Warbird Information Exchange

...when you were inside your home/office and heared the distinct sound of a radial/warbird?

My old home we had our kitchen table by the back patio doors that looked out towards a hay field that had a hill. Low and behold a C-130 just about hit the top of that hill coming right for us. Sitting at the table was my dad also. We promptly scrambled up for the doors. Oh, man! It was something out of a Three Stooges short. In our rush I managed to slam right into a table chair which fell to the floor. My dad ran into my little sister. We didn't even bother to see if she was alright. and we both made it to the door at the same time. We both tried to get out of that door at the same time but got stuck and we had to pry each other to get through! FINALLY, we got outside just in time to watch the C-130 fly over our house at tree top level!

Man, what we would do to see a warbird or military plane.

Ha ha

My dad told me a story of when he was 7 or 8 and he was in his house with his brother, in downtown Bridgeport Ct.

He then remembers his dad yelling from the backyard. The next image he remembers is of him and his brother clammering out of the house and almost colliding with my grandmother. They also ended up knocking over a few garbage cans as they got outside. When they finally got outside and looked up they saw not 1 but...................

3 B-36 Peacemakers!

Imagine that? 6 turnin, 4 Burnin times 3!

What he says he remembers most is the sound.

My brother did something worse when he was about 13. We were staying at our aunts house in England... it's about 600years old, and the doors were much shorter. Anyway, we heard a Phantom II roaring by and he ran for the door, whacked his head on the beam and knocked himself out cold! Woke up about 30 seconds later, but had one huge bump on his head!!! We still laugh about it 20-odd years later!

Cheers,
Richard

PS. I nearly crashed my car once when the CWH Lancaster flew over my head in a landing configuration... that nearly counts.

Ok, so nobody is going to get hurt in my story, but it is of the same flavour. Where I live in Vancouver we constantly have Dehavilland Beavers, Otters, Twin Otters flying over our house. Even as a young boy I could tell the difference between them all. Even when I knew what they were I'd still run to the window and look out or go onto the deck and look up.

One day I was sitting in the living room watching tv. I heard the sound a Beaver, or was it two or three.... or four? I had to go check. When I looked up I was greeted with a B-17 flying over my house!!!

I think it was Sentimental Journey. Never-the-less it was amazing. I had never seen a B-17 before this point, other than on TV.

Cheers,

David

Sorry...no stories like the previous ones. But if a B-17 flew over my house I'd probably mess my pants while running to the door!

John

with me living under a few major of sydney air traffic corridors above my house i get to see ALOT of movements at times

in past i cant recall which plane came but i recall the incident.

due to having wood floor and tiles in kitcehn it can be dangerous if wet and running.

one day i heard a radial engine coming or might been a helicopter so i dashed thru the house and as i got near the back door i slipped and went wack on the floor. my knee and leg had spilt or i just fallen on my bum hard cant rember ... head did hurt and i cursed that and missed the plane..

so i learnt to be alot more careful

When I was young, one did not get up from the dinner table without being excused first.

Also, the home in which I grew up had an old, wooden screen door with one of those push latches that one could basically give a quick "bop" to and exit through all in one motion.

Well, one dinnertime (when I was about 11 or 12) I detected an approaching "chugga-chugga". I bolted from the table, ran for that back door, but managed to miss the latch and crashed right through the screen. My parents tumbled out the remains of the door in time to witness a Ju-52 chug overhead at what seemed to be about 200 feet AGL.

Expecting to be torn a new one for having destroyed the door, I awaited my parents' well-deserved wrath. Strangely, all my mother could say was, "How did you know?"

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

At Dobbins AFB in atlanta years ago they had just put the F105 on a pedestal out front of the base. I ran my little spyder convertable right into another guys car while admiring the plane. He was going the wrong way and looking at the F 105 at the same time. The base police showed to investigate the accident and informed us that we were about the 4th set of cars doing the same thing. Expensive airplane watching.

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Hang The Expense

My mom used to get so mad at me when I would run outside to watch the North Central DC-3 fly over our farm house at 4000 AGL--and I did this eight times a day! I was a little shaver and was simply fascinated by the airplane and how it messed up the TV reception. I maintain that these daily round-trips had a lot to do with my having an aviation career.

Scott

It's so cathartic to hear stories like these. I used to think I was all alone in this obsession. Case in point: Last year I was golfing with a couple of friends when I heard a rumbling over the tree line. We were buzzed by the B-17 Yankee Lady. Not one of my friends even looked up to see what the noise was all about.

