So what got you into our fine hobby?

[MacksAviation]

"Tim would fare much better if he spent less time talking and thinking about the RAF."

Did you join the RAF after all that ?

[neilf92]

Growing up in Yorkshire near Driffield -late forties early fifties - hearing an all white Spitfire roar just over our bungalow - dropping into view through the bay window , ruffling the ripe corn as he levelled out and flew away.
My Dad pointing out the new jets and hearing that funny hooning noise in the sky . Then a move to Scotland and low level F100's , F101's , RB66's , Scimitars , Hunters and high overhead the contrails of Leuchars Javelins running PI curve pursuits . A steady trail of Vulcans and Victors heading North at altitude interspersed with the occasional Oxford and regular Ansons droning past .
Great days and I was hooked from about age four .

[sjnovis]

Speaking of Schools also, I remeber being in Junior School; in Eastbourne; and one luch time the Red Arrows were displaying somewhere in the town.

This was when they were flying the Gnat, the school wasn't directly near the dispaly but we had many positioning passes and I remember them being very fast and very low.

I remember that once they had gone, we were all running around with our arms swept back like wings, being red arrows.

34 years later and I still feel like doing it

[Sheff]

Did you join the RAF after all that ?

Nope, oddly enough I never did as I drifted-off into the media side of things. I sometimes wished I had gone ahead and joined the ranks but then I subsequently got to meet lots of RAF personnel as part of my work and they inevitably said that I'd seen and done a whole lot more than they had ever done, so from a "plane nut" viewpoint I think I made the right decision on balance! I always think the big danger of falling in love with the idea of joining the RAF is that you can convince yourself that you'll spend all your time with aeroplanes and of course the reality is that you probably won't unless you're lucky!

[GOOSE]

Some great memories being shared in here and excellent insights into our members.

It is also nice to see varied members posting and for that we thank you.

Please keep the inclusions coming, I for one, am really enjoying them!

[Jason Grant]

Went along with my best mate (Bunzl 1) and his Dad to Fairford '85, I had no interest at the time so me and Bunzl 1's Dad spent the whole show in the beer tent, some of you might remember it was the year the tent ran out of beer. Some jets there also.

Happy memories.

[Blackcat1]

I'm also enjoying reading these. Great stuff folks

[airtyphoon]

For me it was only three years ago at RNAS Yeovilton air day 2007, i remember looking around the Tornado F3 And the pair of A10 Thunderbolts.

airtyphoon

[reheat module]

Born 4 miles to the NW of Finningley, I grew up watching the Vulcans and all visitors on the approach from mum & dad's upstairs window. The Finningley Airshow was a natural annual pilgrimage. One of dad's mates was a V Navigator who took me around the base whilst young. No surprise then at age 18 after school and college I joined up in 1977 and have just completed my 33rd year in 'light blue' . I Joined as an aircraft engineering trade and spent time on big jets, small jets and rotary. Bought my first camera on detatchment in Gib (good old Zenit - and some lenses). Highlights so far, specialising in engine ground running Nimrods, Victors and the mighty GR4 RB199s - there's just no better rush than slamming the throttle from idle direct to combat power and timing the acceleration, especially at night with the reheat lighting up the complete 'tie-down'. I have been extremely fortunate to fly in each and every type of ac I've worked on and a lasting memory will be flying low level over 'Harp Lake' and 'hands-off' down 'Star Wars' Valley in Goose Bay Labrador in the back of a Tornado. I was lucky to get a 'twin-sticker' and had a go at altitude; that confimed the reason why I am far better on the ground, - brilliant fun though (actually ******* awesome!)
14yrs in RAFG can never be repeated. Fantastic times, each and every day, but yes - Vegas can get repetative...
It is nice sometimes being on the right side of the fence - but the month prior to, and immediately following Wadd Airshows is not always fun.
Never got delerious over helicopters though - anything where the wing moves faster than the fuselage can't be right can it...?

[Sheff]

combat power and timing the acceleration, especially at night with the reheat lighting up the complete 'tie-down'

Hell yes - that reminds me of the happy days when the TTTE was at Cottesmore and you could drive-up to the crash gate and watch the engine runs at sunset - what a glorious sight!

[np1991]

Suppose it might have had something to do with living within throwing distance of Kinloss and then moving to Forres being directly in the circuit. Fondly remember being taken to Lossie on a Friday afternoon when I was 7 and 2 USAF F16s came in and sat at the taxiway where my Dad had parked and just sat there for about 5 or 10 minutes "posing" for us

[GOOSE]

Think it was my mother taking me outside to see the Doodlebugs (V1s) fly over enroute for London, or a Stirling force landed in a field at Colchester. Either way I have not been the same since and am too old to change now!

Some interesting memories there doodlebug!

I'm sure our members would love to hear more!

I certainly would Sir, and if you could oblige, please feel free to start a thread in the Mess.

[GOOSE]

Very kind of you Goose, but I am not sure that members would find it interesting. Perhaps I can start a thread with a few thoughts when the nights are darker if that would be ok?
Regards, doodlebug.

That would be great. As I said, I'd love to hear of your past experiences.

[radical99]

How can any lad growing up in rural Mid West Wales in the 80's not be fascinated by vast and various low flying aircraft back then??

