h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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So what's your interest in warbirds then? My daddy was navigator on B-24's in WWII, and B-25's in Korea, and I got the bug from him. When Kermit Weeks first bought the Lib, dad and I drove out to see it, and one could tell it was a big emotional experience for dad to be allowed to actually go inside it. The rest of us were restricted. But after dad died a few years ago, I discovered a piece of B-24 out in the garage -- the bomb sextant, still in its original wooden box, with the original instructions! Wowsers....

I also have bunches of photos he took, of all manner of planes, plus quite a few of life at the airfield.

btw, I LOVE the Dr. John GIF. I can't call myself a deadhead, but I do pay a lot of attention to Mickey Hart.

In a previous incarnation, I was a pilot (IRL)

My godfather is Air Marshall Sir Christopher Hartley and his father was the first chairman of British European Airways (now almalgamated with BOAC as BA)

Say no more!

As I write this (8:45 am), I hear the planes banking over my house at absurdly short intervals. All the common-or-garden light stuff, pipers and cessnas, single engine stuff. If these people are flying in now and they've come a distance, than they've been flying at night. Check out http://www.sun-n-fun.org and have a look at the NOTAM.

When Dad came to England to see me in 1974 (when I was living & married in Birmingham), he drove over to Norfolk to try and find his old airfield. And he did, too: some of the nissen huts were still there, as was the runway ... but it was a pig farm.

Thanx for the link.
Now I feel all nostalgic. *sobs into beer*

1:30 pm and it's been a busy day. Just saw a Lancaster and a Dakota in garish yellow livery fly in. Four fighters that I didn't really recognise (double dorsal fins) screeched down, folllowed by an F-1 (?) one of those jets from the fifties with the intake in the nose. They make an unearthly howling noise. And there's been a P-38 and a few mustangs, and a couple of things I didn't recognise ... plus every manner of light aircraft.

In your previous incarnation were you private, commercial, military?

Military. But that doesn't make a Top Gun!

Someone's got to fly the Hercs.

An honourable aircraft. Flies through hurricanes. Did you have a deadhead sticker on yours?

Another warbird story: A few years ago, after Kermit Weeks had got his Lib airworthy, he and the only other airworthy B-24 in the world flew into Lakeland in company with a B-17. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I went down to have a look and those of us who showed up were allowed to crawl everywhere but into the cockpits. All the pit crew for Weeks's B-24 had great physiques because they had to rotate the props every hour. Anyway, it was a terrific sound when they all revved up, and I went home to tell my dad about it (he had emphysema and was tethered to an oxygen supply). "You should have heard it when there were 60 B-24's warming up for take-off in the morning," he told me.

Ain't it a tragedy to think there are sounds that nobody will ever hear again, like that?

Indeed, indeed. On the other hand, I've heard the sound of a squadron of Vulcans taking off in (putative) anger.

You want earthquakes? (It makes ya' wobbly bits turn to jelly!! Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!)

Ah, that would be the Falklands, then? That must have been WONDERFUL! A righteous thunder!

Both Liberators are in town (you've probably read on the cafe thread). It must be Sun-n-Fun 2000, beeg event. Maybe tomorrow I'll see them in the air together! Kermit's B-24 sounds rough, at least one of the engines is knacking like an egg beater. Have you seen the story (forget where I told it) about how he nearly got knocked out of the sky last year by some box-of-rocks in a Cessna (at the Fly In)?

How do you insure a B-24...

Easy, AL, by flying it properly.

Umm, yes to the Falklands and also yes to other stuff I'd rather not think about.

Still love flying tho'

Oh, so you still go up? Couldn't somebody with your background go on to commercial stuff, 767's?

Would love to give a reply, but the forums aren't private enough.
But I still fly occasionally...................why give up the ultimate high?

Hello Doctor,
Just checked out your beautiful page and had to comment (commend?). I'm not really a deadhead but I saw them 5 or 10 times. The best two were in Highgate, Vermont USA. They were in a huge field and there were over 100,000 people both times. They were also the last two I got to see. He did a hell of a job while he was here.

I also fly, but only kites and such. My latest flights are on my home page here.
Loved the Steal Your Face picture.

Thanx for the compliment.

If your mind is in the kite, then you're flying!

*moment of silence for Jerry*
Hi Cloughie!
I'll be looking up at the warbirds tomorrow and I'll be flying!

It's supposed to rain here tomorrow. Looks like I'll be flying indoors.

Hey, look up warbirds on the guide and see a Herc

Hey, look up my entry warbirds (on my page) and see a Herc