Aviation. What got you interested?

[AdamL]

We seem to have alot of people here who enjoy airplanes and whatnot, and I am curious how every got started. I'll tell about my interest in it after I run a few errands...

[AdamL]

Well, for me aviation is kind of a family affair. My dad was always fascinated with airplanes. He volunteered for the Air Force during Vietnam, dreaming of flying F4 Phantoms. He never could pass the physical, and ended up staying out of the military. Growing up he and my mother took me and my two older brothers to countless airshows. We would also go to St. Louis on many weekends to a hotel across the highway from Lambert International airport. Requesting a room on the 11th or 12th floor and facing the airport, we would watch the planes for hours. There was alot of action at that airport back then (Sadly not the case now) as it was one of TWA's main hubs. National Guard planes are based there too. Back then they were F-4's. We saw one crash once during takeoff. Later they got rid of the F-4's and updated to F-15's. It was also the home of McDonnell Douglas. We got to see F-18's taking off on test flights when they were first being made, which was pretty exciting.

My oldest brother ended up getting his pilots license at the age of 17. I took some lessons, but never completed that. We both took our lessons from a crazy old man who has been flying since WW2 and is still giving lessons to this day. He made me pull out of a spin on my first lesson. I never liked roller coasters after that as they were nothing compared to flying with ol' Howard.
My brother went on to get bachelors and masters degrees in the aviation field. He is currently a salesman at one of the largest aircraft salvage yards in the world (If not the largest) He was also a crash site invesigator for a while. If anyone ever needs any airplane parts let me know 

Aviation is always a frequent topic of conversation at family gatherings. Everyone is interested in it and knows quite a bit about it. I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out...


Anyway, I would be interested to hear how everyone else got interested in it. We seem to have alot of people here who are.

[Nighthawk]

I never got to go to air shows until I was old enough to drive myself. My folks never owned a car! We lived near Detroit City airport, so we would see planes flying over all the time. I started building plastic model airplane kits around the age of 7 or 8 I guess, and got hooked on military aircraft. (Did not care for civilian aircraft!) When I was 6 years old, in 1967, the Detroit riots broke out in July. Got to see LOTS of military stuff roll down the streets, Patton tanks, APC's, Jeeps, and my favorite, the UH-1 Huey helicopters that always flew overhead. Us kids would hear that WHOMP-WHOMP-WHOMP-WHOMP of those rotors off in the distance, and regardless of what we were doing at the time, we would drop everything, run outside as fast as we could, and see how many helicopters were in the sky flying above us. Sometimes there would be 10, 15, or even 20 choppers flying in a group!!! The noise they made sent shivers down your spine! After that I fell in love with aviation! I started taking my kids when they were little, and have been to dozens of airshows over the years. I also loved watching "Black Sheep Squadron" with Robert Conrad, and fell in love with the F4U Corsair, and has been my favorite ever since. I still have lots of the models that I built of these planes over the years, and would never part with them. I also like just about ANY WWII era prop job, and also am a big fan of the F-4 Phantom, F-14 Tomcat, & F-15 Eagle. Over the years I have got to sit in the cockpits of the B-25 Mitchell, and a German ME-109 Messershmidt. I have also been on a B-17, B-24, German JU-52 transport, and have actually flown in a Ford Tri-Motor, top speed about 90 mph! I will love airplanes & aviation till the day I die!     

[Nighthawk]

MY FAVORITE PLANE YA'LL!!! 

[Templar]

MY FATHER WAS IN THE AIR FORCE FOR TWENTY YEARS RETIRING AS A MAJOR.......HE WAS NOT A PILOT BUT AS WE TRAVELED AROUND I GOT TO SEE MANY PLANES UP CLOSE AND STARTED TO BUILD MODEL AIR PLANES WHEN I WAS NINE.......I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE PROP FIGHTERS STARTING WITH THE FLYING TIGERS.........AND I LOVED TO BUILD PLANES OF OUR ENEMIES LIKE THE ZERO AND THE STUKKER DIVE BOMBER..BUT NOTHING GRABBED ME MORE THAN THE B-17.....I WATCHED "AIR POWER" ON TV AND THE FOOTAGE TAKEN FROM THE WINGS AND INSIDE THESE AIRCRAFT WERE JUST AMAZING..........THE MOVIE "MEMPHIS BELLE" ICED IT...............YOU CAN KEEP YOU JETS.....THE PLANES OF WWII ARE LIKE THE CARS OF THE 50'S...BEAUTIFUL......DIFFERENT.....AND FAST....

