What is your first aviation memory?

[Tom Moungovan]

Last I heard, the DC-4 was a gate guard in Spain.

Looks like N88884 - C-54E 44-9087 c/n 27313 - is located at Getafe Air Base in Madrid:

Also looks like it had a close call with the scrappers:

A total of seventeen Douglas DC-4 Skymasters were acquired by the Air Force. They arrived in Spain between 1959 and 1962 when the latter arrived. They were framed in the 351 and 352 Squadrons 35 Transport Wing ... In total seventeen C.54 performed more than 80,000 flight hours. At the beginning of March 1977, they were discharged and transferred to Tablada for scrapping.
In this situation we can see T.4-8 without engines and the control surfaces of the right wing.

Chris, thank you very much for adding what you did. I never, ever thought that I'd see a photo of that Clipper.

best regards,

Tom

[L-188]

Actually 2 of them. first flight was in a friend of my dads Mooney, probably around 1970. Another friend of my dad's was a Colonel in AFRES. Dad was selling him a car, and we went up to his "office" at Mitchell field in Milwaukee WI. while they dickered, I got to climb around in a C-119. That was a pretty short hour, but i managed to check myself out in the left and right seats, flight engineer's panel, and the nav's area. 440th airlift wing, then at MKE, now at Pope JRB with C-130H's. Last i heard, they were scheduled to be disestablished this fall.

[old iron]

Probably my oldest memory: Age about 4, maybe 1958 in San Diego, where my dad was a naval pilot:

I had a balloon that I had let go of. It went up into the air, and there was an F7U Cutlass. I thought the plane took my balloon.

Kevin

[ffuries]

Sometime between 1969-1971, after my dad came back from Vietnam, he was stationed at Sheppard AFB, TX as an instructor. We went to the airshow at the base, as to who flew at the airshow is beyond me, I was 3 to 4 years old at the time. All I remember is it was hot, it was loud and I got stung on my head by a hornet or something.

The next airshow I can remember was when the Blue Angels flew a show at Torrejon AB, Spain, between 1972-1975 (We were stationed at Zaragoza at the time). Then there was the time around 1974-1975 when the GD test pilot flew the F-16 (Demo Bird) against a F-4 while we were stationed at Zaragoza AB, Spain. That was one sided contest.

It's amazing the things we can recall when they interest us, but the more mundane things we can't even recall a month after it happened.

[tom d. friedman]

my 1st airplane ride was on a piedmont airlines convair 350 turbo prop to acapulco, mexico in 1972, i was 11 years old.

[mu5tanggt]

Playing on B-25H 43-4999 when she was abandoned at TTN in the early 70's I was about 5 or 6, she was a regullar visit as we flew out of TTN with my dad, then we used to visit her up at Bradley air museum, somewhere I have pics of me and my brother in the cockpit

[Elwyn]

I have a vague memory of a grandparent catching a flight at Tulsa International in around 1960. If I'm remembering correctly somebody picked me up (I was 5 or 6) and carried me up the stairs for a quick look inside the airliner. Can't even remember if it was a jet or prop plane.

[Lynn Allen]

The first airshow I went to was in 1972 in San Marcos, Texas and some Col landed his white P-38, jumped down and I was the first one across the ramp running up to him for his autograph and he just smiled like he always did and said, howdy! I will never forget him or that day, Blue Skies Lefty...

The earliest airshow was in 1966 when Kelly AFB had its 50th Annv and then secret F-111 flew over about 25000' and I had my first Bob Hoover Yellow P-51 sighting...

Last edited by Lynn Allen on Tue Nov 03, 2015 5:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[BK]

Flying to San Francisco via Chicago from TN to visit family in July 1971. The TN-ORD leg was on a 727 that we boarded via the back airstairs, the only time I ever did so. The ORD-SFO leg was on a brand new American Airlines 747-100. On this flight another plane was flying a VERY close parallel course slightly below for a brief time. My mom wanted to take a picture of it but dad said would be blurry so she didn't. Later she took a photo of clouds just to see what the photo would look like, of course perfect puffy clouds.

My first warbird memory was from a local airshow my dad took me to 3-4 years later when I was in the cockpit of a KC-97 tanker. It was one of the local ANG unit planes, so at the time it wasn't a warbird.

[PinecastleAAF]

1968 Kissimmee Florida airshow with the T-Birds in their F-100's. Besides looking at parked Cessna's its the only thing I remember about the show.

[ffuries]

Sometime between 1969-1971, after my dad came back from Vietnam, he was stationed at Sheppard AFB, TX as an instructor. We went to the airshow at the base, as to who flew at the airshow is beyond me, I was 3 to 4 years old at the time. All I remember is it was hot, it was loud and I got stung on my head by a hornet or something.

The next airshow I can remember was when the Blue Angels flew a show at Torrejon AB, Spain, between 1972-1975 (We were stationed at Zaragoza at the time). Then there was the time around 1974-1975 when the GD test pilot flew the F-16 (Demo Bird) against a F-4 while we were stationed at Zaragoza AB, Spain. That was one sided contest.

It's amazing the things we can recall when they interest us, but the more mundane things we can't even recall a month after it happened.

Needed to add this one!

First non military aircraft memory....When we landed in Germany in 1971 (We were being stationed at Erding AB), I'm assuming we landed at Rhein Main, but could be wrong. We landed in a severe thunder storm, and the AC blew a tire on the main-gear and we ended up half on the runway and half in the grass. They sent buses out to pick us up and take us to the terminal. Everyone was soaked to bone. I don't know what type of aircraft it was, or what airline it was.

[redvanner]

My first aviation related memory dates from summer 1959. My father did his first post war glider training flights to regain his licence at Burg Feuerstein Flying School, Germany. Glider was a Scheibe Specht, as seen in the pic with me. I was short of 3 years then.

Michael

[eagle21]

In the mid-60s my father worked at San Antonio FSS and we had to pick him up after work. I can remember being awestruck over all of the blue and white lights around the taxiways. As far as I know, my first ride in an aircraft was in the Goodyear blimp over Hemisfair 68. Dad knew the pilot. Mom wouldn't go, because she remembered the Hindenburg.

JMC

[CWBuff]

My first aviation memory... 'twas 1981 or 82... I was about 8-9 years old... my Dad and I were out and about, I forget exactly where and for what. Something caught my eye up in the sky... looking up, I saw a bunch of airplanes in close formation, trailing smoke, doing a loop. Years later I discovered that it was the Snowbirds... they must have been down this way for an airshow.

Anyhoo, my Dad obviously noted my excitement and took me to my first airshow soon thereafter... I was hopelessly hooked on things with wings from that day on.


Fade to Black...

[John Dupre]

One of my earliest memories is a sonic boom. I was born in 1959 so I imagine it must have been about 1962 or 63. Not sure when they were banned over the Continental US but I remember being on the road near my house and hearing and feeling a almighty bang and was told it was a sonic boom.

Another one a few years later was seeing a derelict fighter parked in front of a car dealership on Route 28 in New Hampshire near Bear Brook State Park. I was aware enough to think it was a Mustang though years later the only other person outside my family that remembers it thought it was an F-86.