Living near an airbase

Gidday,
I live about an hour's dive north of NAS Norwa( HMAS Albatross). I used to go to their air shows on a regular basis, but they are boring now. When the RNZAF A-4's were based there, it was great. They used to put on the best displays! Mainly helicopters now, with RAAF C-130H/J's and Cariboo, with the occasional AP-3C transitting through. Have seen Nimrods, Sea Harriers, KC-130 and USN P-3' s there. I do see the RAAFfly overhead, and do some low level coast flying, mainly in C-130 or now PC-9. F-18 and F-111 very rare down here. It looks like the F-111 fleet will be retired earlier then expected!!!
Regards,
Traveller.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Butz Hey thenothing, The 138th is currently flying the Charlie and Delta models. Thanks for posting their link, I want to do a Viper in their markings. I have a few after market decal sheets that are from Super Scale that give this group as a choice. Flaps up, Mike

Hey, Mike. Thanks for that info. I haven't been up close to one of their planes since they switched to the F-16s, and even with a decent set of binoculars I can't really get a good enough look at 'em. I've thought about doing an F-16 with their markings, but I mostly do WW2 planes and earlier jets. I might give it a go one of these days. Good luck on that Viper, hope it turns out good.

You don't need to live near an air force base or naval air station to see military stuff, much to my surprise. I live a mile from the airport which services Providence, Rhode Island. In the past ten years I've seen F/A18 Hornets, P-3 Orions, C-141's, SH 60 Seahawks, Chinook helicopters and Air Force One. All kinds of things wander in.
Several years ago I saw a C-47, two F6F Hellcats (I thought I was hallucinating!)
and a Grumman S2F Tracker. Needless to say, I'm always keeping my eyes open!

I live near Cold Lake Alberta where every year a multinational Maple Flag exercise takes place. Mig 29s, F4s, F16s, Tornados, Jaguars, Mirages, F15s, F18s mix it up over northern Canadian skys. An 80 plane launch in less than 20 minutes is something to see.

Quincy,

Your weekends at the bombing range sound alot more fun than mine, parked out on the road, looking in like a kid outside the candy store.

Rich

I live near Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. I am maybe 10 miles from there. I never get to see anything but the occasional tanker, which I can not identify. However i work and go to school in St. Louis. I have a buddy who is an air traffic controler at Scott and he tells me that most prctice missions are flown from Lambert International Airport. I have seen f-15's and f-16's this way. There is also a fuselage of an f-4 near the side of I-70 on the way to Lambert. This is the only f-4 i have ever seen so if anyone has pics of them i would appreciate it if I could see them. The f-4 is probably my second favorite aircraft to the f-4u corsair.


On a side note my buddy has promised to get me in the control tower for the next big airshow at Scott. WOOHOO

I live slap bang on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border here in England.

We get to see Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters on quite a reular basis, because of the nearby Derby and Hucknall Rolls Royce factories.

I am also ajust a few miles from East Midlands airport, where I was very pleased to see a visit from an AWACS on Tuesday.

At one time it was quite a regular occurence to see A-10s at rooftop level doing maneouvres through Derbyshire.

I live slap bang on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border here in England.

We get to see Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters on quite a reular basis, because of the nearby Derby and Hucknall Rolls Royce factories.

I am also ajust a few miles from East Midlands airport, where I was very pleased to see a visit from an AWACS on Tuesday.

At one time it was quite a regular occurence to see A-10s at rooftop level doing maneouvres through Derbyshire.

I live 5 miles from NAS Corpus Christi. Work there too. Nothing but T-34s, T-44s, TC-12s, a Coastie Sqd. (a Dauphin and a couple Falcons), HM-15 (Navy MH-53s), and some Custom's P3s. There's the once-in-awhile transient plane, but mostly its orange and white and slow.

J Hulk, you are a lucky guy. I would love to have gone to school right there. So, only being there for a little time, did you ever take to the Red Wings? Out here in CA, people look at me funny whenever I say the word hockey, let alone know what it is! BTW, my brother lived in the "shores" as we called it for a couple of years too. He loved it over there.

It's really nice to run into someone from "home". Take care over there in Japan.

I live about 3 miles from RAF Brize Norton, one of the most active airbases in the country as it's the hub for military transports and cargo. On the final approach in fact. My view is usually of flaps and undercarriage .

