Do you have a particularly memorable flight?

[IBMJunkman]

Well, I think that will have to wait until my next trip to England. £32 is not a bad price. But £40 for a lifetime membership and the shipping makes it a bit pricey. Will stick with my Veuve. It is already here. 😊

Originally Posted by Justapax1

IBMJunkman, if you like your wine to have bubbles in it, can I suggest an English wine, Nyetimber? It consistently out-performs big-name French bubblies at blind tastings, and is something of a steal at £ 32 a bottle for the NV. I don't think much gets exported, but you can order it from thewinesociety.com, sadly you don't get free shipping if you are outside the UK. The iffy English weather means that single-vintage wines are rarely available and if they are you are looking at north of £ 80, which is still good value compared with expensive French fizz.

English wines don't have an Appellation Controlee system, so the wine is simply labelled 'Product of England', don't be fooled, this is a rare wine for special occasions.

[BonnieLass]

Originally Posted by Mr Mac

Bonnie Lass
Your experience re Hong Kong mimics my own in Typhoon weather though I was in 747. May I ask which airport it was, as my own was into Kai Tak and I got the cockpit ride as I was at school with one of the pilots. We also were put on possible divert, but landed, and then all quickly went to Aero Club bar to watch the show as others tried to get in before airport closed.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Wasn't Kai Tak it was Chek Lap Kok

I had always wanted to experience Kai Tak but sadly it closed long before I managed to get to the city (my flight there was to meet a cruise ship)

[pax britanica]

A few that stick in my mind

Bahrein to Amsterdam in mid 70s on KLM DC8 -30 three pax , me 23 and two very elderly gentlemen . A very attentive cabin crew who also invited me to a birthday party for one of them during the overnight stay in AMS
Seychelles to Mauritus 1980 ish . BA 747 ex BAh arrives in Seychelles but cannot leave becuase en route bird strike knackered on engine , no spares, thunderstorm, apartheid routings delay flight for 72 hours
LHR-Abu Dhabi Gulf air 1011 , Three hours in cabin crew member comes and asks my name -on confirming she says please come to the flight deck as you have a 'phone' call , Amused flight crew explain it is my wife who is duty Speedbird London radio operator havign her little joke
Stockholm ARN to Berlin Templehoff in 1992 F27 this time only 2 pax , one sat at back and me right at front peering through open cockpit door. Cheery LH FO says why not come and sit up here if you are so interested so jump seated the whole rest of way
LHR-MIA seated next to heavy crew FO who very chatty, when his turn up front asks Captain if I can join so many hours up front in the bizarrely tiny flight deck of the mighty 74 . v interesting seeing other a/c in midst of now where including several headed east under the westbound tracks
LGW-BDA depart LGW on time at 1420 never leave UK airspace inumberable orbits over Lands End and return to Gatwick at 2015 date Sept 11 2001 .

Nothing v exceptional since those days altho I was immensely impressed with QR business class on A380 earlier this year

[pulse1]

Most of my flights through the 80's and 90's were totally forgettable. The one that stood out was just after I revitalised my PPL after a 20 year hiatus and it gave me more confidence to ask to visit the flight deck. My first visit was a BA767 flight from Nice to London and the captain was a lady and the FO was a very nice chap who looked a bit older than your average FO in BA. From the chat we had I imagine that he had a lot of experience in GA before becoming an airline pilot. What made it particularly memorable for me was the quality of the CRM. There wasn't a moment on that flight when I didn't know exactly what was going on just from listening. And to cap that, the FO carried out a raw data approach into LHR.

[Asturias56]

Originally Posted by S.o.S.

Wow - what a fantastic story Asturias56.

The dear lady wife still reckons it beats any other flight we ever took............................

[Hartington]

In the late 1970s I was a travel agent and it was always a problem getting seats on Indian Airlines (IC, not AI). I arrived in Calcutta with requested seats on an A300 flight to Delhi. Headed to the ticket counter, pushed ny way to the desk and (a feat in itself). explained. Man dissappeared and came back with a LARGE sheetof paper with lots of boxes on it and a name in each box. "What name did you say?". Happily we were both there. From Delhi to Jaipur on a 748 then Udairpur, Bombay, Goa, Bombay all in 737-200s standby on all of them and at least one where wew were told we were 16 and 17 on the waitlist (still got on), one with ceiling panels missing and one where we didn't rotate until we'd gone past the "1" distance to go marker.

Stopping at Indian airports on flights to and from points further east could be interesting. Open the doors and clouds started drifting down the cabin (no jetways then) and the food loaded nearly all had some curry taste but not always described on menus.
I've always been impressed by the climb performance of 757s but I think an Air France 727-200 on the firat flight LON-PAR with a very light load caught me by surprise.
As a child (10 yrs old?) I had a cockpit ride in a Silver City Bristol Freighter Lydd Le Touquet and it was fitted with a Decca Navigatot with a pen over a paper map rolling across the paper map. Almost more interesting than the flying!

