If given the chance..
 

If you were given the chance what aircraft would you like to fly and did you ever get to fly it/them.

Myself never got the chance to fly at all but would list three types.

For world travel etc it would be the Lockheed Constellation, I prefer the longer versions but fell in love with the preserved MAC L-749 that visited the UK a few years ago. I love large piston aircraft having been lucky enough to see them flying in real life. Only "moving" Connie I saw was in San Juan back in the 80's. Grumbling, smoking engines, squeaking brakes...Lovely. Did see a few Connies in the UK but not flying :{ Later that trip visited what was known as corrosion corner at Miami that was full of piston aircraft, great!

For sheer power and pure grunt then give me a Phantom please. I was very lucky lad on the 15 Sept 1990 when myself and a friend visited Wattisham to see the Tombs for the 50th BoB anniversary flypast. Still have a copy of the op order that enterprising folks at Honington were selling when we went to see the Tonkas


For lovely lines and delightful handling a Spitfire V or IX, oh boy would loved to have flown one. Even tried to get a flight in one of the 2 seaters but never got there as the only one that could be used was in the states as the CAA rules about hire and reward meant no joy for the ones here.

The Gnat, because it would have meant going onto jets post-JP. Wasn't up to it, so was sent to choppers instead. Having said that, and having flown my fair selection of military and civil hardware, both fixed- and rotary-, I'm not complaining.

Clicker,

If your pockets are deep enough then you can fly a Spitfire in the UK:

LEARN TO FLY A SPITFIRE

Can't help with the Connie or the Phantom - although I remember seeing an F4 at Dulles circa 20 years ago which was supposed to be someone's private jet.

I would love to get flights in:
Later mark Spitfire
SR71
And
Super jolly or sea stallion

(As a passenger or course in them all)

Yup and regs about Spits are being looked at with a view to allowing fare paying trips..


As for the Connie....

Well BA park up their old fleet at Cosford the scrap them en masse claiming to expensive to look after..
Lufthansa buy three old Connies sitting in the desert, build a $3,000,000 hangar and go about rebuilding one completely to fly as a historic aircraft to join the JU 52 fleet they operate ( and you can fly in )

SO.... Your chances have just improved on that score :ok:

See

Stages on the road to restoration | Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung

Rare plane to fly again with help from Bangor company ? Bangor Daily News ? BDN Maine

Makes you wonder how Lufty can do stuff like this when BA couldn't even look after what was their heritage collection..

As for the F4... Well you can always go fly the sim...See

Commercial & Military Flight Simulators

Or if you have $12.5 k lying about the real thing, see

McDonnell F-4D Phantom II - The Collings Foundation


..


..

Clicker you want to fly in the F4(D) ? Got $12,500 (£8K) then it's all yours :eek:

Collings Foundation USA

http://www.warbirdalley.com/images/F4rnd-01.jpg

Bring back some pics ...

Coff.

Nine minutes too slow :p

As a very young ATCO at Eastern Radar in 1968, regularly manning Console 4A (Wattisham Centralised Approach Control), I was given the opportunity to appreciate the Lightning pilot's workload with a familiarisation flight. All these years later I am still gobsmacked by the way the "ace fighter pilot" managed to fly the aircraft, operate the very basic radar and constantly watch the fuel contents. In my limited experience, those were the some of the best times for aviation in the Royal Air Force.

My WiFi went down ... Bu99er :uhoh:

Never mind Nutty ... great minds and all that ... plus Clicker is a regular CapComper :ok:

Would like to go in:-

Spitfire
Mosquito
Lancaster

Low level in a Tornado
F15 or F18 from a carrier
SR71
U2

SR71
Concorde
Catalina

Would have to have one hell of a long flight deck!!

For me:

Sunderland
Beaufighter
TSR2

And no, sadly I haven't!

550N,

F16 from a Carrier...... WOW that would be a Trip! :eek:

Courtney Mil, if memory serves, you once tried SR71 Parameters in one of her Majesties Finest..... or was it the other bloke? (Cummon!!, we all did... a bit....)

Advo

Harrier. From a hide.

Flew the phantom for years and could sea the world get round at FL550, but unfortunately never got higher.

My dream therefore would be some spacecraft, anything that brings me into orbit and back would do.
franzl

Yeah, especially the "bring me back" bit. :ok:

For The Record My Choices:

F86 Sabre (Since my Late Dad flew them)
P51
SU27
Wright Flier ( Just How Scary would that be? :})

Advo

Strega or Rare Bear, the ultimate in piston powered aircraft!:ok:

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but how high, how fast?...... Obviously not aimed at getting serving folks in Whinny The Pooh.....

Me - M2.1 58K F3 (Tonka, Non Bombing Version)

Advo

Sunderland would be nice, used to watch the last flyer droning over St Athans whilst on my Mechs course and saw it many a time at displays, I suppose one is lucky as today's generations haven't seen anything like it, probably why the Vulcan was such a hit, because today's audience have never seen or heard anything like it and its size belies its manoeuvrability, something you wouldn't realise without seeing it fly.

