No wonder I’m deaf ....
Merlin on a Spit is 1st aviation memory in ‘58
74’s Lightnings’s Avons at Colt BoB 1960
Hercules on Nav. training Varsities out of Stradishall Mid 60s , rising rumble from the West , overhead , turning over Gt Yarmouth , to fade away Northbound . Followed by a second , third , .... by then I’d fallen asleep dreaming of Wellingtons and 1000 bombers .
RR Continental O-200 on 1st solo 1971.
1974 Junior F/O on V. early turns . LHR just skylarks on an early spring morn as walkround commenced , a slow turn building to a screaming crescendo as our T1’s Garrett APU wound up . By the time I was around the a/c , 1st of Viscount’s 4 Darts would be winding up , followed , by the sewing machines of BAC S111 Speys . Later that year the big diesel sounds of Rb211-22bs of our 1st Tristars , rumbling away on start up . Only a/c I’ve been on which sounded the same inside and out .To round it all out from inside , last manual throttle, full power t/o into retirement of 4 Rb 211-524Hs , more about thrust than noise . A farewell walk around afterlanding has the clattering of fan blades on a summers breeze etched into memory .
At the moment any a/c gets our heads turning skywards , especially an Hunter’s Avon blue note a few weeks ago .
Rgds condor