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linuxyeti |
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linuxyeti World Chat Champion
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-Matt- |
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-Matt- World Chat Champion
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Chinaboy |
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Chinaboy World Chat Champion
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asta1 |
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asta1 Scooby Slapper
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chickenstrip |
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chickenstrip Super Spammer
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Posted: 01:31 - 03 Dec 2017 Post subject: |
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Chinaboy wrote: |
Being friendly with some of the US guys and fighter pilots, I was able to get a guided tour around a C5 Galaxy that used to be a regular visitor. |
I worked on Nimrod maritime reconnaissance aircraft. We were visited by a Boeing E3 Sentry AWACS crew, and given a guided tour of that. Bearing in mind I was in the field of EW at that time, it was a very interesting tour. I won't comment on equipment for obvious reasons, but other comparisons were startling. The Nimrod was very cramped and dim in the back end where all the EW operators worked, for 9 or more hours at a time often (I was offered a trip in one on an operational flight but didn't fancy being cooped up that long with very little chance of even looking out of a window). The Sentry by contrast was plush, roomy, well lit, comfy even. ____________________ Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE! |
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UncleFester |
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UncleFester World Chat Champion
Joined: 30 Jun 2013 Karma :
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Posted: 08:08 - 03 Dec 2017 Post subject: |
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This is the scary thing.
"The original Blackbird was designated the A-12 and made its first flight on April 30, 1962. The single-seat A-12 soon evolved into the larger SR-71, which added a second seat for a Reconnaissance Systems Officer and carried more fuel than the A-12. The SR-71's first flight was on December 22, 1964."
When you consider how old the plane really is ..... makes you wonder what they really have stashed away today.
We lived on the flightpath to Newcastle Airport for about 10 years, Concorde was a semi regular visitor, that is THE loudest and prettiest plane I've ever seen.
The most impressive for me though was the English Electric Lightning, watching it stand on its tail and literally go vertically up from what looked like 10ft off the runway surface was a sight to behold, probably that and the Vulcan bomber - that something so big was so agile ( it had almost the same engine as Concorde).
Duxford has quite a few nice things, the shame is, they are all packed in so tightly it's hard to get a good view of them. ____________________ Module 1 and 2 passed - October 2014. Happy owner of a 2017 Z1000SX, ex owner of a YBR125 / CB500 / VFR800. |
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pepperami |
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pepperami Super Spammer
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weasley |
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weasley World Chat Champion
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chickenstrip |
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chickenstrip Super Spammer
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Posted: 15:11 - 03 Dec 2017 Post subject: |
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pepperami wrote: | UncleBFester wrote: |
We lived on the flightpath to Newcastle Airport for about 10 years, Concorde was a semi regular visitor, that is THE loudest and prettiest plane ever. |
Many moons ago I lived a couple of hundred yards from Hatton Cross tube station right next to Heathrow and remember Concord coming in and taking off on a regular basis.
I can confirm Concord is verrry loud ! |
Noisy aircraft are impressive until you have to work alongside them. In Germany, our squadron pan was not far from a hover 'pad' where 3 and 4 sqn Harriers did tests. They'd sometimes be hovering there for minutes at a time while they ran some check or other. You couldn't hear a fecking thing above that racket - especially annoying when like me, you might be trying to carry out radio checks.
Visiting F16s taxying past were also annoying - a loud high-pitched whistle that was uncomfortable on the ears as they went by.
In Oxfordshire, I lived for a while not far from the perimeter of RAF Brize Norton, and remember wondering what the fuck it was shaking the whole house with an incredible roar. Got outside to see a Vulcan in a vertical climb above - a one-off visit thankfully!
So many cool stories, so little time ____________________ Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE! |
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linuxyeti |
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linuxyeti World Chat Champion
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MCN |
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MCN Super Spammer
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Freddyfruitba... |
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Freddyfruitba... World Chat Champion
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linuxyeti |
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linuxyeti World Chat Champion
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Freddyfruitba... |
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Freddyfruitba... World Chat Champion
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Kentol750 |
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Kentol750 World Chat Champion
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Shaft |
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Shaft World Chat Champion
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Posted: 00:31 - 14 Dec 2017 Post subject: |
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linuxyeti wrote: | -Matt- wrote: | Never got to see an SR71 in person sadly . Some of the my most memorable visits were the first time's they had the F117 and B2 static with an old U2.
