A Georgia Girl in Germany: Aircraft Identification

Friday, October 17, 2008

Aircraft Identification

Maybe I’m weird, but I enjoy living in the flight path for the base. I love seeing all the aircraft coming and going throughout the day, and don’t mind the occasional 6 a.m. or middle-of-the night flights either. Fortunately, the noise disturbances don’t seem to bother the kids either. In fact, it’s proving to be a wonderful educational opportunity. They’re all learning to tell the difference between the different aircraft.

Benjamin is pointing to a C-17 Globemaster III from our backyard here.

The direction of the wind determines whether the planes are taking off or on final descent as they pass over our house. Either way, they’re usually close enough to clearly identify. This is another C-17.

When we hear a plane roaring over our house, usually at least two of the kids will run to a window for the moment’s “plane quiz.” They’re all getting pretty good! The weekend before last, I was downstairs with MacKenzie when several planes flew overhead. She’d run to the window and correctly call out “C-17,” C-5” or “commercial.” Benjamin was upstairs in the playroom, and without missing a beat would echo her assessment down the stairs! What amazed me was that he hadn’t heard MacKenzie since she didn’t call it out loudly. Even more impressive is when they can identify the planes by sound alone (like the distinct whistle of the C-5 engines, the slightly more subdued whistle of the 747s, and the propellers of the C-130s). Wow! Have I got some aircraft enthusiasts on my hands here, or what!?!!

Benjamin is showing me how he knows he’s seen a C-17 -- it has vertical stabilizers on the wing tips (note that his hands are pointed up). MacKenzie also looks for the vertical stabilizers (of note, I think it’s a good sign that she can distinguish the different aircraft without her glasses -- it reinforces that she primarily needs them for reading and other up-close activities).

Here’s a C-5 Galaxy. The kids love being able to point out the type of plane that Papa used to fly (I’m not going to confuse them and tell him he also flew C-130s -- the C-5 was his last plane, so that’s what we’re sticking with).

Now I need to make sure they can ID the not-quite-as-frequent C-130s and KC-135s and learn to call out “747” instead of “commercial” since every commercial plane we’ve seen thus far is a 747 (the rotator and mail deliveries). I think I’ll just teach them to call out “executive plane” for the smaller C-21s and C-20s. They thought it was pretty neat when I told them I flew on a C-21 to Iceland and back -- twice. I had to clarify that I wasn’t the important one on the flights, but instead I was just along for a free ride with someone else who was much more important. They still thought it was neat. All in all, I think they’re getting the hang of this aircraft identification thing though, and it’s so much fun watching them run to the windows to name the planes!