First sightings

Great to read other enthusiasts ‘First sightings’. Also, good to see no one has been pulled up on things like, ‘That airline didn’t fly that route in 1966’.
First impressions are very important, and facts shouldn’t never get in the way of a precious memory.

Great to read other enthusiasts ‘First sightings’. Also, good to see no one has been pulled up on things like, ‘That airline didn’t fly that route in 1966’.
First impressions are very important, and facts shouldn’t never get in the way of a precious memory.

Lots of memories, mostly going back to the late 50s, early 60’s. On trips out with mum & dad.

Often driving past Debden and seeing the gate guardians. Spitfire ?

Camping in Pembrokeshire and watching the Gannets from Brawdy droning over.

Going out for a walk on a Sunday morning whilst camping. There must have been about 20 of us. Coming to a closed gate at the back of Alconbury, and seeing Voodoos lined up. Along with USAF police who thought we were a bunch of peace activists. 🙂

Paying 2 shillings to get into an airshow, which included a flying schedule. On one of my first trips out after getting my driving licence.

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

Lots of memories, mostly going back to the late 50s, early 60’s. On trips out with mum & dad.

Often driving past Debden and seeing the gate guardians. Spitfire ?

Camping in Pembrokeshire and watching the Gannets from Brawdy droning over.

Going out for a walk on a Sunday morning whilst camping. There must have been about 20 of us. Coming to a closed gate at the back of Alconbury, and seeing Voodoos lined up. Along with USAF police who thought we were a bunch of peace activists. 🙂

Paying 2 shillings to get into an airshow, which included a flying schedule. On one of my first trips out after getting my driving licence.

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

My family made the mistake(?!) of taking the six-year old me to Cosford back in 1996: I was hooked: I have very few memories, but remember being overawed by the Vulcan, assuming the Lincoln was a Lancaster, and wondering what the big camouflaged jet was that my Dad was being photographed next to (it was the Javelin).

The following year my Dad and I won tickets to RIAT 1997 in a church raffle, and I got to see and hear my first Spitfires, Lancaster and Mustangs singing their Merlin songs, while a Sabre and Hunter shrieked across the blue sky (it was very hot). Endless lines of C-130s and KC-135s. Snarling Russian jets, shooting skywards on reheat that made the air in the bottom of your lungs crackle. Walking right through a C-5 Galaxy from one end to the other. Having a print signed by a Tornado GR1 pilot with a green flying suit and sunglasses. There was no looking back!

My family made the mistake(?!) of taking the six-year old me to Cosford back in 1996: I was hooked: I have very few memories, but remember being overawed by the Vulcan, assuming the Lincoln was a Lancaster, and wondering what the big camouflaged jet was that my Dad was being photographed next to (it was the Javelin).

The following year my Dad and I won tickets to RIAT 1997 in a church raffle, and I got to see and hear my first Spitfires, Lancaster and Mustangs singing their Merlin songs, while a Sabre and Hunter shrieked across the blue sky (it was very hot). Endless lines of C-130s and KC-135s. Snarling Russian jets, shooting skywards on reheat that made the air in the bottom of your lungs crackle. Walking right through a C-5 Galaxy from one end to the other. Having a print signed by a Tornado GR1 pilot with a green flying suit and sunglasses. There was no looking back!

First Lancaster

The family took junior school me along to an airshow at Cofton Park, Birmingham, in the late 60s or maybe even 1970. No runway there of course, so only flypasts and a few cockpit displays.
I remember being thrilled to sit in the RAF’s plastic Jaguar cockpit, complete with its ‘moving map’ but as I walked over to the Shackleton nose a Lancaster flew over (still don’t know where it was PA474 or NX611) and I have been hooked on Avro’s finest ever since…

First Lancaster

The family took junior school me along to an airshow at Cofton Park, Birmingham, in the late 60s or maybe even 1970. No runway there of course, so only flypasts and a few cockpit displays.
I remember being thrilled to sit in the RAF’s plastic Jaguar cockpit, complete with its ‘moving map’ but as I walked over to the Shackleton nose a Lancaster flew over (still don’t know where it was PA474 or NX611) and I have been hooked on Avro’s finest ever since…

First memories are of Heathrow when my father was P.R.O for Alitalia and they had the ‘new’ DC8s !
After that living in rural Northamptonshire 1963-7 and seeing regular Argosy flights droning across the sky and once a large (16 aircraft I think) formation of Hunters doing aerobatics – I’m guessing it was the Black Arrows practicing.

First memories are of Heathrow when my father was P.R.O for Alitalia and they had the ‘new’ DC8s !
After that living in rural Northamptonshire 1963-7 and seeing regular Argosy flights droning across the sky and once a large (16 aircraft I think) formation of Hunters doing aerobatics – I’m guessing it was the Black Arrows practicing.

