This one may belong in the "stupid questions" thread, and it may be the mother of all dumb military aviation questions, so if any mods think it should be moved...but it also relates to AF aircraft, so? Anyway, as a kid growing in Chicago near Midway airport, every few months or so I'd see an AF or Navy plane, includes trainers, fly over my house, gear down, on short final for MDW. I'm talking mid-to-late 90s here.
I used to ride my bike around the airport, so whenever I heard/saw one of these birds, I'd race to the airport, and sure enough, would usually see them parked near the National Guard hanger (which is a helo only hangar, I've toured it). I've seen F-18s, -15s, -16s, T-45s, T-34s, 37s, T-2s, even a few C-130s.
Almost everytime, the planes would park overnight, sometimes for the weekend. My question is, and this is the stupid part, does or did the military ever allow pilots to use planes for personal use? Perhaps back in the "good ole" days? I've always wondered if these guys where perhaps visiting friends/family in the area, and were allowed to take their planes for the weekend? Or where these more likely just cross-country hops, or some other military assignment that brought them to the city, maybe? I've thought MDW a strange place to park overnight, and these were not on airshow weekends, the Chicago Air Show is only for a weekend in August, and most planes fly out of Gary or Rockford. Any thoughts? Logically, I doubt that the military would ever allow this, but its just something that I've always wondered about since those days?
I used to ride my bike around the airport, so whenever I heard/saw one of these birds, I'd race to the airport, and sure enough, would usually see them parked near the National Guard hanger (which is a helo only hangar, I've toured it). I've seen F-18s, -15s, -16s, T-45s, T-34s, 37s, T-2s, even a few C-130s.
Almost everytime, the planes would park overnight, sometimes for the weekend. My question is, and this is the stupid part, does or did the military ever allow pilots to use planes for personal use? Perhaps back in the "good ole" days? I've always wondered if these guys where perhaps visiting friends/family in the area, and were allowed to take their planes for the weekend? Or where these more likely just cross-country hops, or some other military assignment that brought them to the city, maybe? I've thought MDW a strange place to park overnight, and these were not on airshow weekends, the Chicago Air Show is only for a weekend in August, and most planes fly out of Gary or Rockford. Any thoughts? Logically, I doubt that the military would ever allow this, but its just something that I've always wondered about since those days?