Ok, How did you get the flying bug??

[Guest Crezzi]

I don't think Greenham Common is an airfield at all now ! It was, of course, famous for the anti-nuclear protests in the early 80s.

Its about 5 years since I last flew over Greenham Common - IIRC the runway had been removed by then but it was still identifiable as an ex-airfield. Doubt there is much evidence left now. Quite sad as I remember going to the International Air Tattoo there as a lad.

 

I grew up in Derby (the Uk one pronounced "Darby") which is the home of Rolls Royce aero engines (who my Dad worked for). Lockheed flew the first prototype L1011 Tristar over & it did a lot of low orbits of the city as a thank you to the workforce for designing & building the RB211 engines. I remember standing in the garden watching it through a pair of binoculars - I would have been maybe 9 or 10 at the time. After that, I spent all my school holidays cycling the 30km round trip to see the planes at the local airport at Castle Donnington (now called East Midlands Airport). A few years later my Dad managed to arrange a few flights for me with the Rolls Royce Flying Club at Hucknall near Nottingham. Its been downhill ever since ;-)

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

Probably drifting off-topic a little, but some of you may get a grin from part of this.

 

 

Greenham Common was a place you did NOT go to by air. The runway was that big you could see it for bloody miles so avoiding it was not difficult even in the normal UK murk.

 

 

Back in those days, and to set the scene, the Cold War was a damn sight hotter than most of the population ever knew. For example we (USA and UK) lost about 60 aircraft and their crews (about 500 persons plus) shot down in peacetime on penetration missions. Critical bases were very sensitive and the situation was taken very seriously. Nothing of course was ever printed in the press.

 

 

I was working at the National Gliding Centre when the following event happened.

 

 

Lasham had a very active Polish club. They were very revved up guys, very high on balls and courtesy. One of them rejoiced in the name of “Polish Joe’ and despite years still did not speak much English.

 

 

One day Joe was out an about and ran out of thermal steam trying to get back off a long cross country. Not understanding the potential gravity of the situation he elected to land at Greenham. Why go into a paddock when Greenham was that many miles long he could put down there without even using any airbrakes if he wished.

 

 

He put down neatly beside the control tower and was promptly monstered by armed guards brandishing formidable automatic weapons who came out of jeeps with more serious artillery on them – which were all pointing at him and were all loaded and cocked!

 

 

The Americans were not impressed at all by Joe’s halting English and became even more tense. They got even tenser when they heard the barograph ticking!!!!

 

 

A barograph in those days was a wind up clockwork device that draws a feeler around a smoked drum. You thus had a record of your flight in terms of time and height because the devices were calibrated very accurately. They also emit a very loud ‘ticking soundâ€! Bomb!!!!

 

 

I am not sure how Joe talked his way out of it without being slung in the cells and the aircraft impounded but he did. My bit in the proceedings was to take the enclosed 35’ long trailer into the base to retrieve the glider.

 

 

That was not too bad but the gate guards wanted to look in everything and then we were closely escorted to the aircraft. Once we had it loaded and everyone had fully relaxed, the natural American hospitality came out. We were ushered to one of the clubs and liberally plied with free drinks for a couple of hours. That was OK for most of the crew who drank spirits, especially Joe because they had vodka (that he criticised something fierce) but I only drank beer. Unfortunately the American beer was as weak as cat’s piss which probably was not a bad thing as I was driving! I enforced a few free rounds of real beer when we got home.

 

 

Similar to the above, but far more serious, was an episode in Germany a few years earlier. The base was a strike outfit and had both a nuclear bomb dump and a gliding club – bad combination!

 

 

Airworthiness on the gliders was a bit primitive and at the top of one winch launch the rudder half fell off a Grunau and dropped across the elevator – robbing the pilot of control and forcing a situation of riding it out in a gentle low speed turn until the ground arrived.

 

 

The ground in question happened to be the bomb dump which was formed of grass covered concrete bunkers with very steep sides. One of these the glider collided with, seriously breaking both of the pilot’s legs.

 

 

There was no mercy or first aid – just a ring of .50 cal machine guns and impassive guards about 6’4†tall and built like brick toilets, while they awaited an officer to appear. When this happened there was a further wait until a medical officer appeared – which took a couple of hours!

 

 

Meantime there was a standoff between machine guns and distraught gliding club members at the bomb dump entry. But nobody went anywhere, everyone was taking it all very seriously!

 

 

That gives a glimpse of what it was like back in those days of Greenham and so many other places, but always below the surface and nobody heard anything about it.

 

As a footnote: Hi Zaazoo! As a kid I was at an airfield that was flying Harvards just out of Bulawayo (then Southern Rhodesia) so we have a bit in common as well.

