What is your greatest flying experience?

[melvyn hiscock]

How many times did you shout "daga daga daga" with a big grin on your face?

Trevor

Haha, it would have been tempting. Not on that occasion but I once had to hold before a display appearance at Brooklands and found myself in the hold with Stu Goldspink in Peter Vacher's Hurricane. As we turned over Ockham VOR I could see him trying to get on my tail so for about five minutes we played. This HAS to be the only time a Hurricane has dogfought a Rearwin Cloudster.

The triplane pic was taken from a Rallye flown by Jacques Krine, a former leader of the PdF. Later flights were made with the Rearwin and it is hard wok trying to say on the inside of a turn with the Dr1 as it is so slow.

[general melchett]

Many, but most memorable would be as a passenger, crash landing in an RAF DH Devon at Woolsington back in 1974...ended up looking the way we'd come from with a rather bent aircraft and the delightful smell of freshly mown grass and the unmistakable odour of fear...port engine quit on approach and gear collapsed on landing, hydraulic failure, seemed more exciting than anything, oh the joys of youth, (the Air Commodore we were travelling with just clicked his tongue, got up and walked off as if nothing had happened, all very Jack Hawkins, not that impressed with his VIP treatment),....other than that first solo in a Tomahawk at Panshangar, hang gliding over the Brecon Beacons and blasting around the skies over Kissimee in a 1939 WACO.........barf central, (but managed to keep it in til we landed........, no mean feat I can assure you !)....

[John(txic)]

Blagging a ride in a Hawk at Llanbedr, flying formation on WK800 was rather special.

Most exciting was in a Sea King HC4 photo-ship during the rehearsal for the Queen's Colour flypast in 1990: apparently the cab was declared Cat 4 upon its return to Portland!

[swordfish fairey]

I have already posted in this one (#47) but, I have just been sent a picture of my first ever Swordfish flight and that must take some beating........1998 over Sherbourne Castle in Dorset on route to the Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth....

I'm in the middle cockpit....

Smudge

[lampie]

Taking a flight in a PT-17 Stearman from Terrell Field just outside of Dallas TX, 65 years after my father flew Stearmans from the same field while training at #1 BFTS in 1944/45.

Nige

http://56thfightergroup.co.uk/

[Viking]

Well this has got me thinking and realising how very lucky I have been. Some highlights;

Going solo in a T31 glider in 1974 at White Waltham with the Air Cadets. Weather was marginal, so after the first solo flying was cancelled until the next day. First thing in the morning started with 2 more solos.

Going up in a K13 from Booker with an airline pilot friend. Loops, wingovers, you name it. Fabulous.

Many jump seat rides in BEA/BA aitrcraft. I recall being given the First Officers seat in a Trident 3 from Malta to Heathrow for half an hour as we cruised along the coast of Italy at high speed. Fantastic views.

Riding in the jump seat on a BA 1-11 from Berlin to Heathrow c1975, from start up to shutdown. It was a crystal clear night and as we approached the Channel the whole of south east England was laid out like a map, we came straight in over central London over The tower, Houses of Parliament etc. What made it extra special was the Captain was making his last flight and retiring immediately after. I can't remember his name, but he told me as we crossed London that he fought over it in the Battle of Britain, as a young Spitfire pilot.

Boxing Day 1-11 trips from Berlin on internal German routes, in the jump seat again. My father was the captain and as we were lightly loaded, decided to have fun and show the STOL characteristics of the 1-11. Ripping down the runway at full chat, yanking the 1-11 off the ground, steep, steep climb, followed by a sharp right hand 180 at a non-civil rate of bank. Then landing at Bremen, seeing how little runway could be used. The answer is not much at all.

Concorde, doing an air display over Southampton water in 1981, to commemorate the Schneider trophy races. Highlight was a slow flypast with gear & flaps extended, then cleaning up at the end of the run and maxing the power. My god, that was acceleration!

VC-10 XV106 out of Brize with the Air Cadets. 3 hours of bliss, going weightless at some stages. There were only about 20 seats fitted at the front, and we spent about an hour doing touch and go. Cue a dozen Air Cadets sitting on the floor at the front, and sliding and tumbling down the empty cabin as we went to full power to take off again.

Happy days.

[Alpha Delta 210]

My greatest flying experience was taking one of Concorde's last flights from JFK to LHR in 2003. I flew on G-BOAD, constructor's number 210 (hence my BM user name.)

[sennapod]

In Durban, South Africa visiting a middle aged couple we had met 6 months earlier in Northern Zimbabwe.(my wife and I were taking 2 years out to backpack around the world....)