We get lots of VC-10s, Tristars and C-17s (lovely quiet plane, speaking from a resident's point of view!), but many other types use it for transit - I've regularly seen AWACS from Waddington, ASW Nimrods, and C-130s from Lyneham (who will be transferring to Brize in the next few years). Air Force One once or twice too

The Red Arrows often stop by on their way to and from air shows around the country, they usually have a little play over the town first to dump the smoke, which is fun to watch. I've also seen F-117s which was cool, and in the summer some of the exotic stuff headed to RIAT at Fairford about 20 miles away holds at the base in the days before the show.

Most historic thing I've seen yet was probably the Chilean Air Force plane that was sent to retrieve General Pinochet when he was in a bit of legal trouble. It was here for a few weeks while things were sorted out, and I bumped into the crew in a local pub (I guess they had nothing better to do!), they all seemed like decent folks and a little bemused by the attention they got

QUOTE: Originally posted by benzdoc Hey J Hulk, where exactly in MI did you live? I grew up there, and used to live in Oxford. We always went to the slefridge air show, and it was really good. The thing I really liked was being able to drive down the road at the end of the runway (for the life of me I can't remember what it was called, except that is wasn't far from M 59) and just watch the planes land or take off. One time I got to see a couple of F 16s do a touch and go, and that was really nice. It was amazing how low they were when they crossed over our head! It's a small world, isn't it?

Small world!
I lived ON Selfridge AFB. Dad was in the military. Coast Guard, actually, but we were always stationed on Navy or Air Force bases. Go figure!
I was there from 1969-1971. No F-16s at that time, I'm afraid!
I don't recall any airshows either, other than the daily shows of hundreds of aircraft flying over the house all day long. I have vivid memories of how C-130s would really shake the house as they passed over. I also recall lots of F-106s and F-4s. Always got in trouble at school for gazing out the windows at them during class. They should have known better than to build an elementary school with windows in line of sight of the flightline!
I'd be very interested in finding out exactly what types where operating from Selfridge at that time.

I also lived in St. Clair Shores for a short time, but no aircraft stories there. Just snowmobile, hockey, and boating stories!

Hey kullgan,

i'd like to accept your offer to provide some detail photos. As long as I can remeber I've loved them choppers very much! When I enlisted with the German Army in '85 I tried to become a helicopter pilot myself. Unfortunately I failed the medical tests
If you can provide any material dealing with Hueys, OH-6's, Black Hawks, it would be greatly appreciated. Especially details of the interior, e.g. instrument panels, viewable wiring at the back of instrument panels etc. is what I'm looking for. I ordered some books at amazon on these helicopters. They all don't have the pictures or drawings I need to add some more detail other than available in those sets from Eduard etc.
Greetings from Germany
Jörg

QUOTE: Originally posted by plum1030 I'm about a mile from the 104th TFW (MA ANG) who fly A-10's. Just a few miles south is the 103rd TFW (CT ANG), also A-10's. Also just a few miles east is Westover AFB. A few more miles east is Otis AFB who fly F-15's. Quite a bit around here. Open houses and airshows annually.

Karl,

You are a lucky man my friend.

Mike

When I was a wee lad we lived on Rockcliffe air base in Ottawa (it is a flying club site now and home to the National Aerospace Museum). They were flying several post WW2 types but I remember the Lanc X which was being used for photo mapping of Canada at the time (my dad was involved in that as an RCAF photographer).

Later we were stationed in Zweibrucken, and the PMQ's were right under the approach. There was a fighter wing stationed there, equipped with Sabre 6's. We were there when they converted to 104's, and I remember they used to go supersonic over the apartments. The goldfish would have a heart attack, the wallpaper would peel, and mother's cakes would fall in the oven!
After that we were stationed in Winnipeg, which was Training Command HQ as well as home of the nav school and a reserve squadron, so we saw a variety of wingy thingies coming and going.
I got involved with the Western Canada Aviation Museum there and helped with a Yale restoration for them, as well as several other projects, plus I coordinated their airshow ground displays for a few years. That was the most fun; going to the airshows as a participant rather than a spectator.
Now I live 10 minutes away from an international airport so we get the civvy jets and such ...
Regards,
Bruce

