Weirdest aircraft you've flown in?

[trooper]

Title says it all......:mrgreen:

For me it was a Transavia PL-12 Airtruk.... (well it was more likely the later T300 or T300A Skyfarmer... but Airtruk sounds SOOO much better)

Don't recognise it from the name? Think Mad Max...

For me the Chinook comes a close second.. Just something unnatural about twin rotor helicopters!!

 

[dot]

For me, one of the RAAF's Aeromacchi MB-326 (more popularly known as a Macchi) and to prove it - here's a photo!

Ok, so not that strange, but relatively uncommon at least.

I've also flown (in) DHC-4 Caribou's and C-130 (E and H) Hercules - a bit different to what I fly around in these days...

PS. As a precursor to a marriage proposal, I actually took Mrs Dot for a Caribou ride over Melbourne (rear door lowered) before taking her to a nice restaurant and proposing - she accepted naturally!

 

[trooper]

Couldn't have popped the question IN the 'bou... too damn noisy!!!:mrgreen: Interesting lead up TO the proposal I must say! BZ!

The Caribous and Hercs I flew in always lowered the ramps.... well.. for the Freefall jumps at least!!

Less common? Nomad? Pilatus Porter? Sea King? Seahawk or AS350B?.... Both off the back of a Frigate... ? Hmmm... that felt a bit scary.... Pilot of the Squirrel took us off into the middle of nowhere... went in to a hover at about 30 ft... sat there for a bit.. let us look at the featureless horizon in every direction....then his voice came over the headset.. "Feeling lonely?" He was a character... typical navy helo pilot though... got hypoxic above about 100 ft......:mrgreen:

One other actual weirdo just occured to me.. Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer!! What piece of ****e that was!

 

[dot]

Oh - and dangling from a Blackhawk - and being dunked in the water near TVL - the pilots call it tea-bagging :shock: - they did hoist me in - eventually.

 

[Ikara]

Sea Venom - HMAS Albatross 1970. Navy version of the Vampire. Fun ripping over the ocean at very low altitude and lotsa knots.

Iriquois - checking out pilots for Vietnam. Learning how to auto-rotate if "shot". Not a lot of fun when as a passenger you aren't told what's about to happen and the bloody thing falls out of the sky over Nowra and the pilot isn't allowed to gain conscientiousness until about 1000 feet!

Flying to Woomera in the mid 70's in a single engine thingy that had the engine at the rear pushing rather than pulling. Made a strange noise as I recall.

JB

 

[trooper]

I was at the 'Tross just a few years after you I think mate!!

Not a bad posting that one......

 

[Therma]

Saravia (Saratov Aviation) YAK 42 from Moscow to Saratov - nothing else flies there

Man, talk about antique. Around 35 years old, probably with original threadbare upholstery, whistling jet engines, bakelite switches, broken tray tables, torn curtains and Stalin era stewardesses. Kinda makes Dashs and QF dragons look like Rolls Royces and geishas in comparison. Having just gotten off a near new SQ 777 300 ER with the big TV screens and 200 program AVOD made the contrast even more evident

 

[vitaminp]

My Tiger Moth flight is probably not weird, or unusual...but it was damm cool flying upside down .

dot - now a macchi flight is uber cool!! Back when I was in Air Cadets, the Dux of Junior and Senior Non-comissioned officer school got a flight in a PC-9. I came in second on JNCO, and later found out I was the actual dux, but it got awarded over me in a scoring error. Salt rubbed into wound when the winner made 5 separate drill errors at passing out parade when collecting the award :evil: But i'm not bitter (wow..that was a little rant).

 

[Therma]

I mean if you want to go into esoteric, I had a bi-plane ride in San Diego earlier this year as part of a company function. Forgot the exact model, but it was a 1927 vintage "executive express". The pilot was an off duty US Navy fighter pilot and he even did a few rollovers. It was great fun and I certainly felt a lot safer that in the Yak. The frightening thing is that they still make them with vast majority going to corporate jet market. I guess the fittings would be different

 

[Maca44]

Many years ago (1960's) flew in a DC-3 and it was a great way to lose weight. It doesn't scare the cough out of you, as such, it shakes it out of you when the engines get going for take off.