        YOUR SERVANT.........THE TEMPLAR

[scottishmoney]

I am a certified Air Force brat, my dad served in 'Nam working on the Skunkworks project - ie Habu or the SR-71.  When I was young he came back and retired from the AF and went into contract work, but as an officer in the AF we still had all kinds of perks like special AF only shows, flights etc.  I was bitten by the aviation bug with F-102's and U2's and of course the Blackbird.  The coolest part of being his kid was that he knew Kelly Johnson, of Lockheed, who happened to design the P-38, the U2, the SR-71 etc and we got a lot of memorabilia from him including autographs.  Until my mother had enough of the aviation themed living room we had a parachute suspended from the ceiling.  We lived right outside of Beale AFB and I loved being able to see the B-52's, the T-33's the T-38's etc.  The all time favourite thing I did was got to sit in the cockpit of the Blackbird when I was about 10 or so.

In my travels etc, I have met a lot of friends overseas that served in the USSR AF back in the 1980's etc, I have a special interest in their birds too, one of my friends in Ukraine guarded the Tu-160 Blackjacks when they were based in the Ukrainian SSR in the late 1980's.

[scottishmoney]

YOU CAN KEEP YOU JETS.....THE PLANES OF WWII ARE LIKE THE CARS OF THE 50'S...BEAUTIFUL......DIFFERENT.....AND FAST....

Yes indeed, I love the sound of radial piston engines especially, like the roar of the Wright Cyclones.  I also love the roar of contra-rotating props like the Tu-95 Bear.

[AdamL]

Here is one plane that you may have missed, and that would be a shame as it was eventually very good. The Kingcobra was credited with being the no. 1 aircraft flown durning WWII by the Russian airforce.  It was produced here by Bell aircraft and then given to Russia. It had the highest ratio of kills of any fighter aircraft flown during the war.  It was used to support ground troops because of its super handling and quick response.  I think you will enjoy reading all about it's accomplishments, and become a fan as I have.

Kinda reminds me of the P-39 

[AdamL]

Kinda reminds me of the P-39 

Exactly, the P-39 Airacobra was the innitial model produced. After testing it was rejected by the military and contracts were canceled. Bell went back to the drawing boards and eventually came up with the P-63 Kingcobra which was it's final configeration. Through the 'led lease' program, the government furnished the Russian air force with the plane and they were actually the ones who flew it like it was a real fighting machine.

Ahhh, yes. I recall that story now. A very interesting aircraft. Heavily armed and armoured wasn't it?

[longnine009]

YOU CAN KEEP YOU JETS.....THE PLANES OF WWII ARE LIKE THE CARS OF THE 50'S...BEAUTIFUL......DIFFERENT.....AND FAST....

Yes indeed, I love the sound of radial piston engines especially, like the roar of the Wright Cyclones.  I also love the roar of contra-rotating props like the Tu-95 Bear.

My all time favorite numismatical writing dude was the late Carl Allenbaugh who wrote a column called  Expertease for  COINS. He was a aviation topical collector and once wrote that jets "had all the romance of a sidewalk solicitation."

[longnine009]

I'm pretty sure that it was 12 O' Clock High that got me interested in aircraft. The P-47 Thunderbolt (ugly beast that it was) has always been my favorite. I believe it also holds the record as the weapon that inflicted the most damage on Germany in WWll.

[Nighthawk]

Saw a real sharp P47 fly at an airshow a few years back with D-Day markings all over it. Awesome! 

[Pocketcoins]

Used to fly a lot. Aviation ordnanceman in Marine Corps. Mostly AH-1J Cobra, but could do guns rockets and bombs on any Marine or Navy aircraft. I got to fly in a lot of different aircraft, mostly helicopter's but also we had the OV-10  and of course every ones favorite the KC-131 and 141. The Cobra gun ship is a 2 man A/C with the gunner in the front. They would let the enlisted men fly on test flights, was years before it come me the reasion they did that was it was cheaper to replace one pilot and one enlisted man than it was to replace 2 pilots if the test failed. The coolest thing I ever got to do was in a Cobra at about 9000 ft going into a big white cloud. You could not tell up from down or if you were even moving. Kind of like parking in the sky.  Of course being a Marine I was supposed to say doing a gun run was the most fun, but to tell the truth some of them pilots would just about scare me to death some times. I would think they were never going to pull up. 