First 15 years I was in aviation, worked for a guy who operated as spray/air tanker operation out of eastern Kansas. Over the years we operated Piper Pawnees, Cessna Agwagons/Agtrucks, Lockheed Electras (L-88), T-6s and PV-2s as sprayers. For airtankers we had PB4Y-2 (1), B-17G (1), PV-2 (8), A-26 (7), DC-7 (2) and C-54 (12).
There were a couple of AT-11s we occasionally ferried people around in and the boss had an O-47B he was eventually going to restore (didn't happen).
I currently do a lot of work at Forbes in Topeka so get to see a lot of military traffic - with Forbes being the point of departure for people going down range from Fort Riley, lots of C-17 traffic with the occasional C-5 thrown in. See the occasional Coast Guard aircraft , and a lot of T-37 and T-38 traffic out of Texas and Oklahoma. With the KC-135s the KAFNGs 190th ARF operates out of there it gets quite interesting.

Rich,

I live over at Council Grove and get to Schilling on a regular basis. Last time I was out at the KSANG regional center to qualify (a couple of years ago) ended up running the M-16 range. As the M-16, M-60/M-249 SAW and 50 Cal ranges end in the bomb range impact area, we had to communicate with and moniter their range control. Ended up watching (and listening to) some B-52's out of Louisana, a squadron of Marine F/A-18s out of Dallas and a bunch of Iowa Air Guard F-16's play mud movers for two days. (besides personally burning up about 3000 rounds of 5.56mm out of the extra rounds we were to to "expend - don't turn 'em in") All in all a great week end!

I live on Hill AFB UT, home of the A-10, F-16, and C-130 depot and on the other side of the Great Salt lake from the Utah test range, you name it it comes here (or flys over) at one time or another.

Langely AFB, Hampton, VA, F-22s, F-15s, F-117, C-130, F-16s (Althought I don't beleive they're stationed here.) Also various cargo aircraft. NAS Norfolk & Oceana, VA Beach, VA. F-18, F-14, C-5 Galaxy, S-3 Viking, E-2, Cods. H-2, SH-60, CH-46, CH-53, Ft. Eustis, VA AH-64, CH-47, SH-60. And I probably forgot a few.

Hey J Hulk, where exactly in MI did you live? I grew up there, and used to live in Oxford. We always went to the slefridge air show, and it was really good. The thing I really liked was being able to drive down the road at the end of the runway (for the life of me I can't remember what it was called, except that is wasn't far from M 59) and just watch the planes land or take off. One time I got to see a couple of F 16s do a touch and go, and that was really nice. It was amazing how low they were when they crossed over our head!

It's a small world, isn't it?

Wade ....wroper11, it is a small world...
I lived in York County where I graduated from Tabb High too! Remember the Tiger mouth in the band hall? I painted that for an art project for Mrs. Hodges. But anyways, good to hear from another ex-tiger.

Regards, Dan

used to live in Rapid City, Sd and we go down there quite a bit still, and Ellsworth AFB is just out of town - I've seen plenty of B-1s flying around.

around here you see the odd F-18s flying around, AFAIK the closest AB is in Moose Jaw. about 350 miles south of here. (That's where the snowbirds are stationed) I think the F-18s I see are from Cold Lake, Alberta

Hi all I live 30 mies from Eglin AFB but I'm a reserve menber on a field that belong to Eglin (Duke Field) I have seen a lot of different aircraft in 22 years from F-4"s to F-15and F-16's Here at Eglin we get it all. My main A/C are AC-130's and MC-130's Hurbie field is around the corner from us at Eglin with a lot also. never a dull minute. in the skys here.

I live inLas Vegas Nevada close to Nellis AFB Home of the Thunderbirds where they practice almost weekly when there not away Also the Warfare Center USAF Top Gun school. We see Every acft there is practically. There are excercises throughout the year with aircraft ffom all over the world.Such as belguim, germany, netherlands england singapore etc

I live maybe 20 mins. from Fort Bliss and Biggs Airfield but they closed down Biggs a while back so anything coming or going (military) goes out of Fort Bliss. You see the occasional F-18, F-15, F-16, C-130, the Hien trains at Fort Bliss, etc. And I also live about 2hr. away from Holoman AFB home of the F-117A Stealth Fighter and the german Tornado. So I get fly overs every so often by F-117A and you can g out there and see Tornadoes in dog fights and F-117a in the back doing touch and goes. Holoman AFB has a lot of other bases in that area. There is for example White Sands Missle Range where the FIRST patriot was launched, and there are others.