Mr 'Durban' says to us, "...I've got a Spitfire in the garage would you like to see it. ?" My wife replies that she used to have I one of those old Triumphs...except this Spit wasn't road going but a fully rebuilt Aeroplane.!

Unfortunately I didn't get a ride in that but a few days later Mr Durban says we have to go to Pietermartizburg to collect some small parts for his engineering business. So we drive down to his farm, where a yellow Tiger Moth awaits. So we jump in and off we fly, I remember it being very bumpy and very very cold.

A few months later I was on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean taking a 2-seat ULM (ultra legere/light microlight) flying thru mountain gorges and over volcanic craters - in shorts and sandals!. Beautiful and unforgettable but also really really cold !!

[Gary West]

Two for me:

Air Experience flight (whilst at Swinderby 1977) on board 10 Sqn VC-10 C1 XV107 out of Scampton. As with RAF VC-10s seats faced rearwards, so sitting in a window seat we took off and climbed out of Scampton - what I saw is still stenciled into my mind all these years later. Scampton was a Vulcan base then and on the floor dispersed around the base was wall to wall Vulcan - what a sight!

Then I was posted to Odiham where we had 4 Squadrons of Pumas and Wessex (33, 72, 230 & 240 OCU) , then added to in 1981 when Chinooks arrived. I flew in them all, slept in a few, and jumped out of few on exercises. Flew up to Otterburn ranges one night, flying over London with the door open, and regularly had flights over the UK and Germany at low level in the main cab but probably the best of them all was a left hand seat, very low level in a Puma of 230 Sqn over Salisbury Plain - wow that was some flight. The Pilot kindly let me take the stick on the RTB leg.

Where o where is that time machine!

[gruffy]

I have already posted in this one (#47) but, I have just been sent a picture of my first ever Swordfish flight and that must take some beating........1998 over Sherbourne Castle in Dorset on route to the Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth....

One day i will see a swordfish fly as everytime i go to an airshow its canceled or bad weather!

[swordfish fairey]

Worth waiting for gruffy........................

[bentwaters81tfw]

Here's the other one at RIAT 1999. Both Fish were airborne together but I had just arrived and didn't get chance to capture the pair.

There was talk of a third airframe as well, whatever happened to that?

I knew a chap who had secured a Swordfish airframe, just the metalwork, no engine or guts, in India, with a load of radial manifolds. He sent me photos to identify with a view to shipping it back to Blighty, but there was no interest.

[swordfish fairey]

The third airframe is NF389 a MkIII with ASV radar and is in the pipeline to fly again with BAE doing the work...But, like most things, money is the constraining factor as to when.....

Here's all three in the hanger at VL before she went up to Brough.......

And........NF389 in all her unrestored glory...A lot of people will remember her from Lee on Solent....

The plan, when I left RNHF, was to do her in an all black scheme...........

Smudge

[Shrek51]

This brings back memories and was fun thinking about some diverse types. Managed a back seat in a Canadian Air Force CF-101 Voodoo at Bagotville,the pilot said if the nav was annoying them they would wait until he had his face in the radar scope then open the brakes and drop the gear, the resulting deceleration usually meant a scope shaped indentation in the unfortunate navs face for days afterwards! . Back Seat RAF Buccaneer low level sortie, RAF Nimrod , back seat F-18, various military helicopters and a go in the Jaguar sim at Coltishall.

Mark

[sinnerboy]

landing

[Scratcher]

My first flight in an aeroplane, a 5 minute trip at an air display at Lossiemouth in 1971. My dad couldn't understand why I'd spend all my pocket money on it when I was due to go on my second ever flight in an aeroplane a week later - Piper Aztec G-ATLC. My dad had the use of the company aeroplane to go from Kinloss to Isla and on the return trip I got a shot of flying the aeroplane. I don't think the company directors in the back enjoyed it, but I certainly did.

My first solo in a glider, a T21 at Milltown in 1973.

Hang Gliding through/over the Cuillin Mountains in Skye

Gliding log dated 23/5/96 Bocian, 'P2 - Aerobatics with 'name of instructor'.

23/5/96 Bocian, 'P1 - Aerobatics without 'name of instructor'.

The same instructor (a Tornado pilot at the time) later taught me how to beat up an airstrip at a height where beat ups need to be performed along the strip rather than at an angle, because there are likely to be fences and farm animals in the way at the sides. I never had the nerve to get quite that low, but my first attempt sticks out in my memory.

I really can't pick one flight as the most memorable, but on May 6th, 2006, climbing to 16,200 feet in wave over Ben Rinnes in an Astir, and being convinced that I'd turned the oxygen on properly was worth a highlight in my logbook. I suspect hypoxia prevented me from exploiting the conditions and climbing to the point where I wouldn't be around to remember the occasion!

