What is your greatest flying experience?

[hythe]

Some impressive experiences on here, that's for sure!

My best in-flight experience has to have been coming in to land in the Maldivian Air Taxi, at a sun-drenched island in its own little lagoon - gets me grinning every time (albeit not just for the flying experience...)

[Vickers McFunbus]

One of two I think:

Either this one,

, or bringing back the GR4s from the Gulf in 2009 a couple of weeks earlier, with flypasts at Marham, and later at Brize. The latter was notable for having to split formation in cloud about 15 miles out, then having to go full chat to get back "in" with the other two jets before reaching Brize. We did it with a mile or so to spare!

June 2009 was a very good flying month!

[Jb65rams]

1/2 hr aerobatics session in a Pitts Special for my 40th Birthday. Loops and tail-slides. Loved it.

[John B (Sc)]

During my time at Brawdy in the late 80s, us groundies could put our names down for a back seat ride in a Hawk. The flight was usually either an early morning 'Weathership' flight through Wales, or a less interesting 'Flag' sortie where you'd fly around in circles over the Bristol channel towing a target banner ........which was being shot at !

On 12th March 1987 I I was called up for a 'Flag' sortie, and indeed flying around over Lundy watching other Hawks fly up behind and seeing the puff of smoke from the Aden as it fired was ok, and pretty thrilling for a teenager on his first fast jet flight. The pilot was obviously bored though.

Anyway, after an hour we transited back to Brawdy and dropped the flag off (literally). The pilot confirmed with me that I was happy to carry on and he said something to the effect of "I'll show you what I like to do best". And so we flew up to the St Davids area where he put the aircraft through it's paces. The aircraft was XX188 and the pilot was former Red Arrows pilot FlT Lt Dan Findlay. You can imagine how he threw that aircraft around...... chuffin' fantastic !

I kept the sick bag as a souvenir (unused of course), and my Avatar picture was one I took as we were marshaled back onto the flightline.

Only as I get older do I start to appreciate some of the things I was privileged to do. Mr Findlay, if you're out there ......thank you Sir !

Oh....... and my first 1/48 Hawk build is of XX188.

Haha - How nice to hear of Dan again.Last I heard he was flying airliners, don't know who with.

I flew with him rather a lot of years ago, when I was instructing in gliders. His dad, an ex RAF WW2 pilot, was my main instructor when I learnt to fly.

John B

[woody37]

Some good reads here.

My favourite was flying a Dakota back from Belfast to Blackpool in '88. I was doing a flying scholarship there and got a flight in the daily mail run. On the way back, got to sit in the No.2 seat and fly it low level across the Isle of Man, a fair old sluggish beast compared to the Cherokee I was learning on, but full of nostalgia and those old beauties felt and smelt like planes should !

Here's a picture of me stood next to it, I found the negative years later and managed to get this from it....

[mtd350]

One of two I think:

Either this one,

, or bringing back the GR4s from the Gulf in 2009 a couple of weeks earlier, with flypasts at Marham, and later at Brize. The latter was notable for having to split formation in cloud about 15 miles out, then having to go full chat to get back "in" with the other two jets before reaching Brize. We did it with a mile or so to spare!

June 2009 was a very good flying month!

Ah the 10, Crabairs finest. More than a few times I've flown backwards in them buggers. Bestest in a 10 was in the jump seat for T/O, AAR and L into Muharrraq. Funniest was dumping fuel an hour out of Brize enroute to the Gulf in 03. The whole plane cheered when the captain said where we were(over France somewhere)but soon stopped when the sunlight was shining in the opposite windows and we were heading back.

[Flankerman]

Flying in a Scout helicopter from Wegberg to Detmold.

I was a civil servant at JHQ Rheindahlen and we used to ring up the AAC and cadge a flight to various places to do an audit.

On this occasion, the cloud base was so low as we flew over the Rhine at Dusseldorf we were literally at just hundreds of feet.

We were flying slowly along, keeping a keen eye out, when out of the low cloud in front of us loomed a power pylon - the top of which was in the low cloud.

Our pilot came to a hover and flew left and right either side of the pylon trying to see the power lines, but couldn't locate them.

He then realised that it wasn't a power pylon at all but a lighting mast over the railway marshalling yards at Hamm!!!

Having safely circumnavigated the mast we carried on north - all at zero feet.

