Engines in the sky.
Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 11:13 am
It was bright and sunny with not so much wind, while I worked around on projects. I am an engine man. I always listen to engines. Usually tear the radio out of whatever I drive so I can listen to the engine.
I was just working on a parts truck, kinda mumbling to myself, thinking about whether it would be worth the effort to save this GMC 401cid V-6, I have had my eye on. Subliminally, off in the distance, I gradually started becoming aware of a strange sound pervading the landscape. It was a machine, it was machine with two engines. Both the engines were running at close to the same RPM. At first I dismissed the sound as that made by two Harleys running up the highway, but this sound seemed to be coming from the west and up!
My curiosity was peaked. I started scanning the horizon with my hands cupped over my eyes to cut the glare. I ran out in the open and craned my neck towards the sound. It got louder and louder still. I knew now it was an airplane. I knew I was hearing a couple big reciprocating engines. I knew what it was not. It wasn't a JGG or some other twin rotor helicopter. It wasn't some turboprop. I was listening to some old pistons. The last time I heard anything like this was 20 years ago when a B-17 Flying Fortress (world war II Bomber) flew over my house on the way to the Oshkosh Air Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ATGGCc ... re=related
@3:16 you hear the sound I heard.
It was mid morning and I followed those engines with my ears all the way up the coast til they were out of earshot. Then later yesterday evening I was up on the hill at the new bush, checking the cucumber sprouts when I started becoming aware of that peculiar beat in the sky, again. This time I was ready, and ran and climbed the scaffolding on top of the hill. I scrambled to the top and started scanning the skyline, hoping to catch a glimpse. This time the engines where making their way south along the coast. I looked and I looked, but I never saw the aircraft whose "recips" rattled the sky. I half expected to see a DC-3 or some other bizarre old machine. It didn't happen, and I was kind of melancholy and awkward climbing down from the scaffolding.
Turns out, my wife's co-worker's parents flew in from Minneapolis. When they were taxiing to the runway, on their return flight, they had to wait for a strange craft to warm its engines and waddle down the runway ahead of them. My wife had mentioned my hearing those engines in the sky to her co-worker and as coincidence would have it, her friend said the aircraft on the runway had sounded like an old tractor show, while it warmed up. Both women knew right away that they were talking about the same thing.
So it turns out, that I didn't hear an airplane flying down the coast, but rather the last of the flying boats, an Albatross.
When I was a kid, I never understood why men would throng to those old tractor shows. But now I look like those guys at the shows, all gray heads and bald spots. It must be a product of my age, that I get all nostalgic, simply hearing an engine. Definitely not something I would have cared about 25 years ago.
DF
I was just working on a parts truck, kinda mumbling to myself, thinking about whether it would be worth the effort to save this GMC 401cid V-6, I have had my eye on. Subliminally, off in the distance, I gradually started becoming aware of a strange sound pervading the landscape. It was a machine, it was machine with two engines. Both the engines were running at close to the same RPM. At first I dismissed the sound as that made by two Harleys running up the highway, but this sound seemed to be coming from the west and up!
My curiosity was peaked. I started scanning the horizon with my hands cupped over my eyes to cut the glare. I ran out in the open and craned my neck towards the sound. It got louder and louder still. I knew now it was an airplane. I knew I was hearing a couple big reciprocating engines. I knew what it was not. It wasn't a JGG or some other twin rotor helicopter. It wasn't some turboprop. I was listening to some old pistons. The last time I heard anything like this was 20 years ago when a B-17 Flying Fortress (world war II Bomber) flew over my house on the way to the Oshkosh Air Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ATGGCc ... re=related
@3:16 you hear the sound I heard.
It was mid morning and I followed those engines with my ears all the way up the coast til they were out of earshot. Then later yesterday evening I was up on the hill at the new bush, checking the cucumber sprouts when I started becoming aware of that peculiar beat in the sky, again. This time I was ready, and ran and climbed the scaffolding on top of the hill. I scrambled to the top and started scanning the skyline, hoping to catch a glimpse. This time the engines where making their way south along the coast. I looked and I looked, but I never saw the aircraft whose "recips" rattled the sky. I half expected to see a DC-3 or some other bizarre old machine. It didn't happen, and I was kind of melancholy and awkward climbing down from the scaffolding.
Turns out, my wife's co-worker's parents flew in from Minneapolis. When they were taxiing to the runway, on their return flight, they had to wait for a strange craft to warm its engines and waddle down the runway ahead of them. My wife had mentioned my hearing those engines in the sky to her co-worker and as coincidence would have it, her friend said the aircraft on the runway had sounded like an old tractor show, while it warmed up. Both women knew right away that they were talking about the same thing.
So it turns out, that I didn't hear an airplane flying down the coast, but rather the last of the flying boats, an Albatross.
When I was a kid, I never understood why men would throng to those old tractor shows. But now I look like those guys at the shows, all gray heads and bald spots. It must be a product of my age, that I get all nostalgic, simply hearing an engine. Definitely not something I would have cared about 25 years ago.
DF
