I was flying the in a military MOA in my civilian aircraft once where they do A-10 training back in Louisiana before they shut down England Air Force Base in Alexandria. I noticed an A-10 about 300 meters off my right wingtip and then looked left and their was another one. This was in dual use airspace both civilian and military. They were at the same speed as I, only 120 knots. They can get slow. I assume control was play “vectors to the bad guy” and I was the designated bad guy. I waggled my wings and both did the same and peeled off 90 degrees. It was a good day.
Yup. A-10s can get very slow based on load-out and fuel.
Fun to intercept civilian aircraft in the MOA. Both have a right to be there but always fun to sneak up anyway. . .especially if ATC calls out traffic in the MOA and the aircraft is not talking with ATC (for deconfliction). . .and ATC calls out traffic: “Type and altitude unverified, please confirm”. . .means fun times!
Once in pilot training out of Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, TX, I was a student on a solo flight in a T-38. ATC calls out traffic in the MOA (”Type and altitude unverified, please confirm”), so, apparently ATC forgot I was a student and therefore had no judgment. . .so off I went to intercept the guy. I saw him, C-172, just tooling along not talking to ATC. . .so I did a high to low conversion to his stern and throttled back to idle, deployed the speed brakes and got as slow as I could (clean with no flaps), about 220kts when I zipped by him. . .as I passed abeam of him I looked over at him (he wearing a baseball cap, holding a thermos up to his lips), hit the burner and did a climbing barrel roll. . .and called ATC and verified his type and altitude.
That was fun.