Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:08 pm
neat momento, today all you get is a hard time!!
Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:24 pm
Oooh, I remember my first airplane ride, it was amazing! I was 16 and I flew in a seaplane over Priest Lake, in Idaho. It was gorgeous and just so so much fun!
Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:43 pm
My first airplane ride was a Ford Tri-Motor. 
It was one of the old Island Airlines ones, not sure where it is today. I was 17 I think at the time. Me and some older buddies were going to chase trains out of Jacksonville, Florida (from the old Norfolk Southern steam program). When I got to the place we were all leaving from, one of the guys said he'd seen an ad in the paper for $20 quick rides on it. Trains or a plane? Not much of a choice for any of us, as none of us had ridden in one of these before. My folks gave the green light of course, and off we went. It was the best $20 I think I ever spent in my life. I just wish I'd spent the extra $10 to ride in the co-pilot's seat! I'm sure I have the photos around here somewhere, but at this time I have no idea what ever happened to this aircraft. I tell the story all the time, along with the fact that first train I ever rode on was pulled by steam. You'd think I was 80 or something, but I'm less than 40 years old.
It was one of the old Island Airlines ones, not sure where it is today. I was 17 I think at the time. Me and some older buddies were going to chase trains out of Jacksonville, Florida (from the old Norfolk Southern steam program). When I got to the place we were all leaving from, one of the guys said he'd seen an ad in the paper for $20 quick rides on it. Trains or a plane? Not much of a choice for any of us, as none of us had ridden in one of these before. My folks gave the green light of course, and off we went. It was the best $20 I think I ever spent in my life. I just wish I'd spent the extra $10 to ride in the co-pilot's seat! I'm sure I have the photos around here somewhere, but at this time I have no idea what ever happened to this aircraft. I tell the story all the time, along with the fact that first train I ever rode on was pulled by steam. You'd think I was 80 or something, but I'm less than 40 years old.
Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:10 pm
1968-69...I clipped a coupon from FLYING magazine, the introductory offer..$5 for the first lesson, which included a half hour flight and an endorsed log book.....Scrounged up all my lawn mowing money, and took the bus from Gladstone, Mo. to N. Kansas City, where I had to ground navigate through a rail yard full of trains, to get to Municipal Airport, or as it is called now..Down Town Airport...The instructor was really a fine person...he extended our flight to a little over an hour. He let me at the controls quite a long while...Over flew my house..didn't see my family outside, as nobody there knew what I was up to...did see my moms dachshound jumping up trying to get the laundry hanging on the clothes line....Couldn't wait to get home and show my buds that I had officially flown a Cessna 150, and had the log to prove it!
Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:51 pm
My first airplane ride was a Ford Tri-Motor. It was one of the old Island Airlines ones, not sure where it is today.
Sounds like N7584..Al Chaney bought her around 1980, and barnstormed around the country for several years, with the aircraft still in her Island Airlines markings. The aircraft is now owned by Kermit Weeks. She was severely damaged in a hangar collapse during Hurricane Andrew, and is under long-term restoration by Maurice Hovious in Vicksburg, Michigan (about a half-hour up the road from me.) Mr. Hovious specializes in Ford Tri-Motors, having restored them for the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, the EAA, and Greg Herrick.
Here are some pictures of Mr. Hovious's shop in 2005, with N7584's fuselage in a jig: http://www.putinbayphotos.com/trimtr04/trimtr04.htm
Cheers!
Steve
Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:00 am
my first airplane ride was somewhat special - I attended a parachute training course when I was 17.... so I took to the air aboard an aircraft (Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter) but jumped out of it..... 
on my 18th birthday I had my first warbird ride, in a Junkers Ju-52 (ex-Swiss AF)..... i.e. the first flight for me that included take-off and landing...
Martin
on my 18th birthday I had my first warbird ride, in a Junkers Ju-52 (ex-Swiss AF)..... i.e. the first flight for me that included take-off and landing...
