pretty good stuff

The 1980s was like an airshow every day in the Antelope Valley between ED AFB and Plant 42 in Palmdale.

My dad worked at Edwards on various CTFs and programs there, which had fundamentally formative effects on the way I view the world, materials science, and applied physics.

At an early age, I learned to tell the difference between an F-4D/E, T-38A, F-106A, F-16, F-15, B-1, and F-111 by the sound alone, from indoors.

There were so many times throughout the day when I was younger where I would race outside upon early feeling of the noise, so I could see what it was.

After you do that 3-8x/day, 3-5 times/week, for years, you get attenuated to the different noise signature of the various aircraft.

It was balls-to-the-wall flying back then.  There was a noticeable decrease in test flight tempo I would say in the late 1980s, and especially the early 1990s.

The desert, dust, and tumbleweeds were more than bearable given the show you got on almost a daily basis.  Love it out there and miss those days with much fondness.