I grew up near a Naval Air station and spent some time as a fence nerd or whatever disparaging term it was some of the pilots called us guys who hung around by fences near runways and taxiways taking pictures of the planes. There were Marine C130s based there and quite honestly us nerds hardly paid attention to them as we waited patiently for transient F14s, F18s, A6s, F15s and just about every other type of plane the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard were flying in the late 80s and early 90s, to take off or land. We even had a squadron of British Jaguar jets that used to stop by every year on their way home after Red Flag as they liked visiting Chicago.
I still get goosebumps thinking of some of the planes I saw there, I don’t think there is anything I’ve witnessed in life that was cooler than an F14 doing an “unrestricted” takeoff, where after breaking ground on their take off, they’d level off about 20 feet above the runway, and fly to the end of the runway gaining speed until the pilot would yank back on the stick and fly near vertical climbing until you couldn’t see the plane anymore in the sky, yet still hear it. A few times a plane kept it down to the fence before pulling vertical and their wake kicked up gravel from the periphery road and damaged cars!
I’d look at my pictures after I’d get them back, and was always amused seeing the “RIO” in the back seat of the plane holding on for dear life to a grab handle mounted on the top of his panel, like someone on a roller coaster ride!
I have thousands of 35 mm pictures I took then, I really need to scan them to digital so I can put them in my Flickr album to share.
I miss those days, now days even seeing a C130 would be interesting I guess.