Martin
Wed Nov 14, 2007 6:01 am
September 1959 - A pleasure flight from a temporary strip at Ramsgate.
A retired RAF Prentice G-APIY/VR249...by some definitions a Warbird. It amuses me immensely that it is now an exhibit at Newark Air Museum.
Looking at my passenger log, that I still maintain, I see the next five flights were - Tiger Moth, Viscount, Auster, S55 Whirlwind...and Spitfire.
PeterA
A retired RAF Prentice G-APIY/VR249...by some definitions a Warbird. It amuses me immensely that it is now an exhibit at Newark Air Museum.
Looking at my passenger log, that I still maintain, I see the next five flights were - Tiger Moth, Viscount, Auster, S55 Whirlwind...and Spitfire.
PeterA
Last edited by PeterA on Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:01 am
Other than an unremarkable jet airliner ride when I was 3 (DC-8 or 707) from Chicago to Los Angeles with my dad, my first "real" piston engined flight (maybe 1974?) was in Chuck LeMaster's Ford Tri-Motor at Oshkosh.
Seems like a lot of folks had their first recreational flight in those barnstorming Tri-Motors!
Seems like a lot of folks had their first recreational flight in those barnstorming Tri-Motors!
Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:17 am
First one? I was 7 or 8, carried by the old Eastern Air Lines to Orlando from Providence............all flying done by commercial carriers until I was 34, at which point I went for my first SNJ-6 flight! That, my friends, was the start of the sweetest time of my life! 4 different SNJ-6s and a Bell 47G logged, a T-6G and a Bell 47 turbine (not logged), and a quick hop around the pattern a few times in a B-25...............Dang, I loved my job!
Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:03 pm
i already posted my 1st flight experience, but i remembered my most unusual....... on a trip to mexico in 1973 to spend a month with a friend who lives their, after he spent a month with me, we flew to mexico city via mexicana airlines via boeing 727. my friend & i were both 13 then. we were invited up to the flight deck & got to stay up their for the remainder of the flight, including the landing!! man those were the days!! unheard of anymore.
Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:51 pm
I don't remember my first flight (cross country) as I was a week and a half old. 
My next flight was in July 1971 again cross country, that included a Chicago to San Francisco flight aboard a American Airlines 747. Having family on the west coast meant I flew several times cross country in the 70s and 80s.
My first non-airliner flight was in a Cessna 172 in the mid 70s. I was a Cub Scout and one of the fathers owned the plane and took the troop up for quick flights.
BK
My next flight was in July 1971 again cross country, that included a Chicago to San Francisco flight aboard a American Airlines 747. Having family on the west coast meant I flew several times cross country in the 70s and 80s.
My first non-airliner flight was in a Cessna 172 in the mid 70s. I was a Cub Scout and one of the fathers owned the plane and took the troop up for quick flights.
BK
Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:55 pm
Steve Nelson wrote:My first airplane ride was a Ford Tri-Motor. It was one of the old Island Airlines ones, not sure where it is today.
Sounds like N7584..Al Chaney bought her around 1980, and barnstormed around the country for several years, with the aircraft still in her Island Airlines markings. The aircraft is now owned by Kermit Weeks. She was severely damaged in a hangar collapse during Hurricane Andrew, and is under long-term restoration by Maurice Hovious in Vicksburg, Michigan (about a half-hour up the road from me.) Mr. Hovious specializes in Ford Tri-Motors, having restored them for the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, the EAA, and Greg Herrick.
Here are some pictures of Mr. Hovious's shop in 2005, with N7584's fuselage in a jig: http://www.putinbayphotos.com/trimtr04/trimtr04.htm
Cheers!
Steve
Yep, that's it all right. I recalled the number as soon I read your post! Thanks for the info!
Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:00 am
No proplem..as you can imagine, that bird is kinda special to me.
SN
<EDIT> Hmmm...that's an interesting typo..a Fruedian slip, maybe?
SN
<EDIT> Hmmm...that's an interesting typo..a Fruedian slip, maybe?