Your first airline flight

[brett]

Had to give this some extra thought. I believe that it was a chartered Eastern Provincial Airlines plane on a chartered all inclusive Grand Bahama Island vacation in 1975 from Toronto. This was a delayed honeymoon trip. Cost of the package was $219 CAD pp. It was a morning flight filled with lots of real estate agents. The bar was free and the liqueur was flowing generously. Those folks could really put it away.

 

[Nemo2]

It was a morning flight filled with lots of real estate agents.

OT: January 1981, flew back to Toronto from Dallas, (had been on assignment), on an Air Canada flight packed with Mary Kay 'top sales prizewinners' - I don't think any of them stopped talking long enough to take a breath the entire flight.

/OT

 

[Koolau]

1964 from Weir Cook (now IND) to JFK on a TWA Boing 727. I was on the first leg of a HS trip to Europe. Interestingly (or not) on this trip, we learned that Ted Kennedy's plane had crashed and that he might not survive. Interesting times. Full disclosure, I had flown in single engine, general aviation aircraft before this firs commercial flight.

 

[Turn_the_Page]

22 years old, last semester in college. The old Austin airport to Midland/Odessa on Southwest Airlines for a job interview.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

It was Piedmont Airlines (now part of American) in 1977, on a 737. My high school senior trip to NYC.

I remember dumping the chaperones and hitting a strip bar on Times Square, and it was no problem ordering cocktails anywhere at age 17. We wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building, but as the lines were too long for the tourist elevator we took local elevators to the 86th floor, where a guard simply pointed us to the "down" express elevator. (Security? what security?) I'll never forget that the high temperature for the entire trip was around 17 deg.

But I also remember that flight, and how surprised I was at how steep it seemed on takeoff, and how exhilarating and just a little bit scary it all was. Too bad flying is as far from that as you can get, these days.

 

[braumeister]

no problem ordering cocktails anywhere at age 17.

NYC was a mecca for teenagers in the old days, because the drinking age was 18 when all the surrounding states had a 21 age.
Bartenders and bouncers all knew that half the IDs they saw were fake anyway, so it was pretty laissez-faire.

 

[check6]

First flight as a Pax: 1955 LAX to LAS....DC-3

First flight as the Driver: July/1985 MSP to HNL....DC-10. Things I remember about this flight: warmed mix nuts, 1st class cheese tray, orange sorbet in a carved out orange bowl, Cordon Bleu, laying on Waikiki Beach one hour after landing thinking, "What a wonderful career this is going to be."

 

[Lakewood90712]

First flight as a Pax: 1955 LAX to LAS....DC-3

First flight as the Driver: July/1985 MSP to HNL....DC-10. Things I remember about this flight: warmed mix nuts,"

Warm nuts ? American Airlines I presume .

 

[check6]

laying on Waikiki Beach one hour after landing thinking, "What a wonderful career this is going to be."

I should add, it went downhill from there.

 

[HFWR]

Warm nuts ? American Airlines I presume .

Is that a Samsung phone in your pocket?

 

[jazz4cash]

I was 7 yrs old in 1963. My dad and I flew from DC to Philly on Piedmont, I think which morphed into US Air (which merged with Delta ?). We took the train back to DC. The whole purpose of the trip was for me to experience different modes of travel.

Edit: it was American not Delta.

 

[joesxm3]

My first flight was not on an airline. I was so young that I can't actually remember how old I was. My uncle built airplanes in his garage and then flew them from a local tiny air strip.

One day, my uncle took me to the air field "to see his airplane". My mother was going to come up a little later to bring me home and let my uncle continue working on the plane.

As soon as we go their, my uncle said to me "OK. Quick. Hop in. We are going up before she gets here."

What a rush. I was so small, I could barely see over the edge of the two seat cockpit to look down at the ground.

 

[Senator]

I know I was pretty young, at 3 years old. From DE to HI. 54 years ago. It was probably a military plane, as my father was in the USAF. I really do not remember that flight, but we sure did not drive.

I know I did fly in a military transport plane at ~7 years old, and the luggage was strapped down in the middle of the plane. We were all on benches on each side.

 

[jazz4cash]

Forgot to mention I was extremely disappointed to find out the windows don't open.

 

[DFA]

1976; compliments of the US Air Force on my way to Lackland AFB for basic training. Don't remember the airlines.

 

[HFWR]

Forgot to mention I was extremely disappointed to find out the windows don't open.

You'd have been disappointed in a different way if they had opened...

 

[Nemo2]

You'd have been disappointed in a different way if they had opened...

His last words would have been..."Well, that sucks".

 

[ElizabethT]

Flight #1 - Age 14, from Los Angeles to Phoenix to visit a boyfriend. All well chaperoned - I stayed with a family friend, and day-visited the boyfriend from there. Loved the flight!

Flight #2 - Age 24, from San Francisco to Los Angeles to explore housing for a corporate transfer we (DH) were going through. Loved the flight!

Flight #3 - Age 33, from LAX to Honolulu to join DH for part of a business conference he had there. Had my first ever experience with turbulence and had an immediate panic attack.

