Initial spark

[PPRuNeUser0139]

How many of you can trace your interest in aircraft and aviation back to some defining event when you were a kid..?

For me it was growing up near Woodvale in the fifties when the Temp & Humidity (THUM) Flight operated silver finished Spitfires then Mosquitoes.

I remember seeing and hearing both these aircraft on a daily basis in the mid fifties and being completely enthralled by them both.

sidevalve

[Green Meat]

Oddly enough, Meteor T7 WA591 sitting on the gate at Woodvale. Was slightly more than a kid though ;)

edited to add: and, of course, the mighty Vulcan. Wow! Was the only kid at school who when told the world was going to end at half-past twelve (by other pupils, I should add. Was that just at my school, or was that a common theme?) replied, it's ok, we've got Blue Steel. Of course, by then, we'd lost the deterrent sometime earlier :(

Out-of-date anorak!

[Synthetic]

Lightning taking off and going straight into the vertical at Roborough airshow late 60's I think. I was the only person with age still in single figures not bawling my eyes out:)

[dirtygc]

Being dragged to RAF Church Fenton air display throughout the 70's kinda got me hooked.

[Onan the Clumsy]

My dad had Aircraft of the Fighting Powers Vols II and V and it just sort of grew from there.

[BEagle]

When I was a small boy, I used to watch the marsh warblers swooping in my mother's undercroft.......

Well maybe not. In fact it was the Vampires of 208 AFS, RAF Merryfield which was about half a mile from our house.

[C130 Techie]

A trip to Finningley in 1971 with a friend whose dad was a Sqn Ldr. Had a tour round a Varsity.

[Data-Lynx]

Low level Javelins over the house near Dover as a v small lad then, as a new teenager, all the food I could eat and an air attack by Scimitars and Sea Vixens on HMS Tiger (guns fore and aft plus a splash target) during a day at sea with the 23 Escort Group in the mid 60s.

FAA had lots of ships and aircraft so I was hooked, so to speak.

[Farrell]

My father is responsible for my love of planes.

Every Sunday morning, and some weeknights in the summer, he'd take me off to Dublin Airport and we'd watch planes.

I can still remember standing at the railings at Runway 23 and watching the old Aer Lingus 1-11's (without the hush-kits!) and 737s taking off.

I used to look down towards the terminal from where we stood and you would see the nose of the next aircraft creeping around the corner. And I'd have to guess what it was.

The elation of seeing the nose of the 747 coming around, and the unique sound of it's engines as it lumbered into the air at around midday each Sunday.

And then the scream of the 707s with their four trails of smoke, making it possible to follow them for miles and miles.

The smell too will stay with me forever. There's something lovely about it - although for my money the odour is a little different now.

Then came those wonderful nights when my relatives were going on holidays to Spain or Greece and I would get to go inside the airport and see them off.
Everything in Dublin Airport fascinated me as a child - the observation deck, the arrivals and departures board, the different signs and all the ticket counters with different airline names on them - made me want to see the world.

And then my dad would tip me on and shoulder and say "Look over there!" and I'd see a Captain, First Officer, maybe a Flight Engineer and cabin crew all walking together and I would just stand there awestruck.........a classic time, aviation in the seventies.

Now, I'm on my way to a right seat God willing........thanks Dad!

[Above Datums]

Growing up ar RAF Marham during the Gulf War (The first one not Gulf War Two: The Hunt For More Oil!!) :E

[Dak Mechanic]

Growing up 4 miles from Coltishall in the last days of the Lighting, and regular Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster flypasts (were they based at Coltishall in the late sixties?).

JC

[Onan the Clumsy]

I grew up in Blackpool and F27s regularly flew over our house. I don't know for certain, but i always assumed they wee going to or coming from the IoM.

...and I supose I always assumed they were F27s as well :D

[BEagle]

One point though, chaps. You can never grow up if you've ever been a fighter pilot! Even a not-very-good one...

So sad old gits like me, when plodding along teaching PPL students (which is all my flying these days) still feels the twinge of those horns trying to come out when I spot something just itching to be bounced!

