In what plane did you first fly?

Delta Boeing 727-200 from Boston to Atlanta. In Atlanta my Delta-employed uncle showed me around another 727 that was in maintenance, remains the only time I've been in the cockpit of a commercial airliner that wasn't in a museum environment.
 
I was pretty young so it's hard to be sure, but I think a Convair 580 sometime in the late 1970s. I have a clear memory of it being a fairly large prop plane with a forward door, and the Convair seems most likely.
 
First flight was in a Piper Cub but I don't remember anything about it since I was about 2 years old. Best flight was a test flight in a Citation 10. Very impressive. Most fun was a homebui Rocket R-1 built by a retired Navy fighter pilot. Great fun. 250 HP. 1596245169021.jpeg 1596245169021.jpeg lt
 
My first parachute jump was from a Cessna 182 in 1977. Since then I have jumped from more than 30 types of aircraft and a bridge.

A-Star, Alouette II, Airvan, Breezy, Buffalo, Cariboo, almost all of the single-engined Cessnas, CH-47 Chinook, Dornier 27, Dornier 228, Beechcraft Expeditor, Ford Trimotor, Huey, Islander, Jet Ranger, King Air, Kodiak, Lockheed C-130, Maule, Piper Cherokee 6, Queen-Air, Skyvan, Twin Otter, Westwind Beechcraft, etc.
My last parachute jump was 40 years later, but also from an early, straight-tailed Cessna 182. My last jump was with a tandem student strapped to my chest ... technology that had not even been dreamed about when I made my first.
 
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riggerrob said:
My first parachute jump was from a Cessna 182 in 1977. Since then I have jumped from more than 30 types of aircraft and a bridge.
Airvan, Breezy, Cariboo,, Dornier, Equerill helicopter, Ford Trimotor, Huey, Islander, Jet Ranger, Kodiak, Lockheed C-130, Maule, Piper Cherokee 6, Skyvan, Twin Otter, Westwind Beechcraft, etc.
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Man, you've had really bad luck having to bail out of so many aircraft... :D
 
First Flight, DHC. Chipmunk as a bright eyed Air Cadet at RAF. Turnhouse
First Glider ride, Slingsby Sedberg T.21 (solo on Cadet T.3) at RAF. Kirknewton
First Helicopter ride, Westland Wessex (& zipline out of) at RAF. Shawbury
First civil aircraft ride, Miles M.100 Student, G-APLK :) at Glasgow Airport
First civil helicopter ride, Bell Jetranger sightseeing trip (21st birthday pressie)
First civil passenger flight, clean newly delivered Air France 737-500, Glasgow to Paris CDG. (and scruffy old type British Airways 737-200 bus for return trip)
First 'classic' civil flight, KLM. DC.3 Dakota
First military ride, SAL. Jetstream T.1
First military 'fast jet' ride, Ilmavoimat Hawk T.51 at Kauhava
 
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I was told it was III 1956, a DC6 from Bruxelles to Stanleyville (now Kisangani in RDC) followed by a DC3 to Bukavu
The first I remember was a DC4 (Royal Lybian Airlines) and after a DC7
The last ( for now) were B787 and A350 on my trip to NZ novembre 2019
Between, more than 30 types of aircraft, the smallest a Cessna 152 and the biggest a A380
Unexpectedly also a C-130
 
saba said:
I was told it was III 1956, a DC6 from Bruxelles to Stanleyville (now Kisangani in RDC) followed by a DC3 to Bukavu
The first I remember was a DC4 (Royal Lybian Airlines) and after a DC7
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A slight variation on the famous Long Beach sign - "Fly DC Props"!
 
Cherokee 140 when I was 6 years old in Oahu, HI. My Father was a fighter pilot in the Navy and was assigned to VU-1 at NAS Barbers Point. Rented the 140 and we flew around the island as I recall. Flew back to the States in late 1966 (we moved to Hawaii and crossed the Pacific from San Francisco on the SS Lurline) on a Continental 707 - the "Big Bird with the Brass Ass" as my Father stated, probably because he had a job lined up at United Air Lines! Wish now I had kept a log of anything I ever flew in - at the time you could not imagine that Caravelles, DC-8s, DC-9s, and 747s would no longer grace the skies carrying passengers.....

