Where and when was your first flight?

Hi All,

Aer-Lingus 737 Elmdon (BHX) to Dublin early 70’s for family holiday with sisters and parents.

(Photo courtesy of:-  Tony Merton Jones – 04/1974 )

Geoff.

Sadly, I can’t recall the type of airline of my first flight, but it would have been from Spokane Washington to San Francisco, 1960. 

Probably United or Northwest. 

If anyone has the answer, please let me know. DC-4? DC-6? I think it was NW, so very possibly a DC-4….likely too short a flight for a DC-7. Any experts out there with the appropriate time tables?

That put me into the position for my second flight, a DC-6 from SF to  Tachikawa, (Tokyo) Japan…via Honolulu and Wake Island. Real low level stuff, just like The High and the Mighty. The airline was the little known  “Twentieth Century Airlines” doing military charter.

A chance meeting in 2008 with the late Airliners/Airways magazine editor John Wegg answered my question as to the type on the second flight. Being five, my identification skills were not what they are today, so I did not know if it was a DC-4-6-or 7. He had the answer. 

My first general aviation flight was in a Beech Bonanza, circa 1965.

My first helicopter (and military) flight was in January 1974 in a UH-1N Twin Huey (Bell 212).

My first Military fixed wing flight was 1982 in a KC-135A. My last military aircraft flights (as a civilian) were in a B-1B and T-6 Texan II.

All told, I have flown in about 80 types.

​​​

My first flight was out of RAF Lindholme in 1968 in a Chipmunk. 

But my second, a few months later, was at Boscombe Down in the last flying Valletta. Now that was a treat. 

Mine was in a Chipmunk at RAF Wyton when i was in the ATC summer camp approx 1978 . Whilst i was there i was allowed to go up in a Nimrod for a night flight WOW. 

 I also did a couple of flights in a glider from RAF Debden .

  The pilot i had in the Chipmunk was the C/O but i didn’t realise that until he said hello whilst being my pilot on the Nimrod as well. We did some aeros in the Chipmunk but i felt it was the earth moving around us and not us moving , brilliant.

Those words “a wet and windy August day” sum up my first flight too.  Aer Lingus Fokker Friendship, EI-AKG, Liverpool to Dublin in mid August 1961.  Seemed to spend more time moving vertically than horizontally. due to an Atlantic storm creating turbulent head-winds.

It was my 4th flight that I remember more of.  The following year, a day-trip to LAP’s Queens Building balconies with my ex-RAF father for passing the 11+ exam.   On the way home with Starways on DC-4 G-APEZ he knew one of the crew, so I flew the whole way back to Liverpool hanging onto the back of the pilot’s seats – including for the landing!  Once parked I made my back out of the cockpit and the passengers (mostly ‘suit and tie’ business men) applauded me and congratulated me on a “Jolly Good landing, sonny”.  What excitement the current generation of youngsters miss out on in this age of ‘secure and sterile’ cockpits.  The pilots filled out a folded card ‘Starways Junior Flight Log’ to record the flight, which I still have.

Here I am now, 60 years on, some 580 flights later with passengers flights on aircraft as diverse as Ford Trimotor, DH Dragon, Short Sandringham, T-6 Texan, Mil-8, An-2, Broussard, Twin Pioneer, VC-10, Trident and of course Concorde.

What I do notice about this thread is that ‘aircraft watchers’ (I’ve grown beyond being a spotter or enthusiast) are an aging breed – even the most recent first flight noted here is 50 years ago!

AA – It was very wet August day!

Channel Airways Avro 748, off the grass at Portsmouth to Jersey and back. I don’t know if it was G-ATEK or G-ATEH, but I’m glad to say that it wasn’t on 15 August 1967!

As to the demise of G-APWR, see http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=16746.msg70211#msg70211.

Tripacer G-APWR, doing rides out of Blackpool in 1977, up to Fleetwood and back for £6.00

The aeroplane is now at the bottom of the sea off the Isle of Wight, where it experienced engine failure whilst pulling a banner in July 91.  The two occupants were rescued by a nearby trawler. 

Circa 1984-5, Robin DR400 2+2 G-BGRH from Headcorn in the hands of a chap named Mike Weston-Smith.

Bristol Super Freighter, of Silver City Airways, from Lydd to Ostend I think. It was in 1962, and my Dad was en route to RAF Laarbruch.

For those with a bent for vintage cars, we travelled in a red and white Triumph Herald estate.

Auster 5 G-AJVT 1958 from Cleethorpes beach, the pilot buzzed the young ladies sunbathing in the sand dunes …happy days !! Dozens of others since then….. flights that is !

Italy to U.K. in a Dan Dare 727

Mine was circa 1970 Manchester to Palma on an Iberia DC-8-52.

Cherokee six G-AVTK from Southend in 1969 or 1970. 

I had been a spotter for several years but had never had the chance to fly. We stopped at the airport on the way back from my aunt and uncle’s house and the person selling pleasure flights offered to take me for child price to fill the last seat. My parents didn’t have a lot of money so I was amazed when they accepted the offer and a few minutes later I was airborne and off towards Southend pier.  

 Mid 1970s, a 15-minute flight in a Dragon Rapide from Biggin Hill.

If my memory serves me right, I think it cost me £2.00! My pocket money at the time was 50p a week!

Happy days.

Clacton 1963 64 or 65, Auster

‘Around the lighthouse’ pleasure flight from Lands End/ St Just in an Islander circa 1969/70, hooked from that moment – especially as I was allowed to ride in the copilot’s seat. 

Beaufighter: Lincolns with the ATC from Upwood were among my earliest flights (1954) but my earliest of all was in Messenger G-AKKC, with my mother from Peterborough (Westwood). I don’t know the exact date but have it as in 1951. Which ATC were you with? We also chatted in 2019 https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/lincoln-where-and-when

Laurence

Auster Tugmaster, 1967/68,  Shobdon,Herefordshire.Dave Miles Piloting.