What has been the one, absolute highlight of your flying so far?
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2 that really stand out in my memory, both from my UAS days.
The first was pulling a loop from the back seat of a Red Arrows Hawk with the smoke on. Top-Gun cheese-tastic.
The second, and only a week or so after the hawk flight, was my solo tail-chase sortie - the culmination of the formation flying phase of training, and involved, essentially, dogfighting with my instructor, who was in the lead Bulldog, over Loch Lomond on a beautiful autumn afternoon.
A few years later, I'm working to get my PPL and I can't imagine I'll ever do anything again that'll beat those 2 experiences.
The first was pulling a loop from the back seat of a Red Arrows Hawk with the smoke on. Top-Gun cheese-tastic.
The second, and only a week or so after the hawk flight, was my solo tail-chase sortie - the culmination of the formation flying phase of training, and involved, essentially, dogfighting with my instructor, who was in the lead Bulldog, over Loch Lomond on a beautiful autumn afternoon.
A few years later, I'm working to get my PPL and I can't imagine I'll ever do anything again that'll beat those 2 experiences.
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No doubt about it, it has to be my first glider solo ... I didn't think I had quite made the grade, but at the end of the afternoon, my instructor Pat Brown gave me a couple of shots at showing him I could get it all right. I did ok on the two flights ... and was duly sent up solo after sorting the paperwork.
I was petrified on the walk out to the glider, went through my pretakoff checklist, then don't remember much until I was about 10 feet in the air behind the towplane ... then, as we climbed into the clear Texas sky I called '200 feet' and relaxed to enjoy one of the biggest steps that anyone can make.
It was fantastic cutting loose from the towplane and being able to soar free. I always remember the calmness and sound of the wind rushing past at 3000 feet. Just awesome. I did it.
I was petrified on the walk out to the glider, went through my pretakoff checklist, then don't remember much until I was about 10 feet in the air behind the towplane ... then, as we climbed into the clear Texas sky I called '200 feet' and relaxed to enjoy one of the biggest steps that anyone can make.
It was fantastic cutting loose from the towplane and being able to soar free. I always remember the calmness and sound of the wind rushing past at 3000 feet. Just awesome. I did it.
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At the tender age of 5, back in the early 60's being strapped into the front of a Tiger Moth (My Dad had a share in) and, unable to see properly over the rim of the cockpit, watching the colours change and the ground appear and disappear for an hour.
Gives you the bug, that's for sure.
Aged
Gives you the bug, that's for sure.
Aged
Why do it if it's not fun?
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This is turning into a fantastic thread! Every now and then, I open it up to read the latest postings and feel a touch of jealousy - then I remember to add whatever I've just read to my list of things to do, and the jealousy goes away!
I can probably forgive people for extending past just one thing - I can think of so many others that I'd like to add. My first time solo through the VFR Class B transition at Phoenix. Landing downwind but uphill on the gravel at Superior Airport, Arizona (which was anything but superior!) The first time I saw the sea from a light aeroplane. First passenger. One particular passenger who had a permanent grin for weeks after the flight. As well as the obvious QXC and first solo. Then there's the first time in a Super Cub. My first helicoptor flight (as pax - never logged any rotary time, yet...) Arriving in LA after a very long (4 hours, I think?) flight, battling with poor vis, moderate turbulence and some nasty downdrafts, disoriented by a huge yellow area on the chart with no clues as to which bit of the huge yellow area I was currently flying over, to spot the highway which led me to my destination airport, and a safe landing from my longest ever (so far) flight.
If I can have all these highlights in just a few years, I'm sure I've got dozens, or even hundreds more to come!
FFF
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I can probably forgive people for extending past just one thing - I can think of so many others that I'd like to add. My first time solo through the VFR Class B transition at Phoenix. Landing downwind but uphill on the gravel at Superior Airport, Arizona (which was anything but superior!) The first time I saw the sea from a light aeroplane. First passenger. One particular passenger who had a permanent grin for weeks after the flight. As well as the obvious QXC and first solo. Then there's the first time in a Super Cub. My first helicoptor flight (as pax - never logged any rotary time, yet...) Arriving in LA after a very long (4 hours, I think?) flight, battling with poor vis, moderate turbulence and some nasty downdrafts, disoriented by a huge yellow area on the chart with no clues as to which bit of the huge yellow area I was currently flying over, to spot the highway which led me to my destination airport, and a safe landing from my longest ever (so far) flight.
If I can have all these highlights in just a few years, I'm sure I've got dozens, or even hundreds more to come!
