First Flight....

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CharlieOneSix
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First Flight....

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Mon Jan 23, 2023 4:01 pm

When, where and in what was yours? Mine was 1956 in an Auster at the long gone Christchurch airfield when Dad stomped up ten bob:
first flight.jpg
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Fox3WheresMyBanana
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Re: First Flight....

#2 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Mon Jan 23, 2023 4:14 pm

With my dad as pilot, also in an Auster, from the long gone Panshanger airfield in 1964, aged 2.

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Re: First Flight....

#3 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Jan 23, 2023 4:34 pm

Age 5 or 6 circa 1960 in a V-Tail Bonanza.
I was visiting relatives about 2 1/2 hours away by road when a family emergency came up (don't remember what) and my parents flew up in the company plane of the spinning mill that my father worked for.
My father was in sales and often was flown around to client knitting mills all over the U.S. southeast.
They also had a Beech Travel Air that they used for longer trips to New York or Chicago.
I was happy to be able to tell my Dad that I got my ATP and MEI in a Travel Air.

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llondel
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Re: First Flight....

#4 Post by llondel » Mon Jan 23, 2023 5:09 pm

Late 60s, from East Midlands to Southend. The flight was a birthday present from a friend of the family. I don't remember anything about aircraft type apart from the fact that it had propellers.

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Re: First Flight....

#5 Post by Woody » Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:34 pm

+1 for the Auster first flight club, Squires Gate ,Blackpool courtesy of Westair ^:)^
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Re: First Flight....

#6 Post by G~Man » Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:50 pm

Aged just under 4 when my Dad came home from from Aden:

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19125305_10156328535792907_1982623555_o (2).jpg
Although I had flown right after being born, I believe I was flown from Accra to Takoradi.
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Re: First Flight....

#7 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:29 am

March 4th 1956, North American Harvard Mk II, Centralia, Ontario,Canada. Start of RAF training via RCAF NATO training.

April 24th 1956 - First solo, Harvard.
April 24th 2006 - 50th Anniversay, Dual flight in a Harvard. ( Some PiC, but not solo ! )

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Re: First Flight....

#8 Post by TheGreenAnger » Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:35 am

October 1962 - There is a photo of me lying on a tray in the galley on a SAA Viscount, en route from Johannesburg to Cape Town, surrounded by two cooing, attractive air hostesses (as they were known then) and a proud beaming mother who had worked with these young colleagues before I had arrived to ruin her peripatetic, fun, life in the air.

Little did I realise at the time that this was, literally, the high point of my life, having two young women (and my mother, of course) showing such rapt interest in me, and that it could only go downhill thereafter! =))

I have the photo in the loft. I might retrieve it and post it here as a salient lesson to my aged self.
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Re: First Flight....

#9 Post by tango15 » Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:02 pm

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Mon Jan 23, 2023 4:14 pm
With my dad as pilot, also in an Auster, from the long gone Panshanger airfield in 1964, aged 2.
Ah, Panshanger! When (as a family) we were forcibly moved to the South of England, we lived in Panshanger. (1986-1988). I used to love walking to the fence with my little lad and watching the Tiger Moths and other heavier-than-air types aviating - fond memories!

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Re: First Flight....

#10 Post by tango15 » Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:08 pm

I was standing by the fence at Speke Airport watching the comings and goings, and there was a Dragon Rapide getting ready to do a few circuits. The pilot asked me if I wanted to join the (lady) air cadets. We were airborne for about 15 minutes and flew down the river. Fabulous views. I think I was about 14 at the time, and I decided (foolishly!) that aviation was to be my chosen career :)

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Re: First Flight....

#11 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:21 pm

Aged just under 4 when my Dad came home from from Aden:
Ah, Aden! Aged 4
When my family emigrated to Australia in 1966, the boat stopped at Aden (almost nobody emigrated by airliner in those days)
We had the address of a civilian friend working for the military, who had insisted we visit. He held the equivalent of a senior officer's rank.
After some negotiation on the dockside, a phone was accessed, and an afternoon arranged.
We couldn't go to the Officers' Mess as it had just been mortar-bombed, so it was the beach.
An army Land Rover turned up at the dock. I had to sit in the front to balance the armed soldier standing on my side, with my parents and baby brother in the back.
It was, as you can imagine, quite exciting!

My first flight (I think).
first flight.jpg

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Re: First Flight....

#12 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Jan 25, 2023 11:55 am

I guess about 1967 aged 12. A jet from Manchester to Paris no idea what. A Manchester cathedral choir tour of frog land. A lot of trains involved. No problems in buying beer on board. The loos were just a hole down to the track so we dropped the bottles down there so that our minders didn't know. We had to stay with families which I found embarrassing but they had no hesitation in giving us wine with dinner.
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Re: First Flight....

#13 Post by Wodrick » Wed Jan 25, 2023 3:24 pm

A Dragon Rapide I is told, no memory of it at all, about four a round Ringway flight with Airviews?
Think the old man wanted to do it really and wanted an excuse.

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Re: First Flight....

#14 Post by reddo » Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:37 pm

I was 10 and it was a mystery flight on a F27 operated by EastWest. We flew to Wagga Wagga.
Next trip, a few months later on Singapore Airlines B747 Sydney to Singapore.
I did a joy flight in a glider in my early twenties. Nup. Sick as a dog.
A colleague at work took me for a flight in his PA28 when I was 21. That hooked me forever.

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Re: First Flight....

#15 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Thu Jan 26, 2023 2:58 am

..........a few months later on Singapore Airlines B747 Sydney to Singapore.

I might have been your pilot !

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Re: First Flight....

#16 Post by reddo » Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:43 pm

ExSp33db1rd wrote:
Thu Jan 26, 2023 2:58 am
I might have been your pilot !
I was 10 many many decades ago. Mid 70s. :)

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Re: First Flight....

#17 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:11 am

.......Mid 70s.
OK, before my time then.

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Re: First Flight....

#18 Post by Pinky the pilot » Sun Jan 29, 2023 4:32 am

For me; No flamin' idea!! It was Family rumour that I was aged about 6 months and in my Mother's arms when we went for a quick flight in a two seat Glider with my Father flying it.

But it was never confirmed that such a thing ever happened and it never occurred to me to ask either Mum or Dad.

Too late now! :((
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Re: First Flight....

#19 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Jan 29, 2023 9:29 am

About 1952 aged 9, de Havilland Puss Moth from the beach at Southport Beach. I don't remember sight seeing, just the vision panel looking straight down.

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Re: First Flight....

#20 Post by Alisoncc » Sun Jan 29, 2023 12:59 pm

First flight - a Chippie, and not the ones that come with fish. 1957 at RAF Chivenor. Magic it was, pure magic. Equally enjoyable was flight was from Gatwick to Bahrain in 1965. Yes a magic Ten, of the VC variety. A troopship, the jockey pulled back hard on the stick, and gave it stick, and we all cheered and drummed our feet.
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