[justapax]

Praise several hundred Hindu gods that Indian Airlines no longer exists. Terrible safety record, appalling customer service both in the terminal and in the air, and the same food on every trip - chicken and some rice wrapped up in a banana leaf. They hold my personal record for the most delayed flight, nine hours late BOM-MAA in 1966. Nine hours is a long time if you're a nine-year-old unaccompanied minor.

[Davef68]

One that springs to mind was landing at Sumburgh on the short 33 (north-south-ish) runway, and looking out the window and UP at a sheep!

[artee]

Originally Posted by Asturias56

Back when QANTAS only flew 747's - wet Saturday night out of Christchurch for Sydney - 12 adult pax and 6 kids. Everyone moved to the front, the only first Class passenger came along and the party started. They left slave class with only emergency lighting and let the kids play there......................

Lovely story..

Reminds of a time when I was flying London to Sydney on a Qantas 747. At that time, Qantas slipped in Bangkok.

So far so good, but the crew who got on in Bangkok were in worse condition than the ones who left the plane. They were wrecked. I was the only passenger on the top deck. The purser came and said "We're supposed to serve you breakfast after takeoff, so I'll do that. But then I need a snooze. Let me know what you'd like to drink after your breakfast, and I'll bring you a case of it. Once I've had my snooze, you can have anything you like,"

I was into Drambuie at the time, so sure enough, he served breakfast, then turned up with about a dozen miniatures of Drambuie, then went for his snooze. Once he'd had his snooze, I had 1:1 passenger cabin crew ratio.

[FUMR]

Since the age of 13 I have kept a passenger log of all my flights. I was looking through it to try and select my most memorable flight. I gave up as there were just too many and I would have inundated this thread. I have forced myself to select only one. That was a Reeve Aleutian Airlines flight on an Lockheed L-188PF Electra (N9744C) from Anchorage to St Paul, Pribilof Islands, Alaska (and return) on 15/JUN/89. It was crewed by two captains, Gary Lintner and Wayne Russel. Gary was the F/O on the company's L-188 Electra N1968R involved in a major, and well documented, emergency in Jun 83. You can find it on YouTube. As a bonus I was invited up front for the landing at St Paul. The flight time was 2hours and 14 minutes.


On the ramp at St Paul

Short final for the gravel strip at St Paul

[FUMR]

The above was closely followed as memorable with 3 sectors on the J/S of an Air Manitoba Curtiss C-46 (1990) and 4 J/S sectors on a Millardair DC-4 (1983). There were more but I think those would be the top three.

[cavuman1]

My father and I were Atlanta-bound out of Idlewild. We were going to visit family over Thanksgiving. It was 30 September, 1959. I was ten years of age. We boarded an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-188 Electra. My father, a Marine Architect, was deeply into aviation; his enthusiasm infected me. I saw the glimmer in his eyes when the Allison turboprop engines spooled up and began to whine. I saw the square-tipped Hamilton Standard propellers become a blur. We taxied to the runway threshold and, having been granted takeoff clearance, commenced a very spirited takeoff! It was a cavu (now cavok) day all the way to Hotlanner. From our First Class seats, my father led me to the rear of the aircraft, where there was a windowed bar that accommodated 10 passengers. Dad had a bourbon; I had a "Co-Cola". I noticed that Dad spent what seemed to me to be an inordinate period of time observing the starboard wing of our conveyance. What I did not know was that the day before, an Electra had disintegrated over Texas, its left wing failing due to destructive whirl mode.

Our trip was silky smooth and pretty damn fast at 375 m.p.h. I remember witnessing my father hugging my grandfather when we arrived. I remember my grandfather hugging me. I remember my father looking down at me, glint in his eyes, knowing that, as usual, we were walkin' around lucky!

- Ed

[WHBM]

August 2004, BA A320 G-EUUR, London to St Petersburg, with a ring in my pocket which was going to be a surprise for the recipient.

I still give attention to G-EUUR whenever I see it at Heathrow, or go out into the garden to watch as I see it's about to turn Long Finals.overhead. It's right now on its way back from Dublin so I might see it again shortly - ah, not now, Heathrow's on Easterlies.

PS - Mrs W, currently downstairs here, sends regards

[IBMJunkman]

Originally Posted by Justapax1

IBMJunkman, if you like your wine to have bubbles in it, can I suggest an English wine, Nyetimber? It consistently out-performs big-name French bubblies at blind tastings, and is something of a steal at £ 32 a bottle for the NV. I don't think much gets exported, but you can order it from thewinesociety.com, sadly you don't get free shipping if you are outside the UK. The iffy English weather means that single-vintage wines are rarely available and if they are you are looking at north of £ 80, which is still good value compared with expensive French fizz.

English wines don't have an Appellation Controlee system, so the wine is simply labelled 'Product of England', don't be fooled, this is a rare wine for special occasions.

