My most interesting flight.

[alisoncc]

One of the more interesting threads on this board has been "My first flight", and it occurs to me that a similar thread "My most interesting flight" could be a good read. Rules are you are only allowed to nominate one particular journey/flight, and "interesting" can mean anything that the writer found to be such. Possibly ranging from aircraft type to incidents en-route.

To start the ball rolling my most interesting flight would have to have been the one from RAF Seletar, Singapore to RAAF Laverton, Melbourne in January 1967 in a Beverley as SLF. Flying via the Cocos Islands, Port Hedland, Alice Springs and thence Melbourne. Other than the days spent in the Cocos waiting engine parts, we really got to see the "red centre" of Australia, taking a full day for each leg of the trip.

[johnbunting]

This might be just odd rather than interesting: a glider winch launch to 4200 ft, on a windy day at Lasham, 17 November 1955, in the Slingsby T42 'Eagle' 2-seater. My instructor was David Kerridge, the winch driver Bill Tonkyn. He just paid out more cable until the drum was nearly empty. I think the end fell in a wood adjoining the airfield. I wonder if this is a record, for the UK: I think someone winched to about 5500 ft somewhere abroad a year or two ago.

[WHBM]

Many a contender.

First flight (see that thread)
First round-the-world trip.
First (and only) Concorde trip.
First solo.
A jolly with a pax I met a few days previously - who later became Mrs WHBM :)

Maybe the last wins...... :ok:

[Lightning Mate]

Interesting?

My first reheat take-off in a Lightning F1A.

In the words of John Houghton:

"I was with it all the way until I let the brakes off......."

[longer ron]

This might be just odd rather than interesting: a glider winch launch to 4200 ft, on a windy day at Lasham, 17 November 1955, in the Slingsby T42 'Eagle' 2-seater. My instructor was David Kerridge, the winch driver Bill Tonkyn. He just paid out more cable until the drum was nearly empty. I think the end fell in a wood adjoining the airfield. I wonder if this is a record, for the UK: I think someone winched to about 5500 ft somewhere abroad a year or two ago.

Ah yes...'kiting' a glider...much frowned upon officially,I used to do a lot of winch driving and if the conditions were right - I did do it a few times.
The right conditions ?...

Safe wind direction (for cable fall)
An experienced glider pilot
And of course (and most importantly)...make sure the boss or any other senior officials were not around to give me another 8ollocking LOL:ok:

If i remember correctly - didn't Lasham winch to 3,000' at one time ??
Some of the larger airfields could give a 3,000' launch easily with the right conditions.

[JEM60]

Flight deck of Concorde BOAB. 55,000' 1,450 mph. Hard to better that. [I was a pax].

[4Greens]

Every time I reached the end of the catapult.

[MReyn24050]

Not sure that interesting is the word but different from the norm.
Autumn 1984 trip to AAC Falklands to undertake annual inspection of aircraft. VC10 flight from Brize to Ascension no problems. Up next morning at 4am for early breakfast and take-off, left Ascension on time 6am in Hercules with full load. After 5 hrs flying spotted on engineer move through hold with a can of OM15, thought to myself that looks a little ominous, 20 minutes later noticed and felt aircraft turning through 180 degrees. Aircraft Captain then informed us that due to a hydraulic problem on No1 engine he has had to shut it down and we were returning to Ascension also informing us that the refuelling aircraft would be escorting us back.
So 10 hours flying and we were back where we started. Next morning same routine, take off at 6am in the same aircraft. 4 hours later we were informed we would be returning to Ascension as the refuelling aircraft had gone US. Next morning same routine, take off at 6am in the same aircraft. This time after one hour we were again returning to Ascension with No1 engine shut down for the same problem as before. We then changed aircraft and set off once again. This time we refuelled in flight no problem and made RAF Stanley after 13.5 hours after leaving Ascension.

[Genghis the Engineer]

April 16th this year, flying as mission scientist looking for volcanic ash.

G

[Yellow Sun]

johnbunting,

My instructor was David Kerridge

I have sent you a PM

Rgds
YS

[pulse1]

The flight which contained the most interest, rather than fun, excitement or enjoyment (plenty of those), was a flight in a USAF C119 Fairchild Packet. I was an ATC cadet and we dropped 32 TA Paras over Fairwood Common and then formated on another C119 which dropped a Landrover. It was a strange experience to land with 32 less passengers than we started with. It was also my first experience of the use of reverse pitch for braking and I thought that the nose wheel had come off.