 

 

Aye

 

 

Tony

 

 

[planedriver]

Very interesting Tony,

 

Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

[ZAZOO]

Hi Tony

 

 

Great story!:thumb_up:

 

 

Yes those Harvard’s........... Listening and watching them coming over in formation was awesome!

 

 

It was probably the closest thing to even get an ostrich to take to the air….

 

Cheers

 

Zazoo

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

As well as watching Sky King save the day. My grand parents on mums side had a farm at Chipping Norton overlooking Bankstown Aerodrome as it was known as then. We lived for there for some years until our house was built at Panania near the old dog racing track. On the farm i remember being woken up to those very loud vampires being run up. gran told me they were trying to burn the fog off. i remember a huge bang one day and shortly after there were a heap of fire trucks with sirens screaming going past the farm. i copped a smack on the ass for kicking up a stink when being dragged back from the gate to the house. i wanted to watch the action. i could not have been older than 3, I think it was a vampire that went in. My aunt souvinered a bit.

 

Later when our house was built i used to sit in the front yard on saturday mornings and watch a constant stream of aircraft going past and turn left onto base for the westerly runway. i became really anxious one day for a little red plane that kept going round and round, i thought he was in trouble and could not land. 4 year olds don't know about touch and goes. about this time i went to my first airshow at BK, Huge, military jumpers landed right next to me, a clown on a bike hanging under a helicopter, lots of noise from those jets. Of course during the day i wandered off and found myself sitting in a seat of a 4 engine passenger plane, had my belt all done up and i was ready to go. had dummy spit when they kicked me off. I remember standing there in awe as that big plane climbed out and headed off to where ever, whilst rubbing my ass from the spanking my old man gave me for 'getting lost', wasn't lost i was just off on my first solo adventure. we'd sit in the yard and watch the 'skywriters' scribe neat adverts in the sky, like "LUV" (dog food), "UNCLE SAM" (the underarm spray.) years later and long sinced moved from that house i was doing circuits with my instructor mate in a red tailed C150, went past the old dog track and set up for base and looked down at the old house.

 

had a little chuckle to myself when i thought of the dopey kid who almost broke his neck trying to skydive off the roof of the house.

 

I don't think i wanted to fly all that much when i was a kid, it was more like always wanting to go to the moon.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest Kevin the Penniless]

I worked on the big flight simulators while on working holiday in England. After I got back to Australia I went straight to Parafield and learn't to fly. That was in 1981.

 

 

[Guest Brett Campany]

Oh jeez......my grandfather took me up in a C172 from the NSW Police Aero Club at YHOX when I was about 8 years old. Every time I went to Sydney for holidays after that (about twice a year) I went flying with Pa for a few hours and he let me have the controls before I could even see over the coaming. At 15 he arranged about 5 hours of lessons over a 2 week period and also took me ultralight flying in a new Thruster 500. He was an instructor for a school at The Oaks. So I was hooked from a really young age!

 

During high school I did work experience for a GA company and did some flying there, joined the RAAF Air Cadets as well but only went flying once in 2 years then in 1991 did more work experience at the WA Police Air Wing and got some hours flying in the twin Squirrel. I kept in contact with those guys for years an also got a number of flying hours in the BK117.

 

Anyhow, after that flying just got to expensive and I was bumming round in low paid jobs for a while before joining the Navy and getting some cash there. left the Navy for my first job in aviation as an electronic observer with Surveillance Australia and now working for AeroRescue where a couple of the pilots there mentioned about the RAA side of aviation and now here I am.

 

Determination is all I have now to get my license, give it a couple of months and I'll have it in hand!

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Brett, go you good thing:thumb_up:....

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Ps, regarding the bug..

 

Im pretty sure its afliction i was born with.. The doctors said the prognosis was grim, id be stuck with it for life.. And being brought up in Moree didn't help the matter.. Stones throw from the airport and all those crop dusters buzzing around the place, a little bloke had no hope of recovering from his affliction..

 

cheers

 

 

[Guest ROM]

Won a wartime propaganda book illustrated with Spitfires, Hurricanes, Wellington's, and I think Messerschmitts, when I topped the 2nd grade class in our very small country school in 1944.

 

Plus regular beatups across the school by the Wirriways from the Nhill RAAF training base.

 

One of these went home with the school radio aerial of those times, a 10 metre length of copper wire, wrapped around his prop.

 

I was mightily impressed!!

 

I always wanted to fly after that but that was only a dream until I won a bet with Old Man that he made in front of the family so he had to let me go and start training for my license in tigers in 1959.

