My first flight: a question?

[The Sleeping Pax]

I recently read another thread in which our friends the Flight Crew were in awe of a Pax whio kept his Flight Logs going back to way back when.
I recall my first flight with my father from Liverpool to the Isle of Man. It was on a Viscount, and I think it was in 1960 or 1961.
Is there anyone out there who could tell me the name of the Airline?
I can recall the moment that we were airborne. Any concerns were immediately wiped away by the excitement. Nowadays even after 40 years of flying I love the moment we take off, and still love the view of the ground drifting away as the aircraft gains height.

[ExSimGuy]

Remember my first too. With a terrible fear of heights, we lifted off from LHR bound for DUB in an Air Fungus 737. I was in my early 20's so it would have been back in the 70s, and it was my first time in a plane, though by this time I had stacks of hours in 747 and various other sims!

The fear of heights rapidly vanished soon after the ground slipped away and now, after hundreds (possibly thousands) of flights, I still love a window seat to watch earth recede into the distance!

(But I still don't like going more than 10m up an antenna tower, even though I later learned hang-gliding :) )

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What Goes Around . . . . .
. . often makes a better landing

[Pom Pax]

Aug 48, Northolt - Jersey BEA Dakota, age 10 and afraid of being airsick! Took years to overcome that fear though it has only happened once (or many times on the same flight, a long coastal excerise at 300ft. It became so regular I scheduled it into the work pattern, the sick bowl was next to the drift recorder.
Fifty plus years later I can recall some 34 different aircraft and 3 types of glider. I have counted all models as one. (i.e. all 747s as one and Airbus the same, can't tell the difference they've all had 2 engines just seem to cram in more off us freight.
Interesting ones Dakota in parachute configeration, sitting sideways on a bench, 1st jet Vampire T11 and discovering what G was.
Regrets missing a Canberra ride due to weather even if the jump seat looked very hard.
I also still want a window seat, once looked out and realised that there were lots of icebergs down there.

P.s. Counted 19 manufactures, most of whom don't now exist!



[This message has been edited by Pom Pax (edited 13 December 2000).]

[BRUpax]

Mine was on an Airspeed Ambassador of BEA from BRU (where else) to LHR. I was six years old and pretty terrified, hiding under my mother's coat for additional safety! In 1963 I began logging all my flights as pax. Sadly this didn't include those I made between 1956 and 1963. I do remember the types though (cos my daddy - who was a PPL - taught me). They were DC-3/6/7 and the Convair 340/440 mainly with SABENA. I also flew on a Tiger Moth during the late 50s.

[Nihontraveller]

My first was a Tarom IL-18 Gatwick - Bucharest in 1976. Slowly down the runway and then drifted into the air.

Second (6 years later) was a Scandinavian DC-9 Manchester - Copenhagen. Newly promoted in my company I sat in business class with the grey suited business community reading newspapers. The rotation and climb was so steep (compared to my memory of the IL-18) I nearly jumped out of my seat.

Other passengers reaction: dropped corner of newspaper temporarily to see who was making all the commotion.

Uncool!

[RATBOY]

First flight was summer of 1959 at age 6 in a Piper Tri-Pacer owned by a friend of my father's. From a dirt airstrip in Finleyville Pennsylvania.

Second flight was spring of 1972 in a U.S. Army reserve UH-1H into a LZ at Indiantown Gap. When we got on rope and jumped they said it was 50 feet but it looked a h**l of a lot higher.

First official logged flight was as student pilot in a Cessa 150M from MCAS Quantico, Virginia. The instructor was a retired U. S. Navy captain with multithousand combat hours in F-4s. Makes one feel very very ignorant, and I guess I was.

Does anybody without an anorak keep logs of their flights as pax in an airliner?



[This message has been edited by RATBOY (edited 14 December 2000).]

[Rollingthunder]

First flight:
BOAC Stratocruiser- Canopus,
Manchester, Prestwick, Shannon, Gander, Montreal. 1957. Age 6.
Remember thunderous, immensely vibrating runup, midnight dinner in the terminal at Shannon, falling asleep in plate.
Now, hundreds of flights later,really like jumpseats.

