> Low-altitude flyovers were legal pretty much everywhere in Germany until 1990; I was at Hahn [0] from 83-85. We had a German partner airbase (Pferdsfeld [1]

> Low-altitude flyovers were legal pretty much everywhere in Germany until 1990; I was at Hahn [0] from 83-85. We had a German partner airbase (Pferdsfeld [1]) and they would occasionally act as aggressors (fake Soviets) in our exercises. So we got used to the sound of F4's passing at low altitude over the base, in addition to our own higher-pitched sounding F-16s with their near-constant takeoffs and touch-and-goes. I recall one time a German Tornado pilot did a loop around our 100m tall microwave tower. The observer we had on top of it (for the exercise) was able to look down at the pilot. Any US pilot would have been called on the carpet for this stunt, but the all the Germans drove fast and flew fast. The photo at site [0] of the airman guarding the fenceline brought back bad memories of doing the same. Hahn had the worst weather in USAFE because we were on top of a mountain range (icicles would grow sideways off the chain-link fences due to the wind), and being out there for 12+ hours in the winter was really unpleasant. The trick was to get one of the WW-II era metal helmets larger than you needed so you'd have room for a couple of knit caps underneath. [0] http://www.mil-airfields.de/germany/hahn-air-base.html http://www.mil-airfields.de/germany/hahn-air-base.html [1] http://www.forgottenairfields.com/germany/rhineland-palatinate/koblenz/pferdsfeld-s491.html http://www.forgottenairfields.com/germany/rhineland-palatina...