[Milsurplus] Re: GI sound effects

[SBJohnston@aol.com]

I've had two great experiences with vintage aircraft that involved lots of 
SOUND, and two others with more modern a/c.

The first was at an airshow when I was a teenager.  I was hanging around 
behind a restored B-25 watching the crew push the props around, then the 
engines were cranked up one after the other.  The sound of those engines 
banging to life was a real rush.  Then I had to deal with the oil, dirt, 
gravel, etc that was blowing back on me!

The next was in my twenties on a flight in a restored B-17.  I was in the 
radio position looking up thru the roof window watching a flight of Texans 
making fake gunnery passes on the B-17 when suddenly the engines were 
throtled way up and the sound level went from very loud to VERY VERY LOUD.  
The pilot banked that big plane WAY over and pulled what seemed to me to be a 
very sharp turn.  I looked out another window and noticed what was wrong.  
He'd lined up on approach to the Norfolk International Airport instead of the 
Naval Air Station airfield.  Whoops!

On landing the B-17 hit with a three-point landing, which I gather is not a 
good idea in that plane.  The tail wheel sheer pin let go and the tail wheel 
started to wobble (probably looked like a grocery cart wheel gone mad) 
bam-bam-bam-bam.  We stopped on the middle of the runway, someone went back 
and put in another pin, and then we taxied to the parking area.

Another massive sound experience was at an airshow where a British Harrier 
jet was doing its VTOL hover only a few hundred yards away from me.  I 
thought my head would explode from the noise!

But the topper of all was when I covered space-shuttle launches in Florida 
from the media stands.  Talk about LOUD - the roar of the liquid-fueled 
engines combined with the crack-crack-crack of solid fuel boosters... whew.  
I was doing a radio broadcast at the time and the VU meters never left the 
pin, even when I cranked the pots way down, almost off.

My hearing is still top notch - none of my loud encounters lasted very long.  
Not like the guys I've worked with who were once artillerymen, naval 
mechanics, or disk jockeys. They are deaf for sure.

Steve  WD8DAS

sbjohnston@aol.com