Your Best ever flight

Probably either Biggin Hill to Le Mans in an Air Jet Bae146 – fantastic flight, seriosuly steep approach into the circuit airfield at Le Mans; or Malaga to Ceuta in a Helisureste Bell 406, incredible flight over the Straights of Gibraltar.

Could of been a 777 😉

I got the BA shuttle back from london – manchester when i returned from Australia a couple of years ago.

As everyone trooped over the airbridge and onto this plane it became immediatley obvious that it was a very large aircraft (A300 type something i think or similar – appols for not being a very techy spotter – anyhow it had about 10 seats across and would seat prob 200 people i guess)

It was also amazingly clean and tidy and as the handfull of passengers sat down (twas first morning flight) ,i was talking to the stewardess and commented how nice it was and she told me that the normal aircraft was out of commision and that this aircraft had been side-tracked into service and that it was, in fact, a brand new aircraft on its very first service flight.

It was an amazing flight – like being in a brand new empty cinema !!! 🙂

Michael

PS and we shot down the runway and into the air at an amazing speed ..

In a similar vein to the recent post about having a bit of alcohol and feeling relaxed

It wasn’t so much the alcohol that made me feel relaxed, but it did contribute!

Paul

In a similar vein to the recent post about having a bit of alcohol and feeling relaxed, the same thing happened to me. Flying Emirates 777-300 from Singapore to Brisbane overnight. Had a lovely onboard meal, a few red wines and some good tunes on the stereo. Sat back and felt incredibly relaxed the whole journey.

Another great flight was, again, Emirates 777-200 from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur. Only a short 2 hour flight, but it was nearly empty. So I had a whole row to myself to enjoy the amazing space of the cabin. Coupled with the incredible ‘on demand’ stuff EK have on their seat-back TVs, I was loving it!

My best flights are the following.

1. LHR – JFK UA777, great flight, fantastic crew, lovely meals and never once did i look at my watch wanting to get off.

2. MAN – TFS BY757 Fantastic looking air hostess on my flight, lovely food and generaly a good flight.

3. VRA – MAN MYT767 After a bad holiday in Cuba i was happy to be going home, crew some of the best ive ever had.

4. MAN – TFS CKT L1011 A lovely ride on a tristar both ways.

5. MAN – JFK BA767 Even there was no good IFE i loved the flights.

My best flights would be on an excel airways 737 from MAN to Verona because we got the front row with extra legroom. Another great flight was on jmc in 2002 from MAN to Kos because i’d always wanted to go on jmc and i loved their planes!

For me it was an overnight flight from YYZ to LHR on a BA 777.

There was something special for me about this particular flight, even though I can’t quite put my finger on what it was. Well…In fact there were several factors involved. Firstly, having been at the top of the CN tower 3 days before flying back, seeing it illuminated at night in the distance after takeoff from Pearson International was a magical sight. Downtown looked incredible from the Tower, but seeing the city from the air threw everything into a completely different perspective, and I guess it was one of those wonderful moments I realised what a beautiful thing flying can be and how it has the ability to change your perspective of the world.

Also by the time we were over the Atlantic, having had 4 hours in the airport before departure drinking Corona and several red wine’s on the plane, I was in an ever so mild state of intoxication. With the cabin lights dimmed and the soulful, chilled out sounds of Keb’ Mo’, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor playing on my iPod, I sat looking through the window into the black void of night, and just felt so amazingly relaxed. Indescribably relaxed…No worries, no tension, no stress… No thoughts whatsoever beyond how much I was enjoying the flight. It was probably the most relaxed I’ve ever felt, and I made use of every single second of it.

Flying at night almost always feels special to me for some reason. I had a similar feeling recently flying into LBA from DUB in darkness, and heading to GOT from AMS. The 777 flight is the top of my list though…At least for the moment.

Paul

Favourite flight has to be my first Harvard flight on the 11 July 1987 from Dunkeswell in Devon in G-CTKL. Always thought that would be the end of it, but now have 35 hours in them.

Other less favourites include Mustang G-SUSY and Avenger N3966A from North Weald, Provost G-BLIW, Staggerwing G-BRVE and 2 hours in the back of a T-28B at Oshkosh in 98 in formation with 8 others.

Martin

mmm….. On board Monarch A321 to ALC bright in the afternoon above the clouds

Mine would be either, my flying in a Grob tutor or a Vigulant… lots of aeros many of times or in a VC10 for about 5 hours over thenorth sea refyuelling Tornados and another VC10. But i am going solo flying in summer:)

Memorable flights – Reykjavik to Isafjordur and return in a Fokker 50 – most dramatic approach and climb away I ever remember.

