I will always like models… But I would throw them all in the garbage if I had a chance to fly the real deal full time.
The guys from Camp Pendleton use the freeway near me as part of a training route every once in a while. Today I caught Atlas 75 flight… An AH and UH from HMT-303. The Cobra lead scraping the tree tops with the UH trailing high and behind. And both were practicing defensive weaving as they went. I know everybody wants the jets, but I’d be more then happy in the Cobra.
Amen.
I miss the flying most, not the guys, not the crap, not the PC, not the late nights early mornings, Just the flying. . .okay the jumping out was fun too, but only in the summer.
Nothing like full autos to the water in the HH52A. . .in Mobile Bay. . .when it was 95F and 100% humidity, which was usually all summer long.
same here John… love those CH-46’s for being so smooth and friendly… the 53’s were a bit different and seemed a little cranky… did about 1/2 hour in an AH-1 as a thank you from a pilot that “mysteriously” became symptom free of a illness that would threaten his marriage should the USMC find out (and mysteriously this disease was only contracted in port, never at sea)… that was heaven… Being a “Doc” payed off for once!
[#welcome]! I’m just down the road south of you in Mission Valley. I know what you mean. When I’m up Pendleton’s way on the I-5 it’s hard not to see a Phrog, a few Skids, AMTRACs, and Marines doing what they do best; and you’re driving through part of the training area! Not quite sure about tossing out the models though, but I do missing crewing (started on Phrogs anyway) them.
You’re a lot closer than me. I’m actually in the San Fernando Valley. I think the route they use is up the 5, then on the 101 past me, and on up to Ventura Co. I believe a friend up there told me they fuel at Santa Barbara, then they come back down the shore. The biggest flight I’ve seen was a group of about 6 46’s, and 3 Cobras. They’re usually very low, so that probably freaked a few people out. The only direct Pendleton action I can get from up here, is drive to the hills in Malibu overlooking the water, and listen to them working the range on the radio.
Ahhh yes… the whine of the APU in the early morning fog… feeling the aircraft begin to rock back and forth as the big rotors start turning… the sound/smell of the turbines engaging… [:)]
After all those years and all those hours, I never quite got over the feeling of excitement that THAT atmosphere generated inside me!
Nice to see there are a few people left in SoCal who don’t have the noise complaint hotline on their speed dial. I used to fly out of Pendleton and the attitude towards the military really changed. Now we have to fly 3000 AGL over the Temecula Valley and if they see you they complain. Doesn’t matter that Mirimar was there well before most of those houses and the guys knowingly bought a house at the approach end of the runway - it is still the military pilots who have to defend their flight paths every time one of them calls.
I’m stationed in North Carolina now and feel a lot more appreciated.
Yeah, what can you do… People will whine about anything and everything these days. I grew up in an area that was taken over by tract homes, and what a bunch of sissies those people were. You couldn’t light off a firecracker on the 4th without them snitching you out to the cops. Also, try working in the film biz and shooting on location here. When we show up in the morning, you’d think we were there to kick puppies all day the way they treat us.
You know what’s funny though, is the sound is actually a lot less when you guys fly that low. It all gets absorbed by the trees and stuff. I missed a few flights that way, because they were so quiet, they were gone by the time I looked. The loud ones are when the UH’s are way up there thumping across.
Right. The sound isn’t dispersed over as wide an area. Plus the aircraft depart the listener’s area sooner - Doppler effect. Whenever Blackhawks fly out, they’re low. I can hear them coming and the house shakes as they pass overhead, but as soon as they’re gone, they’re gone. On the other hand, the local medivac helicopter is a Bell 412 and they fly a lot higher. You can watch “Gone With The Wind” between the time you first hear it and when the sound fades. Yet no one complains about LifeForce.
Ahhh the noise!
I live off a major road that leads right to the big water, the old concrete compass. Nasty weather, and they fly right off the deck to get out to the mission area. At zero dark thirty I am glad to roll over and go back to sleep. . .but seem to sleep just a mite better when I hear them come back.
I remember one time in Quantico, we were finishing up some PT at LZ 7 when all of a sudden two Cobras popped out of the treeline (literally rose up from behind the trees) and then did their security pattern around the LZ. You could look up at the gunner and pilot and see the looks on their faces and if they had their visors up, you could tell what color eyes they had. No one heard them in the treeline, until they popped up.
After they flew a few tracks of their pattern, 3 CH-53Es came roaring through the air. Talk about an earthquake from above. Those guys shook many a concrete building.[:D]
So would the Cobras ever use the external tank on a round robin trip like that? Up to Santa Barbara, that’s about 240 miles. I guess you still couldn’t go round trip, even with the tank on.
I love the sound of airplanes. I lived in an apartment complex right next to a municipal airport in Superior, WI. cessna’s and the occasional learjet would take off right over my apartment. After awhile you don’t even notice. The coolest thing I ever saw was when I was doing evasive driving for my law enforcement training. It was at Duluth International. It was misting out and a Fed Ex jet was taking off. It was blowing rooster tails off the runway. It took like a 45 degree angle and climbed out. Those big planes always look like they’re just gonna fall out of the sky. We saw the F-16’s from the 144 fighter wing taking off too. One pilot was taxiiing back to the hanger and wiggled his plane back and forth and held up his hands like he was driving his car. It was hilarious. I have this fascination with airplanes and helocopters, but I have an extreme phobia to flying. And I’m going to Cancun for my honeymoon in September. I’m gonna have to get drunk before or something.
There’s never a more beautiful sound than as the birds are beating the air as they’re inbound to pick you up!
Here at Camp Swampy we get them all; Cobras, Hueys, Phrogs, Big Iron, even Opreys and my youngest daughter (2 yrs) just LOVES them. Just the sound of one sends her to the window to try and see what’s coming. I may have an aviator on my hands in a few
years!
Now, those guys in the artillery, well they need to stop with the battery “fire for effect” antics - it drives my wife crazy! I always tell her; better outgoing than incoming.
