Hello Folks:
This a rather tough order to fill! There are so many wonderful memories that the more I think about trying to separate and categorize them, the more difficult it becomes to choose which one would qualify as being "the best" in my time involved in aviation, first as a passionate youngster who built model airplanes, and later as a pilot.
The first thought that popped into my head was being at an airshow in Abbotsford, British Columbia in the early 70's when one of the Vulcans performed.
I had never seen anything so impressive! The power, the noise, the size, the rumbling in your chest cavity on the slowspeed low pass pulling into what appeared to be a vertical max power climbout ... it was just incomparable.
The next best was being beside the runway, perhaps 100 feet away from an F-106 during takeoff. Just as it came abeam my position, the AB cut in. For a fraction of a second, there was no sound at all, dead silence ... just long enough to wonder if it had suffered engine failure or intentional shutdown .......then .....BAM! I was hit by a shockwave that rattled all of my appendages and felt like I'd been slapped all over at the same time.
Although not a great memory, it is certainly a vivid one. ..... almost being killed by an Avro CF-100 "Canuck" at an airshow in London, Ontario when I was about 8 years old. Aircraft exceeded its 250 Kt speed restriction below 10,000 feet while going directly overhead the crowd at low altitude and began disintegrating.
Entire tail section broke off and landed about 20 feet from me on the ramp! I still recall that like it had happened only 10 minutes ago. After running to the general vicinty of the main impact area, I made the mistake of reaching down to pickup the pilot's helmet to perhaps keep it as a souvenir .... only to realize it still had his head in it ... had nightmares for weeks after that!
Looking forward to hearing the observations of others on this topic.
Regards,
Fog
Last edited by The Old Fogducker; 12th Dec 2003 at 03:46.