What was your first ever flight??

qzdcg8 · Post by **qzdcg8** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 8:11 am

Courtline Comet - May 1972 - Manchester to Ibiza - it was painted a bizarre colour I believe

CaldRail · Post by **CaldRail** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:52 am

My first ever flight was in a Kirby Cadet glider at South Cerney. It was a wood & fabric open cockpit job. The weather was closing in and I was one of the last to fly, so the instructor apologised and said he'd fly it across the airfield back to the hangar. The winch pulled us so quickly a Ferrarai Modena wouldn't catch it. Then it went up VERTICALLY! Scared me senseless, but I've had the flying bug ever since!

Iluka · Post by **Iluka** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:22 pm

Hi All

I could not resist this thread!!

My first flight was on a Focker F28 in the early 70's with MMA (Coloquially known as Mickey Mouse Airlines!!) from Perth in Western Australia to Paraburdoo(An Iron Ore Mining Town) - I was Sh*t scared until the pilot asked me to join him in the cockpit and I was hooked on flying ever since.

Mind you when I first flew with Indian Airlines from Calcutta to Ranchi in the early 90's(again on business but this time it was a Coal Mine) in a very old 737 (hand painted inside) with half the locker covers missing with a monsoon approaching and we were at cruising speed at less than 5000ft with a visual landing at Ranchi with a cloud cover of less than 500ft I Sh*t myself again!!

Kindest Regards

Mike

lateagain · Post by **lateagain** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:45 pm

latimers wrote:Across the Channel, Lydd (?) to Calais in about 1960 during a ferry strike. Can't remember the type of plane. (Can anyone help?) The nose opened up and cars drove inside. The cabin held about 15 passengers.

If it had two engines it would have been a Bristol Freighter. If it also had a longish nose it would have been a Bristol Superfreighter. Both had fixed undercarriage and a tail wheel.

If it had four engines and a cockpit built into a "Blister" on top of the fuselage it was a Cavair? Carvair? a conversion of a DC4. Think these might have been after 1960? maybe not.

Geoff.

lateagain · Post by **lateagain** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:01 pm

1961, in an Auster Autocar. Joy flight from Bembridge on the I.O.W.

I was already "hooked" on aircraft after school holiday visits to Heathrow to stand on the viewing gallery, in those days on the Queens Building, where I vividly remember seeing DC4's 6's 7c's, constellations, Yorks, DC3's, Vikings, Viscounts, Vanguards etc.etc.

I was never much into trains then....that came later

I was determined to fly as a pilot but had to wait until I was 40 to realise that ambition. Only then as a result of an insurance payout after what could have been a nasty car crash.

Moral of the tale, every cloud has a silver lining and never loose sight of your dreams

I now live under the flight path into Heathrow and my childhood fascination has me looking up every time I see one going over. I'm lucky enough to have flown halfway round the world too. A real dream when I was a penniless student watching the early jets that started mass air travel.

Now they're telling me that all this air travel that has made the world a smaller place, a global village if you like, is killing the planet

How terrible if this is true. Will we all become insular again, in our own borders? I do hope not.

Geoff

lateagain · Post by **lateagain** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:03 pm

latimers wrote:Across the Channel, Lydd (?) to Calais in about 1960 during a ferry strike. Can't remember the type of plane. (Can anyone help?) The nose opened up and cars drove inside. The cabin held about 15 passengers.

If it had two engines it would have been a Bristol Freighter. If it also had a longish nose it would have been a Bristol Superfreighter. Both had fixed undercarriage and a tail wheel.

If it had four engines and a cockpit built into a "Blister" on top of the fuselage it was a Cavair? Carvair? a conversion of a DC4. Think these might have been after 1960? maybe not.

Geoff.

1288gaje · Post by **1288gaje** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 11:25 am

First flight was when I was two
London Heathrow T2 to Warsaw.
by LOT Polish Airlines on a noisy Tupolev 134 or either 154.

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:31 am

It was some kind of standard passenger charter jet. McD-D or similar. Had one of them staircases under the central rudder mounted engine... Bristol to Faro, run by Air 2000 I think it was. I asked and got a cockpit visit over France that lasted for ages and I was shown all kinds of gubbins and bells and whistles. At the age of 23-4 too... Big kid that I am.

Anyone know what it could have been? We're talking mid 80s here...

lateagain · Post by **lateagain** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 12:44 pm

Fodda wrote:It was some kind of standard passenger charter jet. McD-D or similar. Had one of them staircases under the central rudder mounted engine... Bristol to Faro, run by Air 2000 I think it was. I asked and got a cockpit visit over France that lasted for ages and I was shown all kinds of gubbins and bells and whistles. At the age of 23-4 too... Big kid that I am.

Anyone know what it could have been? We're talking mid 80s here...

If it had an engine at the base of the rudder, two at either side of the rear fuselage and a staircase up into the rear fuselage it would have been a Boeing 727. Didn't know Air 2000 was that old but 727's were very popular with charter airlines in the 80's.

Geoff

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:14 pm

Was it a tri-jet?

Redbaron · Post by **Redbaron** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:15 pm

Yes, the 727 was well-known for that staircase, particularly after a hijacker parachuted out of there having stolen some large (and I forget quite how large) sum of money!

Post by **martinhodgson** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:17 pm

The MD's have the staircase too

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:22 am

I remember the captain telling me it was McD-D.

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:37 am

DC-9 probably. I'm not sure if the later MD-80 series have the rear entry point.

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:41 am

Cool... He said it was the longest one of the class.

As you can tell, I wasn't that interested in things that weren't museum pieces in those days... Still aren't to an extent really.