[BRUpax]

RATBOY,

I keep a log of all my flights. Or are you trying to tell me I'm an anorak? :)

[This message has been edited by BRUpax (edited 15 December 2000).]

[Dr. Red]

My first flight - I was (apparently) four months old, a passenger in a Cessna 172XP.

Then the pilot passed out and I bought her in for a forced landing in a field of rye.

One of the above paragraphs is untrue... guess which?

[RATBOY]

BRUpax: CERTAINLY NOT! Perish the thought that one should accuse a fellow PPRUNER of being an a******.

These posts just show you how people get started on an aviation addiction and how many possible ways there are of getting a fix.

[This message has been edited by RATBOY (edited 15 December 2000).]

[pax domina]

My memory of my first flight is so vague (strange, because I have clear and detailed memories of incidents that occurred earlier in my childhood) that I had to ring up the parents to confirm the details!

My first flight was when I was two (nearing three) from Chicago (ORD) to El Paso, Texas (too lazy to look up the code) - probably on AA. It was 1967, and Papa had just joined the Army again (he had done a two year hitch after ROTC in College), and we were moving from Wisconsin to El Paso. He got a head start in the station wagon, a couple of days later grandma and grandpa drove my mom and me down to Chicago for the flight, and dad picked us up in El Paso. I remember almost nothing about it - except that I believe I wandered up and down the aisle a lot, being a charming little tow-headed brat.

Didn't fly again until I was 11 or 12. Two summers in a row I flew DFW-STL-MKE up to visit the family. On Ozark! As the dreaded "unaccompanied minor"! Ended up in tears when after the first flight my luggage did not arrive. Mind, this was a "one-stop" flight - no change of aircraft! I think my luggage ended up in Kansas City and they had to put it on a flight to Milwaukee. My grandparents and I spent a few hours wandering around Mayfair Mall (the family lives about 1-1/2 hour drive north of Milwaukee) until it got there. This was *just* after DFW had opened, and I think they were still having some problems with their "state of the art" (for the early 1970s) luggage handling system - hence luggage that should have been on a flight to Milwaukee going to Kansas City instead! (Yes, we were at the airport well before the departure time - my father has the typical Military sense of responsibility about being where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there.)

Hey, let's face it, everyone is an a***** about something. :) At least here you're among friends.

If I can find it, I'll append the link to the recent Rumours & News thread about flight deck visits. At least two people admitted to not only still having their BOAC "Junior Jet Club" log books, but to still handing them to a flight attendant to take them up to the flight deck to be signed! (Apparently often followed by an invitation to visit the flight deck, since the folks in the pointy end are eager to the adult still gets his Junior Jet Club log books filled out!) Someone was wondering about where he could obtain a new one, since his current one was almost filled.

Actually, I think it's all rather sweet. There's nothing cool about being jaded and cynical, and it is a genuine joy to meet people who are still able to unashamedly experience that genuine joy.

[Smoketrails]

4th of january 1974, BHX-BRU onboard a BMA Viscount(4 months old, thanks Dad for keeping log!). At a slightly older age I do remember driving my Mom completly bonkers when trying to impersonate the turning blades on the mighty RR Darts :)

[Next Generation PSR]

My first flight was in August 1971 with Caledonian Airways (The original one) on board one of their Boeing 707-320s (or 399s if one wants to be pedantic) from London Gatwick to New York JFK (an affinity charter). This trip continued onboard one of Northeast's (yellowbird) Boeing 727s from New York to Boston. I can also remember quite clearly we were delayed till late afternoon outbound, and inbound delayed again as the 707 had technical problems which resulted in an overnight motel stop near Kennedy.

My next flights two years later in September 1973 on board Court Line's newly aqcuired L-1011 TriStars Luton-Palma-Luton out on the Orange one G-BAAA and back two weeks later on the Pink one G-BAAB. I can remember being dragged out of bed as a tired 7 year old at about 3AM in the morning to check in at the Court Line/Clarksons North London Air Terminal in Finchley Road.