Second most interesting, and noisiest, was an airtest in an Avro Lincoln.

[RegDep]

When I was something like sixteen, a team of one helicopter and aircraft (De Havilland Beaver) sprayed insecticide powder (zot-zot-zot) around an old forest WWII airstrip not far away (meaning: reachable by bicycle) from the place where I spent summer. The Beaver pilot was son of my Mom's schoolmate, and I went to see him and also helped him start the engine every time after picking up some more of the evil stuff, because his battery was bust. So, I dragged a huge spare car battery next to the a/c, stuck the plug in into its side, and after the (huge at a close look) propeller started rotating and a thick smoke came from the exhausts on my face, I pulled the plug, took the battery and run for my life. In the afternoon, I asked as indirectly as I could, but clearly enough, if I could come along for a ride.

After consulting the owner (an ex low-ranking SS-officer, who had been POW in Siberia, returned, written two books, and bought two aircraft with the royalties), the pilot consented. He left one sack of the stuff out to compensate for my weight, and we did a small variation to the routine: After running for my life after the engine start, I deposited the battery and run for joy back to the plane, opened the right hand door and tried to sit down. Now, the plane had been emptied of everything that would reduce the amount of said stuff to be loaded, including the right hand seat. So, I squatted where the seat usually was, and held with my both hands on a funny bar that went cross the floor of plane. Seat belt? What's that?? So, we did a trip, some meters above the tree-tops back and fort, with some impressive looking bank at the same altitude as we made the 180 degree curves, and then landed back. Great! Like a roller-coaster, yet better - even better than the roller-coaster in Paris Disneyland some 50 years later. Disneyland was more dangerous, though, given my heart condition at the time.

[treadigraph]

Mine was probably 15 mins as a pax in the back of one of Jack Brown's float J-3 Cubs at Winterhaven. If we went above 100ft it was very briefly - we splashed around in several local lakes looking for 'gators! Great fun and I wish I had been able to afford a longer trip.

[Flying Lawyer]

.
In an 'Aviation History & Nostalgia' context -

As a passenger
Difficult to choose between my first flight in a warbird in 1982, in the back of a P51 Mustang with Stef Karwowski during a display at West Malling (in the good old days before Nanny banned pax in displays) and, in 1987, flying over the Alps from Troyes to Sion (Switzerland) in a P40 Kittyhawk with Ray Hanna, in loose formation with Me109 (Mark Hanna), Spitfire Mk IX (Brian Smith), P51 Mustang (Carl Schofield) and a Grumman Avenger (either Alan Walker or Pete Jarvis?).

Flying
June 1990, in a Yak 11 from Duxford via Eelde (Netherlands), Billund (Denmark) and Karlstad (Sweden) and then through the Norwegian fjords to Oslo, again with some other OFMC aircraft. (I can't now remember which.) Mark and I had only just bought the aircraft so Norman Lees, who had lots of Yak 11 experience, very kindly came with me.
My happy memories of the weekend are tinged with sadness. When we left Duxford, some of the Fighter Collection aircraft were setting off to an airshow in France. When we got back we learnt that one of their pilots, John Larcombe, had been killed when the Kingcobra he was flying went down near La Ferte-Alais.

FL

[JEM60]

Fl.Lawyer.
When I saw your name as the last poster, I KNEW you would come up with the P.51 with Stef.K. Didn't know about your others. V.V.Jealous. Nearest I came to that was having a Spitfire pass underneath me once. Smoke in the KingCobra cockpit if I remember rightly. Nice to see his daughter still with TFC. . Sad to see so many familiar names no longer here. Regards from Airshow Spectator.

[Steve Bond]

I can't choose between these two.

Back-seat passenger in a Hawk transiting through the Snowdonia low flying area and not having time to wave at two Jaguars going in the opposite direction up the same valley because the closing speed was too fast.

Or,

A gentle flight out of Tico airport in a Stinson Detroiter, floating over the launch area at Cape Kennedy and flying a low overshoot to the Shuttle runway.

[ICT_SLB]

Professionally it has to be the first Head-Up Guidance System (HGS) approach & landing in CAT III conditions at St. John's, Newfoundland. I was the systems engineer/Self loading Ballast in the back of 7002, our CRJ-200, observing the approach. We'd done several with Leigh Farrell, our TC Certification pilot, flying - who then swapped seats with Alain LaCharite, our Project Pilot. It had taken us 20 minutes to get to the runway from the stand and we'd had to wait until conditions & the RVR improved so we could (legally) take off.

