When was your first flight ?

[Major]

I was talking to a few people last Wed at drinks in The Lounge BNE and the subject of our 1st flight came up, so here goes.

My first flight was in a Fokker F27 from Cooma to SYD after a school excursion to the Snowy Mountains Scheme in 1958

My first business flight was in 1966 from SYD to MEL ( Essendon ) in an Ansett 727-100. The return trip the following week was in a Viscount and took 2 1/2 hours

 

[Travel Guru]

I can't recall exactly when mine was, but it would have been a TAA flight Adelaide-Melbourne in a 727 around 1981/82

Great thread and great to meet you the other night.

TG

 

[straitman]

My first flight was in approximately 1965 from RAAF East Sale in an RAAF Dakota (DC-3) as an ATC cadet.

 

[samh004]

My first flight would have been approx 1986/87 from LHR-HKG, though don’t know which airline. Would have to ask my mum. I would’ve been 1 and a half.

 

[tuapekastar]

My first flight was LHR-IDL (Idlewild, now JFK) around September 1956, airline and aircraft type unknown. The inflight menu was probably just Mum, as I was around 3 months old!

 

[fjc]

Hmmm - thinks back. Well, my first flight was with Butler Airways - Coonamble / Tooraweenah / Sydney "way back when" (late 1940s - and no, I'm not going to nominate the year). Coonamble to Tooraweenah was in a very bright yellow plane (I can still see the colour now), then we changed into a "larger plane". That was (wait for it) a bi-plane and Mum always laughed about the trip. She said that as I (a 3 yo) struggled up the steps, I pointed to between the 2 wings and asked "is that where we're going to sit".

Tooraweenah was the hub for Butler Airways (taken over many years later by Ansett (I think). Arthur Butler (contemporary of Kingsford Smith and Nancy Bird Walton) really opened up the skys for those of us living out west when a car trip to Sydney took 2 very long days over shocking roads. There was a big gathering held in 2008. Gilgandra Community and Shire Council: Arthur Butler Weekend

 

[serfty]

1 hour Joy flight ex Merimbula circa 1970 ... 2 engined eight seater aircraft ... more details can I remember

 

[MatF]

My first flight was also in a Fokker F27 "friendship", but I'm not sure of the year - would have been the mid/late 70's I'd say (when I was 7 or 8), between Mudgee and Sydney to visit my grandparents

 

[oz_mark]

First flight was in a Cathay Pacific 707 flying from Perth to Jakarta (1974).

First business type trip was in an MMA Focker F28 ("Fellowship") flying from Perth to Kalgoorlie (1984).


(Hunt for pics:
A Cathay 707 http://www.airliners.net/photo/502772/L/
An MMA F28 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ansett_vh-fkd_4.jpg
)

 

[Katie]

Would have been in about 1980 or 81 as a UM, on TAA from Brisbane - Winton. With a set of "mail/milk run" stops in between. No idea what kind of aircraft.

 

[hummel]

I made many flights to the gold coast from Melbourne as toddler however can not remember any of them.

My first flight I can truly remember was the family trip to the states when I was 10. Remember sitting 4 wide down the back of a QF 747 with two typical American women chain smoking their way across the pacific!

 

[BAM1748]

I had to ask the parents.......Ansett jet Sydney to Melb then Ansett F27 to Wynyard.

Not my pics.....but a nice one.
Ansett Douglas Dc9 VH-CZD | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[danielc]

My first flight was in 1973, the year I graduated high school, on a UA 727 from SFO - LAX and return....A trip to Disneyland with some schoolmates. Back then UA and PSA were the dominant carriers on the intra-California routes.

 

[BAM1748]

My first flight was in 1973, the year I graduated high school, on a UA 727 from SFO - LAX and return....A trip to Disneyland with some schoolmates. Back then UA and PSA were the dominant carriers on the intra-California routes.

Any old aircraft pics, the paint schemes from that era (and earlier) are great?

 

[medhead]

Mine would be BNE-SYD in 1978 to connect to QF to LHR eventually, and around the world. Not sure of any other details like airline. But I remember the observation deck at the old BNE airport, with granddad, and that we had to fly on to MEL because someone forgot about the time difference for daylight savings and that then got us caught up in a refuellers strike for 7 hours. I watched Force 10 from Navarone on one of the 747 flights and there was another movie.

Oh and when we got back 6 months later and grandma asked me the best country, I said Australia. : pathetic:

 

[markis10]

First one I can remember is 1970 SYD to POM, TAA 727, Up Up and Away

 

[Noel Mugavin]

1990, Perth - Denpasar, Garuda DC10

 

[adampenrith]

In 1961 during my first year, a long haul, with many legs

WAG to TVL

by way of

WAG WLG NAC DC3 (National Airways Corporation being the original brand of Air New Zealand Domestic)

WLG SYD QF Electra

SYD ROM with intermediate stops at DRW and SIN - and I think Karachi and Cairo QF Constellaltion

ROM TVL on LY (possibly on a Caravelle but not certain)

certainly lead to me having wanderlust ever after

 

[Kylie36]

My first flight was from Sydney to Brisbane then to Toowoomba in the late seventies (but cant remember much about it only being met by by my grandmother)

The first flight I really remember was from Sydney to Penang/Butterworth on the RAAF/QF 747 in February 1984 when dad got posted to Malaysia. I remember getting decks of playing cards (which we still have) and being spoilt rotten by the cabin steward

 

[yohy?!]

1990 SYD-MEL on Compass, an A300 I think which included an OJ and muffin in the heavily discount ticket - the beginning of low cost travel in Oz, prior to this all the family holidays had been 12+ hour trips in the car