I live in Salina. KS, home of the former Schilling AFB. The main runway is 13,000ft+ and alot of military aircraft do touch-and-goes on that long strip. Also, Salina is just about half way between the East coast and the West coast so alot of business jets stop here for refueling. also, Kansas State University-Salina has their pilot training school here. Salina has about 325 flying days/year so there's always something in there air around town.
A couple times in the past 5 years the US Navy has brought in a group of T-45's for air-to-ground training at the ANG bombing range 10 miles west of town.
Speaking of the bombing range, in the 18+ years I've been here, I've got to see alot of aircraft over the range. Way back, I would see F-4's and A-7's. Later, F-16's started showing up along with A-10's. Wow, have you ever heard or seen that 30mm cannon going off. Even from my vantage point, about 5 miles from the gunnery range, the sight and the noise are incredible.
Lately, I've seen B-1's and B-2's doing low level practice bombings. Occasionally I'll see C130's and C-17's over the range but I'm not sure what their doing.
Lastly, Wichita, KS, the air capital of the world, is 90 miles south of here. Boeing, Raytheon and Bombardier all have large operations there and do alot of touch nd goes with there new builds. In fact, in the late '80's the two 747's that eventually became the new Air Force One's were doing touch and goes all the time. This was before the planes had been painted and were sporting bare-metal and green primer paint schemes.
I try to get out to the airport as often as I can. You never know what might be out there refueling or doing touch and goes.

Rich

As a kid I lived on Selfridge AFB near Detroit, MI and NAS Glynnco in Brunswick, Georgia. Saw all kinds of good stuff! I remember the amazingly easy access us kids had to an aircraft "junkyard"...used to climb in and around A-4s, A-7s, Seasprites, Constellations...security was pretty lax in those days, I reckon!

I live 500yds from a WWII USAAF base in England.

Not much flying except the crows now though!

Anyone know how I might be able to get in touch with US airmen who served there during WWII as I'm doing a project on the base?

TIA

i spent 7.5 years in the usaf security police (law enforcement). when i started out i went to andrews afb, md and was on presidental support. i have seen air force 1 and had a tour of tail number 28000. i have seen and been on numerous airforce 2 planes vc 137, worked the airshows and definately seen a lot of different aircraft. i love the ww2 birds. c-5's, 141's and numerous other planes in support of af1 were constantly coming in. i especially loved the 2 f-111 afterburner airshow put on (unauthorized) just before af1 was to arrive. i spent some time overseas where we had army blackhawks land because only helo's could get in. from there i went to davis-monthan afb in tucson and spent 3 years there. being in law enforcement, i spent a lot of time in the boneyard. i went on all the aircraft i could seeing as how most of them were sealed up. i especially went on the ones in the fuel pit, p-3's f-14's, f-15's, f-16's, 135's, 141's, etc. i loved going to the hangar where they were taking all the components out and seeing where everything went. i don't have any pictures of those aircraft but i wish i had now. oh well. i have a few, bomb bay on b-2 spirit of az, and cockpit shots (through the canopy) that are clear. i have seen awacs on approach to psab saudia arabia (hence the u-2 shots). i have seen a lot with little to show for it. (the story of my life). oh well, it was a great tour. thanks for letting me share this with everybody. i do not live near a military air base now but the local airport has an old i believe polish kinda big bi-plane.

I'm about a mile from the 104th TFW (MA ANG) who fly A-10's. Just a few miles south is the 103rd TFW (CT ANG), also A-10's. Also just a few miles east is Westover AFB. A few more miles east is Otis AFB who fly F-15's. Quite a bit around here. Open houses and airshows annually.

I grew up in Great Falls MT. Had Malmstrom AFB on one side of the house with KC 135s flying in and out, then the MANG base at the airport had F102's then F106's, then F-16's. It's hard to believe all the people I know today that have never heard a sonic boom. With the 102 and 106 based next door, it was like a daily ritual. The majority of our model club were airforce personel from the base. We never were deprived of getting to look around a KC135 or F106. It was great. The base was very supportive of our club and allowed us to do a lot of displays, however, this was the cold war and they did not allow models of Soviet or communist aircraft on the base.
Scott