Warbird Information Exchange

Last weekend I was at my friend's house in the Hollywood Hills watering plants when I heard a radial engine - wait, several radial engines - and Witchcraft buzzed overhead! I almost took a header into the pool... Not too long afterwards Nine-O-Nine came by and I was up on the patio table... geez, if I'd fallen off and broken my fool neck nobody would ever have known why it happened...

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

About ten years ago I was in my backyard and heard a deep rumble comming, it was an overcast day so I couldn't see what it was. I'm sure you've all seen the Spitfire painting with the Spit comming out of the clouds, well at just that moment a C-97 at about 1500 feet broke out of the cloud bank, I hollered for my wife and she came running out too. She yelled "Go baby"! What a concert! I think it was the C-97 that the Berlin Airlift museum has now.

Well, not my house, but...

Many years ago a friend and I used to camp at night during the Reno Air Races out on the back of the race course (this was before everything was fenced off and guarded). One of the benefits of this was being awakened by P-51s at high power and low altitude when they'd be out for early testing for the day. One morning we were headed in to the pits on a nasty little dirt road when I heard the unmistakable sound. Stuck my head out the window looking up to see who was up and instantly ran my nice Datsun 260Z way off the road into the sand and rocks. We spent a long time, and the first race of the day digging, pushing and cursing to get my poor sports car back on to what passed for a road.

A somewhat related memory -- One Reno long ago I was lucky enough to snag a press ride with the Snowbirds. It was a long ride -- at one point we headed up to Lake Tahoe to show the colors up there. We did this by heading up from Reno along Highway 80 at 500 feet or so above the Freeway, in show formation. It was very entertaining to peer over the side and watch cars weaving wildly as drivers looked out windows up at this formation of jets roaring over their heads at remarkably low altitude. I never heard about any accidents resulting, but would not have been surprised had there been...

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

Third-hand story, but neat nonetheless...

Former colleague of my dad's named Ken Pearce had been briefly in the RCAF around the end of WWII, then flew privately from Mt.Hope with the Hamilton Flying Club until heart trouble cost him his medical clearance; as can be imagined though this did not reduce Ken's interest in aviation. One of his favourites was the deHavilland Mosquito. One cold day in February 1985 he was driving up Highway #6 south of Hamilton, which road passes just east of Mt.Hope airport. Ken heard Merlins...then saw Mosquito B.35 G-MOSI belt past across Hwy#6 directly in front of him. It was George Aird beating-up CWH during his epic delivery flight of G-MOSI (RS709) to the USAF Museum. Not something Ken was expecting to see that day...and he actually had to swerve his car off onto the shoulder and park for a spell, in order to avert cardiac arrest!

Fun thread, Nathan--

S.

I havent made a mess (yet) but I have flown down the stairs in record time to make it out the door...I've crashed into a few family members Basically my family knows that if my father or I yell "Blimp!" or "Airplane!" they better get out of the way...

I saw 909 last year during a golf outing, my boss and I were the only ones who knew what it was...It was a beautiful clear day so you could see her coming.

I always have a tough time going to and from airshows...as soon as something flies by my eyes tend to leave the road...

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Yep, happens to me all the time on my way to Geneseo airshow. You know your close when you see a bunch of T-6's and Stearmans flying about! And I mean all over the place!!!

I've swerved many times!

Thanks, Steve!

I told you guys that I saw Memphis Belle and HAG's C-45 flying yesterday. But I did not tell you that I had a knife in my hand when that accured. SOMETHING BAD could have happened! Thankfully I did not make a mess this time and fell on the knife or something.

Walked into one of the poles that holds our patio up a couple of weeks ago while watching the local DC-3 take off from Perth airport.

Have driven into the wrong lane when watching the local RAAF PC-9s and Hawks and when the Roulettes come over. We live between the northern and north-eastern approaches to Perth airport so occasionally we see some interesting stuff.

Oh yeah, bent the hinges on the back door at my parents' old house whenever anything from a Tiger Moth to a water bomber flew over.

