My very first Flight.

[pigboat]

Another 1951, January. Noorduyn Norseman on straight skis.

[Bullethead]

One lap around THE hill at Griffith, NSW in a Cessna 185 in 1964 while on school hols when I was 12. I was hooked on flying right there and then. The next time I went to Griffith was in a Herc, which I was driving, to do a Medevac in 1980ish.

Regards and still flying,
BH.

[BEagle]

Summer 1962 in Piper PA-22 Caribbean G-ARDS from Lulsgate to Lulsgate with a family friend who was a member of the Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club.

I'm pleased to note that G-ARDS is still flying in Northern Ireland.

[zetec2]

First flight

Island Air Services Dragon Rapide -G-AGJG sometime 1956 (then later G-AGUF) at London Airport with Monique Agazarian at the controls, started a lifetime in aviation, oh joy, Paul H.

[zetec2]

G-APAA Auster

G-APAA Auster, seem to remember fin & rudder painted with chequered black & white (am ploughing through my photos for confirmation) have done this one as well (1972 ish) but long after my first flight , we had engine failure shortly after take off (Cirrus Minor ?) quite traumatic for my wife & son in the back but with years of gliding thought nothing of it as the pilot 180'd from about 1500 feet & glided back into Sandown with ease, was an interesting "joy" flight, Paul H.

[merlinxx]

DH86 Croydon to Le Touqet early 50s with parents That's when I caught the malarial bug called aviation

[Chairborne 09.00hrs]

Puma XW227 during a Press jolly at Finningley, 27th July 1977 . I got the seat by the door......

[Liobian]

For me, it was my first 'aaah, de Havilland' moment - at Liverpool, late '50s, in DHC Fox Moth G-AOJH. Thankfully, both still active (more or less): cool:

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

As the site keeps prompting me that I haven't posted for a long time, I'll yield. I first flew in July 1969 on a British United Viscount from Gatwick to Le Touquet - as part of a trip to Paris on the Silver Arrow train/plane combination. In those days the train at Le Touquet came right onto the airport yards from the apron.

[goudie]

Meteor NF 11, 68 Sqdn. in '56, during detachment to RAF Sylt. Thing I remember most is, taking off into thick cloud, and then breaking out of the cloud into a brilliant blue sky. Still get a kick when that happens. Only last week, in fact, courtesy Ryanair.

[captain.speaking]

First flight : August 1962 - BOAC Britannia 102 G-ANBB Heathrow - Fiumicino - Cairo - Nairobi.

First time at the controls - RAF Chipmunk on an AEF from White Waltham November 1964.

I was amused by the various comments about people who did not feel well during their first flights - I did not have a problem for many years, until the experience of being kept in the hold for what seemed like an eternity during a thunderstorm while waiting to land at JFK. The symptons were probably not helped by the fact that having talked the check-in staff at LHR into accepting that my 100 percent interline rebate duty ticket entitled me to a seat in "F", I wandered back into "Y" half way across the Atlantic for a leg-stretch, only to encounter the Chairman of the
company I then worked for, with his wife !

[MidlandDeltic]

First flight 1969, just before my first birthday, Aer Lingus Viscount Manchester - Cork (and return a week later). Have been told I got a cockpit visit, but cannot claim to remember it!

Didn't fly again until 1994, again Aer Lingus, but EMA - Dublin on a Saab 340.

MD

[Morris542]

Mine was from Gatwick to Bordeaux on a BAe 146 in 2001. My father asked if my sister and I could have a visit to the flightdeck, the answer was no becasue there was already someone there!

[Duckbutt]

Sat in window seat on right hand side four rows up from photographer:



July 1967, Gatwick to Bergen, SAS Caravelle OY-KRD coincidentally now preserved at Helsingor, Denmark, hence the availability of this photo.

[Proplinerman]

First flight: BOAC Britannia G-ANBB

Later sadly to crash while with Britannia Airways.

[Proplinerman]

As it happens, I have a very brief film record of my third flight, on an Air France L1049G from La Baule in France to LHR on 4th September 1962. My father shot a twenty second cine-film sequence of passengers (including myself, my mother and one of my sisters)getting on the aircraft at La Baule, then of it taxiing out and taking off. He was returning by road, as one of my sisters could not then fly, due to an ear problem. I know the precise date, because, very helpfully, he put it on the film packet (he passed away more than twenty-five years ago). Sadly, I don't remember the flights at all, as I was only four at the time. I've put the clip up on You Tube-here's the link:

YouTube - Air France Super Constellation at La Baule, France, September 4th 1962

[oldboacpilot]

1)Ist flight. Summer of 1926 From field between Detling and Boxley. I don't know the type but it was a single engined biplane with 3 in line cockpits- single seats. Myself, 2 sisters and another girl squashed 2 on a seat for 10 minute flight costing 2 and 6 each!

2) Ist flight at the controls. A Miles Magister at Rochester airfield in June 1939. I did 50 hours on it and went on to fly Ansons and Oxfords before going on to Wellingtons.

3) First commercial flight; with Pan Am. Dep. Heliopolis (Cairo) Feb.3rd 1942 arrived Lagos 5th Feb in DC3. Travelled on floor! i.e. No seats , lap-straps, food or drink. You B(rought) Y.O. I had been a copilot on Wellingtons with 70 squadron in Kabrit and was returning home.

[mustbeaboeing]

Mid 1960's Glasgow (Renfrew) to London (Heathrow) BEA Vickers Vanguard

[Fantome]

Dragon Rapide at Prestwick, 1958. Ten bob for 10 minutes, saved up for weeks and paid for it myself.

You sir are a late starter. . .. . as is the case with the majority of pretenders of dubious plumage frequenting these fora.

On a less Johnsonian note . . .bumped into a bloke the other day. Turned out he'd been an airline pilot. Asked him when and where and in what he'd had his first flight. Quick as a flash he said 14th August 1948 . . . . Rapide from Wilcannia to Broken Hill. You must have been a very young tadger says I. As young as you can get says he .. . . me mum had me in that plane over Menindee Lakes. (Coincidentally showed him a couple of shots I'd taken that very afternoon of Roy Fox's Rapide in her shed at Bankstown. Must get a lottery ticket together.)

An Ansett-ANA DC6B , Essendon (Melbourne) to Mascot (Sydney) 1955, marked the beginning of my infatuation, or at least accounted for the reinforcement of it.

First plane to climb in for a dekka , though, was a retired RAAF Cat on a little lake at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, 1951. Five bob for adults in the launch to go out and climb in through the open blister. Half that for kids. They turned that beautiful boat into venetian blinds.
Should be hung drawn and filleted for that.

[SummerLightning]

British Midland Viscount from East Midlands to Brussels via Birmingham in 1975. My first trip abroad on business, sprung on me by my boss at about 12 hours' notice. I was convinced I'd be terrified, but I was enthralled right from the off. As a child, I'd been fascinated, thrilled - and sometimes frightened - by aircraft and the weather.
On the return flight in the evening, I remember the cabin filling up with blue haze after we landed at Birmingham. There were some low-key signs of concern, and eventually a couple of guys in overalls appeared, lifted a floor panel or two and went away, one of them saying it was "probably some oil". We then took off for the final, uneventful 10-minute hop to Castle Donington.
I imagine such an incident today would probably have been taken rather more (perhaps too) seriously. Very possibly I'd be more alarmed by it too: back then, it seemed like part of the adventure.