airboiy
Airman 1st Class
Personally, I was interested when my dad took me to the airport and showed me a 747 up close ( his friend works at UPS) and I was amazed.
When did you first become interested in Warbirds?
- Thread starter Medvedya
- Start date
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Klay
Airman
I've loved to look at airplanes since before I can remember. I don't know what prompted it. But I studied every airplane book I could get my hands on and always watched the TV show from the 60s...I think it was called "Wild Blue Yonder." I always especially liked the aircraft of world war 2. This is a great site. I just found it.
N4521U
Colonel
Being a senior, when I was about 9 years old, 1952, I was living in San Lorenzo California, SF Bay Area. There is a small Air National Guard station in Hayward, and they flew Mustangs. I lived just a few blocks from the air port. I would ride my bike to watch them land from the East, later I learned it was from the Tracy area. The soldiers there would stop and say hello since it was pretty obvious I was waiting for the planes to take off or land. I had a classmate whos father flew Corsairs out of Alameda Naval Air Station, he used to take us there to watch them TO and land, gord ahmighty I loved that. One day the ANG police escorted me to the tower gave me their binoculars to watch for the planes from over the Hayward hills, how exciting was this for a nine year old!!!!!! I used to hang out at the rapair hangars as well. Bloody hell, we moved and never had another air port close to me. Never lost the urge to fly. Was a helicopter aircrewman in the Navy, SH34-J sonar operator, USS Yorktown CVS-10. Finally learned to fly at 48, what a day. During my lessons I met a SF 49r tight end at the Livermore AP, he had a P-51, Bob Loves old plane, he took me up with him it in on several occasions. It sounds in stereo, just like it sounds from outside. If you get a chance, no matter the cost, I would suggest taking a ride in one. cheers, Bill
Attachments
1275GT
Recruit
Hi all, I think my interest was first sparked by a visit to the Imperial War Museum in London. I think it was the first time I'd been close to some of the aircraft that I'd seen in books, etc.
It became serious after my first couple of airshow visits. The first was to Old Warden, Beds - a really great little place, mainly WW1 stuff, and you could get up nice and close to real, working aircraft.
The second was the Mildenhall Air Fete, which I guess most of you would know about so I won't g go on, but needless to say I became a regular there and saw some amazing stuff.
The rest, they say, is history.................
Neil
It became serious after my first couple of airshow visits. The first was to Old Warden, Beds - a really great little place, mainly WW1 stuff, and you could get up nice and close to real, working aircraft.
The second was the Mildenhall Air Fete, which I guess most of you would know about so I won't g go on, but needless to say I became a regular there and saw some amazing stuff.
The rest, they say, is history.................
Neil
Last edited:
WarbirdRadio
Airman
I was hooked after my first CAF Airshow (back in Harlingen). Now, some 25+ years later, I'm lucky enough to be around them everyday. Life is good! 
Matt Jolley
WarbirdRadio.com
Matt Jolley
WarbirdRadio.com
snafud1
Senior Airman
You lucky SOB. Welcome to the forums.
WarbirdRadio
Airman
Haha... Thanks! Wish you guys were here at ICAS this week. I think every warbird airshow act in the country is here. Hopefully they'll help inspire the "next generation" of warbird fans.
v/r
Matt Jolley
WarbirdRadio.com
v/r
Matt Jolley
WarbirdRadio.com
I was hooked after my first CAF Airshow (back in Harlingen). Now, some 25+ years later, I'm lucky enough to be around them everyday. Life is good!
Matt Jolley
WarbirdRadio.com
Harlingen? You mean the Frisian harbour here in The Netherlands
snafud1
Senior Airman
If any one there took pics , you ought to have them post them in the Events thread. Can't get enough warbird pics.8)
pbfoot
1st Lieutenant
snafud1
Senior Airman
Now that is cool.
Night Fighter Nut
Master Sergeant
I fell in love with warbirds when I was 5. My neighbor, Mr. Black, gave my brother and I a plane model. Mine was a some four engine cargo plane a cargo master or something, my brother's was the XB70 Valkyre. I probably broke the plane playing with it I don't remember. Later, when I was nine, my dad gave me my first model plane. A Sopwith Camel with an electric motor I had to build. Never got any help from my dad building it and it had excess glue coming out of every seam... That one lasted a little longer than my first plane but from then on I build as many model planes as I could get. All in 72nd scale. I think my brother and I had over 30 planes hanging from our ceiling and I could identify every last one of them. All were WWII planes. I didn't get to build planes again until after I retired from the military in 2003. By then I was a qualified avionics tech working in the medical field. To celebrate veteran'd day, my wife bought me five 48 scale night fighters. She new how much I love WWII planes and thought I would be better building them instead of just collecting those little postage stamp series planes... of which I have dozens of. Now I follow restorations of old warbirds as I find them like the Mid Atlantic Air Museum which is restoring a P-61B to flying condition. One of only four left in exsistance. Point of interest, did anyone know that the FW 190 A and D are being rebuild as new again in Germany?
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
I will be sure to get some pics for you, Nightfighter, of the P-61 when TO and others visit MAAM this June for WWII Weekend.
Night Fighter Nut
Master Sergeant
Thanks... I would really appreciate that. If you take special requests for pictures, let me know.
snafud1
Senior Airman
CrotalusKid
Airman
One day at about six or seven years old I got into the passenger seat of my father's '78 Trans Am. On the floor board lie a copy of "Fine Scale Modeler" with a photo of a Spitfire on the cover. I expressed my fascination, and upon returning home my father introduced my to the PC game "Aces Over Europe". It was a good day. (I suspect my father was upset that my favorite aircraft was no longer what he flew, the F-4 Phantom II.)
My dad was in the USAAF in the Pacific theatre during WW2 and the Reserves after until about 1960 or so. Even though he was not a pilot or flight officer (he was in logistic support and information), airplanes were always a big deal in my family. My mother also liked them. From my earliest memory, I had more toy airplanes than anything else, and started making old Aurora plastic models (with my other's help usually) when I was 5 or 6. A special gift was a big static balsa model of a B-24 my dad made for me when he was in the hospital. I always liked WW2 (and WW1) planes much more than modern jets - which when I was a kid meant F-86's and B-47s. A few years later my folks bought me a copy of William Green's "Famous Fighters of the Second World War" and I basically never read anything other than books about WW2 airplanes for the following several years. I also got hooked by Pierre Clostermann's book - I had a first edition paper back and read it to destruction. Our local airport had also been used to store WW2 planes after the war and I remember messing around in stripped Lockheed Hudsons and the like pretending I was bombing Berlin.