But when we came to the Teutoburger Wald ( a range of low hills), the pilot could not find a gap or a way through it to get to Detmold - so he wisely diverted back to RAF Gutersloh, where we landed and he arranged for a staff car to take us to our final destination - 655 Sqn AAC at Detmold.

A couple of days later, the QM at 655 arranged for a flight in a DH Beaver for me - an air test to keep the auditors happy.

Great adventures for a 27-year old civil servant....... happy days!

Ken

PS - I found these old slides recently - showing us boarding a DH Beaver at Wegberg airstrip.....

... and here's yours truly about to taste some Beaver at Detmold.....

God - did I truly used to look like that 40 years ago ???

[chaddy]

Landing and taking off at Lukla !!!!! (Thankfully I was only a passenger).

Edited May 2, 2013 by chaddy

[RAF Laarbruch]

flying to wildenrath, bruggen and gutersloh in vc10's Seats were back to front, was surreal, flying into RIAT 1999 in a c130 from lyneham, and back thew same day, took all of 5 minutes, c130 trips from lyneham over Bristol, weston super mare etc, god i feel very old, Flankerman know the strip at Wegburg rather well, as was born there at RAF Wegburg, and also remember a local RC flying club based there.

[JOAN]

...coming from France on an Hurel Dubois HD34 for the RIAT 87 and an epic up side down flight in a ASK 13 over Provence...

olivier

[Hoppy]

DC 3 twice , Sydney to Cessnock for the airshow and Sydney to Temora for the annual airshow at 5000 ft over the Blue Mountains on a cold clear winters morning. Visability unlimited and the pilot Jack Curtis allowing us to go up front and check out the view. We had to divert to Forbes as Temora was fog bound and sitting at the side of the runway watching the other aircraft on their way to the show land and Jack scoring the landings.

Coming back to Sydney from Lismore in a Aerospatiale Nord N262 Mohawk of Queensland Pacific Aviation , on a hot , humid , late afternoon and the pilot dodging around thunder storm cells as we came in over the Central Coast, and watching the lightning from under the clouds.

Hong Kong to London via China / Russia route and a crystal clear night and the moon reflecting of the snow cover over the steppes. Spectacular and the added novelty of snow.

And for my 50th birthday a Tiger Moth flight out of Camden airport.

[JaseGill]

Not as Captain?

Probably either the right hand seat in a twin stick Hunter on a spinning trip, or the front seat in the VAAC Harrier. I guess I was lucky having a long tour at Boscombe Down so got quite a few ETPS and RWTS trips in and some good trips as leaving presents

That said you can't beat your first solo and any pilot that tells you different isn't being wholly honest.

[Jazzy Jase]

Had a flight in a Wessex as a young Air Cadet. Sitting opposite the door, as it took off it banked right and left me staring at the ground hoping I didn't fall out. Loads of low-level flying and very interesting to be able to watch the pilots feet above you. Won't forget that one.

[Gajman]

Two flights as a passenger in a SAAF Impala (Aermacchi MB-326). I was a fighter controller and we'd get occasional flips to see what it was like from the pilots viewpoint as one of your mates controlled the two aircraft on simulated interceptions. Two aircraft took off, flew to the training area where the controller separated the aircraft, and then guided the one into an interception on the other. The pilots had great fun doing air combat manouvers against each other once the interception took place.

The first flight I held it all together nicely until we were on short finals to Waterkloof AFB at which point we flew over a motorway. The rising heat caused the plane to jolt a bit and that was the final straw for my stomach after all those manouvers. Thankfully they'd given me a sick bag before we took off

Despite that they were fantastic flights. I'll never forget bending my head back to look (what should have been) up and found myself looking down on to the top of the other Impala with the South African bush below it as we flew upside down above him ... amazing.

[Biggles]

Could be either:

1/ My first solo - landed with a right big grin on my face

2/ Cadet flight on a Nimrod (they never stopped cooking/eating!)

but is probably:

3/ Glider flight in Derbyshire. Got caught in a 'wave', went up like a rocket but silky smooth, me and the instructor just sitting there with arms crossed and feet off the pedals admiring the view. (with full airbrakes out we were still maintaining height! Had to wait until we dropped out of the back of the wave to return to base!). Completely silent and (as I said) silky smooth. Sorry, but in all my powered flight experience (OK I've never flown a Tornado at 50ft) that beats them all into the proverbial cocked hat.