TSR2 is another I would have loved to have seen fly.

SR71
NF-104
TSR2


.

Vulcan low level, Mig 25, X-15, U-2 at the edge of space...

Ah, yes. Fair cop. But it wasn't a ride I'd recommend to anyone.

Was selected Nav at OASC which Scotched any chance of getting on board a Lightning. However, when my own jet was grounded for 6 months, Gp came up with a detachment plan that would keep us all flying during the grounding. So, having been asked where I would like to fly, I opted for Binbrook to fly in the Lightning and was sent a detachment notice confirming it.

Unfortunately or fortunately, on the Friday before my move to Lincs, a rather pompous Lightning sqn ldr rang me to ask what time I planned to be there on Monday. I told him and let drop that I was really looking forward to flying in the Lightning!

'No bl**dy way, mate, you're coming here to do all the SLJs we have piled up, we need an extra pair of hands! You will not fly whilst at Binbrook!'

I went straight to my Boss who cancelled my detachment immediately - so the pompous ass had to do his own SLJs and my boyhood dream remained unfulfilled!

So LIGHTNING!

Made up for it though as a locum member of the AAFCE TACEVAL Team in the 80s getting to fly in: USAF F4; RDAF Starfighter; GAF Alphajet; Belgian Mirage; Italian Tornado GR1 and Dutch F-16 (which was pretty good at a vertical climb off the runway too)!!!

Bloggs:\

Courtney Mil,

OK, Nice one, well stated. Yes it was 'Out There', but as you might recall, at the time the Bomber Interceptor had such a bad reputation, and it had to be repudiated.

Some, sadly fell foul of what might be (at the time) reasonable.

Shame really, because she was ok, so long as she was 'cooking'.

You and I both know the true F3 height holder..... and their achievement is quite astonishing !! :D (If not a bit rule break-y- ish)

Advo

Alas the pockets are somewhat shallow so the best would be FSX.

If only for that Goodwood course might be able to afford an hour or so on the Chippie. Noticed that the lot with the Havard at Shoreham want 400 squid for 30 mins. The Chippie at Shoreham is less than half of that.

I was going to ask BEagle why the NF-104, then I googled it. :cool:

Dream list would be:-

1. Hawker Tempest II
2. Lockheed SR71
3. BAC Lightning

For me ..................

Spitfire
Mosquito
Dakota

Stupid question fom me....

Why is the rocket on the NF-104 angled upwards?

Hmmm ... only in my dreams ...

Sopwith Camel

P-51 Mustang

F-4U Corsair

Phantom

F-15

RAH-66 Comanche

Courtney Mil
I did fly the Concorde sim at Filton. It was a fantastic experience, even if it was not the real thing.

Buccaneer, Mosquito and Hawker Fury for the honour.

ISS
Saturn V
Lunar Lander

And there are a few folks I would like to see flying on the Voyager 6 as it's not coming back anytime soon ;)

In no particular order.
Buccaneer, low level over the Nellis range and yes have saw the film whilst I was there.
Phantom, from Leuchars of course:ok:
And the U2.

Wish-list Ticks to get

Mossie (on the deck over occupied Europe, so that ain't gonna happen)
X-15
Spitfire


Ticks (tho' not as elegant or as long a tick as many here)
F3 supersonic over some boat driver's foredeck ("he asked! honest!")
backwards in a Harrier
Tiger Moth (with a leather helmet & no radio over rural England -could have been 1935)

Stick time
Lightning (10minutes pole time, on attachment 1 week after solo in the Bulldog - mindbending!)
F-15
E-3A (oh boy it's big, like flying a whale)

Realistically
I want to fly some plane, probably a Beaver, into the middle of nowhere on wheels, skis and floats - I'm working on it!

Tourist,

I can only take a guess here as my only aviation "real life" was in airline ops.

Looking at the google page it says

"The NF-104A was able to reach great altitudes through a combination of zoom climbing (trading speed for altitude) and use of the rocket engine. A typical mission involved a level acceleration at 35,000 ft (11,000 m) to Mach 1.9 where the rocket engine would be ignited, and on reaching Mach 2.1 the aircraft would be pitched up to a climb angle of 50-70° by carefully applying a load equal to 3.5 g."

So could that installation angle help to gain the AoA required for the zoom climb and speed, rather like a rocker elevator?

Vulcan ✔ x 6
Victor ✔ x 1
Lancaster ✔ x 1

Very big cheesy grin :}

.,Well, I will limit it to three; Phantom intercepting the comrades, Mosquito at low level shutting down both Luftwaffe flying training and trains and finally the prototype Hurricane changing the face of RAF fighter tactics forever.

Concorde... Achieved (Passenger)
Phantom... Achieved (Passenger)
Space Shuttle... no chance