Out for a walk with the dog and the wife, two cropdusters working the fields just outside of town. They were close enough to each other and the ground that I could occasionally hear the beat note between the two big radial engines.
Jim Stewart fired this volley in news:b6CdnS17 _YCZtz7VnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@omsoft.com:
Snif! Ahhhh... I love the smell of 2-4-D in the morning!
LLoyd
If you can get it, look for a DVD/Tape called "Marianna Goes Shopping" (its a crap movie) but the first 20 mins have some fantastic recordings of radial engined crop dusters - turn amplifier to LOUD.
Andrew VK3BFA.
Lovely sound, almost as nice as two Allisons. (We don't have Merlins around here.)
Lovely sound, almost as nice as two Allisons. (We don't have Merlins around here.)
Or, go to Oshkosh during the airshow's formation flyovers.
There's something about 40+ warbirds in formation
I was running errands in town this morning and low n behold there sat a P51 at exe-air. Holy crap what a sight-- I turned around and had to check it out....
. Security wouldn't let me up close.but got a couple of pics with the cellphone camera through the fence I'd luv to get a ride in that thing.
Came by a halfhour later and the parking lot was full++ really drew a crowd fast. Across the runway is a slurry bomber operation, been pretty quite so far this summer. ED
Only 2? Our favorite here in Redmond, Oregon, are the DC-7 fire fighting planes. They run 4 18 cylinder engines and 4 bladed props. They load up with retardant at the Forest Service depot and then try to take off. They seem to gain 1,000 feet every 10 miles or so. What a lovely sound!
Recently read they are being moved to a new facility at the Madras, OR airport.
Paul
Heard a vaguely familiar sound this afternoon, looked up and there she was, a classic old biplane Ag-Cat at about 1000 feet! God, she was beautiful! Two of the prettiest biplane wings in the world, that humongous radial engine. She could probably lift a house if you could find a way to attach it.
The last (only) one of those I saw close up was being ferried and stopped at Steubenville Pier Airport for fuel and undoubtedly a serious recoffee for the pilot. That thing is open cockpit and this was in late Fall.
As he was landing, he hit a bad wind shear off the West end of the runway. The plane dropped out of sight into the valley. We all figured he'd crashed for sure, but there was this tremendous roar and that plane rose up like it was on strings. Wherupon the pilot settled it onto the runway and endured a far longer taxi than he needed a runout.
There's just something about the sound of a 450-horsepower radial engine, applied suddenly and with serious intent.
What was it about Grumman? They could build some of the prettiest airplanes in the world and some of the ugliest. But they all performed their intended tasks well.
There's a air fire retardant base close by, with my home directly under the flight path at times.
Back in the early 70's there were some ww2 war birds flying slurry out, Avengers IIRC. Gawd they were slow, lumbering beasts, they'd barely clear the fence at the end of the runway.. But what a sound those old radials made under full load, dc3 and 8's back then too
Neptune out of Missoula runs it now, all p2v's or orions,
7500hp radials + jet assist, rattleing the windows when they fly over. Really fast with 3000 gallons onboard. Last summer it was like a war zone for 2 months, every 10-15 minutes a load went out. Had a couple of Italian skimmers based here too.Haven't seen a biplane in years, all spraycoups or helo's these days. ED
Ah, a glorious sound. I've heard a few radial twins along the way but, two SEL radials doing cropdusting in your listening area has to be a real treat.
Dog, Wife, walk, planes, you had a great day.
Wes
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