 

 

[Gibbo]

My brother introduced me to flying when I was about 18.. No money therefore did'nt take it any further than a couple of hrs of dual time.

 

My employer almost had a heart attack when he saw the costs of me working out in the big 'paddocks' and being based in Melbourne - $15k on fuel in a single trip and over 250 hours of driving. The boss made 'large' donation to the cause and I am now 'certified'. He has saved himself a fortune. Flying a Jab is half the cost of driving into remote areas.

 

Started lessons Sept 2007 and now have over 200hrs up as of jan 1, 2009. Must have set a record. Three days after getting the cross country endorsement I was flying my self around the country. 65 hrs of nav time within a month and a half of getting my endorsement. :) Hooked for life.

 

Gibbo

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Reply to Ozzie # 30.....to the moon alice, to the moon !.

 

Hey Mozartmerv..If you grew up in Moree near the airport do you remember in the early Seventies a couple of crazy skydivers doing two demo jumps into the Moree show ?..(square canopys, new then, and lots of orange smoke in freefall) . Whoever it was that hired us ran us back to the airport in his Leyland P76.

 

 

[Guest Dr Nick]

Franky, I don't know when my love of flying began...

 

As long as I can remember I have always wanted to fly.

 

As for the website, a Google search once again did wonders. I needed info about this kind of thing (and hopefully on day I'll have the knowledge to help people) and so I found what I was looking for right here :)

 

Nick.

 

 

[Ben Longden]

Dad and his brother were in the RAF during the war, and so life at home always related to flight. We would go to every airshow around including Farnborough. All of my books at home revolved around flight, Spits, ME109s and Wellingtons.

 

Uncle Ted stayed in the RAF, and despite being refused pilot status during the war, working as a nav, radio operator, gunner in Sunderlands, Liberators and Lancasters he ended up being a test pilot for the air force, and was given the AFC for his services in perfecting mid air refuelling techniques (or so he says, as at the time he was with 101 Sqn doing spook stuff over Russia at the height of the cold war)

 

Once we came to Oz, I lived in Moree for a while and worked for the cropdusters as a flagman - that was so cool !

 

I always wanted to fly, and as a 12 year-old I said to Mum I wanted to be a pilot with the Air Force but she dismissed it one day by saying "you wear glasses". If I had known then what I do now, things would have been different.

 

Ben

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Maj, i was only born in 75, but, i do recall seeing jumpers at an airshow when i was very young.. I thought they were jumping off the grain silo across the road from the strip which they obviously weren't( young dillusuional mind) , but i do remember they had smoke coming off them..i went to hospital for a year when i was 6 and it was before that, so prolly around 1980...

 

cheers

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Yes sorry about that Merv, I tend to forget that I have actually got old now, probabily some other damn fool skydivers that you saw, trying to emulate our previous efforts. I do remember Moree folk as being pretty friendly though.

 

 

[Guest Brett Campany]

Yes sorry about that Merv, I tend to forget that I have actually got old now, probabily some other damn fool skydivers that you saw, trying to emulate our previous efforts. I do remember Moree folk as being pretty friendly though.

That must have been some time ago cause the wife and I lived in Moree in 2006 for all of 4 months and have to say that it wasn't the best experience we had.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Yes R461, I have been told the place had change a bit.

 

 

[Guest Brett Campany]

Yes R461, I have been told the place had change a bit.

yeah I could see the potential for the area but some of the locals really spoiled it. We were only there for 4 months while I worked at Now FM as an announcer. Ended up back at home right after that.

 

ok.....

 

 

[bushpilot]

Spent hours building model planes and reading Biggles stories, dreamt of flying jets in the RAAF but life got in the way , took my first ride in a real airplane by doing a TIF at age 38 the bug bites hard and doesn't let go ,cheers Mat

Ditto for me - except my TIF was on an old Piper Colt at age 19; then I bought a share in it (it was owned by a 6 person syndicate) and 23 hours lessons later had my PPL. :thumb_up:

 

 

[Tomo]

Thought I'd dig this thread out again, because we now have quite a few more newy's to the site....

 

 

[GraemeK]

Thought I'd dig this thread out again, because we now have quite a few more newy's to the site....

OK, newie here - here's my story.

 

I grew up in the '50's under the approach to RWY26 at Essendon, so saw everything from

 

Viscounts to 727's close up from the backyard. Pretty exciting stuff, but poor family so no chance of flying in them .

 

Then after (first) marriage, lived for a while on the eastern boundary of YMEN where the throaty tones of the B&B Bristols doing their runups late at night used to lull me and the bride to sleep .....:thumb_up:

 

From there, spent most of my last 30 years travelling back and forth to the US and Europe in the big kero burners, up to a dozen or more times per year. Pre 9/11 was a great time, with plenty of rides up front and lots of interesting take-offs and landings - plus met a lot of really great pilots with lots of stories to share.