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 
1st was a SAS Caravelle early 70's some time.. I remember being freaked out by the noise & my ears popping. I was a very regular cockpit visitor after that, culminating in a DC-9 crew letting me sit in the cockpit jump seat during landing. I clearly remember once getting a seat next to someone from BAC or BAe who was working on the 146 and promised me a tour of the facility.. No amount of bugging my mum to make the call gave results. I sometimes I wish I'd been a more independent 10 year old.
 
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Ray said:
First flight was in a Piper Cub but I don't remember anything about it since I was about 2 years old. Best flight was a test flight in a Citation 10. Very impressive. Most fun was a homebui Rocket R-1 built by a retired Navy fighter pilot. Great fun. 250 HP.View attachment 638627View attachment 638627lt
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Hey, I recognize that one! :) Mark
 
C-47 G-AMPO at Farranfore, County Kerry, Ireland. Loved it and still think of it 40 years later.
 
My dad and I both had our first flights in 1966 in a Blanik glider

en.m.wikipedia.org

LET L-13 Blaník - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

My father missed the opportunity to get a flight in a biplane as a boy in 1933 which he always regretted.

My first airliner flight was a Lufthansa 737 from Heathrow to Cologne-Bonn in 1980 paid for by my office.

Never got to fly on Concorde but always hoped I would one day.

Of course in my head I have flown in the Boeing SST many times.
 
Told that story before, upthread. I had two veteran military pilots in my small village. One was an helicopter buff, the other classic light aviation. Flew with both - Alouette II and then Robin DR-400. The second one was a nut, flying low over the village houses, including mine.
When he was grounded with heart issues he just went ultra light aviation and kept going. My mother and I assumed that someday he would pull an involuntary 9-11 in one of the village houses, yet last time I heard he is still alive and kicking. Still flying past 80.

Also flew as passenger onboard A330 bound to La Réunion island. So, if you don't live in Paris yet have (step)family in La Réunion, you end screwed thrice.
- It is Paris or burst - or either high speed train or a short haul flight, to Paris
- then for some reason I can't explain, those Paris - Saint Denis de La Réunion flight are only night flights.
I mean, you get in the plane at 10 in the evening to land 12 hours later - in broad daylight, at 8 in the morning.
- so you haven't slept at all, and as soon as you exit the plane, you take 35°C and 90% humidity right in your face. Even more since air conditioning at the airport usually capitulates.

We did that with a 2.5 year old kid late 2016. You guess it didn't went well. He staunchly refused to sleep until Madagascar (or close, down under Africa), to the great delight of the 250 other human bodies piled in the goddam A330. And then we looked through the window, daylight had came back, and the kid was asleep. We landed one hour later.

The next time in 2018 we went by train to Paris. In front of us was a young student very recognizable as an inhabitant from La Réunion (typical mixed beauty) returning from exile. (they have 30%+ young unemployement rates in the island, so exile to Metropolitan France is mandatory).
And surely enough, she boarded the same plane and ended also in front of us. So, in a nutshell, she had to endure our ...agitated kid all the way from Bordeaux to Paris to La Réunion, something akin to 16 hours not counting the train to airport transit time. Hail the joy of computer booking filling train and aircraft according to rational computer logic...
 
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First flight: Whirlwind HC.Mk 12
First fixed wing: HS Argosy
First commercial: Argonaut
First solo: LET Blanik
First powered solo: SA Bulldog
First jet solo: BAC Jet Provost T.Mk 3
First fast jet: EECo Canberra T.Mk 4
First 'proper' fast jet: SEPECAT Jaguar T.Mk 2
Fastest and highest: EECo Lightning T.Mk 5
 
Of course in my head I have flown in the Boeing SST many times.
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Thanks to a gifted french CGI genius from this forum, I use to fly too on SST with Steppenwolf "Magic carpet ride" as background. Blame that Star Trek 1996 movie for that. And Zefram Cochrane pioneering warp drive flight with the same song.
 
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L-1011..sat right under that engine and could hear it breathe.

The 727 was the smoothest ride.
 
