"Richard" wrote in message
m...
The nosiest thing I ever heard wasn't all that "loud".

It was an RC model jet engine.

Even with ear plugs (the owner passed them out like candy) and
my Micky Mouse ears, at 120,000 rpm, with all the harmonics anyone
ever dreamed of, that sucker made your teeth crawl.

One time many many years ago in another universe, I got a call from a German
accented person wanting me to do some welding, and in a hurry. He brought a
section of what appeared to be an antenna tower to my shop. I welded some
simple things that had been damaged in shipping.

I asked what it was for. He said it was a launch platform for a copy of a
buzz bomb replica that they were flying at Eldorado dry lake, near Boulder
City, Nevada at the big RC plane convention. I went.

At that time, before bureaucracy, there were huge three and four day events
on that dry lake. Lots of RVs, tents, and campers. Lots and lots of all
sorts of RC stuff, some of it quite large. This rocket was about ten feet
long, and a six to eight foot wingspan. It was an exact smaller replica.
There were thousands of other RC planes, some quite large. Some multi
engined. A lot of them got "snuffed", and were brought back in pieces by
the retrieval crews.

The ramp was powered actually, by long bands of surgical tubing. The flat
bar rails were greased. Elegantly simple.

Now to start the pulse jet. It took them about ten minutes, fiddling with
this, then that. It would start, then die. Start then die. Then they got
it fired and it stayed lit. They revved it up and held it. An odd sound,
not any whine like I expected, or any roar like a jet. Just that putt putt
putt pop pop pop........ They pulled the trip, and it went up the ramp and
into the sky. It flew way farther around than any radio controlled plane at
the meet.

They must have had a powerful radio on it, as it went to the edges of out of
sight. They buzzed the crowd low and FAST. Back and forth, all around, way
up. It was something. Then in for a nice landing.

Circus Circus doesn't sponsor those big meets any more because Boulder City
annexed the land, and put all kinds of rules on land use on the dry lake.
Thank you, bureaucrats. Circus Circus does still have some VERY large
warehouses that they house their fleet of various racing machines in.

It was sure nice to witness that buzz bomb replica. In flight.

Steve