My very first Flight.
Thread Starter
My very first Flight.
My very first flight was in a blue Auster in the late 1950s. It was a pleasure flight from Elstree and consisted of a circuit around the reservoir. My dear Dad, who until then had only flown in a Dakota, came along too and I remember how he gripped my shoulder in alarm when the pilot throttled back on base leg. I loved it so much that I bullied him into coughing up for a second ride. He resolutely remained on the ground.
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: On the Bay, Vic, Oz
Age: 80
Posts: 415
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Chippy at RAF Chivenor August 1957 ATC camp. Didn't throw up, unlike most of my fellow cadets. I think the intent was that we all should have done. 
This was followed by a Varsity at RAF Locking in '61, and a VC10 in '65 to RAF Muharraq, Bahrain. Subsequent to this discovered that whenever I cut myself I could smell the avgas/avtur in the blood, and never looked back.
This was followed by a Varsity at RAF Locking in '61, and a VC10 in '65 to RAF Muharraq, Bahrain. Subsequent to this discovered that whenever I cut myself I could smell the avgas/avtur in the blood, and never looked back.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A BEA DC-3 from Heathrow to Jersey circa 1958 ... think I was eleven at the time.
Then less than a year later a 3 minute flight in a Slingsby T31 at RAF Booker.
These childhood experiences got me really hooked on aviation and 50 years later I potter around the skies of New Zealand in my Tecnam Sierra and still get the same thrill.
Then less than a year later a 3 minute flight in a Slingsby T31 at RAF Booker.
These childhood experiences got me really hooked on aviation and 50 years later I potter around the skies of New Zealand in my Tecnam Sierra and still get the same thrill.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,664
Received 321 Likes
on
178 Posts
An Auster from Lands End to St Marys in 1969 with me dad and his cousin who was flying.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Nottingham UK
Age: 85
Posts: 5,575
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
An Avro Anson at HMS Peregrine, RNAS Ford 1955'ish with the RN Section of the School's Combined Cadet Force. We were made to wear parachutes and they had us running towards the aircraft, as one ran the parachute swung and hit the back of the knees. Fortunately none of us fell over. However the flight was magic and remains etched in one's memory.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Chedburgh, Bury St.Edmunds
Age: 81
Posts: 1,175
Likes: 0
Received 9 Likes
on
7 Posts
Dragon Rapide, B of B day RAF Halton. Pilot smoking pipe in flight. Leading on to second flight 2 weeks later in Beverley as an ATC Cadet. Staff Cadet at 613 GS, Skydiver, PPL, pax on Concorde flight deck once. Vampire T.11 round Snowdonia. Not much piloting. LOTS of observing.etc,etc
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Bradfield CO11 2XD
Age: 81
Posts: 174
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My first flight was also from Elstree in an Auster,G-AGXT,I had saved my pocket money.This aircraft had gained some notoriety having been used to dump a body over the Romney Marshes I think.This would been 1954 -55ish.I later had a 2nd flight in this aircraft,what mark was it?The names Setty and Hume come to mind,although who murdered who and dumped the body I can't rememember.I later went on to fly in Ansons and a Devon from Bovingdon,gliding from Halton and Chipmunks from Abingdon and Cottesmore.One of the Anson trips was in the right hand seat and I can remember a Polish pilot and engine priming pumps in the cockpit.The Cottesmore flight was memorable as I'm sure the pilot was determined to make me use the sick bag.He didn't quite succeed!!
Last edited by KING6024; 16th Oct 2010 at 14:59. Reason: Missing word!!Grey cells coming to life.
Dragon Rapide at Prestwick, 1958. Ten bob for 10 minutes, saved up for weeks and paid for it myself. Took a black and white snapshot of the a/c which still lives in my logbook on the "aircraft in which flown" page. I see it's £140 for a 40 minute flight from Duxford now which I reckon on a cost per minute is 70 times the 1957 price. It was either a bargain then or a rip-off now!
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Redhill
Posts: 196
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
First flight was BAW BAC1-11 Manchester to Edinburgh circa 1973 followed by BIA Herald Blackpool to Manch a year later (also my first mid-air throw up!). First rotary was a Squirrel sight-seeing out of Monaco. First front seat was Musketeer G-ASWP(?) out of Barton.
A Runyonesque Character
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: The South of France ... Not
Age: 74
Posts: 1,209
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Auster Workmaster G-APMJ, fifteen bob's worth of pleasure flight from Newcastle in Summer 1963 (I thought it might have been 1964 but I discover it crashed in Oct 63)
Second was a Sterling DC6 from Edinburgh to Copenhagen, student charter. Third was a BOAC 707 out of Heathrow, doing circuits and bumps at Bedford !
Second was a Sterling DC6 from Edinburgh to Copenhagen, student charter. Third was a BOAC 707 out of Heathrow, doing circuits and bumps at Bedford !
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Berkshire, UK
Age: 79
Posts: 8,268
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Avro Anson, ATC camp, Colerne 1957. My wife's first was in a Bristol Freighter from Lydd on a family holiday. Later, whilst in the WJAC, she flew in an Auster at Hurn piloted by no less than Diana Barnato-Walker!
Join Date: May 2002
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My first flight was JFK to SFO on an American Airlines DC10 back in the mid-70's...I was 12... This was at the end of a month long driving tour of the US. I'd never been on any kind of airline before so that DC10 looked HUGE! 
I remember dressing up for the flight in my best dark blue polyester slacks (remember when people dressed up for air travel?) and the Captain doing the PR walk through the cabin during the flight...
I remember dressing up for the flight in my best dark blue polyester slacks (remember when people dressed up for air travel?) and the Captain doing the PR walk through the cabin during the flight...