Any Aeroplane Buffs Here?

[Ringlander]

Not many valleys here in Norfolk but we still get the planes unfortunately, usually chasing each other around on re-heat at medium altitude. The noise won't be as bad as with you valley dwellers but it goes on for what seems like hours sometimes. I phoned the local RAF base to complain on one really bad day in the Summer but they couldn't hear me over the background roar! ) Bees aren't worried however, just me!

 

[Swarm]

It's the shock, you don't hear them coming. I was driving along a very narrow lane, concentrating on the blind bends and then BANG.
But even that is nothing compared to the Harrier at St Athans, that was the loudest noise I've ever heard and only about 100 yards away.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I worked for a couple of years on the M25 near Heathrow. I was constructing the airport spur that connects with T4. One windless summers day I was inspecting guys erecting plank signs on the spur and had parked my car with the door open inside a coned off area. In the distance I heard a roar which built up and up until the shape of Concorde loomed over the airport fence with full afterburners on. As it went over head we felt the wake of the jets and the guys were almost blown off their ladders and had to drop the plank to avoid falling. The door of my car slammed shut, the cones were scattered across the carriageway and it felt like someone had just directed a hairdryer in your face. It was an amazing experience that only happen the once. On windless days we often used to get 747's lumbering off the end of the runway on the red eye to New York so low that you could count the rivets!

 

[user 819]

For noise in the 80's you couldn't beat the Canadian AF (CAF)Lockheed F-104 'coffins', at displays they would come in low and fast along the runway with afterburner so fast quite unbelievable.
They were death traps and so many crashed and many pilots died around the world, it was really surprising the major AF's in the world operated them for so long. As an interceptor they were quite the dogs b*ll*cks (mach 2) and every one used them bar the UK, of course we had the awesome EE Lightning but equally as bloody dangerous.

The CAF lost something like half of theirs in crashes and the Germans a third. So many used them all around the world. Over 100 Luftwaffe pilots were lost using the F104.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I worked for a couple of years on the M25 near Heathrow. I was constructing the airport spur that connects with T4. One windless summers day I was inspecting guys erecting plank signs on the spur and had parked my car with the door open inside a coned off area. In the distance I heard a roar which built up and up until the shape of Concorde loomed over the airport fence with full afterburners on. As it went over head we felt the wake of the jets and the guys were almost blown off their ladders and had to drop the plank to avoid falling. The door of my car slammed shut, the cones were scattered across the carriageway and it felt like someone had just directed a hairdryer in your face. It was an amazing experience that only happen the once. On windless days we often used to get 747's lumbering off the end of the runway on the red eye to New York so low that you could count the rivets!

On a good day Concorde flying over Bushy Park used to set car alarms off

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Have had B52’s and U2’s flying overhead at one site this year.

 

[user 819]

A couple have mentioned Concorde, in the 80's it was used as a drone target for Nato interceptor aircraft in training exercise's.
To show how good it was as an aircraft only one Nato interceptor type was able to catch and pass it.

 

[pargyle]

On a good day Concorde flying over Bushy Park used to set car alarms off

In the 1980's I used to deal with a wholesaler whose premises were on an Industrial estate at North Feltham - more or less at the end of the old Heathrow terminals runways.. My negotiations used to take place in two and a half minute bursts - the 30 seconds pause was whilst the next aircraft took off as you could not hear yourself speak ... However at 11.00am Concorde left for New York and not just the windows rattled, the whole building vibrated and the furniture moved around the office ... but ... it was one of the most spectacular sights watching Concorde take off.

Later on in my career my company sprayed the air bridge on the Concorde stand V14 at Heathrow prior to the new (at the time) HSBC advertising being applied (we eventually resprayed all the airbridges across virtually all the UK airports). We used to be there when nothng was flying between 11.20pm and 4.30am to carry out the work. It was amazing to see how small Concorde was - dwarfed alongside the Jumbo's on the other stands. The Concorde Lounge next to the stand was about as exclusive as it got in those days. Here's Concorde next to V14 ... somewhere there is a photo of me next to the airbridge with Concorde in the background ... I'll see if I can find it. I never got to fly in it though.

 

[Erichalfbee]

In the 1980's I used to deal with a wholesaler whose premises were on an Industrial estate at North Feltham - more or less at the end of the old Heathrow terminals runways.. My negotiations used to take place in two and a half minute bursts - the 30 seconds pause was whilst the next aircraft took off as you could not hear yourself speak ... However at 11.00am Concorde left for New York and not just the windows rattled, the whole building vibrated and the furniture moved around the office ... but ... it was one of the most spectacular sights watching Concorde take off.

