Odd how things trigger a favorite old memory… the mental image of Nadler jumping up and down banging his gavel "I have not yet begun to investigate ORANGEBADMAN…" an old pilot's tale.
Was doing a westbound Houston to probably Midland, delivering remains from the morgue back to the funeral home for final rest, Houston was quite a popular for folks from Midland to expire, the route was quite popular among the recently passed, the company I worked for did maybe 40% of total revenue on these deliveries. Since the bird was a single engine Cessna 206, no need to jump to altitude to fight the increasing stronger headwinds so I was keeping it legal on the downlow, probably 500 feet.
When I hit one of my waypoints exactly, would cross a slowly rising US 277 west of San Angelo just as it topped the ridge that marked the east end of the Permian Basin, which as the name says, is a basin, so the terrain and the road drops quickly away.
Just as I could see over the ridge, at about 500 yards or so there was a Texas State Trooper trapping on westbound cars coming over the ridge. The cruise speed of the Cessna was about 170 mph, which must have just exploded his radar gun. Within 2 seconds of him becoming visible, his door flew open and he was raising his arm giving the stop, you're busted, signal. Course was adjusted slightly to bisect his bubble rack, and about 3 seconds later him and the cruiser were behind me. Since the only place in the USA the aircraft registration numbers are required is on the fuselage, I over flew him directly at 500 feet so the incriminating evidence would not be observable.
When all was said and done, I think he probably got as much of a LOL out of what happened as I did. "You won't believe this, I clocked a dickhead on 277 going 170 mph, and I had to let him get away…"