[SwedeInSiam]

Being hoisted of my ship and flown to hospital in a USCG helicopter with a broken femur.

[gruffy]

One time when i was a squaddie we were doing exercises with lynx helicopters. We clambered aboard during a stormy night and flew off. As we got closer to our destination it got very rough with stormy weather and turbulence! The lynx was really being throw about and the pilot was struggling to control it. My sergeant started puking with the door gunner doing the same! The pilots started puking and the rest of the squad started too! When we landed the ground crew had to pressure wash the interior of the lynx!

My first time in a helicopter and I enjoyed it! (No I wasn't sick ! ) . Allways good to see NCO's and officers in distress! Hehe!

[general melchett]

There are many, first solo in an old PA-38 Tomahawk into Panshangar in far from ideal conditions, soloing in the old Cadet Mk III and T-21 and wobbling nervously into Henlow, well I was 16, hoping you don't hit the only tree slap bang in the middle of the grass section of the airfield, air experience at Bruggen in 1975 in an old whirlwind, (first of many chopper rides) and a trip up to Newcastle in an RAF Devon which managed to blow its port main wheel tyre on landing and veer off onto the soft grass in a spray of liquid mush, but the one that really stands out was a chance trip when on hols in Florida in1989. A friend of mine John Ward, a qualified twin pilot and his wife decided to join us at Kissimmee for an extended vacation, naturally we had to visit the air museum there. My pal being a very cheeky chappy asked if it was possible to blag a ride with any of the display pilots practicing for the next days air show !. To our amazement, after explaining that we were both qualified pilots, ( in the loosest term), we were granted a ride with a stunt pilot who went by the name of Eliot in a 1940 Waco UPF-7 Biplane. He was going up to do an altimeter calibration test and took us along with him.

This was to be the ride of a lifetime, going through the full aerobatic routine...vomit bags at the ready, I've never experienced anything like it, totally exhilarating to put it mildlyand I now have total respect and admiration for the Red Bull, Blades guys and the Vic Norman, Brian Lacombers' of this world, etc !!

Other than that blagging a ride in a Gazelle from Farnborough via a friend of mine (Dr Ken Howlett, a senior radiologist at the London hospital where I worked an high ranking officer in the TA). He seemed to know just about everyone and very kindly arranged for myself and a pal Russ to go on a little jaunt with a unit based at Farnborough at that time, (my pal went off in a scout),. We had no idea that we would be actually flying until we had the papers put in front of us, along with several others who were there for selection. I guess they thought that we were part of that process. Absolutely fantastic experience traversing the nearby Long valley range at very low level. I don't think the sergeant pilot was too impressed when we told him why we were there..but hey ho, too late !

Edited May 27, 2013 by general melchett

[melvyn hiscock]

Across the Atlantic on a Grumman Albatross was fun except for the emergency landing in Greenland with a blown cylinder; sitting in the nose of Pink Lady around Jersey; sitting in the nose of the Flamant when en route back to La Ferte from Angers and seeing a circular rainbow; seeing another from a Piper Cub over Iceland; spotting all of the Isle of Wight from a T67; First solo in G-AVOH at Thruxton at 18:50 on 2 June 1992; Air to Air with the GeeBee; Air to air with various wingwalkers; several fun Staggerwing trips; sitting in the tops of the clouds to forget what was going on below; seeing from Lydd to Southend from the other side of Calais; Huey trip over the Mojave; Army Sioux from Middle Wallop; loads and loads, but watching the aeroplane I restored fly for the first time; my first solo in it and then landing at Biggin Hill, where I had visited as a kid, in the aeroplane I had restored to go and commentate; taking John Fairey flying in my aeroplane in thanks for having seen him flying the Spitfire when I was a kid and kicking off the interest and then being asked to take part in the flypast at his memorial service, flying with Fokker DR1, SE5, Morane AI, Fokker DVII over La Ferte.

I suppose I have not done too bad!

[Radleigh]

RAF Chinook flying through the valleys in the Falklands, the pilots must have been on a death wish!

Said Chinook,

Chinook at Byron Heights, Falklands. by Rainbow 1984, on Flickr

and some average flying, it got worse but I put my camera down and held on lol!

Chinook flight around the Falklands by Rainbow 1984, on Flickr

[Radleigh]

On a slow laptop so having to do two posts, sorry!

