I could smell it

[nirgal]

At sunrise when I went out for a morning pee (the only thing proper thing to do). Blowing in on a light sw wind, was that Airport Smell :) Jet A, fuel exhaust..... pollution sure, but it's got to be one of the best :p it smells like adventure and new things and sites....... hurtling through the air in a metal tube.... 8miles high at 500 MPH!!!
..... life doesn't have to be this routine we too easily get stuck in. Throw in some uncertainty and some incovenience it will put you and others through changes, but you'll never regret it.......

all the while the sun was rising behind a cloud of brilliant purple and crimson, sun flashes and golden wisps against a blue morning sky... I watched little shiny dots fly over, one after another, all day... some up at cruising altitude going somewhere far, most in that in between "gotta get to chicago by noon" place others landing from anywhere... it's the one from foreign carriers that catch my attention though, Air France, Nippon, Quantas, British Airways......, 'cause they ain't from 'round here ;)

work to live....... but go, go anywhere, anytime you can, because it just gets easier not to. The routine will always be waiting for you when you get back! :D I wish some one would remind me every so often too....

[HoneySuckleBlue]

Soon, soon you'll be in one of those shiney little things and some one will be looking up at you wondering where you're off to...

I do that too...we get the planes that fly out of DC and Baltimore to the sea and head for New York or South along the coast.

...I love planes.



:) *drifts off into dreams about jet fuels and loud engines*

[nirgal]

:D he he.. Its been much too long between....
looking at the stars above the clouds at night... wrapped in white noise as the air rushes past, watching the trim tabs work and the wing flex... the engines just humming along for hrs and hrs :D :D

[HoneySuckleBlue]

I love all the cozy cabin noises and the way the engine feels....getting to know the people around you. Twenty hours is a loooong time!!

[nirgal]

Yeah it is, long enough to become a reality of its own. Then you re plopped into the middle of a new movie...... it is visiting another world :)

[Moominpappa]

Back in 92 we took one of our rare holidays, to the North East of England. Lots of history, we climbed the hill at the back of the farm where we were staying to look at the remains of an iron age fort. The hill was maybe 2,000 ft, and from the top you could see the coast for miles, and on every headland was a castle.
It was almost timeless, with Moominmamma and me and an 8 year old number one son, ruler of all we surveyed.

The hill was one of a series, with steep saddle dips between them. Suddenly an RAF jet came rushing through between the hills - the pilot looked up, we looked down, he waved, we waved back and then he was gone leaving us in a sudden whirlstorm of backblast and noise as the jet engine roar caught up. Next thing we were all rolling in the heather laughing - for a moment we had become gods, higher even then the puny craft in which humans reach for the sky.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38273000/jpg/_38273983_hawk300.jpg

plus

http://www.berwickonline.org.uk/guide/gallery/images/cheviot3.jpg

[nirgal]

:D :D :D Moomin's bloomin' !!! Nice view too

[HoneySuckleBlue]

Man, that is beautiful!!

[Moominpappa]

When I came back to Norfolk in 1982 after graduating, Britain was at it's highest level of unemployment since the war, and I drifted into working again for my dad and uncles. My dad was doing up a 16th Century cottage in the middle of nowhere, with cornfields in front and back. This seemed to make it an ideal landmark\practice target for any kind of ground attack\attack helicopter in the area. The real bastards were A10 tankbusters. They'd practice strafing runs, and pull out at the last possible moment


http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/a-10/images/a10_3.jpg

The roof timbers were riddled with rot, but we were desperately trying to preserve the main cross-members - there were wire hawsers keeping everything taut, and we had just got to the stage where we were replacing the ridge with an old piece of oak from a salvage yard. As I eased the nails out of one of the rafters, I looked up to see one of these commencing a run, It was like a scene froma silent movie - it dawned on both of us that the pilot probably couldn't see the exposed roof timbers, and wrapping our legs round glorified sawdust, we started waving desperately, with a 20 foot drop to bare concrete below us.

It passed over so close that I could have unscrewed the bolts, and had spots before my eyes from the warning lights. And then slowly and inevitably, the roof began to fall apart, and the end wall fell out, and we both made a leap for it - I hit the sand-pile, dad hit the nettle patch.

Fortunately we saw the funny side... and it actually made the job easier as it revealed the true extent of the rot.

[HoneySuckleBlue]

You always have the most interesting stories MMP and you tell them so colorfully!

[Moominpappa]

Forty four years of mundanity, interspersed with brief episodes of excitement and possibility, at most of which I was either a bystander or a bit-part player. I was c**p as a builder - the only thing I was any good at was demolition. I preferred the driving & delivery jobs. Out of those two years I've got maybe the equivalent of a days worth of yarns, (five minutes here, a half-hour there)- isn't that what life is like for everyone?