[tacpot]

For me it was one particular flight in a Chipmunk whilst an Air Cadet. It was the last flight of the day, I'd had a bit of a pole around and we'd just turned round to return to the airfield when the pilot said "Want to do some aeros?" I said "Yes, please" so we did barrel rolls all the way home using the setting sun as a reference point! Been hooked ever since...

[boswell bear]

sat in the cinema in the early 70's watching Battle of Britain film from that moment on I knew I'd be a pilot :cool:

[shack]

One of my uncles was in the Service between the wars and spent most of his time in the great sandpits flying DH9s, Wapatis etc. so from the age of 6 or so all I wanted to do was to fly like my uncle.

Reading his entry on the previous page I see that I might be in some way, albeit innocently, responsible for BEagle joining the mob. Am I forgiven?

[bighedsmallface]

Sat in the cockpit of an F6 with my dad pointing out all the switchy things while a pair tanked at 200' along the runway in front of us. Thought this looks fun.............:E

shack - you need absolution from someone much higher than me;)

[SASless]

First flight in a DC-3 from Raleigh to Winston-Salem....age Five...one of eight Goons owned by Piedmont Airlines....Father's brother would have been original seniority number 6 for Piedmont if he had not been killed in a crash of a Stinson while doing aerobatics. Still have his Piedmont wings today. Fabric failed on the wings...Uncle held controls while the other guy got out....but was too low for the parachute to open when he jumped.

[Mzee]

Waiting outside Zanzibar terminal with my father (SATCO) in my shorts and cap to board a Rapide to Mombasa and transfering onto DC3 to Nairobi, repeating the process at half term etc.
The only way to travel to primary school!! :D

[Maple 01]

BBC2 Saturday afternoons

Some 1940s/50s b&w film such as 'The Way to the Stars'

Showed me that real heroes weren’t the mulleted footballers on 'Grandstand'

'Battle of Britain' every September

Raymond Baxter commentating on the Biggin Hill airshow

Dak Mechanic, are you sure you're not the boy in 'Thunder and Lightnings?'

[lasernigel]

Onan More likely at your age they were Handley Page Heralds which used to do the IOM route then.
Being born in Southport,Woodvale was also my 'first sightings' in the '50's.Seem to think there were Javelins based there.Couple that to both Mum's sisters were telephonists at A.V. Roe where I got invited to the Christmas parties.Shackletons being built in the hanger at Woodford and Father Christmas arriving in an Avro Anson.Oh and me Uncle Joe who flew in the RAF.:ok:

[Time Bandit]

Finningley Airshows every year from the early 80s through to the early 90s. Also spending EVERY holiday in the 80s in a caravan on the hills above Llanbedr, with it's loony collection of aircraft - can't forget the Jindiviks!

Another major factor getting me interested was the occasional roar of a Vulcan overhead. Thoroughly inspiring stuff!

[philrigger]

My father served for 35 years and I suppose that had something to do with it. But it started in earnest in 1952 when we were evacuated from Egypt (Due to the 'Troubles') on the SS Oransay and sent to RAF Transit Camp at Croft (Warrington) to await my father who had to continue with his tour at RAF Ismailia. Saturday morning at Croft was parade time for all the young National Service airmen awaiting their draft. I would stand on the dais next to the Group Captain and take the salute with him! On the odd occasion that I was late for the parade, the Stn Cdr would send his car to our hut, yes hut (MQ) and pick me up. Being very easily pleased I was hooked. I never looked for any other career. - Best decision I ever made, wonderful 25 years. The next best decision was leaving when I did in 1988 after many detachments and 4 overseas tours, Far East, Middle East, Near East and Germany. Happy days.