Has anyone found that even if you injure yourself or fall over etc, you're still looking at/for the aircraft as you're picking yourself up or rubbing your head?!

Fun post!

Andy

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http://aircrewbookreview.blogspot.com/

A few years back I heard the drone of dual radials and ran outside to the sight of the DC-3 on floats flying northward over my house. That was cool. (even though I had seen it fly in New Hampshire a few years before).
The other exciting one was hearing an unusual multi-engine jet sound and running out of the garage with my grandson's in tow to look up and see the AN-225 behemoth flying over head on it's way from a stop in New Jersey.

Back in 1979, I saw a B-25 in New Jersey (while I was driving, almost crashed!) and later found out that it was one of the "Hanover Street" B-25's on it's way to Worcester, Mass. to rendezvous with three of the other B-25's prior to their flight across the Atlantic for the film.
Blue skies,
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

the day after the 9/11 attacks when all air traffic was grounded i was home, & all of a sudden a series of sonic booms...... i ran outside, as my neighbors did, to wonder what was going on, f-16's patrolling or what ever. after that eerie silence, & i live a 1/2 hour from the western approach to cleveland hopkins int. airport. 1 neighbor i actually had to calm down. man, everybody was skittish following the attack!!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

At last, I am not the only one.

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Back in the '80s after I got out of college, we would go down to mid- Missouri for canoe floats on the Current River which the Ozark National Scenic Riverways encompasses. Early morning while we were floating down the river, I hear the sound of jet engines and coming around the bend in the river and low (200'AGL if that) were two A-6 Intruders. Here and gone in a blink of an eye, I was on the look out the rest of the float for more but no dice. A few years later, much the same thing happened with some A-10s pulling vapor off the wing tips - could see them for a bit longer though Simply cool to see/feel/hear.

A few months ago, a B-2 came over from Whiteman AFB to work up with the 131st FW MOANG here in St. Louis. I missed the chance to see it up at the airport but that afternoon, I'm on the phone when I hear an aircraft flying over that definitely was not one of the normal airliners one usually hears around here. As I dash thru the house for the back door, I nearly run over my wife and at the door I see the B-2 climbing out with a vapor cloud enveloping the upper surface of the aircraft. Very interestig to see, almost makes me open to moving to Knob Knoster, MO to be near the traffic pattern for Whiteman...

Enjoy the Day! Mark

I darn near broke the front door to run outside and see the CAF's new red PBY fly right over my house on it's way to it's first landing at Fleming.

I also came close to drifting into the other lane and causing an accident when I saw four A-10's coming in to land at Willow Grove.

well I didn't cause a mess, but one day while doing some dishes I heard what I though was just another Beaver (I am pretty much dead under the flight path of seaplanes coming in from Vancouver Island and landing in Vancouver, so if I get a weekday off and spend it working in the yard I'll see an aircraft every half hour or so). It kept getting louder and louder and then sounded like two Beavers...and I sprinted out the back door to see one of the Martin Mars crusing slowly overhead a few thousand feet up, right over my house. It was a very serene and pleasant minute or so as I watched that behemoth lumber off into the distance, with a sound that reverberated off of everything. It was very cool, and I still kick myself for not going out to see a "lowly" Beaver in the first place...

cool thread

greg v.

3 years ago this summer i was camping on my friends land, my boys were fishing on a dock in the middle of the lake which they swam to with their fishing gear......... only a kid can do that. i was chilling by the fire having a beer after lunch when i heard a large shreeking noise. i ran to a clearing to see what it was & there was a usaf c-17 barely 500 feet off the the deck that came from over lake erie. that s.o.b. was so low, & heading right for my boys that they jumped into the water. it then veered suddenly to the right & flew south. after i new they were ok i ran to my car & surfed the radio for news briefs as i thought another terrorist attack was in the making. i went to my business, an 8 mile drive & called my best buddy, the former #1 air traffic controller at cleveland center for many years. he knew nothing, but assured me it was a training exercise. in all my years up here i never encountered anything like that. my boys had the crap scared out of them, & i wasn't far behind.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!