Halcyon Days indeed!

[OO-AOG]

My first 747 flight, in 1977, was terrible. We flew into a hurricane between NAS and LHR (G-AWNF, thanks to the souvenir photo). My mother thought we were going to die. I was only 3 years old but I can still remember people screaming and the emergency landing procedures. Maybe that's why I am collecting safety on board cards.
I remember most of my childhood's flights, including transatlantic with PeoplExpress 747s, <SkySaver> CapitolAir DC10s and the Sun King logo of National Airlines to MIA.

[Teenyweeny ATC Cdt Cpl]

I can still remember my first - a little BAe146 out of LCY to DUB - I enjoyed every minute. And I was 12...

...if it weren't for that, I would never have become determined to get my PPL, join the ATC, and spend thousands of pounds on flying. :)

(but it was all worth it...)

[The Sleeping Pax]

Some wonderful replies to the thread.
I am still wondering if anyone can answer the question as to the name of the airline on my 1st flight from Liverpool to the Isle of man in 1960/61. :)

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Wake me up when we get there

[BlueDiamond]

Sleeping Pax - it may have been Dan Air, a small airline operating out of Liverpool about that time.

[Junyo]

If it was '60 or '61 then it's possibly too early for a Dan Air Viscount, could have been a Starways Viscount or a Cambrian ? I flew the same route in 1966, and that was my first flight, IOM -> Liverpool.

[The Sleeping Pax]

Blue Diamond and Junyo
Many Thanks to you both for the reminder I do now recall it was Dan Air.

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Wake me up when we get there

[pied piper]

First flight 1988 BHX KOS night flight.

Rapid speed reduction before landing

Almost **** myself.

PAX clapped on landing.

[strix uralensis]

august -71, frontier guards´agusta bell helicopter. we took off from the airport, cruised half an hour along the finnish-russian frontier zone and finally landed in the back yard of the house my friend was living in. big deal for a 12-year old kid, i guess the dad of the friend was "well connected".
s.

[Web-Footed Flyer]

First one Dec. 16 1953 aboard Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-3 From CYBQ to CYFE (Forestville Qc),a 1 hour and 45 minutes flight back then.
Several month before of same year, a same company DC-3 exploded in flight at Sault-au-Cochon from a bomb built by a jewler for a man desperate to get rid of his wife. 27 casualties and no survivors.

[This message has been edited by Web-Footed Flyer (edited 28 December 2000).]

[arrow2]

BEA Viscount, 1974 Southampton - Jersey on a school day trip - cost was only around £8 - and back into Gatwick. Remember sitting at the huge picture window the Viscounts had, looking at the ground and the cumulus with sun shining and being almost lost for words!

It all developed from there - now PPL with 500 hours and fly in anything I can.

arrow2

[ExSimGuy]

OO-AOG,

I hope that you ask for the safety cards! It's both dangerous and illegal to remove them from the seat pockets, so request one when at the base airport of the airline (or do the crew carry spares??) and I'm sure that you'll be given one.

Hang on a bit - dangerous" - to remove them? That assumes that the average pax ever bothers to read the thing! Having been well-educated on PPRuNe, I made a point during my last round of travels (2 legs Mid-East to LON, LON-USA, USA-LON-GLA and back to LON then 2 more legs to Mid-East again) to read the cards, check for the presence of a life vest on each sector, and check the exits, how they worked and how many rows away ;) :) ;)

Didn't notice a single other pax getting out their card - I guess they'd have been behind me if there'd been an evac http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif

(now ain't I good boy!)

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What Goes Around . . . . .
. . often makes a better landing

[BRUpax]

Mrs BRUpax is an ex F/A with many hours behind her and she ALWAYS reads the safety card and watches the safety demonstrations attentively. But I taught her the trick to count the number of rows to the nearest overwing exit (where applicable).

[OO-AOG]

ExSimGuy,

Don't wurry, with a collection of over 4500 different safety cards, I have other connections to get safety cards than removing them from the seat pocket, which is indeed not a good idea for the next passenger's safety.