23,000 feet on a dual flight, in an ash 25 over Elgin a couple of days earlier was pretty stunning too.

Edited January 18, 2014 by Scratcher

[Graeme H]

Late '60's my second solo was far more memorable than the first, all in a C150, got mixed up with a flight of RAAF Sabres on the 2nd circuit, ended up first to land after them, but with the tower reading out all the others, number 8 to land after a Cessna 150, Ansett Dc9, TAA Dc9, C130, Neptune, TAA F27, Cessna 310, don't remember what number 8 was, as I felt under a bit of pressure to get out of the way, which I managed.

My first solo in a Tiger Moth was also very memorable, as it was mid '70's and they were getting rare by then, also doing spray runs over cane fields in a Piper Pawnee takes a lot of beating.

and being in the back of a Transavia Airtruck was by far the most memorable passenger ride.

[wallyinoz]

Hmmm there are a few that come to mind.. I guess this comes close to the top.. landing in Sydney Harbour at the end of the 2000 London to Sydney Air race (as pax..I was an "official")

[Pielstick]

Back in 2010 when visiting my then girlfriend (now wife) in Belgrade she arranged for me to visit a little aerodrome just outside the city and have a wee flight with a guy who owned an Alpi Pioneer 200 (a kit built aeroplane).

Turns out the guy was a retired Yugoslav/Serbian Air Force pilot who ended up as the MiG-21 squadron commander at Batajnica (the military airbase just outside Belgrade). I avoided any mention of... ahem, that little thing in 1999! Had a fun half hour at the controls of his aeroplane. I just wish either he spoke more English or I spoke more Serbian. My other half could translate, but was stuck on all the geeky aeroplane and aviation terms so the conversation was a bit limited!

[Dave Spencer]

Flying in a Cranwell JP TMk5A tail number 3 back in 1985. I went up first thing in the morning in what was known as the weather ship, to check cloud base height etc. It included a low level beat up down the runway, barrel rolls and going vertical before dropping back down in a stall turn.

Sitting in the back of a Herc when they did those near vertical drops to land over in Kosovo etc was interesting, but the view was crap.

I also had a nice flight in a SAR Sea King from Brawdy.

The worst were spending 12 hours in the back of an E3D whilst it did figure of eights over the Arctic Circle.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Dave Spencer

[Alan P]

My greatest flying experience was the first time I watched Top Gun at the cinema ;-)

[ukmodeller]

The best thing I ever did was to join the ATC at the age of 15.

Within the following 2 years I'd flown in a battered old Chipmunk and done aerobatics over the IOW, flew in an old Andover (sitting next to the wing watching those props going around and the throbs from the engines), gliding in silence among the birds over the south coast and best of all a trip in the back of a Hercules (strapped in with the pilot opening the rear doors, climbing and turning to give us amazing views of the coast).

I was destined to join the RAF but instead decided to become a ....................................furniture remover!

Amazing times.......................

[The Cameraman]

Hi Guys n Gals,

well for me, my greatest flying experience (whilst in charge of the aircraft) was my first ever water touchdown in a DHC-2 Beaver. Words have yet to be created to describe the concentration required to touchdown on a mirror finish lake!

My greatest flying experience (as a passenger) was touchdown on the Caledonian Canal, on a Grumman Albatross in 2002!

Regards

Reggie

[depressed lemur]

A few...

Hope you'll all excuse the pix - can't help my enthusiasm and I still feel like a small child in a sweet shop when it comes to flying!

First ever powered flight - Chipmunk WP896 at 10 AEF Woodvale... Bizzarely now hangared at RAF Halton

Blue skies!

Iain

Small world Iain,

Just picked up the Airfix Chipmunk for the trainer GB and decided to see if I could find the scheme of my first ever time away from mother earth. Digging out my 3822 I found the small "certificate" issued by 10 AEF to commemorate the event. Turns out it was none other than WP896!, flown by Flt Lt Owen back in December '79.

I don't suppose you have any pics of the starboard side or underside??

[Scratcher]

Talking about Chipmunks, If I remember correctly, the Fulmar Gliding Club tug at Milltown in the early 1970's, which I spent a lot of time trying to follow on the end of a rope, was the same machine as depicted by the Airfix kit decals at the time, WP896 , although in a different colour scheme - silver and dayglo if memory serves. Prior to the Chipmunk, a Tiger Moth was the tug, but I never had the pleasure of a tow from it. Aerotows in an open cockpit T21 are still vivid memories though!

Am I right? was the Chipmunk WP896?

.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Scratcher