7 AM and WOW!!

Very interesting piece, and nicely written, T.B.  Thanks for sharing!

Reminds me of my first flights at about the same age as you.  My uncle took me along on a one day business trip, Milwaukee to Detroit and back.  Going out, we rode in a Northwest Airlines Stratocruiser, with the cocktail lounge in the "basement", accessed by a circular staircase.  Coming back, it was a Capitol Airlines "Connie."  It was a most fascinating and exciting experience for me, as a 10 year old kid!

TB you didn't get any "Junior Skipper" wings from the pretty stewardess? I have two, one from Pan Am and the other from KLM. For some reason I remember those girls in their spiffy uniforms back then more attractive that today's flight attendants. And no junk meals but real food and silverware and most important leg room!!

Great story TB which reminded me when our dad took us a few times on Sundays to Miami International in the early 60's to watch airplanes taking off and landing. They charged a dime to go up on the roof of one of the terminals to watch air operations and man that was fun!!!

I never flew on an airliner as a kid.  First flights on airliners was on either a DC-6 or 7.  But next two were on North Central's DC-3s!

As a kid, though, Dad had first an Aeronca C-3, then a surplus Taylorcraft L2b.  He was also in the CAP, and took me up in the squadron's PT-17 a number of times.

Sure glad to have flown on a DC-3!  What a classic.  I think it is a shame that there is no really good 1:72 model (not just a converted C-47).  Same thing for Ford Trimotor.  I am aware of a couple of them (and the Revell 1:77), not Tamiya quality.

Great story!  I'm a bit younger than some on here, so my first flight on an airliner was in the jet variety.  I don't remember though, was just an infant.  I do recall flying on a MD-80 at one point.  My first flight on a radial engine plane was Whiskey 7.  Obviously I got hooked after that.  Flying on Whiskey you hear, see and feel everything.  Far different from a commerical airliner now a days.  Who wouldn't fall in love with a DC-3/C-47?  Best plane ever built. 

I had am early start because I was an airline brat. My folks drove out to California from Michigan in 1953 and my father went to work for UAL, where his twin sisters were based and flew for that airline.

Iflew back to Detroit in early 1957 to be baptised in my Grandparent's church at the tender age of six months. I'm told there was some kind of net bag arrangement for me that hung on the bulkhead.

My first memory of a flight was in 1959. We had flown out to the Territory of Hawaii to visit my Godparents, the husband was on subs; SSBNs (a little later) and was at that time at Pearl Harbor.

After some time, we left them and flew on a DC-3 down to the Big Island. It was equipped with paratrooper seats. The only other passengers were a chain gang returning to the pen with their guards.

Dad being dad, he made a bunch of friends. A few days later, we drove out to the prison and visited the industry, where dad bought out their stock of Koa wood salad bowls. 

He had ways of shipping it back.

Bill

Oh Keyda81;

     My first jet flight was the old but famous workhorse.The Boeing 707. Some years before the aircrash I was in, I got to fly in one of the most exciting commercial jets at the time the 727. Boy! what a short rollout to rotation that was!

    I was getting to be old hat at this flying thing when I was on my way back from Germany. That's when we came down hard. I have never flown as a passenger since, unless it was an old warbird or in the office.

    Personally I don't agree with the limits they are pushing with "Super Birds" and I definitely DON'T like all electronic cockpits! I think they should learn to fly the airplane then deal with the electronics!          T.B.

I'm not too keen on all the technology either.  I prefer the older stuff.  Less to figure out when something isn't working properly.  It's just more to go wrong when something does fail too. 

Nice story, TB. It's neat you remember all that.

Hi Greg;

          You know the things that we remember sometimes color what we do in life. I still to this day can be amazed and I let myself be. I refuse to be an old closed in grouch. My house for the neighbor kids, for instance. If they feel something isn't right while they wait for the bus, they only need to knock on the door and I'll be there for them. The parents like that too! a different world than it was when I was younger.

          Still, Aircraft, Ships and even Trains of course have still changed. Sometimes amazing and sometimes scary. Still love to learn and experience it. If my health didn't stop me, not to say age, I would be willing to go to the I.S.S just so I could say " See, You can still do it, old man" !

      It is sad that too many folks and companies put too much faith in the electronics and not enough in the abilities of the operators. So they don't train for that anymore.

     Plus, I don't think there is a way to " Fly" a Commercial aircraft the old way. Ships either! If there is, the planes have changed enough you better be an ace pilot on the bird type you're flying! Shoot, they don't even glide as well as the old birds, Well, they don't glide period!

TB I think you perfectly captured the magic of flying as a kid.

My first flight that I can remember was in the early 1970s in a Pan Am 747, which had just entered service between Honolulu and Tokyo.  I remember wide seats, friendly stewardesses, the little wings they gave the kids, and the peeks into the cockpit.  And ash trays in the arm rests - of course everybody smoked back then!  As a kid I thought the “Jumbo Jet” was the coolest thing, and I recall having one (in Pan Am markings of course) as frosting on my birthday cake in 1970!  The Pan Am bag became something of an icon here in Hawaii.  But in later years is was ridiculed as an unfashionable accessory for nerdy Asian kids.

My first memory in a propeller airplane was probably the same time as the 747 flight - we flew from Tokyo to Hiroshima in a YS-11.  The legendary noise and vibration were incredible, and my sister could not stop throwing up!  My blood felt like a milkshake when we deplaned.  I likened the experience to sitting on an aluminum seat while someone was trying to drill a hole next to your head with a big, dull, high speed drill.  For 1-1/2 hours!

I have never flown in a DC-3, but they used to operate out of Honolulu for cargo flights.  Back when you could just go to the airport and watch planes from the terminal, my dad used to take me there once in a while.  I recall watching a DC-3 take off, followed by a DC-10, and I noticed that the gutteral sound of radial engines seemed louder than the much bigger and more powerful turbofans.

wao, think right

Oho! 

 That's a pretty fair list.The only one I see missing is the L-1011 unless they called it something different!

Hey,GreySnake!

 Did you know ,somewhere in it's history, the Super" G " Constellation was considered and earned an award as the most esthetically beautiful plane in the world . This by the Council of Art at the what became the MOMO.

Oh My !

     That's like me using a piece of wood in my Foster father's shop. Then he tells me he's looking that piece of wood to do an addition on a mold he was making for work--OOOPS !

     He did like the seven submarines I made from it though!