Tiger Moth
Chipmunk
VC10

parabellum, bergerie - in my limited experience, chipmunk, seconded! (thirded)?!

first experience was aerobatic flight over woodvale as an air cadet:)

Excellent thread chaps and as much fun as the Concorde one.

Well done all!

CW

Franzl,

Did you meet/know Paul Day (Ex-RAF) ? He probably has more F4 hrs than anyone I have heard of. You might be parallel pilots except you need to have loads of Spitfire hrs as well !.

Best wishes.

No, unfortunately i never met him and never saw him live in the spitfire, though on yT.

Great flying there!

I might have similar amount of Phantom hours, but he has acumulated a uncomparable amount of flying expierience in combat jets, i think besides the hours in historic aircraft like spitfire and hurricane he logged 2000 hours in hunters and 1000 hours in the Tornado. And he is still flying.

Besides him i would feel like a greenhorn.


franzl

All time Fav: Denel Oryx Chopper (South African Air Force Puma body with Super Puma everything else). There's no substitute for that power.

For fun: B727. M 0.88 at FL280. I'm glad I didn't fill the gas tank.

For capability: B747-400. ATL-JNB at 396 Tons. She did it with a smile.

Warbird: AT6 Harvard. She keeps me honest

Nicest: J3 Piper Cup, then the L-188 Electra.
A300 as a workhorse. B737NG just for the money...

RetiredF4:

Paul Day's Spit routine is all the evidence one needs to disabuse airshow pilots of the need to pull +/- 6gs to impress the crowd! :ok:

Best overall B757 RR engines

Close second L1011

I hope someone is keeping score on this thread.

Worth mentioning: DC 9 51, Beech D 18 various models and L188

hi gents !

my favourite aircraft is the space shuttle. very good short take off performance and a good climb rate. capable of going above the weather, no need for flying around cb,s , that all with a serious cruise speed. roomy cockpit and a nice autopilot. the only thing is that she is a little tricky when you have to go around being on final. :ok:

keep on posting gents , and a happy new year to everybody !

Has to be the A36 Bonanza. Sweet bird.

G-159 Gulfstream 1 :ok:
(and an honourable second mention for the SD360-300)

It seems that the L-1011 is a favorite with quite many aviators. Unfortunately I'll never get enjoy the planes from the good ol' days.:{

Cessna 182A,
Boeing 757 (flew only 200 - RR Eng) and 767,
handflying them, as beautiful as my son and as well sexy as my wife!

dinophyler,

These are the good ol' days. The aircraft that you fly now will one day be in a museum or on a pole, for the next generation to wish for the good ol' days:ok::ok:

My turn :

Best Aircraft ever : DC3 - I learned 90% of everything that I know on the DC3. I learned the other 10% on the DH82 Tiger Moth:ok:

New Category....

Most Boring aircraft : F27 Friendship. Totally reliable, never let me down, got my initial command on it, but booooooring:zzz:

Regards,

Old Smokey

My first fighter, the North American F-100. I specified the builder because there are several 100s, but only one Hun. In 400 hours, it and some squadron pilots taught me more about flying than 10,000 hours anywhere else could have--basic handling stuff.

The C-5, of course. A nightmare to get out of the parking spot--truly a maintainer's full employment program, but could carry many things that couldn't be flown on anything else and a pleasure once airborne. Running a 10-man crew taught me a thing or two about herding cats, as a side bonus. BTW, funny happenstance, I flew both F-100s and a C-5 to the Boneyard.

The Global Express, my current steed. 12 hours at M.84, a reliable magic carpet. Flies beautifully, but few modern planes don't. Can't wait for the new cockpit.

Along the way, the A-10 was fun and challenging until the silk letdown, the Citation was a pleasant entry into corporate flying, the Sabreliner another pleasant NAA flying machine, if cramped in the cabin. Being an engineer on Mr Boeing's 727 was boring were it not for all the entertainment provided by Apollo 8's commander.

In short, I loved 'em all.

GF

I'm humbled by the previous responses
 

but here's my smaller-fry faves among twenty or so types:

Taildragger: Steen Skybolt
Mine was a 180hp built by my old Doctor and his lovely wife. I'm not sure I ever became a master of taildraggers but that little beauty taught me a lot about how to use my feet.

Small nosedragger: Glasair III
Pretty little thing. Fast & relatively easy to fly though landings could be thought provoking. Currently fly a II though with a bigger engine.

Light twin: Piper Geronimo
Souped up Apache. Fun and just deceiving enough to kill ya...flew in and out of a 30' wide and 2000' long strip in NorCal which refined skills somewhat. Thankfully.

Did only a few hours on the DC3 Smokey and certainly loved
every moment on it, but you couldn't do a nice barrel roll as
you entered downwind or a pleasant boredom-breaking loop
while cruising enroute like you can in the DH82! :)

Thought the thing just exploded
 

First 105 i saw in action was at George AFB me waiting on our turn to take the runway after a flightof 105´s departed.

When they hit burner, the nozzle split open with a terrifying bang, lots of fire and the aircrafts started to creep away. :\

franzl

Fastest - Connie
Funnest - Catalina
Heaviest - Beverly
Easiest -Jenny
Ugliest - Wilga
Oldest - some sort of Cougar

Oops, I thought you were talking about Flight Attendants.