Saturday, May 24, 2008

Plane spotting

Andrea is...thrilled

It’s still dark when I get to work. Very dark. I struggle to cycle around the bend in the pot-holed, dirt-covered road which leads to the Met Office and charter aircraft services. I have learned that riding in sand/dirt is really very difficult. It’s a strange feeling, because you don’t notice it at first when you have enough speed, but within a few seconds, your speed drops dramatically and suddenly you are moving in slow motion. sunrise reflected in sunshine recorder-->

So today, Saturday, I got to work at 0520 and got to see a nice sunrise, although I was still mostly asleep. When there was some more light, I went out to look for signs of fog and, to my surprise, I found there were RAAF jets parked at the airport just across from my office! I was very excited. There were 4 Hawk jets plus the Roulettes. What a treat!

I could get to within about 5 meters of one of the Hawks – they were parked right next to the perimeter fence. Then a few hours later I got to watch 3 of the Hawks take off. The sound is just amazing when they all turn their engines on at the same time and idle. And the noise is even more spectacular when they are taking off. No wonder I am a bit hard of hearing!

As for the fog…couldn’t really tell (even when looking in the right direction-away from the planes!)

1 comments:

Jayne said...

So it's a lucky dip to see who or what has landed at the airport every day?!
Your life is reminding me of the Aussie Tv series Supernova
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/07_july/14/supernova.shtml
But not as accident-prone I hope!!!