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1st Aeroplane Flight

Hi Chris...danger of starting us 'aviation nuts' off with our memories.:)
I had 'fun' as a National Service erk over the eastern counties in a dual seat RAF Provost with the pilot doing every manouver in the book.

It was common to detail ground crew to go up on first flight after a major service to ensure our servicing would be good. The Section Sarge kindly tucked a 'sick bag' into my tunic. Luckily I just about managed not to need it.

The pilot had come straight from lunch smelling strongly of whisky, I didn't care, I wanted that flight, and he even let me hold the controls while he took notes of instrument readings.
I temporarily used 'threaded display mode' to check I hadn't previously posted this, even in the National Service thread....think I'm ok...;)
 
'Morning, oldMohawk,

Your post about your first flight in a De Havilland Rapide reminded me that my first flight was also in a Rapide...

It took place while I was holidaying at Butlins, Skegness, in the Fifties, and Butlins were offering 10 minute flights over the camp area.

I'd never been up in the air in my life and wasn't particularly attracted to the idea, not being very fond of heights - but since my wife and son wanted to go up I couldn't show them a yellow streak, so up we went.

The controls were in the hands of a young air cadet who was under supervision of the pilot. When I saw this, I spent the whole ten minutes wondering where they kept the parachutes...! It was only as we landed that I found them. They were stashed under the seats...

Final remark from my wife as we stepped back onto terra firma: "You feeling alright? You're as white as a ghost...!!!

Cheers,

Jim Pedley
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Hi Jim,
Lovely old kites those Rapides, saw one on TV the other night.
You mentioned parachutes, one good thing about the RAF they always made parachutes available which was good because in my last year with them in 1958, they 'pranged' approx 230 aircraft as can be seen in the index below and I saw two of the 'prangs'. Looking at other years around that time it was a fairly average number of losses.
www.ukserials.com/losses_index.htm
Phil...:)
 
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I had a fear of flying and didnt take a fligt untill i was 49 in 2001. I asked my doctor if he could prescribe somthing to make me feel relaxed. He gave me diazipan,and they did the trick. So i flew to Dubia on a 747 for Christmas and new year. 4 days before i was due to return i had an accident resulting in getting an infection through a gash in my leg. this then caused celulitous I spent 2 days in hospital in Dubia then flown home to Solihull hospital ( first class) where i stayed for another week. It didnt put me of though, i've flown many times since.
 
During the early sixties i would spend a bit of time spotting around various airfields in the U.K. On one of these occassions I was at Wolverhampton airfield, on the tarmac was G-AOFF a Warwickshire Aero Club chipmunk based at Elmdon.
The pilot was going through his pre flight checks, I plucked up courage and asked him if he was returning to Birmingham, and if he was, could I fly back with him? He asked me if I had flown before, I had never been in a plane before, but replied yes I had, he said "hop in and we will be leaving in about 5 minutes", I was amazed that he said ok.
When we landed at Elmdon none of my mates believed me!
I tried this once more at Blackpool, Squires Gate a few months later when G-AROA Solair's Cessna 172 was on the tarmac, and the pilot didn't want to know!
'
 
My first trip was on a Tiger Moth at Castle Bromwich .Being in the ATC on the airfield meant that in general , you could amble up to the ops rooms and find out what was flying with spare seats . The Aircrew were great with the Cadets , and my Tiger Moth was put on as a special for me . The Pilot said it got him out of the office . We did Air Affiliation Flights for the RAFVR which meant stooging around whilst those on the ground vectored an attacking aircraft to shoot us down , that was in Oxfords . Also got on Nav exercises around UK , sometimes to Jurby in the Isle of Man , the aircraft being Ansons . A bit further afield , we used to go to RNAS Bramcote on our bikes and fly in Fireflies . And my school friends wondered why I wasted my time in the ATC .
 
When I took my first aeroplane flight all those years ago the skies were not so crowded as they are these days.
Screen shot of what is flying over Europe at 12.30pm today. Adds to global warming I suppose ....;)
GlobalWarming.jpg
 
No suppose about it. A lot of these flights could be done by train, though obviously not the transatlantic or many transcontinental ones. My first flight was to Accra in 1973 on a rather ancient VC10 run by Ghana airways.. This was followed a couple of weeks later by a short internal journey on a smaller 20 (or so) seater which I think must have been piloted by an ex-fighter pilot. judging by the way he handled the aircraft on the runway, takeoff and landing
 