FFF
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Grim Sleeper
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It's gotta be flying a Cessna 150, balls out at 500ft down the shuttle landing runway at Cape Canaveral. We'd stopped at Titusville Space Coast for brunch and went up to the tower for a chat. The guy told us we could call Nasa Tower for the Space coast tour and they would vector us round the west side of the Launch complex.
Thought he was just yanking our chain as a couple of green limey PPLs, but after getting airborne it turned out to be true. I bet you can't do that anymore, which makes it all the more memorable.
Thought he was just yanking our chain as a couple of green limey PPLs, but after getting airborne it turned out to be true. I bet you can't do that anymore, which makes it all the more memorable.
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Last night I was doing some tidying up of the attic and found a box containing some old stuff, in it was a VCR tape.....
I played the tape whilst having supper and it was a vid shot from between the front seats in a Navajo.
I'm in the left hand seat and am on my last up-country inspection tour. The vid was shot by a colleague who came along for the trip
Low level up the Zambezi river hippo and croc spotting - over the blown up rail bridge and over a couple of DC3 crash sites where friends had perished, then up towards Tete and a big wingover over the (active) gun emplacements of the Cahorra Basa dam before returning to Tete for beer and medals.
Next day over to the coast and a low level run down the deserted beach to a Mozambiquan fighter base - last clip was of the parked Navajo being guarded by boy soldiers whilst neatly lined up next to some Mig21s.
On top of my monitor in my study is a beautiful mahagony carving of a Mig21 that said guards presented to me the following day.
I forgot how much fun I used to have in that job!!!
Stik
I played the tape whilst having supper and it was a vid shot from between the front seats in a Navajo.
I'm in the left hand seat and am on my last up-country inspection tour. The vid was shot by a colleague who came along for the trip
Low level up the Zambezi river hippo and croc spotting - over the blown up rail bridge and over a couple of DC3 crash sites where friends had perished, then up towards Tete and a big wingover over the (active) gun emplacements of the Cahorra Basa dam before returning to Tete for beer and medals.
Next day over to the coast and a low level run down the deserted beach to a Mozambiquan fighter base - last clip was of the parked Navajo being guarded by boy soldiers whilst neatly lined up next to some Mig21s.
On top of my monitor in my study is a beautiful mahagony carving of a Mig21 that said guards presented to me the following day.
I forgot how much fun I used to have in that job!!!
Stik
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Caravan
Got a couple for you guys.
1: My first flight at the tender age of 5, on a jump seat of a Dan-Air Comet flying to Naples, Can only remember the first sector
2: Flying into Anadyr (Russia) awaiting clearance to cross the Bering sea, and then arriving into Nome for a Very large Steak.
3: Flying into Miami with the typical large thunderstorms around in the afternoon, with the Wx radar lit up like a Christmas tree, waiting for more clearances to depart for Cuba.
4: Greenland, landing at Kulusuk a gravel strip up the east side of Greenland, I would love to go back some day, and I will, to a boat ride with a local fisherman up and down the fjord fantastic sight.
5: Every time I flew the Caravan and now every time I fly the 75.
6: Sorry Slim, were told to fly down the runway at Cap Canaveral at 500ft, Well 50ft in the Caravan wasn't far off, great flight and what a long runway it just kept on going.
1: My first flight at the tender age of 5, on a jump seat of a Dan-Air Comet flying to Naples, Can only remember the first sector
2: Flying into Anadyr (Russia) awaiting clearance to cross the Bering sea, and then arriving into Nome for a Very large Steak.
3: Flying into Miami with the typical large thunderstorms around in the afternoon, with the Wx radar lit up like a Christmas tree, waiting for more clearances to depart for Cuba.
4: Greenland, landing at Kulusuk a gravel strip up the east side of Greenland, I would love to go back some day, and I will, to a boat ride with a local fisherman up and down the fjord fantastic sight.
5: Every time I flew the Caravan and now every time I fly the 75.
6: Sorry Slim, were told to fly down the runway at Cap Canaveral at 500ft, Well 50ft in the Caravan wasn't far off, great flight and what a long runway it just kept on going.
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Reading these posts reminds me just how varied and exciting flying can be. There is nothing else that can compare for fun, enjoyment, exhilaration, and excitement. I don't just read the stories, I try to put myself in those positions and imagine the fun each of them must have been.
I recently I took 2 people flying, for one of them it was his first time. I never thought any more about it until, only this week I was approached by their father and told how much fun they had on the day and how they had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They talked about nothing else all day. So much so that the father now wants to go for a trip and he (by his own admission) is scared of flying.