Well, a few weeks ago I found a bottle of Nyetimber from a place on the east coast. Cost and shipping put it at over $100. Figured what the heck. Just this one time. Cracked it open today. I am not a connoisseur and don’t have the jargon. All I can say is earthy. If I could get it locally and the price was close to the UK price I might switch. But since Veuve Clicquot is cheaper locally I will stick with the orange label. 😊

[justapax]

Originally Posted by IBMJunkman

Well, a few weeks ago I found a bottle of Nyetimber from a place on the east coast. Cost and shipping put it at over $100. Figured what the heck. Just this one time. Cracked it open today. I am not a connoisseur and don’t have the jargon. All I can say is earthy. If I could get it locally and the price was close to the UK price I might switch. But since Veuve Clicquot is cheaper locally I will stick with the orange label. 😊

Was that the NV or one of the fancier cuvees? Nyetimber doesn't declare a vintage that often (unpredictable English weather) but vintage Nyetimber tends to get snapped up quickly and appears on the secondary market at prices not far off your USD 100.

The primary characteristic of Nyetimber (and indeed of all English fizz) is the floral notes. English sparkling wines tend to spend longer on the lees than Champagne, so tend to be quite yeasty. Like Champagnes, they're almost all Chardonnay grapes on chalk soils.

I'd raise a glass with you seeing as it's New Year's day, but I've already got a Cremant de Bourgogne on ice! (£ 9 a bottle in the UK when it's on special offer, as it was a few weeks ago when I bought a case.) It's not Nyetimber but it's eminently drinkable, and probably a lot more available in the US. I like the Louis Bouillot.

[Mr Mac]

IBMJunkmen
They keep trying to push it as a Champagne replacement but I have tried it twice now and I don’t get it, as to me it falls short, for me anyway. I think BA may even push it onboard as I am sure I have seen it in Business with them but not tried in flight .

Cheers
Mr Mac

[justapax]

Originally Posted by Mr Mac

IBMJunkmen
They keep trying to push it as a Champagne replacement but I have tried it twice now and I don’t get it, as to me it falls short, for me anyway. I think BA may even push it onboard as I am sure I have seen it in Business with them but not tried in flight .

Cheers
Mr Mac

Your tastebuds work differently at 30,000+ feet than they do at sea level. I've never tried it in the air, maybe it just doesn't work at altitude.

For me, British Airways doesn't work at any altitude, Their First Class (which I've never flown) is reported by the Luxury Travel Expert as little better than business class with other airlines, and their business class is just premium economy with lie-flat beds. It doesn't matter to me which fizz they serve: BA, are SABENA for me (Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again).

[redsnail]

My luggage is currently having the trip of a life time.
It was supposed to follow me from Anguilla to Miami and then onto LHR. (I don't normally check my crew bag but the Anguilla flight was on an Embraer).
The MIA to LHR leg was cancelled by BA. Why? No idea (29th Dec 24. Tech issue or crewing). I was rerouted with TAP to Lisbon to LHR.
No bag.

After a few days in Miam in the sunshinei it was loaded onto a flight to Philadelphia where it spent a few hours before flying to Lisbon. It's there now (AirTags). Hopefully popping up to LHR soon.

I might add, I have had no communications from AA or BA (I'm BA FF silver ) so I only know what's going on from my AirTag and phoning Miami...

[BonnieLass]

I have to admit that I absolutely hate BA and avoid flying with them as much as I possibly can.

In 2012 I had no alternative but to fly BA from the south of France to MAN via LGW.

The first flight was aboard a very pleasant Embraer, lovely crew...no issues at all. I actually thought that maybe BA had finally improved. That was until I connected with the BA flight from LGW to MAN.

Sitting there at the gate was a B737 that looked like it had been dragged kicking and screaming out of retirement. The outside of the aircraft was tatty...lots of that special sticky tape (nose, around the door, all over the wings etc), some hanging by a thread. Boarded and the carpet had a hefty dose of gaffer tape, the seats likewise. Found my seat...a window as always...but looking out of the window was going to be an issue, tween the layers of window hung quite a lot of insulation material (2 or 3 windows infront and behind mine also had insulation hanging within them). Eventually we moved off the gate, started the engines (engine noise plus other unrecogniseable noises comparitive to a sawmill at full chat). Off we trundled to the runway, every pothole causing the entire interior to bang, creak and rattle doing the perfect impersonation of an overloaded milk float. Take off roll and the overheads were bouncing and various bangs and crashes from under the seat, a gradual struggle into the air...and creaking and banging all the way to MAN where we arrived with a thump or three and most of the pax started clapping.

I have no idea what the reg was on that B737...it did have a distinguishing mark though, a black circle around the nose. It was the BA that I remembered why I avoided the airline. Not a nervous pax by any means but that old crate seemed ready for the knackers yard.

[redsnail]

That black ring meant it was fitted for MLS approaches.