Your first ever flight

[Speed 3]

Getragdogleg said:

Lands end Aerodrome to St Marys, Isles of Scilly and back. on the last ever round trip flight of a De Havilland Dragon Rapide on that route.

That must have been the outfit that provided my first - a 15 minute sightseeing out & back on a Rapide from somewhere in Cornwall, mid 70's - could well have been Lands End. Looks like there's one preserved down there, not sure if this was the same one:



First jet was a Britannia 737-200 MAN-IBZ in 1978. The smell of burnt Jet A-1 on the apron had me hooked and that was a career in aviation decided for me at the age of 11.

[Dr Jekyll]

Speed 3 said:

That must have been the outfit that provided my first - a 15 minute sightseeing out & back on a Rapide from somewhere in Cornwall, mid 70's - could well have been Lands End. Looks like there's one preserved down there, not sure if this was the same one:


First jet was a Britannia 737-200 MAN-IBZ in 1978. The smell of burnt Jet A-1 on the apron had me hooked and that was a career in aviation decided for me at the age of 11.

G AIYR did sightseeing trips from Lands End in the mid 70s. It's now operating from Duxford.

Then

Now

[Speed 3]

Dr Jekyll said:

Speed 3 said:

That must have been the outfit that provided my first - a 15 minute sightseeing out & back on a Rapide from somewhere in Cornwall, mid 70's - could well have been Lands End. Looks like there's one preserved down there, not sure if this was the same one:


First jet was a Britannia 737-200 MAN-IBZ in 1978. The smell of burnt Jet A-1 on the apron had me hooked and that was a career in aviation decided for me at the age of 11.

G AIYR did sightseeing trips from Lands End in the mid 70s. It's now operating from Duxford.

Then

Now

Good find, I had a vague recollection it was red.

More on them here:

https://www.modelflying.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?...

Edited by Speed 3 on Monday 24th February 19:49

[52classic]

Dr Jekyll said:

Speed 3 said:

That must have been the outfit that provided my first - a 15 minute sightseeing out & back on a Rapide from somewhere in Cornwall, mid 70's - could well have been Lands End. Looks like there's one preserved down there, not sure if this was the same one:


First jet was a Britannia 737-200 MAN-IBZ in 1978. The smell of burnt Jet A-1 on the apron had me hooked and that was a career in aviation decided for me at the age of 11.

G AIYR did sightseeing trips from Lands End in the mid 70s. It's now operating from Duxford.

Then

Now

That's stirred another memory for me. Must have been late 60's. Pleasure flight over Lands End from St Just airfield. Aircraft was branded Scillonia Airways. Another Rapide, G-AHAG I think.

[Greendubber]

My first flight would have been in the late 80s I reckon, we went up in the Dakota at Bagington for an hours flight, I wish I could remember more of it!

[SeeFive]

Dr Jekyll said:

Wasn't Peter Cadbury by any chance? Well known character at Fairoaks, owned several aircraft including an Islander at one point. His father had shot down a couple of Zeppelins in WW1 before running the family chocolate firm. Peter was in that grey area between 'real character, takes no nonsense from anybody' and 'high functioning lunatic'.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/151599...

Yes, that was the chap. Nothing untoward on the day, a nice little flight over some familiar territory. It was also my first grass strip take off and landing.

[Classic_Tim]

Early 1970's pleasure flight round Skegness - in some tail dragging, canvas covered heap I seem to remember. There were 2 planes, one with a nose wheel that looked quite modern but we got the one that zig-zagged across the field....
The interior seemed similar to my then current Triumph Herald.

[Sticks.]

2007 Cessna 152. Not been in anything bigger.

[droopsnoot]

1987, Gatwick to Houston was my first flight, on Continental Airlines. I remember thinking how the take-off was much steeper than I'd seen in films / TV, and the engine noise much louder. Meal choice, IIRC, was "meat or fish".

[magpie215]

Sticks. said:

2007 Cessna 152. Not been in anything bigger.

Unlikely you'll fly in anything smaller. :-)

[magpie215]

My aircraft history

Chipmunk
Cessna 150 ,152 ,172 ,208,421
Piper Malibu , Cherokee
DC3
Shorts 330 , 360
Embrair Banderante
Dart Herald
HS748
Bae ATP
B737 ,757
Fokker F27
Grumman AA5
Slingsby T67
Alon Ercoupe
Dragon Rapide
Islander
R22

Think that's all some were just passenger flights but quite a few I got a go at the controls.