That experience isn't exactly what whirlybird was asking for but those comments made me feel really proud of the fact I can fly and akes all the hard work worth it. Sometimes you tend to take things for granted but this was a timely reminder that what I (WE) all do is something quite extraordinary, and although second nature to most of us, can provide others with an experience of a lifetime.
Happy flying.
I recently I took 2 people flying, for one of them it was his first time. I never thought any more about it until, only this week I was approached by their father and told how much fun they had on the day and how they had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They talked about nothing else all day. So much so that the father now wants to go for a trip and he (by his own admission) is scared of flying.
That experience isn't exactly what whirlybird was asking for but those comments made me feel really proud of the fact I can fly and akes all the hard work worth it. Sometimes you tend to take things for granted but this was a timely reminder that what I (WE) all do is something quite extraordinary, and although second nature to most of us, can provide others with an experience of a lifetime.
Happy flying.
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Has to be flying into Everglades City (X01) in Florida. I'm sure this is somthing hundreds of UK pilots (particularly who trained over there) must have done, but it was my first solo flight in the US and also my first solo trip to an airfield I'd never been to before. Since I first thought of learning to fly when I saw the scale of GA while on holiday over there, that 'first solo' was kind of what all the hard work had really been for, and a bit special.
X01 is on the Everglades coast, with water on three sides, and a couple of tourist boats stopped at the end of the runway to watch me land. I had to go around first time, because I completley screwed the approach (those trees seemed VERY close). I'm sure the tourists thought I was showing off. They were taking pictures of..... ME!
Later the same day flew across to Tamiami near Miami and back to Naples. The most flying I've ever done in a day (3.5 hours) and my highest ever flight (6500ft over Alligator Alley - stunning).
X01 is on the Everglades coast, with water on three sides, and a couple of tourist boats stopped at the end of the runway to watch me land. I had to go around first time, because I completley screwed the approach (those trees seemed VERY close). I'm sure the tourists thought I was showing off. They were taking pictures of..... ME!
Later the same day flew across to Tamiami near Miami and back to Naples. The most flying I've ever done in a day (3.5 hours) and my highest ever flight (6500ft over Alligator Alley - stunning).
The Original Whirly
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Six seconds changed my life!!!
That's the length of time I managed to hover, with all three controls, on my helicopter trial lesson. I'd had no intention whatsoever of taking it up; I couldn't afford it, I'd spent ages getting my PPL(A) and didn't want any more challenges, I was happy as I was. But after those six seconds I just KNEW I had to go on with helicopter flying...wherever it led me....
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Impossible to pick just one - there've been so many highlights!
- Soaring in wave over Yorkshire, at 11000ft, just above a lenticular cloud with the glider's shadow in the middle of a circular rainbow. (To answer an earlier question, you need the sun in the right position, the right canopy, and a cloud!)
- Jump seat, flying into Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport.
- Cross country flying around the Southern Alps in a high-performance glider.
- First landing on a glacier.
- Concorde!
- First solo landing on a glacier!
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Taking my mother (who had married and lost two pilot husbands,) for a flight in the Math master's Chipmunk after she had so courageously paid for my lessons. She had never flown with either of them. (Husbands.)
First GA flight after a 30 year lay off.
First flight after completing my Searey.
Driving the Flying Scotsman at 85 mph. ( like flying only bumpier and louder.)
First GA flight after a 30 year lay off.
First flight after completing my Searey.
Driving the Flying Scotsman at 85 mph. ( like flying only bumpier and louder.)
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Got 3 totally different ones:
1. Hudson VFR Corridor and 360 roound Statue of Lberty at 500' (I think that makes me number 3 on this thread).
2. Very soon after getting the PPL. Above Ashford, on the most perfect winter's day, and thinking: I can see Essex, I can see the whole of Kent, I can see way into France, I can see Manston runway, I can see Gatwick, I can see the power station at Ramsgate, I can see Dungeness power station near Lydd....
Never since have I been in such perfect visibility.
3. Any time amongst cotton-wool clouds... sensitive side kicking in...
1. Hudson VFR Corridor and 360 roound Statue of Lberty at 500' (I think that makes me number 3 on this thread).
2. Very soon after getting the PPL. Above Ashford, on the most perfect winter's day, and thinking: I can see Essex, I can see the whole of Kent, I can see way into France, I can see Manston runway, I can see Gatwick, I can see the power station at Ramsgate, I can see Dungeness power station near Lydd....
Never since have I been in such perfect visibility.
3. Any time amongst cotton-wool clouds... sensitive side kicking in...
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For me it was my first flight after getting my PPL. I brought as a pax a friend of mine who was so very very encouraging all through my training, and who couldn't wait for me to get the licence, so he could come flying! I stuck to a route that I knew well, and had so many back up plans!!! But it was the first time that someone who didn't fly themselves, go to see that I was a real pilot!!
My first P1 flight through controlled airspace (Class C over Dublin City) was also a highlight, as I was really neverous about it, and it all went smoothly. By the way....anyone flying over to Ireland to Weston should ask to be routed directly over the River Liffey through Dublin Class C. They will probably clear you not above 1500ft, and you get a beautiful view of the city, and it leads you straight to Weston!
Also my flight across the Grand Canyon was memorable. It would probably be the highlight itself if I had done it solo, but since I'd never flown in the US before, and never flown a C172 before, I thought it a good idea to bring an instructor along
Oh, and the jump seat ride into Copenhagen in a 737-800, with the Captain and FO each trying to out do one another by showing me more stuff than the other
My first P1 flight through controlled airspace (Class C over Dublin City) was also a highlight, as I was really neverous about it, and it all went smoothly. By the way....anyone flying over to Ireland to Weston should ask to be routed directly over the River Liffey through Dublin Class C. They will probably clear you not above 1500ft, and you get a beautiful view of the city, and it leads you straight to Weston!
Also my flight across the Grand Canyon was memorable. It would probably be the highlight itself if I had done it solo, but since I'd never flown in the US before, and never flown a C172 before, I thought it a good idea to bring an instructor along
Oh, and the jump seat ride into Copenhagen in a 737-800, with the Captain and FO each trying to out do one another by showing me more stuff than the other
Last edited by dublinpilot; 7th Jun 2003 at 20:21.
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As with many other posters, difficult to restrict it to one - in no real order:
Aiglon
- On a late afternoon jolly, on my own, EGTF - GWC - round the IoW and back. Turned over GWC and passing Chichester when Goodwood broadcast a warning that the Red Arrows were routing north, crossing the coast to the West of EGHR at between 500 ft and 1000ft. Then suddenly, there they are in a 4/5 formation flying below me - amazing .
- Completing a poor weather circuit and landing at the end of my IMC test and being congratulated on passing.
- Landing at LFAT on 10/8/99. I'd been there before but that was the first time my family had all ventured abroad with me.
- Landing a 767 at Hong Kong (the old one) off the Chequer Board approach. OK it was in a BA sim but it still felt good.
Aiglon
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- Aeros in a Harvard in Florida.
- Solo XC was the most unexpected bunch of treats... on the way to Goodwood to Lydd with Shoreham, at the end of a display, asking me to keep an eye out for 2 Spitfires transiting to Gatwick; Seeing a Lancaster depart for Southampton; At the hold at Lydd mixing it with more display traffic, waiting for Carolyn Grace to come through on a run and break in her Spit.
- 20s, three controls, hoverring a 12 hour 'old' R44 at Wycombe on my first & only heli lesson.
- Being signed off for aeros. And the subsequent solo flight.
- Solo XC was the most unexpected bunch of treats... on the way to Goodwood to Lydd with Shoreham, at the end of a display, asking me to keep an eye out for 2 Spitfires transiting to Gatwick; Seeing a Lancaster depart for Southampton; At the hold at Lydd mixing it with more display traffic, waiting for Carolyn Grace to come through on a run and break in her Spit.
- 20s, three controls, hoverring a 12 hour 'old' R44 at Wycombe on my first & only heli lesson.
- Being signed off for aeros. And the subsequent solo flight.
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Another one.... sorry :~)
Flying down the Manch LLR with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight coming the other way. Manch askes:
"SL, do you have the BBMF in sight?"
"Affirm. A Lancaster with a Hurricane on one wingtip and a Spit on the other, in my 11 o'clock".
"Memorial flight, do you have SL in sight?"
"Yes, we have the Chippy"
Whereupon the Spit on the LH wingtip peeled off, did a lovely barrell roll, and re-positioned on the wingtip as we passed.
One ex-RAF taildargger acknowleging another. A magic moment!
SSD
Flying down the Manch LLR with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight coming the other way. Manch askes:
"SL, do you have the BBMF in sight?"
"Affirm. A Lancaster with a Hurricane on one wingtip and a Spit on the other, in my 11 o'clock".
"Memorial flight, do you have SL in sight?"
"Yes, we have the Chippy"
Whereupon the Spit on the LH wingtip peeled off, did a lovely barrell roll, and re-positioned on the wingtip as we passed.
One ex-RAF taildargger acknowleging another. A magic moment!
SSD