Backcountry Pilot • What was your first airplane ride?

What was your first airplane ride?

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Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:15 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

My earliest recollection was flying with family in a twin engine Dornier on a short flight from St. Thomas or St. Martin to an island called Saba in the Netherland Antilles. We must have flown on something bigger to get to this connector but it didn't make the same impression as this little twin. One remarkable feature was that it had club seating for 4 passengers and there was a window in the bottom of the plane (between our feet) that apparently scared my grandmother but I thought was really cool.
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Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:18 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

I was about 6, got to ride in a 170, out of the "powehouse" strip in Bigfork, MT.(closed years ago) It was short and they had a ramp at the end that would launch the 170, then it'd go over the edge of the plateau.....I had some pretty big eyes when we did that!! :shock: I wasn't sure I liked that at all...but then we went to the North end of Flathead lake and did a landing on the beach and flew out to our ranch and landed in a field, so I figured it was ok then.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:42 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

A Bell 47 at the JC fair. About 1960.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:57 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

EZFlap wrote:13th birthday, right seat of the B-25 bomber owned by Tallmantz Aviation at Orange County Airport (now John Wayne). Movie stunt pilot Frank Tallman, left seat. Birthday present from the folks, who were tired of me whining and complaining and fussing about every airplane I ever saw.

50 feet off the water around the back side of Catalina Island, then up to 2000 feet on the way back, where I got five minutes of stick time in a B-25, and the great Frank Tallman lied right to my face with a smile by saying "well what do you know, this kid's a natural born pilot !"... and then gloriously repeated that wonderful impossible lie to Mom after we had landed.

Stick a fork in him, he's done. Like a hopeless crack addict, everytihng in my life from that day has been about airplanes.

And I have done my duty and told that lie many times flying Young Eagles when my time came :)



Wow, pretty cool EZ. That movie scene where Tallman flies through the open hangar (doors on both ends) is still pretty amazing today, wish I knew how to find that.....the bystander who ducks at the last moment was pretty skilled also!
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:24 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

I'm pretty sure my first GA flight was back around 1993. Spent a week in Charlotte, NC for an event and had some spare time. Went up in a 172 out of Statesville, NC with one of our riders freind John who at the time was flying for a big NASCAR driver (can't remember who though) and now fly's for D.E. Inc. We left Statesville and flew over downtown Charlotte, around the big speedway in Concord, landed at Concord to visit some of his friends, then back to Statesville.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:25 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

The first airplane I remember flying in was a 1968 Beechcraft Musketeer that belonged to a friend of my dad's. I sat in the right seat on a phonebook so that I could see over the panel "helping" my dad fly the plane while he let me make the radio calls. To this day I still remember the N# and making the call "Beechcraft four-zero-zero-tree-Tango".

The last time I checked the plane was still flying...well it was registered to a fellow in Idaho anyway...can't say how much it is actually flying.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:28 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

courierguy wrote:
EZFlap wrote:13th birthday, right seat of the B-25 bomber owned by Tallmantz Aviation at Orange County Airport (now John Wayne). Movie stunt pilot Frank Tallman, left seat. Birthday present from the folks, who were tired of me whining and complaining and fussing about every airplane I ever saw.

50 feet off the water around the back side of Catalina Island, then up to 2000 feet on the way back, where I got five minutes of stick time in a B-25, and the great Frank Tallman lied right to my face with a smile by saying "well what do you know, this kid's a natural born pilot !"... and then gloriously repeated that wonderful impossible lie to Mom after we had landed.

Stick a fork in him, he's done. Like a hopeless crack addict, everytihng in my life from that day has been about airplanes.

And I have done my duty and told that lie many times flying Young Eagles when my time came :)



Wow, pretty cool EZ. That movie scene where Tallman flies through the open hangar (doors on both ends) is still pretty amazing today, wish I knew how to find that.....the bystander who ducks at the last moment was pretty skilled also!


Bill, is this the B-25 you flew in http://lyonairmuseum.org/exhibits/airplanes/north-american-b-25/? I saw it a couple of weeks ago. I had to pick somebody up at the airport and wondered across this museum. Expensive to get in ($12.00), but they have some beauty aircraft!! All in flying condition, too.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:41 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

I was 13. My Uncle Bob worked for a company that had a low wing Piper. Uncle Bob died of cancer 2 months before I got the Maule. Uncles are so cool. They do the stuff the good father won't. First commercial I was 25, Hawaii.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:08 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

Uncle's rock! Mine was a radioman/tunnel gunner on TBF's in the Navy. It's his helmet and goggles I wear when I fly the PT. He would always take me out to the airport to look at the TBM's there when I was little. After I started working there I was able to repay him with a ride in a 182.

My first ride was in the right seat of a Beech 18 from HMT to RMN to LAX and return.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:17 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

My uncle got me going too. I never flew with him but I remember him showing me his Mooney Mite about 1955 I think. I was pretty young. That same weekend he took my brother and me out shooting. I fired two rounds out of his 1911A1 .45ACP. My ears still ring.
Last edited by Emory Bored on Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:58 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

1958 in my Dads Cessna 120 out of the neighbors alfalfa field.
Kept the 120 tied town behind the house. Since I was all of two years
old I don't recall any details. I have the pictures to prove it however.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:57 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

Emory Bored wrote:My uncle got me going too. I never flew with him but I remember him showing me his Mooney Mite about 1955 I think. I was pretty young. That same weekend he took my brother and me out shooting. I fired two rounds out of his 1911A1 .45ACP. My ears still ring.

Have a friend who has a Mooney Mite..nifty little plane. Helped rebuild the landing gear. He offered to let me fly the little machine, but when I sat down in it, I could hardly move the stick so I declined the experience.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:35 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

1963 Fargo to MSP DC-3 When I joined the Navy . Never got over it :mrgreen: right then I thought being up front might be a better deal. And I was right 8)
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:57 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

hicountry wrote:
Emory Bored wrote:My uncle got me going too. I never flew with him but I remember him showing me his Mooney Mite about 1955 I think. I was pretty young. That same weekend he took my brother and me out shooting. I fired two rounds out of his 1911A1 .45ACP. My ears still ring.

Have a friend who has a Mooney Mite..nifty little plane. Helped rebuild the landing gear. He offered to let me fly the little machine, but when I sat down in it, I could hardly move the stick so I declined the experience.
I think Al Mooney was about my size. Not an airplane for the big guys. I've seen several in the wild and always liked them. Most had Lycoming O-145 engines though. #-o
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:12 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

O-52....1954
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:16 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

squeezed in the back of a piper vagabond with my twin brother
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:44 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

My first GA ride that I recall was in my uncle's Musketeer.
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:04 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

Very first rides were of course, in comm'l oilburners. Yuck.
First FUN rides were in C-123's & 'copters in the Nam.
First GA rides were after I got settled (read: married) in BC.
First "I'm hooked" rides were after I moved to Nimpo Lake.

After several rides w/the neighbor in his Cub, he said one day "You get in front today".
I expected him to take off, land, and let me fly around while up there. Well, he just told me what to do/expect, and I did the whole flight, from start to shutdown. I WAS HOOKED.
Now lovin' this flyin' thing!
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Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:12 pm

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

First flight...on Delta in what was probably a Convair 340 or 440 from Austin TX to Houston TX. I was 7 years old and travelled alone.

GA was from San Antonio to Austin in a Cherokee Six with my father flying. I was 17.
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Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:08 am

Re: What was your first airplane ride?

Jeff Davis in his gorgeous yellow AT-6 when I was like 6. Couldn't even see out the side. Did a loop, some rolls. I was smitten. Wish I had pics.
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