Some 20 years and 100,000+ air miles later, I am still battling turbulence-initiated panic attacks. To say this situation has frustrated me beyond belief would be an understatement because I love to travel. Have dabbled in education (the mechanics of flying), hypnosis, meditation and medication(!). To date a stiff glass of wine immediately upon being seated appears to work best.

EDIT: All the more ironic considering I just remembered I use to go up with my uncle in his private plane when I was around 6 years old, and he would do crazy stunts like rollovers, and I loved them! Wish I had that little person's nerves today.

 

[Meadbh]

Flight #1 - Age 14, from Los Angeles to Phoenix to visit a boyfriend. All well chaperoned - I stayed with a family friend, and day-visited the boyfriend from there. Loved the flight!

Flight #2 - Age 24, from San Francisco to Los Angeles to explore housing for a corporate transfer we (DH) were going through. Loved the flight!

Flight #3 - Age 33, from LAX to Honolulu to join DH for part of a business conference he had there. Had my first ever experience with turbulence and had an immediate panic attack.

Some 20 years and 100,000+ air miles later, I am still battling turbulence-initiated panic attacks. To say this situation has frustrated me beyond belief would be an understatement because I love to travel. Have dabbled in education (the mechanics of flying), hypnosis, meditation and medication(!). To date a stiff glass of wine immediately upon being seated appears to work best.

EDIT: All the more ironic considering I just remembered I use to go up with my uncle in his private plane when I was around 6 years old, and he would do crazy stunts like rollovers, and I loved them! Wish I had that little person's nerves today.

I have experienced similar fear of flight. After a few flights as a teen, in my 20s I began to fly frequently. I was doing fine until I was 30, flying with my Mom, when our plane circling over LHR experienced severe turbulence from the vortex of a descending Pan-Am 747. Subsequently I had to fly in a lot of small planes for work, and some of those experiences stoked my anxiety. About 5 years ago I had my scariest landing in the back of a Dash-8 in Calgary, in a severe windstorm. (They closed the airport immediately after we landed). This was not my plane, but it was the same day: https://youtu.be/mneDbYYHfGM

I find that the best remedies are flying with friends who can distract you, not being rushed, flying in the biggest plane available, choosing a seat near the front, and having one alcoholic drink to make me feel mellow.

 

[MBAustin]

December 1968 or 69, Baltimore (then called Friendship Airport, now BWI) to Fort Lauderdale on Northeast (the YellowBird) with my family for Christmas vacation in Florida.

 

[check6]

I have experienced similar fear of flight. After a few flights as a teen, in my 20s I began to fly frequently. I was doing fine until I was 30, flying with my Mom, when our plane circling over LHR experienced severe turbulence from the vortex of a descending Pan-Am 747. Subsequently I had to fly in a lot of small planes for work, and some of those experiences stoked my anxiety. About 5 years ago I had my scariest landing in the back of a Dash-8 in Calgary, in a severe windstorm. (They closed the airport immediately after we landed). This was not my plane, but it was the same day: https://youtu.be/mneDbYYHfGM

I find that the best remedies are flying with friends who can distract you, not being rushed, flying in the biggest plane available, choosing a seat near the front, and having one alcoholic drink to make me feel mellow.

I did not see an issue with the plane in the video. It was a well executed X-wind landing that happens everyday throughout the country. To help those with flying anxiety in all my years of flying professionally I have experienced severe turbulence only once and it lasted less than five seconds. I have never heard of an aircraft breaking up due to turbulence. Rest assure that the flight crew is doing everything possible to make your ride more comfortable by avoiding it, changing the route, altitude and slowing the aircraft. Also, I have never experienced an engine failure in 44 years of flying.

 

[2soon2tell]

Most Memorable Flight

NAS Cubi Pt. Philippines C2 Greyhound COD aircraft to USS Kitty Hawk on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Viet Nam. As a passenger you are strapped in your seat for 3 hours. No head (bathroom) and very few windows. After overnight on ship catapulted off Kitty Hawk for return to Philippines.

 

[Meadbh]

I did not see an issue with the plane in the video. It was a well executed X-wind landing that happens everyday throughout the country. To help those with flying anxiety in all my years of flying professionally I have experienced severe turbulence only once and it lasted less than five seconds. I have never heard of an aircraft breaking up due to turbulence. Rest assure that the flight crew is doing everything possible to make your ride more comfortable by avoiding it, changing the route, altitude and slowing the aircraft. Also, I have never experienced an engine failure in 44 years of flying.

Thanks. I know all that, but there is a disconnect between my otherwise very rational brain and my amygdala.

 

[Winemaker]

If you really want to pucker up, try landing at the Kahului Airport in Maui, especially in a 777 or 767. The trade winds funneling between the two dormant volcanoes, over the blowing sugar cane, have always guaranteed a memorable landing.

 

[brucethebroker]

Mom worked for an executive at a small airport in late 50's. When I was about 9, one of the pilots took me up in a two seat, single engine trainer. Of course, he let me "fly" the plane for a few minutes. I was walking on air, even after we landed.