And yes have injured myself, broke furniture, dropped the phone etc. to run outside at the sound of something military or radial. My best catch was in the late 80's got outside to see the snowbirds in loose formation and LOW. I ran out put my hand up and the one pilot tipped his wing waving at me. (At least i like to think it was me and not some girl sunbathing a few houses down)

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Jeff

About 15 years ago, I was working as a counselor at a treatment center just south of Knoxville. My group of 12 adolescent boys and I were sitting outside on a ring of logs, having a group therapy session. Planes flew over all the time on final to Knoxville, but this time I heard something that was like an ultralight. For what seemed like 10 minutes, I tried to concentrate on the discussion while hearing this small engine in the air undoubtably getting closer and closer but moving very slowly. Finally, through the trees (and just about the time when the discussion was getting good), I saw it. I yelled "It's the go*da#ned Goodyear Blimp!" and ran to get a better look at the silver behemoth, lazily floating about 200 feet above. Needless to say, that pretty much ended the session. The boys all laughed and we watched it head on towards the airport. So much for the therapy. They never let me forget it.

Another time, about 30 years ago, I was sitting in the back yard of our house in Kentucky reading a book. My dad was outside too, and he hears a plane. He listened, and said "Dave...that's a P-38. Listen..." I listened and looked but saw nothing. I thought my dad was showing off or confused because it didn't sound any different than most other planes that I had heard before. We then hopped in the car and drove out to the airport and got there just in time to see a two-seat P-38 land and taxi in. It said "Warbirds of the World" on the booms and apparently the guy was having some engine problems...he stayed overnight to work on them. I was impressed that my dad knew what it was from the sound of those Allisons. I'm pretty sure I saw that plane on an episode of Baa Baa Black Sheep as well.

Dave G.

I just about put my hand throught the screen door trying to get outside a few years ago. I was shocked to see it was Barbie III. It was Memorial Day and the circled the area for about 5 minutes. The following year, heard the same thing and dashed outside again. I hope she comes back to the midwest soon.

This isn't my mess, per se, but I was a witness to it.

I used to go to Montana to hunt dinosaurs in the summer. Still do sometimes, but not as often. Our campsite was right along one of the low-level training routes for B-1B's out of Ellsworth AFB.

Our campsite is in a stream valley that runs NE-SW, with hills behind and about two miles away in front. The B-1's fly down the valley, and, at the time, they flew low enough that you could look down on top of the planes from the hilltops.

So, one night, about 11PM, our crew was finishing up the dishes, and one older gentleman had already gone to his tent, and was asleep. Some of us were outside (myself included) when we spotted the lights of an airplane coming down the valley, low and fast. It was a B-1, so I called everyone out from the mess tent to watch.

We all watched as it flew *directly* overhead of our campsite, at less than 500' AGL, and was it loud! But it was that typical loud-all-at-once that comes with a fast jet aircraft. It kind of sneaks up on you.

Suddenly, the light comes on in the older man's tent and all we see are silhouettes of arms and legs flailing everywhere! I can only *imagine* the mess he made of his tent.

Needless to say, we were all impressed by the bomber, and just about died laughing at the scene from the older man's tent.

Chris

This isn't my mess, per se, but I was a witness to it.

I used to go to Montana to hunt dinosaurs in the summer. Still do sometimes, but not as often. Our campsite was right along one of the low-level training routes for B-1B's out of Ellsworth AFB.

Our campsite is in a stream valley that runs NE-SW, with hills behind and about two miles away in front. The B-1's fly down the valley, and, at the time, they flew low enough that you could look down on top of the planes from the hilltops.

So, one night, about 11PM, our crew was finishing up the dishes, and one older gentleman had already gone to his tent, and was asleep. Some of us were outside (myself included) when we spotted the lights of an airplane coming down the valley, low and fast. It was a B-1, so I called everyone out from the mess tent to watch.

We all watched as it flew *directly* overhead of our campsite, at less than 500' AGL, and was it loud! But it was that typical loud-all-at-once that comes with a fast jet aircraft. It kind of sneaks up on you.

Suddenly, the light comes on in the older man's tent and all we see are silhouettes of arms and legs flailing everywhere! I can only *imagine* the mess he made of his tent.

Needless to say, we were all impressed by the bomber, and just about died laughing at the scene from the older man's tent.

Chris

Also one time I was upstairs and heard that distinct rumble of a radial(in this case radials). I nearly fell down those darn stairs to finally get outside. It was slightly overcast with a few broken spots. But sure enough it was B-17 Fuddy Duddy just cruising along at about 1000 feet poking in and out of the clouds. What a beautiful sound!

Oh, ya...another story involving Fuddy Duddy. One late afternoon me and my dad was at the local store. We just walked out the door when we saw Fuddy Duddy flying about. Naturally me and my dad ran for the car and followed Fuddy Duddy about 5 miles down the road! Finally we gave up chase when the road did not parallel Fuddy Duddy's flight path. Although my dad joked and asked himself how his car would hold up driving across a hay field!