Aviation BS and Photo Thread

Pics or it didn't happen!

But, I do the same shit...non airplane peeps give me crap about it.

 

I hear something fly over and then I realize I'm the only one looking up...happens all the time

 

...^^^... Ditto ..... Ha ha ha ... really made me laugh ... my friends think I am crazy always looking up.

 

It'll be at Livermore this whole weekend. You should go!

 

...^^^... One of my buddies used to work at the old version of Lawrence Livermore Labs doing weird things there.

 

Interesting. I grew up not too far from there. I remember during 9/11 that people were scared it was going to be hit by terrorists.

I learned to fly at the Livermore airport, and then I was a flight instructor there for a few years. The final approach course goes right over the lab and I used to look down and see if I see anything interesting. I could not.

 

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I am sure you actually have more hours than most of us had at your age ... maybe even in our lifetime.

I had and still have some weird friends ... my buddy at LLL ... calls the old LLL as 1.0 ... and today at LLNL he calls it 2.0.

He could have had any MOS in the military he wanted ... even carrier jets probably ... but he went rotary.

After the military, he got a double PhD and went to work at LLL ... later he called it LLNL.

Our other older buddy stayed with Air America from RVN for almost another 20 years ... then went to American A/L in FL as a maintenance bossman.

Another one did high end govt. intel ... then slid into a cool, high paying job at Google.

All started out in rotary ... except Air/Amer. Jimmy ... and he was fixed wing only.

Out of 5 of us ... 1 dustoff ... 3 flew slicks ... and I did guns as last job.
I was the only non-smoker & non-drinker back then ... lol

PS ... Just looked at your photos for the first time ... exceptionally nice work there.
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Im going for a ride in this tomorrow...I don't fly at all so I'm pretty jazzed.

 

I think it was at Moffett today.

 

You are correct. The B-17 and B-24 will be at Livermore on May 29-31.

 

$450 for a ride in the 17 or 24. $3+grand for an hour long "lesson" in a P51.

The Mythbusters dudes got the training and Adam got to fly in the U2-imagine what that'd be like.

 

...^^^... One of those P-51's is hangered at Peachtree City (just south of Atlanta).

My coffee shop buddy did a 45 min ride and IIRC was around $2300 (have to look in another thread for exact cost) and payment is considered a "donation" to keep planes flying.

I think that specific P-51 does most of the private flying for donation $$ at the shows.

FWIW .. Several years ago at PDK ..they did an airshow that was kinda of a reenactment of Pearl Harbor with many planes going in many directions at different altitudes at once. ...

I am very surprised that the FAA allowed this ... saw it from the road and it looked wild. ...
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I bet it was well planned and possibly looked "worse" than it actually was? I would have liked to see that for sure.

I know a number of movie shoots were done using 1/4 scale planes-pretty bad ass dog fights

 

I love the Mythbusters!! I have watched them from day one and the episode at Neale AFB flying the U2 was one of my favorites.

 

https://youtu.be/bc8wnu8bsB0[/media]
https://youtu.be/yrK1f4TsQfM[/media]

These were good too.

 

I walked up and kissed the cockpit...

sorry mom.

 

Several years ago when I was a flight instructor, I got to know the pilots of the B-24 that came into Livermore. I tried so hard to get them to give me a ride, but paying customers always came first. It was fun hearing the war stories from a dying breed of heroes sitting in the cockpit with them, but alas, I never got the ride.
I have a buddy now that is actually training with them and learning to ferry the B-24.

Me, back in day of hopes and dreams.

 

^
holy cow

 

On a side note, you have the exact truck I would want if I ended up with a 3rd gen