Personal experiences…

Hi all,
From some of you i more or less know under what circumstances you sniffed kerosene, but i’d like to hear from some people here what your personal experiences with aircraft are. Airforce service, regular visits of airshows, aircraft spotters, stuff like that. Desktop flying at Falcon 4.0 does not count, having a Winjeel preserved in your hometown does.

And, if someone has some nice specific experience please feel free to share it with us. As an example, i have one memory i am particularly fond of.

I was only a young aircraft enthusiast, having just started planespotting when i had to do some test at school. Since my school was under RAF Bruggen’s landing pattern (i can’t seem to leave that, the Tornados now fly over my house) i always looked out of the window whenever i heard an aircraft come over.
Now, this German test was pretty hard as i always refused to study. So while i was busy screwing up my test, i heard an aircraft whine. I looked out, and it was a Canberra. Nothing spectaculair in those days (it was 1988 or so), but still good enough to make my day a bit better. Only a few minutes later, i heard some weird propellor sound. Looking up from my paper and out of the window, a Shackleton flew over. The level of seratonine in my blood jumped up, it was only the second time i’d ever seen one of those. But again a few minutes later, something very, very loud came over. It was a Vulcan, the last one flying with the RAF as a demonstration aircraft. I didn’t know that back then, so i was pleasantly surprised to say the least. I guess my faced must have looked about the same as after the first time i had sex. Later that day i found out the aircraft were at Brüggen for the anniversary of 9sqn, so it wasn’t just some lucky coincidence.

http://www.samoloty.amconex.pl/pic/vulcan-016.jpg

Anyone with something similar? I’d love to hear stories like that and i promise i will be friendly. I will also try to keep that promise.

Regards,

Arthur