View Full Version : Aviation Memories
gibbs
22nd Jun 2009, 15:03
HiIt has probably been done before, so will probably be shut down, but here goes. Leading on from aanother tread (re Vulcans). I was wondering what brilliant aviation memories people have. Here are couple random ones of mineGoing to RAF Weathersfield Air Shows in the mid 60s. Brilliant hardware, I recall going a dirty finger after running around a Lightnings tailpipe. No ropes around aircraft, strawberry ice-cream, MP's in White Helmets, Gloves and their coreography parking cars.One Sunday in early 1991, hearing a huge din and looking up to see several B52s on there way to Iraq.CAF Airsho'82 - Too much to take in is that really a Twin Mustang, a KIngCobra etc, long before "exotic" types found there way to our shores. Flying in a B-17 at the show.The stunning take-off of the C141A from the 1971 ? Alconbury airshow.Over to youGibbs.
Avman
22nd Jun 2009, 15:21
Far far too many. I could fill a book. The earliest ones were flying in a Tiger Moth and an Airspeed Ambassador when I was 6. The most recent was in 2007, flying on a Connie (one of the few piston types I had never flown on) through the Swiss Alps. :ok: Magic!
HEATHROW DIRECTOR
22nd Jun 2009, 15:26
Seeing a B-36 flying over... My first flight - in an Avro Anson... Meeting my wife (we were both "Air Cadets")... Becoming an ATCO... Talking to Concorde.... Flying in a Catalina in New Zealand.. Probably ten million more hidden in this dusty junk-box I call a brain!!
1973 Paris Air Show.
Flew to Paris from Luton on a brand new Court Line Aviation Lockheed Tristar packed with 400 passengers. A real novelty in those days.
Seeing the Russian TU144 displayed in magnificent glory, then turning the corner to see Concorde for the first time and looking a little grotty in comparison to the TU144.
Arriving home the following day to see on TV the TU144 crash. Still vivid memories.
treadigraph
22nd Jun 2009, 18:59
So many as well...
Spitfires. Lots of them over the years flown by some of the best pilots. Neil Williams and Ray Hanna foremost...
Reno and the sound of the unlimiteds coming around the last couple of pylons on an angry swelling wave of sound. And Bob Hoover, dead stick and pinpoint accurate at about 80.
Tiger Club air displays. Fun!
Hearing the sounds of radials early one morning while staying at Oshkosh University and seeing the Boeing 307 overhead, glinting beautifully in the rising sun. Staying at Midland and hearing the sound of radials and watching the B-29 fly over in the evening - a great appetiser for dinner! The wee hour sound of radials over my house fading into the night, Air Atlantique's DC-6s when they still hauled freight for a living.
The sound of a pair of Mustangs taking off from Duxford. Hairs on end.
Peter Kynsey displaying the Tigercat. Can we have another please and give him the keys?
Flying down the Shuttle runway at Cape Kennedy in a 70 year old Stinson.
Riding my bike near Biggin Hill last weekend, watching and hearing Peter Monk taking off in his Spit - totally unexpected!