Archibald said:
Told that story before, upthread. I had two veteran military pilots in my small village. One was an helicopter buff, the other classic light aviation. Flew with both - Alouette II and then Robin DR-400. The second one was a nut, flying low over the village houses, including mine.
When he was grounded with heart issues he just went ultra light aviation and kept going. My mother and I assumed that someday he would pull an involuntary 9-11 in one of the village houses, yet last time I heard he is still alive and kicking. Still flying past 80.

Also flew as passenger onboard A330 bound to La Réunion island. So, if you don't live in Paris yet have (step)family in La Réunion, you end screwed thrice.
- It is Paris or burst - or either high speed train or a short haul flight, to Paris
- then for some reason I can't explain, those Paris - Saint Denis de La Réunion flight are only night flights.
I mean, you get in the plane at 10 in the evening to land 12 hours later - in broad daylight, at 8 in the morning.
- so you haven't slept at all, and as soon as you exit the plane, you take 35°C and 90% humidity right in your face. Even more since air conditioning at the airport usually capitulates.

We did that with a 2.5 year old kid late 2016. You guess it didn't went well. He staunchly refused to sleep until Madagascar (or close, down under Africa), to the great delight of the 250 other human bodies piled in the goddam A330. And then we looked through the window, daylight had came back, and the kid was asleep. We landed one hour later.

The next time in 2018 we went by train to Paris. In front of us was a young student very recognizable as an inhabitant from La Réunion (typical mixed beauty) returning from exile. (they have 30%+ young unemployement rates in the island, so exile to Metropolitan France is mandatory).
And surely enough, she boarded the same plane and ended also in front of us. So, in a nutshell, she had to endure our ...agitated kid all the way from Bordeaux to Paris to La Réunion, something akin to 16 hours not counting the train to airport transit time. Hail the joy of computer booking filling train and aircraft according to rational computer logic...
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I suspect that they wanted to land at Reunion in daylight because of limited IFR landing equipment.
 
DH Tiger Moth in 1960 when I was four. The old man reckoned that he could hear me screaming from the ground. :D It was off a top dressing strip not far from home.
 
my first aircraft ?
i was around 5 years old and my parents took Airliner from Berlin to Bremen Airport around 1970.
Tempelhof was fantastic Airport, i not remember the Airline but i Remember clearly
The Plane had engine in back of fuselage and rear airstairs, must be a Boeing 727.
The Flight was quite fun for me

Next flight was early 1980s on captive gas balloon, sadly the operator of cable drum was a Asshole.
He pull random the cable, making the flight rough and people got afraid, i got airsick on board.
After he made to fast decent and tough stop, people complain loudly, follow by fist fight...

Sadly it took until 2004, able to fly again with Airliner fron Dusseldorf to Munich
And that became wild ride on landing do a thunderstorm, with turbulence and air hole.
My respect for pilots who manage safe landing under those conditions.
 
A Cessna something or other. Quite likely a 172.
My mother's cousin was a pilot and had an aviation business. He took us up for a short ride from a runway that, for some decades now, has been a street and a long parking area.

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Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
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Some sort of a run of the mill midsize twinjet, but I honestly couldn't tell you the airline, make and model though. Since it was Munich to London in December 1987 on an airline and plane I long since forgot any details of, it's anyone's guess. I dimly remember I was sitting in a firmly subsonic aluminum tube with windows however...
 
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would have been prior to 1969, only have a vague memory of flying a NorthCentral airlines Convair 340. Have much clearer memories of 727 flights when I was older and one flight on a caravelle I think
 
bobtdwarf said:
would have been prior to 1969, only have a vague memory of flying a NorthCentral airlines Convair 340. Have much clearer memories of 727 flights when I was older and one flight on a caravelle I think
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It must have been great to fly in a Convair 340 ! ;)
 
F.L. said:
bobtdwarf said:
would have been prior to 1969, only have a vague memory of flying a NorthCentral airlines Convair 340. Have much clearer memories of 727 flights when I was older and one flight on a caravelle I think
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It must have been great to fly in a Convair 340 ! ;)
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it was loud, and it was cool.. didn't get to fly on a prop again until an AA Embraer
 
perttime said:
A Cessna something or other. Quite likely a 172.
My mother's cousin was a pilot and had an aviation business. He took us up for a short ride from a runway that, for some decades now, has been a street and a long parking area.

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...
my dad owned a 172.. never got to fly in it though, but did get to sit in it once.
 

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