Otherwise it has to be in the back seat of my friend's Taylorcraft L3m over the Everglades and getting overtaken by a line of flamingos like flying pink basketballs.

[treadigraph]

A gentle flight out of Tico airport in a Stinson Detroiter, floating over the launch area at Cape Kennedy and flying a low overshoot to the Shuttle runway.

I've done that one too! It was a very close second choice for this thread...

[chevvron]

Equal first: Hunter trip in which I saw the highest i.a.s. I've ever seen (460kt) and included aerobatics during which I 'greyed out' due to having no 'G' suit followed by a practice 'one in one' (recovery to airfield simulating engine failure) into Boscombe Down.
Trip in the left hand seat of a Puma starting with a photographic sortie formating with a Seaking containing the photgrapher (the photograph is used on the cover of the book about RAE Farnborough - that's me in the left hand seat). Following this we descended low level (just above treetops), dodged around Popham (the p.i.c. was unaware we were close until I warned him) and transitted to Salisbury Plain where we operated below tree tops for about 30 min. before returning to Farnborough still below 500ft.

[kluge]

On final learning to water land a SeaRey amphibian in Florida:


Me – “Are those logs in the water”
Instructor – “Nope. They be 'gators boy”
Me – “What if we crunch?”
Instructor - “We’d be 'gator bait boy, 'gator bait”

Instructor mentioned afterwards how quickly I picked up the correct landing attitude :ooh:

[PPRuNeUser0139]

From Brussels to Norfolk, Va via Sabena in the 80s.
Landed at JFK, then over to New York Helicopter for the transfer to Newark via LaGuardia..
Flew over Manhattan at 1,000-1500ft-ish - over Central Park - magnificent!
http://www.abpic.co.uk/images/images/1198406M.jpg
sv

[Proplinerman]

My first (and so far only) flight in a Big Doug: in the Red Bull DC6B, from the ILA in Berlin to Salzburg, on 13th June this year. Here's a link to a photo I took during this "somewhere over southern Germany."

JetPhotos.Net Photo » N996DM (CN: 45563) The Flying Bulls Douglas DC-6B by Michael Blank (http://tinyurl.com/34ngjxs)

[603DX]

During my annual week's CCF camp in 1957 at RAF Waddington, the station was full of gleaming new white-painted Vulcans. A friend and I, unable to resist the temptation, sneaked up the ladder of one in a hangar on the Sunday (hardly a soul in sight) and sat in the cockpit. We read the Pilots Notes in a smart ring file between the seats and were both astounded to see under "Performance Limits" that the Limiting Mach No was "1.01 in a shallow dive", backed up by the small "bugs" set at 1.01 on the Machmeters. Only many years later, on reading Tony Blackman's book on test flying the Vulcan, did I realise that this was the Indicated Mach No, and the tin triangle wasn't really supersonic! Seems the Vulcan instrumentation had a largish position error. (Sorry for that thread drift, but confession to what was probably strictly forbidden snooping at that time is a relief!)

Back on topic, my "most interesting flight" also occurred at that camp, a heart-stopping half hour "air experience" flight in a Canberra T.4. The pilot carried out a couple of practice GCA approaches, then let me handle the controls for 5 or 10 minutes. My only flying experience that year had been a gliding course at Halton, so I went directly from a few solos in a Kirby Cadet Mk II to an exciting bit of dual in a twin-jet bomber trainer. Quite a difference!

[Liobian]

Mine has to be an hour or so in a Hunter T7, out of Stornoway, during a JMC/Neptune Warrior exercise in the late '80s. IIRC, we went with another Hunter and FRA DA20 to find HMS Illustrious. Pilot was ex-RAF Pat Saunders - he still out there ? A memorable morning.

[Fareastdriver]

Working with Bristow Helicopters in China. We had a short operation up at Tanguu in North Eastern China supporting a rig in Bo Hai Bay. The night time temperature was down to -26 C and the daytime we had to fly across about fifteen kilometres of pack ice en route offshore. Come January 1997 the contract came to an end and the aircraft, a British registered AS332L, GTIGP had to be returned to Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.
The crew format was that there was a European captain and a Chinese co-pilot who had a CAA endorsement to act as co-pilot. All the domestic ATC and most of the writing was in Chinese but my FO Wang was also excellent with his English so we did not need to carry an interpreter. He spent a couple of days at Tanjian ATC sorting out the route and flight plans whilst I scurried around the Imperial Palace and the Great Wall.

