Author Topic: Are we...geeks? (Read 599 times)

Benny Moore · « **Reply #15 on:** January 11, 2007, 11:51:29 AM »

You can always tell one of the old birds. Something about those ancient engines just calls to you! I'm certain I heard a Merlin over my house a few weeks ago. It sounded like a P-51, but I never saw it.

ChickenHawk · « **Reply #16 on:** January 11, 2007, 01:13:37 PM »

A few years ago I was walking outside at work and heard the unmistakable sound of a warbird. I looked up in time to see a P-51 flying low and quite close to my building. But what still gives me chills to this day is that closely following it was a bf-109. I consider myself very lucky to have seen a 109 in the "wild" and know that chances are I will never see another.

I always look up when I hear a plane. You never know what you're going to see.

Oh, yeah. I pretty sure we're just enthusiasts. Yeah, almost positive.

Debonair · « **Reply #17 on:** January 11, 2007, 02:34:15 PM »

i thought all the beech starships were bunking at Pinal Air Park.
you're positive it wasnt a Piaggio Avanti?

nirvana · « **Reply #18 on:** January 11, 2007, 02:36:06 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Benny Moore
Somehow it's normal for men to obsess over cars, but not over aircraft which can do literally everything hundreds of times better than those cars, and which have another entire dimension?

I work on cars but my true love is airplanes. I like a car show but I'd prefer to be listening to the roar of a prop. I figure I can balance them out fairly well though.

republic · « **Reply #19 on:** January 11, 2007, 02:57:39 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Debonair
i thought all the beech starships were bunking at Pinal Air Park.
you're positive it wasnt a Piaggio Avanti?

No the plane itself was larger with the engines in nacelles above the wing, it had the distinctive long 'thin' wings with the wingtip rudders, plus the canard was swept ever so slightly and much larger.

It was really a sight to see, that plane is so elegant.

cav58d · « **Reply #20 on:** January 11, 2007, 03:05:47 PM »

Collins Foundation brings the 17 and 24's into KBDR 2-3 times a year, and they always happen to fly over my house...It could be a seemlingly completely random day, and I hear those four engines and run outside! it rules!

I live a couple minutes from the Sikorsky Plant. Sure I get a lot of blackhawks, s-76's and 92's..............but when a -53 comes over head at 500 feet, there is nothing like it. Shakes the entire house!

woooooooooot

republic · « **Reply #21 on:** January 11, 2007, 03:14:50 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by cav58d
Collins Foundation brings the 17 and 24's into KBDR 2-3 times a year, and they always happen to fly over my house...It could be a seemlingly completely random day, and I hear those four engines and run outside! it rules!

I live a couple minutes from the Sikorsky Plant. Sure I get a lot of blackhawks, s-76's and 92's..............but when a -53 comes over head at 500 feet, there is nothing like it. Shakes the entire house!

woooooooooot

You lucky dog! I get to see the B-52's regularly at Tinker, that's about the only regular sight I have...but I don't get to OKC that often.

Debonair · « **Reply #22 on:** January 12, 2007, 12:09:54 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by republic
No the plane itself was larger with the engines in nacelles above the wing, it had the distinctive long 'thin' wings with the wingtip rudders, plus the canard was swept ever so slightly and much larger.

It was really a sight to see, that plane is so elegant.

You know your stuff, looks like beech only scrapped all the ones they could, but there are still some flying, including N45FL based in Tulsa.
45FL opted out of tracking at flightaware.com:noid:noid:noid:noid:noid:noid

Kurt · « **Reply #23 on:** January 12, 2007, 12:28:06 AM »

Avanti's also have that god awful engine/prop noise, there is one that goes in and out of KVNY quite regularly (I'm right about under the FAF for 16R) and I hate that damn thing.

The Piaggio also isn't a true canard design in that it still has a horizontal stab (t-tail) at the rear... The Beech had the main wing at the rear.

There was one based at VNY up until about 4 years ago... This is not that one though...

Debonair · « **Reply #24 on:** January 12, 2007, 12:46:45 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Kurt
...I'm right about under the FAF for 16R and I hate that damn thing...[/IMG]

The Romance of Flying lol

Hap · « **Reply #25 on:** January 12, 2007, 12:51:06 AM »

Republic,

We are geeks. And most of us fairly anti-social geeks. So say the facts.

Regards,

hap

VermGhost · « **Reply #26 on:** January 12, 2007, 02:07:54 AM »

I remember when I was in high school at my mothers house in Santa Clarita, it was a summer day and I was upstairs doing something near the 2nd floor balcony. In the distance I heard the odd sound of an engine that got louder and louder until it made the whole house shake. I bolted out to the balcony and just as I looked up a P-51 with yellow/white and black checkering on the engine compartment zoomed out headed east/northeast to the desert.

Had one of those I should tell someone! moments, but pretty sure my parents would know what I was talking about.

About a month later I read in the paper about the plane and its pilot was issued a citation for flying below to residential ceiling during his flight out of Van Nuys to the aerobatic zone near edwards I think. I thoguht it was pretty awesome. Had a T-6 circle above my house too a few months later, not sure why though.

Kurt · « **Reply #27 on:** January 12, 2007, 08:25:50 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Debonair
The Romance of Flying lol

Its only that stinking avanti that bugs me, comes in every day or so... I don't know what its so noisy, there are lots of jets and turboprops going over all the time and none of them are that abrasive.

Kurt · « **Reply #28 on:** January 12, 2007, 08:28:22 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by VermGhost
I remember when I was in high school at my mothers house in Santa Clarita... Had a T-6 circle above my house too a few months later, not sure why though.

There are a lot of T-6's and Van Nuys that come over Santa Clarita.. 'Condor Squadron'. There is also the Conferederate Airforce Museum at Camarillo which has a really nice one as well as a A6M, F6F, F8 Bearcat, P28, Spit14 etc etc.. So sometimes you'll see those in the Santa Clarita valley also.

Halo · « **Reply #29 on:** January 12, 2007, 02:04:30 PM »

Enthusiasts are some of the most interested, interesting, and knowledgeable people on the planet. That kind of motivation is more born than taught.

Geeks tend to be more compulsive to the exclusion of balance.

Just my amateur differentiation.

I think most Aces whose posts I've seen seem much more enthusiast than geek. But it's hard to tell unless you know the posters in their overall environments.