Around 1:30 this afternoon, I was at work when something came screeching overhead. Definitely not a Cessna, and not a King Air on approach into SBP either. That flat, tearing roar of a jet that has no business being that low over the Central Coast. By the time I got outside it was already gone north, but the sound hung around long enough to know it was worth chasing.

Finding him on FlightAware

First thing I did was pull up FlightAware and start scanning what was overhead. There he was: ASPEN22, a T-38 Talon, out of Sacramento Mather (MHR). And the track told the good part of the story. He wasn't just passing through. He'd come down the coast, and he was swinging back around.

The FlightAware en-route readout for ASPEN22: 360 mph at 5,400 ft, 54 minutes into a flight that left Sacramento Mather at 12:35 PM
The FlightAware en-route readout for ASPEN22: 360 mph at 5,400 ft, 54 minutes into a flight that left Sacramento Mather at 12:35 PM

Departed Mather at 12:35, and FlightAware had him clocked at 360 mph and 5,400 feet as he was already leaving the area. From the ground, down low on the pass, it sure looked and sounded like a whole lot more.

Seeing that he was coming back around, I grabbed my phone and ran outside.

The pass

I made it out just in time. He came right over the approach end of San Luis Obispo's main runway, banking hard to turn back toward his final destination, Santa Maria, close enough to fill the frame. Sound on if you want the full effect:

Man, was it awesome. You do not get many days where the thing making all the noise is a supersonic trainer threading the Central Coast at a few hundred feet, if that.

The whole flight

Here's the track once he'd put it down at Santa Maria (SMX). Straight shot from Mather down the Central Valley, out to the coast near San Luis Obispo, a lap over the hills, and then south to the runway.

FlightAware track map of ASPEN22, Sacramento Mather (MHR) to Santa Maria (SMX): south down the Central Valley, over to the coast near San Luis Obispo, then a turn south to land
FlightAware track map of ASPEN22, Sacramento Mather (MHR) to Santa Maria (SMX): south down the Central Valley, over to the coast near San Luis Obispo, then a turn south to land

The full track is on FlightAware if you want to poke at the altitude and speed graph yourself: ASPEN22, MHR → SMX, July 7 2026. Worth noting those history pages age out after a while, so the screenshots above are the permanent copy.

Good afternoon on the Central Coast.