Great thread!, some amazing memories.
In 1965 i was a drummer in a Brummy pop group playing a monthlong contract at the Rocket Club on Rhein Main airbase , Fra nkfurt Germany. All US Air Force and lots of Vietnam movements via there. Everyone was a bit crazy, and one bunch of Pilots in the club always wanted Country and Western and Creedence Clearwater Revival requests. Nothing else.
We made a deal that if we played nothing but there requests one saturday night they would take a couple of us flying.
Me and the singer, Ken Price, from St Paul's rd Smethwick went. In 2 Phantom f4 's.
We had to sign indemnity papers, they put is in flying suits with air pressure systems to prevent blackout and told us " Dont touch any goddam thing!". I remember being shown how to operate the ejector seat and my pilot said if i heard his instruction to eject, and hesitated, i would be flying the plane myself!
We took off side by side and as soon as the plane was airborne i was lying on my back going vertically up! It was like being on the top of a Nov 5th Firework.
I remember flying alongside the other plane and seeing Ken rigid in the rear seat, we did some gentle turns and mild climbs etc for about 20-30 minutes and then found ourselves landing back at Rhein main.
We were adked if we enjoyed it, well i was 17 years old and totally gobsmacked, i asked where we had been? " DENMARK", i was told!
We got very friendly with these pilots and regularly hopped on Huey helicopters to visit the baseball field, drag racing track and remote parts of the base, which was absolutely enormous, and is now Frankfurt international Airport. I doubt it could happen today, but things were very different then.
 
My first flight was in 1944 at RAF Valley in a Tiger Moth (war near over) as a cadet in the ATC, I was 14. That was why I joined the RAF in 1948. Had not the qualification for pilot or navigator training so finished up as a wireless op, first posting was 82 (PR) Sqdn, the last Lancaster Sqdn in the RAF, flew over 2000 hours in Lancs, my favourite aircraft of all the a/c I crewed in. Eric
 
Big Gee said:
Being a lifelong aviation nut myself, when we lived in the USA I decided to take flying lessons. No real problem, except that when it came to landing I seemed to lose all my coordination. After 8 hours I made the correct decision and gave up.

However, during those 8 hours I got to fly a Piper J3 Cub, a Cessna 172 (of course), a Beech Bonanza and an Erco Ercoupe.

It used to amaze me how the Americans used light aircraft as we'd use a car - several times I went on business-trips with the owner of the Bonanza (a colleague) who'd fly out of Cleveland Hopkins airport and just follow the freeways to wherever we needed to go and land at some local little airstrip and call a taxi. No fuss, no bother. I wonder sometimes if it's like that now.

Big Gee
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Unfortunately it not like that any more!
 
A rice farmer friend in Tunica, mississippi, used to welcome me to go Duck and Goose hunting every year on his enormous(12,000 acre) farm. One year a helicopter was spraying for him and he asked me if i wanted to take a flight. He offered to fly it! Now my friend was in his late seventies, so i asked when did he last fly?
In the Korean War, he said!
" but it's like riding a bike, you never forget".
I passed
 
Most of my flights were uneventful but had a few scary moments ...

1970 ... Munich to Frankfurt in a Boeing 727.
Bright flash when we were struck by lightning.

1973 ... London to Tokyo (Polar Route) in a Boeing 747.
Engine blew up over the Arctic. Landed in Anchorage Alaska, fire trucks and ambulances standing by.

1977 ... Moscow to Kubishev (now Samara) in a Tupolev 134.
Very severe turbulence, some ceiling panels fell down. Russian flight attendant climbed on seats and re-fitted them.

1990 ... Raleigh/Durham N.C. to Newark in a Boeing 737.
Landing so hard some oxygen masks fell from ceiling.

1992 ... London to Tokyo in a Boeing 747.
Sudden turbulence over Siberia. I had my seat belt on but others not wearing them were slightly injured.
 
My first flight was nothing so glamorous as in the previous posts. Together with 3 other friends we went on our first package holiday courtesy of M.A.T.O. run by Doug Ellis later to become the Chairman of Aston Villa. We flew to Majorca from Elmdon as it was still called then, on a Britannia, nicknamed the whispering giant (or so I was told). Although I was very nervous I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The next time I flew from Elmdon was a couple of years later on my honeymoon to Ibiza. Again arranged through M.A.T.O. but this time on a jet! It was a Caravelle operated by a firm called Court Line. Everything was coloured co-ordinated, the aircraft livery, seats, stewardesses (as they were called in those days) etc. We flew out on a pink one and came back on a green one.
 
Sorry Jim, got my pedant hat on today, Court Line operated BAC 1-11's and L1011 Tristars but as you rightly say
they were in various shades.