Edited by magpie215 on Tuesday 25th February 13:21

Edited by magpie215 on Tuesday 25th February 15:54

[Dr Jekyll]

Mine

BAC111
Boeing 720B/737/747/757/767
Trident
Viscount
Chipmunk
Grumman AA5
Rapide
DC3
Cessna 152
PA28
BAe 146
BAe ATP
Dash 8
ATR 42
Twin Otter
Tiger Moth
Dash 8
Concorde
Airbus A319/A320/A321
Robinson R22
Bell Jetranger
Eurocopter Squirrel

[magpie215]

Dr Jekyll said:

Mine

BAC111
Boeing 720B/737/747/757/767
Trident
Viscount
Chipmunk
Grumman AA5
Rapide
DC3
Cessna 152
PA28
BAe 146
BAe ATP
Dash 8
ATR 42
Twin Otter
Tiger Moth
Dash 8
Concorde
Airbus A319/A320/A321
Robinson R22
Bell Jetranger
Eurocopter Squirrel

Impressed.....I forgot to add R22 in my list. Maybe I was too traumatized to remember.
Also been up in weight shift microlight.

[Speed 3]

Sure I've missed one or two:

Dragon Rapide
BAC 1-11
Boeing 727/737/747/757/767/777
BAe146/Jetstream/ATP
Shorts SD-360
ATR 42/72
Fokker F27/50/70/100
Embraer Bandeirante/ERJ145
DHC Twin Otter / Dash-8
Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321/A300/A310/A330/A340/A350/A380
Douglas DC-9/DC-10/MD-80
Lockheed L1011
Eurocopter EC225
Bell 206B
Cessna 340A/172
BN Islander
Beechcraft 1900D

[Riley Blue]

Mine:

Dumpy, smallish one with two whirly things.
Bigger one with four whirly things.
Bigger still, four whooshy things.
Quite small - two whirly things and a pilot called Keith.
Another big one with four whooshy things.
An even bigger one with four whooshy things.
A shaky, vibraty thing with a big whirly thing on the roof.
A double decker huge one with four whooshy things.
A very small shaky one with up and down wings and one whirly thing.

[aeropilot]

Riley Blue said:

Mine:

Dumpy, smallish one with two whirly things.
Bigger one with four whirly things.
Bigger still, four whooshy things.
Quite small - two whirly things and a pilot called Keith.
Another big one with four whooshy things.
An even bigger one with four whooshy things.
A shaky, vibraty thing with a big whirly thing on the roof.
A double decker huge one with four whooshy things.
A very small shaky one with up and down wings and one whirly thing.

[Sticks.]

magpie215 said:

Sticks. said:

2007 Cessna 152. Not been in anything bigger.

Unlikely you'll fly in anything smaller. :-)

A certainty, or another Cessna

[Halmyre]

Riley Blue said:

Mine:

Dumpy, smallish one with two whirly things.
Bigger one with four whirly things.
Bigger still, four whooshy things.
Quite small - two whirly things and a pilot called Keith.
Another big one with four whooshy things.
An even bigger one with four whooshy things.
A shaky, vibraty thing with a big whirly thing on the roof.
A double decker huge one with four whooshy things.
A very small shaky one with up and down wings and one whirly thing.

Congratulations, you've passed the interview to be Boeing's new CEO.

[Mort7]

magpie215 said:

Sticks. said:

2007 Cessna 152. Not been in anything bigger.

Unlikely you'll fly in anything smaller. :-)

I've been up in one of these:-




Which was great fun, and a couple of autogyros (RAF2000 & MT-03), which are well worth a try.

[Big Purple Dinosaur]

Apparently my first flight was Southend to Jersey as a very small chiid - I don't remember it all.

The first flight that I can really remember was London to Cape Town on South African Airways - with stops in Cape Verde, Angola, Rhodesia (as it was then) and then Jo'burg. The stop in Angola was frightening as there was still a major civil war going on & although the regime were supported by the South Africans, they weren't too friendly and I distinctly remember being searched by a very large and intimidating member of their armed forces as we were all forced out of the plane to be searched on the tarmac. This was the complete opposite to the stop in Salisbury, Rhodesia (aka Harare, Zimbabwe) where we were allowed out onto the runway for a stroll around and I vividly remember being fascinated by a massive praying mantis on the grass alongside the runway!

Ah, the age of innocence and all that!!!