[Skybird]

South of Osnasbrück, in the Teutoburger Forest region, there is a bigger forest with hilly terrain and a "mountain" ridge, the region belongs to Georgsmarienhütte. I used to study in Osnabrück when the A-10s and other combat planes still practiced low flights in Germany frequently. Supersonic bursts and low flying Tornados, Phantoms and I think Jaguars were part of the week. I love that region and forest and strolled around there quite often.

There are two observation towers on that ridge, some hundred meters apart, you have 360° view from there. I once happened to stand on one of the platforms, when a pair of Warthogs came by. Combat planes often used that ridge/mountain top probably as a navigation mark, you also often saw them changing course right over that terrain feature (but I think it is not the place where the VOR OSN is located, that is some kilometers away). Also, Bundeswehr camps were often to be met on that ridge when walking there. Those towers are quite high, the planes were in trail formation, and on that day they almost flew on the same eye level with me, standing on that platform. That was awesome, even more so, since the second pilot seems to have seen me, because he raised his arm and waved and I believe it was a greeting he gave me - he was on same eye level with me, they were flying very very low over that hilltop, and so close that the plane from top to tail was so long that it appeared longer than the distance between my spreaded hand's tips of the thumb and the little finger when raising my arm.

That was a stunning meeting on that day, really. I think somewhere I even have an old slide of another A-10 on another day that I caught with a 600mm reflector when passing that tower, not so close like above, but still illustrating they used those towers as navigation points, probably.