I wrote that today for a little tweet I posted about N951HB. What is it, you ask? Indeed, aircraft call signs are generally unromantic. And if you've never seen a Steven Spielberg film, then maybe there isn't even anything I can do to help you. If, however, you've watched Empire of the Sun or Saving Private Ryan you probably have enough to go on. This scene from Empire of the Sun encapsulates pretty much how I feel about it:
I kind of felt the same way as Jim did, this past May (the 10th, to be exact), when I heard something outside... could it be? Naaaah! But I went out on the balcony and spotted; what. A plane. For sure WW2 vintage. It was so far away, but I ran back in excitedly to grab my 300mm lens to click a few pictures. By then it really was too far away, but when I zoomed in on the shots, there was the unmistakable silhouette of a P51-D mustang!
What? How?
I'm still unravelling that story, for now. But it has been flying around here quite a bit. This past weekend, I finally snapped a decent shot of it, which you can see in the leading caption to this entry.
The best "irony" for me is of course that early May is one of my favourite times of year, not only in general, but especially because a completely different kind of shiny chromium is available in our rivers. Steelhead! With a new P51 Mustang flying overhead, it's literally double the chrome!
This year, I almost feel like we are preparing our kids, nieces, nephews for taking up the torch once we've passed it on. Olly brought his daughters on a couple of trips, and I had the pleasure of spending the day with my nephew Mathieu - already a solid addict of these wonderful creatures. There was lots of a piscatorial diving, cartwheeling, barrel-rolling to be oggled at this year, as we ventured out in the worst (i.e. best) weather, before the heat rolled in to spoil the season.
A few pics as I leave you for now!
p.-