The great day came and we launched. In China all routes are controlled and even a helicopter has to fly airways. So we did and the minimum altitude was 8.000ft in the middle of a Chinese winter with no formal anti-icing kit on the aircraft. All we had was an icing detector and intake heating. The clearance we were supposed to fly to was the same as the North Sea; ie, it was OK to fly in icing conditions as long as you could descend to warmer air. I could not guarantee this so it was a case of suck it and see.

It was fine when we got up there. The Siberian High was well established so the cloudbase was way up above. Eastern China in winter is without doubt the most desolate looking place you could imagine. Anything that is not white with frost or snow is the same dull grey. Flat, featureless scenery with an unending patchwork of small fields stretching from horizon to horizon. About three quarters of the way to Xuzhao we hit some light freezing rain. Poor Wang had never experienced any sort of icing before and he was having kitten as the centre windscreen started freezing over. The aircraft itself was unaffected by this but he got on to Airways and obtained a shorter routing plus a descent to our refuelling airfield.

Xuzhao was a typical civilian/military airfield. We were flying on a Chinese company callsign and the last thing they expected to taxi in was a British registered helicopter with a foreign captain. On top of this Tanjian had not forwarded the follow up flight plan so we were stuck. Two Chinese Air Force chaps with guns accompanied us up to the tower so that Wang could sort things out. The control tower was literally ankle deep in dog ends and you could hardly see out of the windows. What I could see was a dreary colourless city which looked liked the last place in the world to night stop and rows of Mig 17s and IL 28s parked in a compound just off the airfield. Wang, after nearly two hours negotiated our further routing not to Shanghai as planned but via Changzhou. The minimum altitude was now down to 4.000 ft so he was a lot happier.

We refuelled from an old but absolutely immaculate bowser and punched off South again. We arrived at Changzhou and as I turned off I noticed that we were going to taxi in front of a row of H6 (Tu16) bombers. As I passed them I thought that there was something odd. Eventually it clicked. The entire hardstanding was brand new and the aircraft were surrounded by ground equipment in immaculate order. There were tyre marks on the pristine concrete from trucks and other vehicles but there was not a single aircraft tyre scuff mark. The aircraft had been parked there and had not moved.

Changzhou terminal building must be the most beautiful in the world. Built to look like an Imperial Palace with a Chinese pitched roof and water features all around it. An excellent meal in the restaurant and then we took off for Wenzhou, our night stop. It was dark when we took off. This was not a problem for us but it was for the Shanghai Area controller. He could not believe that a helicopter was at 9,000 ft, at night, flying IFR from one place to another. You could not keep him quiet. Every time someone else came on to the frequency he would pass a long warning about these madmen in a helicopter flying in the dark. Eventually we went down the long ILS to Wenzhou, which is on the coast a bit north of Taiwan. There I night stopped but the Chinese company decided that Wang should stay with the operation in Wenzhou and FO Jing would fly with me to Shenzhen.

The route from Wenzhou to Shenzhen I had flown before and it involved a refuelling stop at Xiamen. This time we had a Chinese engineer in the back bumming a ride. One has to be very careful on this route not stray east of the centre line of the airway because of the presence of Taiwan. It was a lot warmer so 8,000ft was not a problem. Arrived at Xiamen, confirmed the flight plan and off to lunch.

At 14.00 hrs we called for start clearance; we were told to hold. After twenty minutes we switched off to save the battery and trotted over to ATC to see what the delay was. Apparently the Chinese Air Force had started an exercise at Shantou and all none scheduled traffic was prohibited. A bit of a bind but I knew that all CAF exercises finished at 16.00 so not too much of a delay. 16.00 hrs came and went and no movement on Shantou. There were several conversations going on but it was looking as if this exercise was not going to finish until midnight so it looked like another night stop. I did not mind, Xiamen had a lot going for it. Jing and the engineer were not so happy, going home had a higher priority than going on the razamataz in Xiamen.

There was a long conversation between them and then the engineer disappeared. Ten minutes later he came back with a case of Coca Cola and a carton of cigarettes and started handing them around the ops room like Father Christmas. In no time they pulled out a map showing us a SPECIAL ROUTE that avoided Shantou altogether.

Twenty minutes later we were on our way.

[ancientaviator62]

Fareastdriver,
brilliant tale. Ah the effect a few 'goodies' has on lubricating the system'

[asw28-866]

My most interesting flight? The next one, always the next one, I hope it never ends...