Born and bred and still living here in what hawk valley squadrons call this particular valley as the "starship enterprise" and been looking out for low flying jets since the 80s, in those heady days of the LOUD and low phantoms, Tonkas, A-10's, red, blue and white hawks and never ending passing Jaguars, Hercules mallard training flights . For gods sake can anyone invent a time machine and put me up on the ridge behind my house in lets say august 1982 (hunters were still flying around here in 82) and leave me there for a day?

It's still down tools these days whenever i hear an approaching roar of a pegasus engine or an F-15 but i get pretty depressed about the shockingly low amount of low flying these days, days of clear sunshine and zilch is seen.
The day the RAF left Brawdy base is when the skies of West Wales went a heck of a lot quieter..

[DanBeeden]

I was born in St Albans and my Dad used to go up to Luton with friends at weekends, and I'd be in tow in the baby seat! So I guess the AVTUR got into the system back then. Both my uncles worked on the 146 at Hatfield and both Grandads were in the RAF, one on Spits and the other on the Halifax.

After we moved to Herefordshire in 1982 there were a few things that got the hobby well and truly bedded in. We lived right under the approach to Shobdon and spent many weekends up at the airfield. I'd also spend most summer and Easter holidays back with my grandparents back in St Albans and Upper Heyford was pretty much bang on half-way between home and there. Dad and I would leave home first thing, spend the day down by the fence at the east end and then my Grandparents would meet us there later in the day and I'd complete the journey with them.

Have many fond memories of lines of Ravens and Aardvarks coming down from the 'hot brakes' and getting waves from the crew as they held before lining up. Looking through my pics recently reminded me of one day when we saw (on top of loads of Varks and Ravens), German Tonkas, Belgian F-16s, a C-9 and Portugese A-7s.

[Leuchars Fan]

It must have been a trip to Finningley 1962. I can recall being perched on top of my Father's shoulders watching the scramble of white painted Vulcans. I'd earlier watched one taxy after landing, from the same vantage point and clearly remeber asking where it was going and and my father replying to get it's dinner and so are we.

Happy Days

LF

[Sheff]

Ah yes, Finningley in the 'sixties. I was too young to remember all of it but the Vulcans were always the highlight. Oddly, it seems to be the Diables Rouges Magisters which I remember most of all - they seemed to be there almost every year. Funny how we used to be so bored by the Red Pelicans, Macaws, Poachers, etc., when we'd all probably kill to see a Jet Provost team now! I fondly remember running the risk of missing the bus back to Sheffield in order to see a Belfast get airborne long after the flying display finished one year and I can vaguely remember a Voodoo (must have been an Upper Heyford machine) taxying out from the static park once. I also fondly remember watching the Varsity do its undercarriage retraction sequence again and again on jacks in the hangar - fascinating when you're a kid! Have to say though that 1977 was undoubtedly Finningley's finest year. The post-review display was just magnificent. After the show I was gobsmacked when many of the aircraft were opened-up to investigation. For a fifteen year-old it was like Christmas - crawling around the inside of a Hercules and a Nimrod. Little did I know that the same Nimrod (XZ285), shiny and nearly new as it then was, would eventually end its days as an AEW machine on a scrapheap, still unused and unwanted. It's amazing when you look back at the old Finningley displays (prior to 1977) and see just how small the static and flying displays were. Compared to most modern shows the flying display was almost pitiful, but when you consider what types the aircraft were that took part, I don't think any of us would complain if we could turn the clock back and see them all again?!


Some of the above posts remind me too of how quiet the skies are these days compared to ten or twenty years back. Living in Sheffield, all one ever sees here is the occasional police or ambulance helicopter, and high-flying airliners on their way to Finningley or Leeds, or climbing out of Manchester. It's incredibly dull. It seems almost bizarre to remember how the same air space used to be so much busier. When the Elder Forest and Mallet Blow exercises were on, you could be sure that a few formations of aircraft would roar over. Four Drakens over the city centre is a sight to behold! I remember a TF-104G roaring across my garden at 250ft which was a bit naughty - but nice! The AEW Comet demonstrator stooging around, F-111E's using Sheffield as a target for evening bombing runs, Vulcan's going in and out of Woodford, Jet Provosts, Dominies, four Lightnings for the Lord Mayor's Parade (and four Hunters one year), Pumas parked in a school sports field, Wessex in the tennis courts (eek!), the Blue Eagles at my school, Vintage pair, Red Arrows, BBMF, Jaguars, Canberras... and all nothing but memories now. Sheffield must be one of the country's most tranquil spots for aircraft spotting. You know things are getting desperate when you go outside to watch powered hang gliders go by!

[GOOSE]

Decided to dust this one off, we've had a lot of new friends join the forum recently. Hopefully they'll enjoy sharing their memories.

[Mayfly]

As a little girl of 5 seeing 3 Vulcans line astern flying over our house - been besotted with aircraft ever since.

[deerhunter]

Being in the Sea Cadets as a young lad, going to HMS Condor in Arbroath which in those days was a Fleet Air Arm base and being the first ever Rochdale Sea Cadet to get the Cadet Naval Airman badge, and the fact that I`ve never grown up. Also my dad was in the RAf as a regular (during the war on Wimpeys) and served in Iceland/N Africa

I only go to LN and Mildenhall because my grandson (AKA Wng Commander) wants to go

Got back into modelling for something to do during the winter, also the excuse is that the models are for the grandsons