Doug
I know exactly what you mean. Ever since going to that airplane nerd school, I know the sound of those radials. One time in class, a convair took off. My teacher stopped class and opened the door. He said, "Ya fellers hear them round motors?"
Another time in turbines class, we heard something scream over our lab. I said, "That ain't no Chicken Hawk."
Everyone ran outside to see what it was. It was a Mustang and Corsair, with a Sea Fury was bringing up the rear. They were comemorating a guy who was killed in a Skyraider at a local airshow.
We had a few perks at school. Had a P51 (Crazy Horse) park on our ramp, they let us climb all over it and sit in it. A B-24 came by but I missed it. A Navy SeaHawk landed on our soccer field. A Beech Starship (one of the coolest looking planes) also came by to show us how the upper crust travel.
Another time after an airshow, all the military planes were leaving on Monday morning. We didn't get anything done because everyone was at the fence watching the planes leave. They would take off and come back around for a fly-by. Even the C-5 came back and waved his wings. The best was the Tomcat, with a shock cone surrounding it.
This is a F-18 but it looked like this: