Plane age

RE: Plane age

My oldest was a DC-3-277 of PBA in which I flew between Naples and Key West, FL, in early 1981. At the time of the flight the aircraft was already 42 years old! Interestingly this former AA DC-3 had the entrance doors on starboard side.

Regards,
Peter

see ya at www.aerpix.net

RE: Plane age

Mine was a Danish Air Force Dakota back in the mid seventies so it was probably 30 to 40 years old then.

Regards,

kev35

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i’ve proable folwn in the same plane a slimmer – its a pre war dh-5

rabie :9

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I’ve flown in a Dragon Rapid, the one at Duxford. I think its still there, was a few years ago though. It was for a Domark (remember teh flight sim construction kit) press day. I don’t know the age of the aircraft though.

Simmer

RE: Plane age

http://www.network54.com/Realm/itchie/na3.jpg

RE: Plane age

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 15-12-02 AT 00:34 AM (GMT)]KC-135a . Your first time in it with its ridiculously long take-off roll… on a hot day, is enough to make you crawl out of your skin. 50 seconds into the take-off roll you think: “There is no way this aircraft will lift off” .

RE: Plane age

I went on a B720 of Middle Eastern Airlines from Damascus to Larnaca in the late 80’s (the home airport of Beirut was proably rubble at that point). It must have been early 60’s vintage I reckon.

RE: Plane age

I’ve flown in a 1929 New Standard… that was earlier this year… so if it was built in 1929, it was 73 years old!

RE: Plane age

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 14-12-02 AT 03:36 PM (GMT)]Thanks to everone and a special thanks to those of you who could find the pictures with your plane in.

Oh Arthur I am not the centre of the world and i acpreciate the points

RE: Plane age

The oldest plane I’ve flown in was also the first I ever flew in-
G-BETO,a 1962-built Moraine-Saulnier MS885 Super Rallye.A mate of my brother was part of a syndicate operating her out of a farm strip near Swindon.My first flight,over ten years ago now,was to Compton Abbas,and we got buzzed by some extremely low flying RAF Hercs on our way back to the plane from the airfield cafe.Nearly took our heads off,but I thought it was pretty cool.:)
Sadly,she was badly bent about 5 years ago by another pilot,and she was sold on and replaced by a Cessna 172 which is still going strong.
Up until recently I thought poor old BETO had gone for scrap,but she shows up on the CAA website as being airworthy again with a new syndicate.Happy news! 🙂
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RE: Plane age

B-25D “Grumpy” Not sure when she was build but she is a brilliant old girl.

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1987, I was 2 at the time, flew on Board G-AVRN, A Boeing 737-200 belonging to Britannia.

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A 1974-built (just like me!) DOSAAF/ROSTO, former Soviet Army Mi-8T in the summer of 2002. The An-2s i flew in all were younger. Unfortunately, all my experiences with cool sounding airlines like Aeroflot, Tarom and Air Kenya all were with booooooring airbuses.

RE: Plane age

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 13-12-02 AT 07:51 PM (GMT)]1964…(thats given my age away hasn’t it ?) DeHavilland Comet G-ATN (E..not sure, my memories fading a bit here but I was only four) Flew from UK to Singapore. Lovely old girl with loose panels in the roof lining. Scared the hell out of me cos it was my first flight in a jet airliner and the noise from the auxilliary power supplies and watching the fan blades turning as I was being carried up the stairs, convinced me I was gonna be sucked into the engine !. I wasn’t !!

Incidentally, when we flew back 2 years later (in the same aircraft), I left my Teddy Bear behind on my seat. The next day I came down with what was thought to be Measles by the ‘Doc, so I was feeling pretty miserable. Later that morning there was a knock at the door and two aircrew stewerds where standing there with my Ted !!. When they’d prepped the Comet for its next flight, someone had found my Ted and after looking at the passenger listing discovered a family travelling with children on the seat where he was found and delivered him to our house !!!. Totally outstanding.

Turned out I didn’t have measles afetr all that.

Them wus the days !

Cheers

Gary

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The Aurigny Trislanders built in the early 1970s I believe and still in the fleet today!

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Nearly flew with Aeroflop once. would that have beaten wysiwyg?

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16 years ago(!) I used to fly a Tiger Moth (G-ACDC). It was 56 years old then! It still belongs to the Tiger Club who are now based at Headcorn but when I used to fly it they were at Redhill. The picture shows it taxiing at Shoreham in the 1930’s!! The following text I have copied from the Tiger Club website.

G-ACDC is the third DH82a Tiger Moth built and the oldest still flying, it was registered on 6th February 1933 and was one of 10 allocated for use by the De Havilland School at Hatfield where it remained until November 1941.
CDC was officially impressed into the R.A.F. as BB726 on 30th October 1940 and went first to No. 1 EFTS at Hatfield until November 1941 then moving onto No. 28 EFTS at Wolverhampton. It served out the rest of the war there, being retired to 9 MU at nearby Cosford on 21st July 1945. From Cosford it was re-issued to RAF Dyce on 9th June 1952 for the summer season and was again returned to store at 20 MU Aston Down in November 1952.
The Tiger Club still has CDC’s first post-war logbook. This includes a card showing it was Lot number 79 at a R.A.F. auction in 1953. In preparation for auction it was brought up to flying standard at R.A.F. Aston Down and signed off there in September 1953. CDC was purchased by A.J. Whittemore (Aeradio) Ltd who had it flown to Croydon where it went into storage. The civilian registration G-ACDC was officially restored on 4th December 1953. In July 1955 it was sold to locally based Continental Aircraft Services and a short while later moved on to Rollason Aircraft & Engines Ltd at Croydon.
Rollasons converted CDC to civilian standards and at this time it had accumulated 4980 hours. During this overhaul the Tiger was completely stripped down and most of the structure was found to be sound though a new starboard upper wing was required and the antispin strakes, fitted by the military, were removed. CDC was then repainted to the old De Havilland colour scheme of maroon and silver and signed off on 24th June 1957 by Adrian “Dev” Deverill who was to look after her for the next 35 years.
It was on the 6th September of that year that CDC suffered a minor mishap on take-off at Croydon and the starboard upper wing was replaced again. It seems that repairing Tiger Moths in those days was a quick job as she was flying again on 13th September. In October an unfortunate accident occurred when a Chipmunk taxiied into CDC but the only repair required was a new rudder.
During 1958 a new racing propeller was fitted and CDC was used until the early 60’s for racing It won at least one race in the hands of David Phillips and was then converted back to the original specification. CDC then lived a busy life with general club flying and participating in the airshows that the Tiger Club was beginning to organise.
It was during the Rochester Air display in September 1963 that CDC suffered her most serious accident. It was a very windy day and Neville Browning was trying to entertain the crowds with a crazy flying display, when he was caught by a strong gust. The aircraft completed several somersaults before coming to rest, luckily without injury to the pilot. After being recovered back to Rollasons, it was found to need all four wings to be replaced and the front fuselage and cockpit to be rebuilt. It was agreed at Dev’s insistence that CDC would no longer be used for crazy flying, due to the historical value of this aircraft.
During 1964 Barry Griffiths devised a new display item and CDC was used for the first show. This required Barry to be dressed up as a mad professor, carrying a black box that was supposed to be a radio control for CDC, which was being flown by Neil Williams. The box exploded in a cloud of red smoke and CDC at this point appeared out of control and started attacking its controller. The cost of the black box meant it did not occur again, though the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it. The first logbook finishes at the end of 1964 when the total flying time was 6146 hours.
Since those early days CDC has continued as the flagship of the Tiger Club and as its most popular aircraft.
CDC is still to be seen flying at Headcorn in her original maroon and silver colour scheme and has now accumulated over 13,000 hours.

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RE: Plane age

It’s not really that old as far as planes go, but the Cessna 150, G-BOVS was built in 1976 making it about 27 years old.

I have flown in it and flown it twice with a flying school from Exeter. There are many cracks in the wing and it looks quite tired inside and out. Being a training aircraft I’m sure it will have had alot of wear (and tear).

It did crash into a building in 1996 where part of the propeller and wing was damaged. The plane was said to have jumped forwards during start up. This happened in another part of England.

In flight, I did feel quite safe and enjoyed the rides.

Below is a photograph of it, taken at Exeter showing good contrast with the Red Arrows in the backround…

http://www.exeter-airport.co.uk/images/aircraft/red1.jpg

Regards

Luke