I can only have been three or four when my Father did a ‘drop the hat’ from a Tiger Moth, at, I’d guess, Elstree. Don’t recall seeing him fly until I was about eleven and he returned to gliding Thereafter I grew up spending a lot of weekend at various gliding clubs. Austers, Cubs, Swallows, Darts, T21 and 31, Eon, Oly 460.

So it was immersion for me really. First Air Display was Farnborough in ’65 (I think). I don’t recall when exactly I saw my first Merlin powered products, but they are memorable in a different way. Warm Blooded aircraft?

I can only have been three or four when my Father did a ‘drop the hat’ from a Tiger Moth, at, I’d guess, Elstree. Don’t recall seeing him fly until I was about eleven and he returned to gliding Thereafter I grew up spending a lot of weekend at various gliding clubs. Austers, Cubs, Swallows, Darts, T21 and 31, Eon, Oly 460.

So it was immersion for me really. First Air Display was Farnborough in ’65 (I think). I don’t recall when exactly I saw my first Merlin powered products, but they are memorable in a different way. Warm Blooded aircraft?

My first encounter with any sort of aeroplane was a Tiger Moth at Desford, near Leicester. I sat in the front seat while it was taxied from one part of the airfield to the other. I must have been about 6 at the time!

My first encounter with any sort of aeroplane was a Tiger Moth at Desford, near Leicester. I sat in the front seat while it was taxied from one part of the airfield to the other. I must have been about 6 at the time!

Must have been in 1965, living in the northern part of Berlin (West), me and
my Grandpa saw a pair of MiGs flying very low over our street. I was rejoicing,
and Grandpa was absolutely furious. Today I know why and that it must have
been MiG 17 (made drawings of this moment over and over again !), but I
think, that was the beginning of my interest in aircraft.

Must have been in 1965, living in the northern part of Berlin (West), me and
my Grandpa saw a pair of MiGs flying very low over our street. I was rejoicing,
and Grandpa was absolutely furious. Today I know why and that it must have
been MiG 17 (made drawings of this moment over and over again !), but I
think, that was the beginning of my interest in aircraft.

13th March 1954 watched as G-ALAM L-749A Constellation of BOAC crashed on landing at Kalang airport(Singapore)….aged 11 it should have put me right of aviation for ever.

13th March 1954 watched as G-ALAM L-749A Constellation of BOAC crashed on landing at Kalang airport(Singapore)….aged 11 it should have put me right of aviation for ever.

I’m only in my early 30’s so my memories don’t go back as far as some here, but two early memories spring to mind.

The earliest was when I was about 5 and was suffering form a nasty bout of chickenpox, my parents (I think in an attempt to take my mind off it!) drove my sister and me to either Waterbeach or Mildenhall, parked up in a country lane where we watched the Vulcan do an air display, some distance away. I can still see it in my mind’s eye, the most amazing sight, but also the sound crackling off the pine trees that were between us and it. I’d never heard anything so lound, and perhaps hadn’t until this year when the F15 came directly overhead at Duxford with its afterburner on. I think that was in 1984.

The second, which again, I can still see in my mind’s eye was at Duxford – my dad had just bought a short wheel base Land Rover with a hard top and we happened to be driving past Duxford at the close of (I think it was) the Spitfire’s 50th Anniversary airshow. We sat on the roof of the Landy, parked in the naughty field at the end of the runway as 24 (?) Spitfires took off one after another. What a sound and sight that was.

I think it was the second experience which got me totally hooked.

I’m only in my early 30’s so my memories don’t go back as far as some here, but two early memories spring to mind.

The earliest was when I was about 5 and was suffering form a nasty bout of chickenpox, my parents (I think in an attempt to take my mind off it!) drove my sister and me to either Waterbeach or Mildenhall, parked up in a country lane where we watched the Vulcan do an air display, some distance away. I can still see it in my mind’s eye, the most amazing sight, but also the sound crackling off the pine trees that were between us and it. I’d never heard anything so lound, and perhaps hadn’t until this year when the F15 came directly overhead at Duxford with its afterburner on. I think that was in 1984.

The second, which again, I can still see in my mind’s eye was at Duxford – my dad had just bought a short wheel base Land Rover with a hard top and we happened to be driving past Duxford at the close of (I think it was) the Spitfire’s 50th Anniversary airshow. We sat on the roof of the Landy, parked in the naughty field at the end of the runway as 24 (?) Spitfires took off one after another. What a sound and sight that was.

I think it was the second experience which got me totally hooked.