Your single most memorable aviation experience
Discussion
So what moment stands out above all others in your memory? The only rule is you had to be there: so no telly moments please. You could be in an aircraft or watching one, but what moment will you remember forever?
I think mine is watching the BA Concorde fleet return to Heathrow for the very last time. I wasn't even that close to the flight path and had to watch them from many miles away through my binoculars, but I knew this meant I would have the regret of never getting to fly in one.
As it's my thread I can have two! The second being the MiG29M (vectored thrust prototype) display at Farnborough in, I think, 2006. Mental!
I think mine is watching the BA Concorde fleet return to Heathrow for the very last time. I wasn't even that close to the flight path and had to watch them from many miles away through my binoculars, but I knew this meant I would have the regret of never getting to fly in one.
As it's my thread I can have two! The second being the MiG29M (vectored thrust prototype) display at Farnborough in, I think, 2006. Mental!
The MiG-29s crashing into each other at Fairford will certainly stick in my mind.
I have my own stills, but here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_m6yV7uAsU
I have my own stills, but here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_m6yV7uAsU
Think mine will always be the time the company I work for took a Private jet from here to Freeport, Bahamas in order to move some equipment and client files (which could not go onshore).
I managed to get in the jumpseat on the landing into Freeport, 1st time I've ever looked forward (instead of out the side windows) on landing....was absolutely brilliant.
I managed to get in the jumpseat on the landing into Freeport, 1st time I've ever looked forward (instead of out the side windows) on landing....was absolutely brilliant.
Vulcan at the Brands Hatch GP sometime in the 80's was amazing when I was a kid. Also as a kid, standing in line to go for a first ever flight on a Laker Airways DC-10 ( I think ) to America was great.
In later life, a taxy ride in Lancaster 'Just Jane' was very special.
See here. http://www.pistonheads.com/Gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
In later life, a taxy ride in Lancaster 'Just Jane' was very special.
See here. http://www.pistonheads.com/Gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Age about 10-11, school trip to USAF Mildenhall.
Got arrested by airforce security followed by interview without coffee with CO.
Saw safety catches go to on once they realised it was kids.
We had wandered into a QRA hanger and I was taking an 8mm film of the F4 inside.
(Before you wonder, there were NO signs, just a double yellow? line perimeter marked on the tarmac - that one apparently should not cross)
Got arrested by airforce security followed by interview without coffee with CO.
Saw safety catches go to on once they realised it was kids.
We had wandered into a QRA hanger and I was taking an 8mm film of the F4 inside.
(Before you wonder, there were NO signs, just a double yellow? line perimeter marked on the tarmac - that one apparently should not cross)
juice said:
Think mine will always be the time the company I work for took a Private jet from here to Freeport, Bahamas in order to move some equipment and client files (which could not go onshore).
I managed to get in the jumpseat on the landing into Freeport, 1st time I've ever looked forward (instead of out the side windows) on landing....was absolutely brilliant.
Is that a 600 or 601?I managed to get in the jumpseat on the landing into Freeport, 1st time I've ever looked forward (instead of out the side windows) on landing....was absolutely brilliant.
Eta: on closer insp, GII or GIII.
My experience was similar, my first away trip with work. Going to rescue a hawker 1000 in our company 800. Had to go down to deepest darkest Bulgaria and was in the jumpseat for the flight, at night landing in a snowstorm. Feeling the aircraft trying to stop, slipping and sliding about was fun!
Edited by S3_Graham on Friday 23 November 17:04
Two moments connected.....
As a passenger and non qualified pilot (albeit experienced model flyer ans also with some hours experience with friends in their light aircraft), sitting in the jump seat of a 747 on the way to Rio and then flying it for a couple of hours during turbulence once it had been taken off autopilot. The captain then invited me to sit behind him from cruise to brakes on, on the flight back to Heathrow some days later.
Appreciate we're only allowed one memory but they are connected
Shame about this story is I've flown a lot since my very early teens and sat in cockpits of 707's, VC10's, Tristars, Vickers Viscount, 727's.....the list goes on and on (also to include Concorde
), and my children will never experience that excitement 
As a passenger and non qualified pilot (albeit experienced model flyer ans also with some hours experience with friends in their light aircraft), sitting in the jump seat of a 747 on the way to Rio and then flying it for a couple of hours during turbulence once it had been taken off autopilot. The captain then invited me to sit behind him from cruise to brakes on, on the flight back to Heathrow some days later.
Appreciate we're only allowed one memory but they are connected
Shame about this story is I've flown a lot since my very early teens and sat in cockpits of 707's, VC10's, Tristars, Vickers Viscount, 727's.....the list goes on and on (also to include Concorde
), and my children will never experience that excitement Was back in 1968 iirc, I was a wee lad of 8 and i'd seen 633 Squadron on the TV and decided that unlike
every other boy of that era the the Mossie was the greatest aircraft that ever flew! not the Spitfire.
Fast forward a week or two, Dad took me to an airshow at Speke airport in Liverpool, halfway through the show
there was this announcement "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you'd like to look to your right you'll see a de Havilland Mosquito"
So I looks to my right, and there she was at well over 300mph (my dad's ex RAF it was his estimate) was RR299 in banked pass
right along the crowdline at less than 100ft above the deck, I had a moment like the young Christian Bale in the
film Empire of the Sun when he sees the P51 mustang flying past.
It's a moment that even now I can play back in detail in my minds eye after 44 Years!
Stunning......
every other boy of that era the the Mossie was the greatest aircraft that ever flew! not the Spitfire.
Fast forward a week or two, Dad took me to an airshow at Speke airport in Liverpool, halfway through the show
there was this announcement "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you'd like to look to your right you'll see a de Havilland Mosquito"
So I looks to my right, and there she was at well over 300mph (my dad's ex RAF it was his estimate) was RR299 in banked pass
right along the crowdline at less than 100ft above the deck, I had a moment like the young Christian Bale in the
film Empire of the Sun when he sees the P51 mustang flying past.
It's a moment that even now I can play back in detail in my minds eye after 44 Years!
Stunning......
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