[buoy15]

1952 - RAF Pendesford - now Halfpenny Green, Wolverhampton

Then an MU (graveyard) for ex wartime ac including Spits, Hurricanes, Defiants, Dragons etc etc.
Boulton Paul's factory was about half a mile down the road

I lived in a cottage 40 yards away, and a discrete hole in the fence gave me access to this magic playground

After school, I spent many hours inside these lovely machines

Biggest memory during that summer was when a big aeroplane passed very high over the cottage - my uncle said it was a Bristol Brabazon - I believed him, however, Beags might dispute it

Love many, Trust a few, Do what you have to do!

[PPRuNeUser0139]

Lasernigel,

I also remember there being Vampires at Woodvale.. (don't recall Javelins - but I can't remember what I did yesterday either!)

Another image is of seeing a white painted Valiant landing there for a static at an airshow and later looking up into its huuge bomb bay (huge for a kid). Think Woodvale only had ~6ooo ft of runway (don't have a red book to hand)

sv

[Tim Mills]

Father was in the RAF, more or less since it was invented, so I grew up wanting to follow in his footsteps. Only other interest was cricket, and not even Freddy Flintoff would have made much of a living at that in those days, so piloting it was. Most enjoyable, both RAF and civil, over 40 odd years.

Agree with Beags, once a fighter pilot always one, he was fast jet, I believe, I was slow jet! At least he still flies, my excitement comes nowadays from the occasional sortie on the old Fergie tractor whose capability to bounce even passing livestock is limited, and whose aerobatic qualities are non existent except by mistake!

[whowhenwhy]

Standing in Bromsberrow (Worcestershire) churchyard in about 1979 to 1980 (aged 5-6) looking up through the one gap in the trees when a Tonka blasted over. Course I didn't know it was a Tonka then, I found out afterwards. It was in the original grey/green paint job, you could see what I guess now was the old red and white 'hazard ejector seat' signs and I'm sure at least one of the crew had a white helmet on. Strange I know, especially as the mud crews didn't have white helmets. Maybe someone can shatter my earliest image for me?

There's also the fact that Worcestershire used to be such a hive of activity for jets that you would see at least 20 low level a day.

Those were the days!:ok:

[TheShadow]

Watching from the sidelines during this major aviation saga:

LINK (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112032&highlight=Marconi)

:D

[Need for Speed!]

Watching the Red’s at Duxford maybe 90/91, I would have been 5/6 years old. Was obsessed with fire engines up until then, but red jets with smoke looked like much more fun than red fire trucks with hoses! Then my first ever time airborne (including commercial flying) was an AEF trip from Wyton in 2000. Four years later I was sent solo in the same airframe as a wet behind the ears Acting Pilot Officer - awesome! :ok:

[Duncan Bucket]

My father was and is an inspiration to me.

I remember gazing skyward at one of the many Airshows I attended during my youth and seeing a formation of Devons from 781 (?) Naval Air Squadron, and my Mum beaming at me saying that my father was "driving" one of them. I can't have been more than 6, but I remember thinking that nothing would stop me becoming a pilot.

I also vividly remember the RN display team the Sharks at an Airday at Lee-on-Solent, and being far more impressed than I was with the Reds, or indeed any other Jet display. Imagine my feelings when I went through on course on the same trusty Gazelles some 10 years later.

When I was 12 (ish) I went flying in a Chippie with my father, with no mic to speak to him and sat on a cushion of foam rather than a parachute. As we took off I was nearly paralysed with fear but that was nothing to how I felt when the canopy dropped open during an aborted stall turn, or how it took me about 2 minutes of wallowing around the sky with my dad waving his hands at me to work out that, what he had inaudibly said to me was "You have control". During the aeros (including a loop that I "flew" with a little help) I can honestly say I have never been so scared in all my life, not least by the alarming number of times the engine "stopped" when inverted. When we landed, the old man says (knowing full well I was terrified) "So, still want to be a pilot then?" and I think it was sheer bloody mindedness that made me grin and say yes.

Without him, I would never have made it - thanks Dad:ok:

[KENNYR]

I guess having a father who crewed a Whitley bomber in the second world war and a brother flying Vulcans, Canberras and Nimrods kinda nudged me into a growbag......albeit an Army one. Now all I can do is enjoy my memories.