The other was a An-2, we buzzed the airfield doing a sharp bank which felt like the wings were about the fall off, a feeling I won't ever forget.

The An-2, LY-AUP.

Classic smokey start! LY-AUP An-2 by Rainbow 1984, on Flickr

and me at the controls

An-2 cockpit by Rainbow 1984, on Flickr

[Flankerman]

spotting all of the Isle of Wight from a T67

Taken from a KLM B.777 on the way to Schipol after a flight from Lima (where I did the Inca Trail).....

After overflying London, we then had to take a flight back to Heathrow from Amsterdam!!

Ken

PS - More aviation pics from Peru trip here - (includes Las Palmas AFB museum)

[fids]

1. Airbridge from Baghdad International to the green zone in a Puma. Never flown nap of the Earth through a city before

2. From Clogher to Aldergrove at the end of my first tour in Ulster in 88. Beautiful January morning, crystal clear sky and very frosty, once we'd achieved altitude he dropped the back ramp, the scene was stunning. Didn't have my camera on me though

3. Cadged a jolly in a Gazelle in Belize, it was an orientation flight for one of the pilots who'd just arrived, we went everywhere, including vertically down the 1000 foot falls

Baghdad wins every time

[Rodders154]

Concorde flight 86 and weight shift gt450 microlight .

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200958689546718.1073741826.1150560392&type=3

[woody37]

One of my most memorable events was about a month after passing my Microlight Licence back in '96. We planned a trip to fly to Alicante from Cockerham near Blackpool. My passenger was my mate who was learning to fly, so we certainly set off as novices. We had a GPS, but at this time, you had to read the coordinates off your map and type them in, a far cry from modern systems with built in maps. This was literally just 'follow the arrow'. Last fuel stop in the UK was Headcorn which in itself was an event. This was my first trip with a radio and inbound to Headcorn, the radio battery died. I could hear them but they couldn't hear me on approach. Somehow they realised this, so gave me directions. Between light aircraft, parachute planes and helicopters, the concentration for such a novice in a busy circuit was incredible. When I got down, I noticed I'd been sweating heavily which was a bit like Stryker did in the comedy 'Aeroplane' when he was landing !!!!!

Anyway back to the trip out from headcorn to Abberville in France, we took off early evening into poor visibility. Whilst we were 7 aircraft, different cruise speeds soon separated us so we was on our own. Wind speed and distance predicted a channel crossing of about 25 minutes, but with poor visibility, it just wasn't possible to see more than a mile. We had life jackets on and lilo's in the wings to help in the event of a ditching....yes we were safety conscious !!!

After about 45 minutes of flying over sea with no signs of land appearing through the mist, we began to realise that something was amiss. If you've never been in this situation, it is one of the most surreal experiences, you can hardly see the ground (or sea), you're a low hours pilot, you haven't a clue where you are, there's no sign of life anywhere other than faint ships in the channel below, you really fee like you're the only people left alive on the planet !

We began to determine that something had gone wrong, using the routes of the odd ferry below to question whether we were actually crossing the channel. Time to recheck the coordinates that I'd plugged into the GPS back at Headcorn. I had the map on my knee in a plastic case using bungee's wrapped round my legs to keep it in place. Because we were exposed in a Flash 2 Alpha, manipulating the map was difficult, but it became apparent that I'd dropped a testicle on the coordinates that I'd entered and the GPS arrow was taking up the channel rather than across. A cross wind was making the compass reading difficult to be useful too. Time to make a decision. I reset the GPS to take us towards the next waypoint that I'd plugged in for the trip. All being well, this will get us back on track. After around 1 hour over sea, land appeared out of the mist. Some time after this more peaceful leg over featureless French land with fading daylight, the most beautiful sight I had ever seen appeared out of the mist......Abberville runway. After setting off that morning from Lancashire inexperienced, heavily laden and full of naïve adventure, we had made it to our destination in France powered by a 2 stroke Rotax 503 engine. We parked up near the other microlights that had arrived an hour earlier and entered the airfield bar to meet the other crews. Even to this day, it was the most enjoyable beer that I've ever had !!!!

we eventually got to Alicante, but got stuck at the Pyrenees in bad weather trying to get through the mountain valleys, so we drove the rest of the way leaving the microlights at a glider field called Itxassou in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

Here's a picture taken shortly after parking up