Later on in my career my company sprayed the air bridge on the Concorde stand V14 at Heathrow prior to the new (at the time) HSBC advertising being applied (we eventually resprayed all the airbridges across virtually all the UK airports). We used to be there when nothng was flying between 11.20pm and 4.30am to carry out the work. It was amazing to see how small Concorde was - dwarfed alongside the Jumbo's on the other stands. The Concorde Lounge next to the stand was about as exclusive as it got in those days. Here's Concorde next to V14 ... somewhere there is a photo of me next to the airbridge with Concorde in the background ... I'll see if I can find it. I never got to fly in it though.
View attachment 23123

I never got to fly in her either
First husband was a photojournalist with an airside pass at Heathrow and he got a few jollies in her. The last was on Branson’s inaugural service to New York there and back! I hated him for it as I had just returned on the RedEye.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I never got to fly in her either

Nor me - although I did get up close and had a look around the prototype one which was at RAF Filton.
My cousin also has a ballbearing from the nose wheel amongs his collection of curios as a relative of ours was one of the test pilots (he was also heavily involved with the Harrier project).

 

[pargyle]

I never got to fly in her either
First husband was a photojournalist with an airside pass at Heathrow and he got a few jollies in her. The last was on Branson’s inaugural service to New York there and back! I hated him for it as I had just returned on the RedEye.

We ran a competition in my days with Faberge .. it was a trade competition... the prize was an evening meal with Henry Cooper at Browns in London .. followed by a night stay at the Sheraton Skyline Heathrow and then a flight on Concorde - out over Biscay and back over about 2 hours. I was the chaperone/chauffeur for the obnoxious bar steward who won it ... after drinking the restaurant dry, ordering on the basis of how much he could spend on the meal, being incredibly rude to Henry, emptying the mini bar in his room at the Sheraton followed by a breakfast that would have had Desperate Dan full to the brim I had rather hoped that he was going to be terminally sick on the way to his Concorde flight and I would be obliged to take his place, I did my best with the jerkiest driving I could muster on the short journey from the Sheraton to the Terminal ... Sadly, despite my best efforts, he held it all in until they hit some turbulence over Biscay ... I have never been more glad to see the back of a client as I dropped him off at the station to go home.... and I never got to fly Concorde.

 

[Amari]

My cousin also has a ballbearing from the nose wheel amongs his collection of curios

Fancy that, now ! .... I'll use that as a defence when SWMBO complains that I have a collection of 57 screwdrivers and half a dozen hive tools....

 

[Amari]

I've piloted a Tiger Moth, Biggle's hat an' all, - for a few minutes over Duxford, Cambs, (Imperial War Museum) - a birthday present from my son a few years ago...

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've piloted a Tiger Moth, Biggle's hat an' all, - for a few minutes over Duxford, Cambs, (Imperial War Museum) - a birthday present from my son a few years ago...

Wow!!!
My Dad was a Spitfire Pilot (Polish) in WW11. He would go all quiet and misty eyed whenever we ended up at some RAF museum as kids....which was strangely often

 

[Bryang]

I worked on Vulcans for a very short time in the '60s...The "howl" from the engines was horrific. We weren't issued with ear defenders in those days...I aquired a aircrew "bonnet" with inbuilt ear phones to converse with the aircrew when working as ground crew....Also worked and flew in Comet C4 and VC10s..VC 10 was a wonderful a/c to fly in, very comfitable and quiet inside. with full passenger load it was capable of flying with 2 engines in idle mode and 2 in 50% power mode. The last time I flew in a VC 10 was in '67 when I returned to the UK from RAF Gan in the Maldives...the flight was a "Cassevac/Medivac" from the Far East...I spent most of the flight chatting to the patients...some of them had gunshot wounds...I was just a passenger on a "gozehomey" flight.. Been trying to add a photo of me with a Spitfire...Failed..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Been trying to add a photo of me with a Spitfire...Failed..

Oh no............try again!

 

[Bryang]

Got It...Me with MK XIV Spitfire fitted with a Griffon engine...Taken at RAF Odiham in '63 (approx)...I had just done a "turn round" inspection on the radios when the pilot took the photo...

 

[pargyle]

Wow!!!
My Dad was a Spitfire Pilot (Polish) in WW11. He would go all quiet and misty eyed whenever we ended up at some RAF museum as kids....which was strangely often

Respect ... The Polish squadrons were the relatively unsung heroes of WWII RAF ... when you read the statistics their achievements, for their numbers, were amazing. My mother's cousin was a fighter pilot - mainly Hurricanes .. sadly didn't make it - he was shot down over the channel about a week before the Battle of Britain officially started. So many young men who had to grow up very quickly, it's hard to imagine what it must have been like.

There are a couple of spitfires based at what was HMS Daedalus airfield a couple of miles from where I live ... I regularly see one being flown just for enjoyment in the skies above the Solent - you can tell it's a Merlin engine as soon as you hear it .. nothing to compare.

 

[Bryang]

We had several Polish pilots at RAF Odiham...I flew many times with one as observer/lookout Flt Lt Krawinsky...("call me "Jock I live in Scotland before you born!!" was his favourite saying)...He was a trainer/test pilot on the helicopter conversion unit...Often he would make me take the controls "at hover" His usual response to my efforts was "You usless Welsh bsat*rd..but I teach you bl**dy quick"....He never did .. Brilliant man a pleasure to have known..

 

[pargyle]

This is an interesting read:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-polish-pilots-who-flew-in-the-battle-of-britain