So what got you into our fine hobby?

[TH1213]

My friend at school who was interested in aviation told about Biggin Hill Airshow 2006. I ended up going with my parents, found it amazing and 5 years on i'm still hooked

[TS010]

Going camping near Valley and Llanbedr when I was young and living in the Dee Valley, which was a very busy entry and exit point for the low level traffic in the north of LFA7. Used to see some amazing stuff at low level when the big air defence exercises were on. Air defence CAP would be based above Bala and the mud movers would get chased our way on their way home, not unusual to see a package of up 20 aircraft (Jaguar, F-16, F-104, Harrier, Alpha Jet, Mirage, etc) getting chased by RAF F-4's. The Vulcan's and B-52's used to route directly over the house when the bombing comp's were on aswell, and then there was the Herc's every Wednesday and Thursday, you could almost set your watch by them!

[LIBERTY-48]

Airshow at my local Southend Airport in 1968, i was only 4 but can still to this day remember the silver Lightning with a black checkered tail (i think) turning and burning then having to run for cover under the wings of a RAF Argosy as the heavens opened.
Don,t suppose anyone could help me with the Serial and sqn of said Lightning or any photos of the event, wasn,t really into it then

[Blue Diamond]

My Grandfather was RFC/RAF/Imperial Airways so was very "aircraft aware" from an early age. Also live close to RAF Henlow so got to see all the interesting stuff which flew around on parachute trials. All this interest was strengthened by dear old Raymond Baxter's wonderful TV commentaries on the Farnborough shows which were a "must see" for me. The bug has bitten deeper ever since.

[wokka]

I was born under the flightpath into Farnborough, and my birthday was the anniversary of Cody's first flight. I like to think I was born into it. My father had a brief spell in the RAF in Germany working on Hunters, and he ensured that every Farnborough Air Show, I was in view of the runway. We moved to Woking when I was still young and my first real memory was watching raspberry ripple aircraft (usually, canberra or Hunter) turning on to their final approach over our house. From the age of about 8, it was me who forced my attendance at airshows/airports etc. Thanks Dad.

[redhead]

watching lightning fly over the house, tho you look at whats happening now there won't be a hobby left

[steve149c]

Some great stories there, sorry mine is pretty mundane. My dad is a lean radio amateur and as such in the early 80's, branched out into aircraft. Living only 15 mile from Valley saw the family there on long summer days, planes during the day, barbeque and then the usual late American after the caravan had shut up shop and gone home.

As with any kid of 7 or 8, I preferred playing in the dunes and sea to the 'regular' red and White hawks, and only really showed an interest when something different came in.

As I grew up, I remember my dads frustration as the hawks moved onto UHF coms from VHF. And then when he got a new scanner, they had started using Studs, so it took a while to get all the frequencies, ie wait for a visitor. The older I got, the more interested I became, and I learnt o take photos with my dads Olympus OM-10. I have some ok shots from back then, but it is normally your average dot in the sky.

The hobby grew from there, had ten years off as we moved away and I started my sea career. But first chance I moved back. My dad and I share the love of the planes, and recently I've become involved with the SBS side of things. It is all good fun....if only I could get my PCR1500 to work with windows 7 (solution in pipeline).

Cheers for reading,

Steve