 

[Thom]

Not weird but not everyday either, Super constellation was my favourite, but the Searmen biplane that I was able to freefall from while it was inverted was probably the weirdest for me, But I can't leave out the Casa and Shorts Skyvan tailgaters and the Porter and........ah so many favourites.

 

[straitman]

Many years ago (1960's) flew in a DC-3 and it was a great way to lose weight. It doesn't scare the cough out of you, as such, it shakes it out of you when the engines get going for take off.

Not so weird. It was the first a/c I ever had a ride in. Got to fly from Melbourne to Toowoomba in an RAAF one in 1979 that had been fitted out for the Queen years earlier.

 

[tuapekastar]

Nothing miltary here. I thought a Shorts 360 I flew in could easily have passed for a 'caravan with wings'.

Glacier landing in a Pilatus (Porter, perhaps?) was nice.

And, though not precisely the topic at the hand, I was going to link to something I flew on (twice) rather than in, but sadly found the fly-by-wire in Queenstown ceased operations a couple of months ago. Was a lot of fun. I did find this picture of it though (if I'm in breach of copyright or AFF T&Cs pls remove the link)

 

[trooper]

Thom..... never got to do the inverted biplane (envy you for that one!) ... or the balloon... but I did jump the CASA, Transall, C130 (and the stretched one) and.... the C 141...

So... not "weird" as such"... but bloody good fun!:mrgreen:

Guy from the pistol club here flies a Trike... REALLY don't like the idea if those!!! :shock:

 

[nlagalle]

Not weird but not everyday either, Super constellation was my favourite, but the Searmen biplane that I was able to freefall from while it was inverted was probably the weirdest for me, But I can't leave out the Casa and Shorts Skyvan tailgaters and the Porter and........ah so many favourites.

I'm the same.. maybe not weird, but more uncommon if anything..

Nomad - plenty of take off's but never landed in one ever.

Twin Otter DHC-6 - only flown in them 4 times where i landed in it.. Going from Suva to Taveuni in Fiji.

Metroliner 23 - On the Torch Relay in 2000. man that was fun sitting in the back row watching through to the coughpit and seeing it sway on finals. and it was self serve on the meals - and the drinks were in an esky which was strapped to the floor.

Piper Chieften - only ever jumped out of them too. They were a nasty plane to jump out of as the tail was so low. When i used to film jumpers i knocked my head once or twice if i wasn't hanging low enough outside the plane!

 

[trooper]

Lot more jumpers here than I thought there would be!!!:mrgreen:

 

[Thom]

I'm the same.. maybe not weird, but more uncommon if anything..

Nomad - plenty of take off's but never landed in one ever.

Twin Otter DHC-6 - only flown in them 4 times where i landed in it.. Going from Suva to Taveuni in Fiji.

Metroliner 23 - On the Torch Relay in 2000. man that was fun sitting in the back row watching through to the coughpit and seeing it sway on finals. and it was self serve on the meals - and the drinks were in an esky which was strapped to the floor.

Piper Chieften - only ever jumped out of them too. They were a nasty plane to jump out of as the tail was so low. When i used to film jumpers i knocked my head once or twice if i wasn't hanging low enough outside the plane!

Forgot to mention the Boeing 727, great fun.

 

[codash1099]

I don't remember too much about it, but when i was a small kid, I flew in a Catalina that was based here in Perth just after the war (that's WW2!).

The thing that most sticks in my memory is that there were few if any seats and all the adults had to move the the front of the a/c for take-off and landing, presumably to keep the nose in the water.

 

[nlagalle]

The thing that most sticks in my memory is that there were few if any seats and all the adults had to move the the front of the a/c for take-off and landing, presumably to keep the nose in the water.

Probably to keep inside the C of G envelope. we used to to it skydiving out of a cessna 182.. All used to lean forward on take off!

 

[straitman]

Not really weird but different.

Slowest (fixed wing) I've flown was a Tiger Moth and fastest the F-111C simulator and flown in a Mirage 111-0 during an airshow.