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I'm glad to say I saw the SR-71 fly a few times, when they were based at RAF Mildenhall, and they had their airshows there. Even, after the SR-71 had left, Mildenhall airshow used to be my favourite airshow, such a shame it came to an end .. |
I was at Farnborough in 1974, the first time the SR-71 came to the UK, breaking the New York - London speed record on the way, at a couple of minutes under 2 hours, including slowing down for mid-air refueling.
They put a big cordon around it when it arrived, not so much because it was a little bit secret, but more because it was like standing next to a huge electric fire, such was the heat coming off it.
Dad did his NS in the RAF, leaving me with lots of interesting pictures, including one of the last flying squadron of Wellingtons and a couple of a prototype Hunter (when it was still covered by the OSA) loads of really good stories and a lasting love of aircraft and airshows.
Airshow highlights for me include a full power (with reheat) take off by an F-14 at Biggin Hill, which rippled the tarmac as it started rolling, any display by a Vulcan and the cartoon like vertical climb of a Mirage, IIRC the holder of the record for fastest rate of ascent at the time.
Also very memorable was the first year they opened Boscombe Down to the public; I was working in a car showroom in Salisbury at the time and I remember hearing this horrendous noise approaching.
I went outside just in time to see a B-52 coming in very low, one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. ____________________ Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035 |
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weasley |
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weasley World Chat Champion
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Posted: 14:52 - 14 Dec 2017 Post subject: |
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My dad was in the RAF so I spent a lot of my youth around airfields. Memories include:
- watching English Electric Lightnings take off from RAF Brüggen, point at the sky and disappear
- same for visiting F-15 Eagles
- having essentially WWII aircraft still in active service and flying around all the time (Shackletons at Lossiemouth)
- seeing the Vulcans do their thing
- also seeing Victors doing a scramble
- having two SEPECAT Jaguars collide in mid-air over our house (Brüggen again) and both crash
- seeing a glider fall apart mid-display at an air show at Brize Norton, killing the pilot
- watching the Ilyushin IL-62 carrying Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife take off from Brize Norton and thinking "jeez, did they just photocopy the VC-10 design?"
- seeing a Lockheed C-130 do a crash-stop landing
- just generally being surrounded by loads of fast jets: Hunters, Jaguars, Phantoms, Buccaneers, Gnats, Hawks, Harriers as well as stuff like Canberras, Nimrods, VC-10s, Vulcans, Victors (never saw a Valiant), Jet Provosts and so on. Good times. ____________________
Yamaha XJ600 | Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat | KTM 990 SMT | BMW F900XR TE |
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AshWebster |
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AshWebster Brolly Dolly
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chickenstrip |
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chickenstrip Super Spammer
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Posted: 15:17 - 14 Dec 2017 Post subject: |
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weasley wrote: |
- watching English Electric Lightnings take off from RAF Brüggen, point at the sky and disappear |
I would have loved to have watched those. In the RAF when I joined, they called them "the last of the fast", and people said most of them were at the bottom of the North Sea I was in the ATC for a while as a kid, and we did a week trip to Coningsby. Me and a mate spent some time standing by the airfield watching Phantoms take off in pairs on reheat. Very impressive. We got to help out on them in the hangar too, just handing tools to the mechs and techs, removing panels etc, and we got to do an a/c wash on one in the summer sun. I was only about 13, great for a young lad who loved aircraft. Phantoms have been one of my favourite aircraft ever since. They just oozed sheer brute muscle from every angle.
Got to crawl around in the back of the BBMF Lancaster too, and I have a photo somewhere of our squadron lined up in front of it outside the hangar.
Quote: | - having essentially WWII aircraft still in active service and flying around all the time (Shackletons at Lossiemouth) |
I did some of my radio fault diagnostics training on those at RAF Cosford
I was out working on Puma helicopters on the sqn. pan at Gutersloh when a Harrier went in. I don't recall seeing the actual crash, just a plume of oily black smoke rising from the far end of the runway. They put the wreckage in one of our hangars while the crash investigation went on - wasn't much left of it.
My favourite airshow was always Flying Legends at Duxford. The row of Spitfires, Mustangs, Corsairs, Hellcats etc etc stretched as far as you could see. They do a flypast with as many as can get airborne at once at the end of the show, a very impressive sight. ____________________ Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE! |
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MCN |
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MCN Super Spammer
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Posted: 15:25 - 14 Dec 2017 Post subject: |
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I was on a KLM flight (KL-1470) from GLA to AMS on Sunday there.
____________________ Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN. |
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 6 years, 132 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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