[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flK6rWfVL0Q&feature=player_embedded]
When helicopter pilots deftly hug the earth at treetop level, it’s called nap-of-the-earth – NOE – flying. It’s a technique designed to avoid enemy detection – flying under the radar, as it’s sometimes called.
It’s altogether something else to do it in a Navy F-18 jet fighter as in this video, anonymously posted on YouTube. And choppers don’t fly upside down.
It’s apparently a pilot from Lemoore Naval Air Station in California’s Central Valley, midway between Fresno and Bakersfield. It looks like he’s flying near Yosemite, and following the Merced River for a bit.
Check out the Super Hornet’s shadow, which occasionally flits across the ground on the left-hand side of the screen. There’s no audio other than the roar of the jet’s twin engines. Please secure your seat belt, tightly, before viewing.