Oh, to be 40 years younger.. :(

[Wilbur ★]

 

[JerrySTL ★]

Those F-35s can really move. Seeing that Osprey fly by was fun. Notice the sheep on the other side of the valley? They didn't seem to like it.

Back in the 1970s I got to see F-111D aircraft flying basically below me as I was on top of a plateau. They were going supersonic about 400 feet off the ground. You could see them kicking up dust and dirt from the shock wave. The sonic boom was LOUD as I was less than a mile from the aircraft when they passed.

[bikeman564™]

[Wilbur ★]

56 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Those F-35s can really move. Seeing that Osprey fly by was fun. Notice the sheep on the other side of the valley? They didn't seem to like it.

Back in the 1970s I got to see F-111D aircraft flying basically below me as I was on top of a plateau. They were going supersonic about 400 feet off the ground. You could see them kicking up dust and dirt from the shock wave. The sonic boom was LOUD as I was less than a mile from the aircraft when they passed.

I remember the minute I wanted to become a pilot.   Abbotsford airshow in 1970.  I was there with my family watching Pacific Western Airlines 737 doing their fly by, landing configuration and then a high speed pass.  As he flew down the show line he pulled the engines to idle for a near silent fly by.  About 3 seconds after he passed the runway an RCAF CF-104 approached low level behind the crowd 90 degrees to the show line.  Nobody saw him coming and the first sound was the sonic boom, then you felt that hair raising pressure wave hit and heard the throaty roar of the after burner.   I was grinning ear to ear and remember thinking "That is what I want to do!".   Had I gotten in to the airforce a year earlier, I would have been on the 104's.  Missed by that much. 

[maddmaxx ★]

I couldn't get into the Air Force.  

My eyes weren't good enough to either an officer or a gentleman and they were too discouraging to let me cheat my way in.  I had an appointment to Annapolis in my pocket before I failed the physical.  Even the army pushed me out the door.

The navy, looking for enlisted men, was so cavalier about eye exams that they let me in for 2 whole years before they found out that they had screwed the pooch.  At that point they were willing to make some exceptions.  Flying though.........that was out of the question.........I was headed down in the other direction.  (I was always headed down anyway, just farther).

I was an airplane crazy kid though.  My cousin was an air force pilot and we spent part of a summer with him in VA after my father passed away.  He was an F-100 pilot who later flew 105s out of Thailand before retiring as a dentist???

[Razors Edge ★]

11 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Oh, to be 40 years younger..

To be a pre-teen again? Sure, I might enjoy some parts of that, but I can't imagine the onset of pimples is fun in any era.