 

Now I'm retired (or retrenched or whatever, who cares at this stage :big_grin: ) at the age of 59 I finally realised my lifelong desire to fly. So I'm here solely to enjoy myself - no hour-building for me, I'm too old to aspire to a CPL or ATPL ;). And RA is an absolute godsend!

 

From here, I hope to build or buy a plane (build would be great, but not sure SWMBO would agree, but then she'd probably not be happy with buying either) and spend heaps of time in the air exploring some of the beauty this country has to offer.:thumb_up:

 

 

[gofastclint]

My great grandfather was a pilot in the Polish Air Force. He performed aerobatics at shows around the county, he also pinched a plane from the French, and took it back to poland on a mission. And they copied it in an air force factory, where he worked as the test pilot until he was shot by Nazi's on the way to work. My grand father told me all these stories as a kid.

 

My mum's cousin was a Harrier pilot in the RAF, who saw combat in the Falklands. Always loved the stories.

 

Anyway, what's cooler than flying? It's the one activity the truly satisfies me.

 

 

[Guest mike_perth]

Well for me it was a combination.

 

Firstly my dads an underwater photographer so as a family we always travelled to exotic diving locations around the world so spent heaps of time staring out the window of kero burners "watching the wing" dont know why but always been obsessed with wathcing the spoilers, ailerons, slats, flaps etc and always wanted to be the one up the front making all those things happen and flying us off to those exotic locations!

 

Secondly it was watching movies like TOP GUN whilst walking around the house with two airfix models in my hands having a dog fight with my Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses on asking the tower for permission to "Fly By" only to be told that the pattern was full!

 

Mike

 

 

[Timm427]

I Went to an airshow in country NSW. After the show I went up to the Aerobatic display pilot, who was fyling a 2 place pitts, and asked if I could pay him to take me for a ride. He said he was not allowed to take any money to take me for a ride but he said he would do it for nothing.(and that's exactly how I remember it).

 

he showed me a few things like how to tighten the harness and how to speak on the intercom and away we went

 

we taxxied out to the runway and took off to the South and a voice came over the intercom "OK you take the controls" I replied very quickly "No No I am not a pilot" he said "thats ok i'll talk you through it" (thinking back, I don't think the fact I wasn't a pilot came as a suprise to him)

 

With the pilot telling me what to do with the stick and rudder pedals (I did have a little of an idea having flown R/C planes before, but I do mean little) we flew up to 5000ft. Then he got me to line up on a road and drop the nose untill we were doing 110 knots (or was it 120) then pull back on the stick and look above and wait untill yo see the road again then level out when the horizon comes around. Hang on that was a LOOP!

 

This was followed by a stall (hammerhead) turn flying it straight up while keeping the horizon at 90deg out to the side and at the top kicking in left rudder until your looking straight at the ground. This was followed by a couple of 1G rolls, aileron rolls with a little back pressure on the stick.

 

In the middle of all that there were a couple of tight turns and manouvers that connected the loops and rolls.

 

After about 15mins of ammature aerobatics the pilot said "I'll take the controls and show you what a snap roll feels like" Well I can tell you what it feels like when you dont know what to expect. It feels like the left side of your face slapping a perspex bubble with sufficient force to smear saliva over the inside of the canopy while your right eyeball (the one not pressed against the canopy) wittnesses the world snap around in front of you.

 

The pilot asked me "do you want to try anything else or will we head back" I had one of those DID I THINK THAT OR SAY THAT MOMENTS "I'll try one of those". He explained that a snap roll is no ailerons and then at the same time full up elevator and full right rudder. I mentally prepared and then launched into it. Unfortunatly my brain still said STICK MAKES PLANE GO AROUND and with the addition of full rudder and elevator in my efforts to make it happen quickley I added full aileron.

 

I knew straight away I didn't do it right for 2 reasons 1. It felt different even with my face off the canopy and 2. the ground was above me now.

 

I had a second go at the snap roll and nailed it (at least in my mind) locking the horizon in as soon as it came back to level.

 

That was my first ever experience at flying a plane and I was hooked. When I got home I hunted out my next flying experience and found myself in the front of a Blanik sailplane after theinstructor handed me the controls (not as trusting as the Pitts pilot as I could feel the he was limiting the control movemet) I did a turn to the right and thought "this thing feels broken" after we had landed I decided that my future flying would have to involve an engine.

 

It only took another 23 years but I got there, and I have to say my most vivid memories of flying are that first loop 23years ago and my first solo only 1 year ago.