First Flight

[gbb]

To expand on my earlier post, we eventually cajoled my late brother and his wife to come on holiday with us. Neither of them had been on a plane, like us, in their 40s. Quite frankly, my SIL was bricking it and sat the whole journey, book held 6 inches from her eyes...and it rarely moved from that position.
When we landed, the wife asked her how the book was ?....no idea was the reply, I dont think she absorbed, or even read a page of it, it was there to fend off thinking about where she was. She's still as nervous now, several flights later.

 

[Paulus]

My first flight was on one of these----Gatwick to Gerona 1972.

A BAC 111. It felt like sitting in a tube train. My mum was scared to get up whilst in flight, and I had to had to wait until we got the Gerona airport to go to the loo !

 

[F70100]

ANYWAY, so, what was your first flight?

Which one ??

First flight as passenger - 1968 BEA Vickers Viscount, Leeds-Bradford to Jersey

First flying lesson - April 1982, Cessna 150, first solo July 1982

First flight as crew - April 1993, Embraer Bandierante, Leeds-Bradford to Southampton

First flight as Captain, May 2002, Fokker 100, Stansted to Amsterdam

18 more flights on my schedule this week; roll on retirement...

 

[Brandane]

So..... When and where was your first flight??

Remember it like it was yesterday......
Aged 5, May 1968. BOAC VC10 (first class, no less - the one and only time!).
From Prestwick (before Ryanair moved it to Glasgow) to New York; then Pan Am Boeing 707 to Kingston, Jamaica.

My father had emigrated a few months ahead of us to take up a job with the Jamaican govt.. This was my mother, myself and three elder brothers heading out to join him for the best seven years of my life .

 

[welsh dragon]

My first flight was in 1965, on a BOAC aircraft. I was nine and I was given a BOAC badge which consisted of navy blue and gold coloured wings.

 

[Brandane]

My first flight was in 1965, on a BOAC aircraft. I was nine and I was given a BOAC badge which consisted of navy blue and gold coloured wings.

You were a fellow member of the "Junior Jet Club" then? You also got a log book which was hard back, navy blue colour, and got signed by the Captain on every BOAC flight you went on. It also recorded the time and mileage of the flight, and the aircraft registration. I managed to clock up quite a few flights during the 70s while traveling between Jamaica and UK, then for a couple of years Seychelles/UK. My father liked working on sunny islands. Great times!

 

[welsh dragon]

You were a fellow member of the "Junior Jet Club" then? You also got a log book which was hard back, navy blue colour, and got signed by the Captain on every BOAC flight you went on. It also recorded the time and mileage of the flight, and the aircraft registration. I managed to clock up quite a few flights during the 70s while traveling between Jamaica and UK, then for a couple of years Seychelles/UK. My father liked working on sunny islands. Great times!

Correct. My god. I was indeed a member.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I was wondering, I initially thought one was Dutch and the other German.

Flemmish??


Paging....... Who is the guy in Vlaanderen again?? Mort? @Delftse Post, @Speicher, @Andy in Sig, et al!

I thought Flemish. Though I was surprised by how much of it I understood. Maybe it's old-style Flemish.

Anyhow, my first flight was around 1955 and, when I turned blue, it turned out that I was acting as the plane's unofficial air pressure detector. I've never noticeably turned blue ever since.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Never had my feet off the ground and unlikely too do so. An Eustachian tube problem would blow an ear drum even in a pressurized cabin.

Yebbut seeing your head explode would be SO cool, if just a tad messy!!

Wick to Kirkwall with BEA in a Vickers Viscount.
Wick airport passenger lounge still had the wicker basket chairs in that time, just like in the films!
I remember on a later visit to Wick airport a friend arrived by car to to fly with Loganair to somewhere or other. As the 'plane was taxiing along the runway it was realised that he had gone off with the car keys in his pocket, but they managed to recall the aircraft before lift off and get it to return to the boarding area where the keys were handed over to his relieved father.

To be fair, Kirkwall is nothing better than a glorified glass and metal shed anyway IIRC.

 

[nickyboy]

Blackpool to Isle of Man when I was three. Apparently it was cheaper than the ferry back in the day.

My next one was when I was eighteen and was a Club 18-30 to Ibiza. The only thing in common with these holidays were that they were both at the seaside...although I can't remember seeing the sea on either for somewhat different reasons

 

[snorri]

To be fair, Kirkwall is nothing better than a glorified glass and metal shed anyway IIRC.

Wick had little more than a plook on the side of a hangar in the early 70s, while Kirkwall was so modern it even had a cafe.

 

[marknotgeorge]

My first flight was in a Chipmunk with the Air Cadets, in '86 or '87. I was airsick. I had a few more flights over the 4 years in the ATC, learning to do aerobatics on one flight.

Airliners? Only the one. A 737 to Corfu in 1995.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Wick had little more than a plook on the side of a hangar in the early 70s, while Kirkwall was so modern it even had a cafe.

A Cafe??!!

Why, what further confirmation of Metrosexual sophistication does one need??!!

Seriously though, yes, you are right, but it still wasn't more than a large shed/hall with a shop or two, a Cafe, the toilets, lots of seats with lots of windows in front to see the planes, the check in desk (recessed into the wall IIRC), the security machine, and..... Best of all..... The DOOR for going out to the planes!!