Gary

With over 5,000 hours in and around Jet Fighters I have lost all of my
high frequencies. In my day no one wore ear muffs but after the powers
that be saw the hearing loss problem they changed procedures and
mandated hearing protection..

When I was a Maintenance Officer we used to keep tail off and tie bird
down and make after-burner checks and adjustments. Standing a foot or
two from the A/B when running caused the whole body to vibrate in time
with the shock waves.

This all with the small jet engines we had then. Am sure it is worse
now with the big engines and A/B's.

Get some ear protection for the young ones so the can enjoy the
flying. Muffs used on the gun ranges are not expensive and work good.

Big John
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Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:55:07 GMT, Gary wrote:

And they were back in fine (and LOUD) form last weekend at the
Cleveland Air Show. I had to take my 4 year old into the 737 that
was on static display to get away from the noise. It was very painful
for him, even with earplugs. Keep this in mind if you are bringing
kids to see them at an airshow.

- Gary

On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 19:42:33 -0500, Big John
wrote:

Following in 5 September 2005 AW&ST.

Quote

Two U.S. Air Force Thunderbird F-16s made contact during a
performance at Chicago Air and Water Show on Aug 21, prompting the
team's immediate landing. The #3 (right wing) and #4 (slot) aircraft
touched during the Diamond formation's pass-in-review, causing part of
a wingtip missile rail to break off one fighter (slot). There were no
injuries or significant damage. The contact was so minor that pilots
initially attributed the bump to turbulence. Practice flights were
resumed on Aug 23.

Un quote

Big John