Just Got Buzzed by a P51…

[irishserb]

… Mustang, wearing invasion stripes.  So low, I’m surprised it didn’t cut any leaves off of the trees.   Heard it, before I saw it.  Amazing the adrenaline surge that those things can cause just hearing them.

No idea why it was in town, but kind of cool.

[kyoteblue]

I live near a small air field and get to see a B-25 from time to time.  Always cool to see it.

[Grimheart]

I have been lucky enough to see a Vulcan fly twice.

Once at an airshow where it went nigh on “vertical” and the other when it was on its final tour around the UK in 2015.

Absolutely awesome to hear and see.

Interest include 6mm WW2, 6mm SciFi, 30mm Old West, DropFleet, Warlords Exterminate and others!

[Shahbahraz]

Most impressive for me was an English Electric Lightning doing a full afterburner takeoff at an airshow in Scotland back in the 70s. Utterly astonishing. The closest I will ever get to seeing a rocket lift off I expect. Sound light, earth shaking…

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[McKinstry]

When I was stationed at Offut AFB in 70-71 we had 3 Vulcans on some kind of NATO cross-attach. Beautiful aircraft that could turn incredibly well at low speed but on the ramp as their engines spooled up they were the loudest aircraft I ever heard.

Saw a B-25 and a B-17 here in Co Springs and allegedly we have a bunch of heritage aircraft coming in for a mid-September airshow.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[Who Asked This Joker]

I was in Ft Lauderdale years ago with my wife.  We were sitting on a deck overlooking the ocean.  I heard a low rumbling and looked up expecting to see one of those Piper Cubs towing a beer sign.  Instead, it was a silver P-51D possibly with Normandy stripes.   Low flight right over the water.  I can share your feeling, Irishserb.  Incredibly cool.

John

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

--Abraham Lincoln

[Etranger]

I used to live just under the flight path for the FA 18’s when they put on a display for the local motor race, just where they turned for another run. Being buzzed by a pair of them at 200 feet or so over 10 or 15 minutes was interesting. Still not as loud as the Flying Pigs doing their dump and burn routine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpPEdOMSIgQ From zero feet straight up into the cloud cover. Loudest thing I ever heard.

[Jemima Fawr]

Back in 1995 (I think) I was taking some cadets for some air experience flying in our usual DHC Chipmunk trainers at what was then RAF Brawdy, on the Welsh coast.

RAF Brawdy was then in a state post-Cold War wind-down and would be transferred to the Army later that year.  The 100+ Hawk jets had gone and all that was left was ‘B’ Flight 202 Squadron’s SAR Sea Kings, the visiting detachment of Chipmunks and a restored P-51D that had sat in the corner of one of the hangars for years.  The P-51 had been painstakingly restored over several years by one of the Hawk instructors and a team of volunteers from among the techies, but now that the station had effectively closed, it HAD to go, so they put a final effort into getting it flying.

So there I was, watching cadets get their trips in the Chippy on what was officially the last-ever day of fixed-wing aircraft operations at RAF Brawdy and I was to be given the privilege of having the last-ever trip!  🙂 Some time before I took off however, the P-51 was rolled out of its hangar and with everyone watching, took off for its first post-rebuild air test.  The P-51 did a few circuits and then came back, refuelled and disappeared off to do some upper-air handling tests.

At last the cadets had all flown and I had my trip out over the beautiful Welsh coast.  As usual, the ‘Flying Officer’ pilot was a retired Air Marshal with 10,000 hours in Lightnings or somesuch and a Qualified Flying Instructor, so with my experience let me fly front seat – ace! 😀  We climbed up to 5,000 feet over Strumble Head and had fun doing some aerobatics, then headed back, taking in the spectacular view along the coast, when “DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA!!!” was heard over the radio (Air Traffic Control was closed, so we were making our own calls on the local frequency, so this ‘slightly informal’ use of radio would only have been heard by us!), followed by a P-51 flashing close by overhead!

“Bastard!  He’s not going to do that to us again!  Right, you have control… roll in… keep pulling back on that turn… tighten up man… that’s it… nearly there… ‘FOX FOUR!  Got the bastard!'”

I’m not sure my instructor was accurate in that optimistic estimate of my dogfighting skills, but it’s not every day you get to dogfight against a WW2 fighter… 🙂

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[PaintingLittleSoldiers]

I get the odd Spitfire, Polikarpov or DC flying around the sound alone has me running around like a school boy.

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