bomb testing....?

new here? :welcome: to beaches & bombs. I have no idea what they do, there is no "schedule" as far as I know , never heard of any "strays".

I'm more worried about all the little cesna planes flying overhead and gliding around than stray bombs. :shock:

Make sure all your pics are hangin' on the wall in a sturdy fashion. :wave:

P.S. you can't feel the rumble when you're driving. 😀

My understanding is that the majority of noises we hear are sonic booms, and not artillery practise. Can anyone who is more knowledgeable give us a tip as to how to distinguish between the two?

Strays are rare, but the last one the AF couldn't deny was 15? 20? years ago - IIRC, a drone fired from out in the Gulf landed near Black Creek. Or maybe it was a drone fired from the reservation was supposed to land in the Gulf, but it landed near Black Creek. In any event, it happened near Black Creek.

Family folklore has it that, approximately 50 years ago, bombing practice got their coordinates turned around and started dropping flare bombs around our house near PointW. :yikes: 7 or 8 flares later, they figured it out but not before my parents and brothers went into oh-sheet mode.

And, during or near WWII time, a family on the back side of Coy Burgess Road lost several members due to a bomb being dropped in their yard instead of two miles away on Eglin's reservation.

I sure that's way more information than you needed, and certainly more than you wanted. Sorry, I'm bad about that. :blush:

My understanding is that the majority of noises we hear are sonic booms, and not artillery practise. Can anyone who is more knowledgeable give us a tip as to how to distinguish between the two?

It's easy...

It's against the law to exceed the speed of sound over land. There probably hasn't been an intentional sonic boom in Sowal in more than a couple decades. The military operating areas north of Sowal are too small to be run at supersonic speeds; however, they can do it out over the gulf. Typically, going supersonic is not something that is done with any regularity as it eats up tons of fuel to get there unless you are flying the newer F-22's.

But...to answer your question.

Sonic booms come in two quick booms literally right on top of each other in very quick succession...B O O bM o o m. Every time I have been down there when the walls were shaking it was ordinance testing north of the bay. You can call the base commuity affairs office, and they will tell you if testing is going on.

30 years ago or more we used to get sonic booms all the time, but that all ended with the regulation about exceeding the speed of sound over the ground.

Thanks SN & SC for these very informative posts. :wave:

The Air Force admits a public 'oopsie' about once every 3-4 years. Typically they're small items that land fairly close to base proper, like a small drone that landed on someone's roof with no ill effect, but a couple years back, they did drop a plane on someone's house in Valparaiso when the pilot had an emergency just short of the north-south runway.

Also, there's a ton of buried munitions in the area because the Panhandle has been used for military training essentially since the Spanish first made landfall. Most of it is inert. But if you do find something that looks like a bomb, Civil War cannonball, etc. Please leave it in the exact spot you find it, move a safe distance away, and call 911 and let the nice fellows at the Navy bomb squad handle it on site. Do NOT put it in the back of your pickup and drive it to the fire station. (Which seems to be the normal plan of action in these parts when someone finds something)

They have some sort of ordinance test range at Eglin. They frequently shoot off stuff on Monday mornings, although recently they've done it on other days. Scares the s**t out of my dog.

You can often hear it the clearest early in the morning on sunny days during the winter. The sound gets trapped in the temperature layer above the bay. It's pretty neat, but it sure can shake the crap out of your walls when the big ones go off. 😱

BTW, the last good sonic boom I heard in SoWal was when the shuttle flew over on its way in to land. Coupla years ago now, maybe three.

B O O bM o o m

A boobmoom? Is that some sort of Lane Bryant fashion? 😀

They have some sort of ordinance test range at Eglin. They frequently shoot off stuff on Monday mornings, although recently they've done it on other days. Scares the s**t out of my dog.

Eglin's primary military designation is that they are the ordinace testing facility for any air dropped or air to air ordinace. They cover all branches. They have ranges all over north florida. Years ago, I even remember seeing cruise missiles being flown from south to north out of the gulf into the ranges with three chase planes surrounding them. Very cool!

A boobmoom? Is that some sort of Lane Bryant fashion? 😀

No...that would be a Va va voom! :funn:

My office is in SRB and I hear bombs going off all the time. They shake the whole building. I swear my lights are going to fall from the ceiling one of these days. If I stand in the doorway, the percussion will literally lift your shirt away from your body from air movement.
I think it is all pretty cool myself.
Keeps radical muslims out of the neighborhood. 😀

There's an observant Muslim family in my neighborhood you see from time to time. Dad does some sort of weapons work on base that a layman couldn't understand even if it was declassified. Three of the kids have made it to the national level for the Westinghouse (or whoever's sponsoring it now) science fair.

They're good neighbors to have.

My understanding is that about once a month, they will launch missiles from the Gulf to targets in Eglin AFB. I also understand that much of the noise we hear comes from a test site on Rock Hill Road, half way from Freeport to Defuniak Springs.

It sounds like they are hitting in Niceville it seems so close.

Beachmouse, I made sure I was specific to "radical" as in jihadist's (sp?) as I have no interest in offending anyone who isn't interested in killing me.

I figure if Obama can use the term radical muslim, so can I.

Yeah...if you think it's loud over here, try living in Niceville, or worse yet, Valparaiso.

My brother used to live on Andrew Drive in Val-p; he was across-street neighbors from the house the plane crashed on (though he moved long before that happened). I knew it was close to the base, as you had to drive about two miles to East Gate. I never quite understood why it was so loud over there, or why my nephew would come running home, followed by the MPs, every time he rode his bike down the trail at the end of the street, until I :google: mapped it out of boredom one day.

(I tried to insert the map but it didn't work. Pull up Andrew Drive and scroll down just a little.)

THE NORTH-SOUTH RUNWAY IS LIKE, RIGHT THERE...😱

Wandering off the wrong trail could get one in a heap of trouble all right.

This thread is pretty old but here goes.

So, I live in Defuniak Springs about a mile off of Bob Sikes just 1/2 mile down the road from WalMart. And usually in the mornings I hear 2 or 3 "booms" they sound louder in the house than they do outside for whatever reason. But its about 5:30 pm on Dec 7th and for the past 30 minutes or so its about 2 or 3 a minute. I don't get it. There are tons of testing sites down Bob Sikes but there probably 10 miles or so down the road. What in the heck are they doing? My poor 2 two dogs are freaking out! Any ideas are welcome! Thanks!