Going back to Mike's post about Ghana Airways VC10's, i do remember one diverting into Birmingham due to fog at Heathrow. Flight No GH700, went outbound to Accra via Frankfurt the following day.

Got a photograph somewhere probably couldn't find it now even if i tried.
 
My firs nit flight was Southend to Oostend in 1958 to play football against KSV Waregam and ASO Oostend .it carried 3 cars as well as passengers
 
badpenny said:
Sorry Jim, got my pedant hat on today, Court Line operated BAC 1-11's and L1011 Tristars but as you rightly say
they were in various shades.

Going back to Mike's post about Ghana Airways VC10's, i do remember one diverting into Birmingham due to fog at Heathrow. Flight No GH700, went outbound to Accra via Frankfurt the following day.

Got a photograph somewhere probably couldn't find it now even if i tried.
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You're probably right. I thought it was a Caravelle but I know the engines were mounted on either side of the fuselage.
 
I had my first flight when I was stationed in Germany, in the 60s.
I saved up all my pfennigs and flew from Duesseldorf to Elmdon in a BAC 111. It was strange to board the plane, through a door at the rear, between the engines.
 
My first flight was a DH Rapide from Plymouth to the Isles of Scilly, although Plymouth was fogbound sio we flew from Newquay. Wilson was PM at the time and was also at his cottage in St Marys at the time and when we flew back it was as the only passengers together with a load of pictures of him for the National newspapers. My next flight was 22 years later on a 747 of Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, I counted the other day and discovered that I had flown on 35 different airlines, some foreign internal airlines and some no longer in existence, this includes seaplanes in the Maldives, Australia and Dubai. I regularly use flightradar 24 and as our house is under the Westward flight path from Heathrow and Gatwick, find it quite useful and interesting. Paid for business on Emirates from UK to Seychelles and both going to and returning on the Dubai - Seychelles leg, got bumped up to First Class. Eight staff looking after 3 adults and 2 children, apart from my wife and I the only other passenger was a lady with two extremely well behaved 7 - 9 year old. Still I suppose someone had to be up there to balance the plane out, apparently a load of economy were bumped up to Business, because the flight was overbooked. Strangest flight was on 747 out of NYJFK on BA with only 69 passengers. Love flying and comparing airlines, only holiday company flight was on Monarch, flew Ryan twice and never again, rather pay extra for BA and I do not rate them highly.
Bob
 
maypolebaz said:
I had my first flight when I was stationed in Germany, in the 60s.
I saved up all my pfennigs and flew from Duesseldorf to Elmdon in a BAC 111. It was strange to board the plane, through a door at the rear, between the engines.
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I remember those back stairs on BAC 111 aircraft and the noise of the auxiliary power unit above our heads as we boarded. These days aircraft don’t have their own stairs because carrying the weight of them uses extra fuel.
 
Most passenger jet aircraft from that era were noisy, VC-10, Trident, Concorde ,it wasn't an important issue then. They tended utilised engines that were initially designed for the military.
I loved it :grinning:
 
In the early 90s they flew cheap trips from Manston in Kent on Concorde for £90 down to the Bay of Biscay and back.Thought it would be a nice surprise for the good ladies Birthday as she was 60 Booked it £180 .2 days before the trip she broke her leg falling down stairs.Needless to say never got to ride on Concorde and lost my £180 as well.
 
My first flight was BEA Vanguard BHX-LHR. Return more memorable as BEA Trident G-ARPP. In those days, a flight bulletin was passed round giving details such as aircraft type, cruising height, speed, captain/first officer/chief steward or stewardess's names. Still have it somewhere!

Took longer to drive home than duration of flight....
 
cookie273uk said:
My first flight was in 1944 in a Tiger Moth at RAF Turnhill whilst in the ATC (air training cadets) aged 14 Eric
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Living in Yardley Brum in the late 1940s 1950s I use to see Yellow Tiger Moths flying from Eldom. In Virginia USA we saw one at an airport museum there great planes true flying on my bucket list of thing to do?21587317_10213433403085988_8773049119106140975_o.jpg
 
Probably count on the fingers of one hand the times I have ever flown, I've even driven on holiday from Brum to Athens and to Lisbon. But my first ever flight was from Blackbushe to Basle in 1954 in a Britavia HP Hermes. I remember we sat facing the back and we had pink mousse. There was to be a school trip, the teacher doing the organising was ex-RAF, he had a friend flying an empty plane out to Switzerland and would take us for the same fare as the cost of the train, so the deal was done. We came home across France by steam train.
 
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