[AdamL]

Used to fly a lot. Aviation ordnanceman in Marine Corps. Mostly AH-1J Cobra, but could do guns rockets and bombs on any Marine or Navy aircraft. I got to fly in a lot of different aircraft, mostly helicopter's but also we had the OV-10  and of course every ones favorite the KC-131 and 141. The Cobra gun ship is a 2 man A/C with the gunner in the front. They would let the enlisted men fly on test flights, was years before it come me the reasion they did that was it was cheaper to replace one pilot and one enlisted man than it was to replace 2 pilots if the test failed. The coolest thing I ever got to do was in a Cobra at about 9000 ft going into a big white cloud. You could not tell up from down or if you were even moving. Kind of like parking in the sky.  Of course being a Marine I was supposed to say doing a gun run was the most fun, but to tell the truth some of them pilots would just about scare me to death some times. I would think they were never going to pull up. 

I knew you were in the Marines, but I didn't know you flew with them.

[GregK]

I don't know, sometimes you just fall into it.  Perhaps when my Dad used to run outside when a plane flew over to see if he could identify it (they were mainly Tiger Months) .  There was never a shortage, in the bush, of bush pilots for crop dusting and the like.
As a part of my 24 year tenure in the Australian Navy, I spent four years on the flight deck of a small but capable carrier, that had A4 Skyhawks and S2 Trackers embarked,  along with a variety of helicopters.  I also spent seven years on squadrons .
Favourites:  Most WWII,  love that radial sound.  For later, the A4s were a great little piece-of-kit  and  I liked the F4s.  The RAAF leased these for a while until they got the F111s.    

[scottishmoney]

Somewhere I have a photo of a RAAF A-4 that I saw a few years ago.

[TwoShadows]

I have always had a love for aircraft but my first love growing up would be space travel and exploration. As for flying and remote control aircraft I have to blame TKO for dragging me into this venture but it has had its rewarding moments. I just can't remember to many of them as they are overshadowed by mid-air collisions and the sudden impact from the ground rising up to greet my planes!
Actually, after two years of learning to fly RC, I am getting more comfortable in the air but I am still looking for that perfect plane to fly. Should have a whole new experience tomorrow when I meet my new challenge for the first time. Kind of like a blind date as this deal was all worked out on the telephone so I might be getting an ugly duckling instead of a beauty queen. We will find out tomorrow. All I know is she is going to be big!

[scottishmoney]

Oz is the last AF still flying the Aardvarks, they were retired in the USA a few years ago.  I believe they have to be the largest combat AC still being flown in the RAAF.

[Muckeye]

G'day all,
 Spent my teens as an Airforce Cadet.
At seventeen I signed on into the RAAF and did my training as an Armament Fitter.
Enjoyed life as a serviceman. Earned my gong.
regards, Muckeye.............

[green18]

I got interested in WWII aircraft when I was quite young.  Never flew anything, but boy could I build the model airplane kits from Revell and Monogram.  I can remember peddling my bicycle down to the 5 & 10 every Saturday to pick up a new kit.  I read a biography of Col. Richard Bong at this time and was forever hooked on P-38's.  Check out this clip from the History Channel (and you tube LOL).  Dog Fights is an awesome program....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITRLk9b9AcY

[Goose]

I was a younster during WW II and I got interested when I had to write a tern paper on something in WW II. I loved the P-38 and wrote the report. I got an 'A', which I think was the only 'A' I got through the remainder of grammar school, high school, and college....oh, I forgot...I did get an 'A' in college and never attended a class in physical education. I was on the football team.

[scottishmoney]

The other day I heard the roar of two turbo props and had to race out the backdoor to see what was up, one I hadn't seen in a while, a Convair-580 a mid 1950's twin engined airliner that is apparently flying freight into our local airport.  Probably something for Dow Chemical.  About three years ago the same aircraft was flying in, and smoked an engine, probably having blown a piston and did three loops over our area until landing.