver’s seat as he watches the fighters come low over a fence, then pull up hard and go vertical, rocketing into the heavens.

The firefighter and pilot wannabe is parked at “the spot,” a patch of dirt along the highway on the north side of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He and about a dozen other devoted plane spotters spend hours there, watching military planes take off and land and logging the arrivals and departures.

“A lot of people I talk to on the Internet at the bases they’re close to say they don’t have this kind of a view,” Halk said. “It’s a great way to see the fighters come out and really see them kick the afterburners in. We see things down here that are better than at air shows.”

The 40-year-old Halk sports sunglasses, binoculars and a ball cap emblazoned with the image of a C-123 Provider, a Vietnam War-era cargo plane. His scanner crackles with messages from pilots to air traffic controllers.

“Sometimes I’ll just stop down here and eat lunch,” Halk said. “If it sounds active, I’ll stay awhile.”

The attraction is hard to describe, he said. “It’s like why NASCAR fans like to watch the cars go around. I can’t really explain it.”

Halk began watching planes after visiting the base in 1995 to see the Freedom Flight, a coast-to-coast tour of more than 70 World War II-era planes marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the war.

Part of the fun is rubbing elbows with military pilots and listening to war stories, he said. The group of hobbyists includes former pilots and military retirees.

But plane spotting also has given Halk his share of memories.

He has seen the stealth bomber, stealth fighters, the new F-22 Raptor jet fighter, numerous foreign aircraft, Air Force One and Air Force Two in the sky at the same time, and the 1997 crash of a Harrier jet that had just taken off.

“That was something you wouldn’t forget,” Halk said. “I’ve seen a lot of planes come in here declaring in-flight emergencies. But that’s the only time I saw one crash.”

The pilot ejected safely, and no one on the ground was injured.

When hurricanes threaten the East Coast, military planes at bases along the coast seek refuge at Wright-Patterson. The wide variety of arriving aircraft delights the spotters. “It’s a rare opportunity to see a Navy F-14 banking in on its final [approach] and a stealth fighter go over the top,” Halk said. “I’ve got it on video.”

He recalls only two occasions when spotters were shooed away: when a C-5 cargo plane came in for an emergency landing and when planes seeking shelter from a hurricane drew so many observers there was no more room in “the spot.” People parked on the shoulder of the highway, and authorities feared they were creating a traffic hazard.

Spotters may generate curiosity, but not controversy. Wright-Patterson officials had no comment on them, saying they were not on base property.

Halk said the unpredictability of spotting makes it fun.

“The majority of the time we don’t know what’s going to happen down here,” he said. “Some days it’s busy. Some days it’s dead.”