Heathrow to Los Angeles on Air New Zealand 747-400, going and sitting on the fligth deck as we flew over the mountains. All the more special because the economy class passengers weren’t allowed to look through the windows for the entire 10 and a half hour flight 😡

Manchester to Brussels in an ARJ of Sabena – my first ever flight with this incomparable carrier.

Birmingham to Brussels on SNBA, my first ever flight with SNBA was memorable because we had a friendly steward who got me the best seat for taking photos and was pointing things out as we flew over towards Belgium. Plus he gave me extra chocolate 😀

Antwerp to London City on VLM – that LCY approach is truly superb!

my best experinice was in moscow i went to one of those airflight adventures was in a MIG-25 but in commercial terms mine was a Cocorde Birtish Airways

The backseat ride in the Foxbat must have been thrilling! I have to admit that I am a little jealous. 😉

my best experinice was in moscow i went to one of those airflight adventures was in a MIG-25 but in commercial terms mine was a Cocorde Birtish Airways

I have two best flights, I could not choose between the two..

1. BA L-1011-500 YYZ – PMD ferry flight. Aircraft being returned to the factory to checkout a flight control problem. Only three flight crew and three Lockheed engineers on board. I got about 45 minutes of left seat time, cooked the meals, did the cross checks and showed two movies. Lots of fun.

2. TS L-1011-150 YYZ – CBG ferry flight. Aircraft being input to Marshall for D-Check. Again only the flight deck crew and three pasengers, myself a Air Transat engineer and their head FA. Lots of room on a 345 passenger aircraft with only three passengers.

My best flight was my first flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 2002 with Air France B747-300, from ORY to FDF (Martinique). At the end, just before landing in Fort-de-France we fell in ‘nice’ tropical storm :dev2:

My best flight ever was about two and half years ago when I flew from CDG to YYZ with Air France on a A332. When I checked in my luggage in Nice, the agent said I was the only person who had said hello and who had asked him how he was doing. for those wimple kind words, he bumped me up to Classe Affaires where I have to say, I could have sworn I was in Classes Premiere. The service was outstanding, the food was great and as this was my first flight on the type, I thouroughly enjoyed it! 🙂

1)On board the the last Vickers Viscount flight out of Heathrow – 18th April 1996 – champagne all the way!

2) Lyneham to Gibraltar in an RAF Comet 4C as the only passenger in the VIP compartment, July 1973.

3) In an Ilyushin IL-14 out of Zhukovsky, Moscow in formation with another IL-14 and a Lisunov Li-2, Aug. 1997.

and finally

4) A flight with the Red Arrows at RAF Scampton, 18th May 1988. 😀

My best flights in no particular order:

Shorts Belfast G-HLFT Stansted-Edinburgh-Stansted April 2000 (Jump seat)
Concorde G-BOAG Paris CDG-Heathrow via Bay of Biscay Supersonic 1995
Vickers VC10 XR807 RAF 3 hours Air to air refuelling over the North Sea 2000
L188 Electra G-CEXS Stansted-Edinburgh-Stansted June 2000 (Jump seat)

Two other enthusiast flights on airlines that you wouldn’t normally expect to fly on:

B767-200 ET-AIE Ethiopian Airlines Heathrow-Heathrow Aug 1987
B747-100 EP-IAH Iran Air Cologne-Cologne July 2005

Aha! As far as piloting is concerned, not so much the first solo (I do remember that – I remember looking down and seeing the mainwheel stop spinning just after I’d taken off and thinking “Well, I better not f**k up the next landing!”) but rather I remember the flight when I completed the GFT as it was then – when I effectively “passed” the PPL. I remember also driving away from the flying club (we learned to fly in the USA) and “Cocomo” by the Beach Boys was on the radio. Hearing that song now always brings back memories of that GFT, and the strange sense of elation I had as a result of actually achieving something that a few months earlier I never dreamed I’d do.

As far as passenger flights are concerned, too many… Concorde from Heathrow to New York (G-BOAA on 26th February 1991), several jump seat rides on BMA DC-9s and Fokker 100s with some great drivers when I worked at the airline, Curtiss C-46 Commando CP-746 flying through the Bolivian Cordillera at over 16000′ with the emergency exits removed and no seats, or just the great flight and great crew in F-class on a UA 777 flight LHR-JFK last year.