Interesting Aircraft you have used, accidently.

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expat

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I was thinking the other day, I have at times found myself as a passenger on some interesting aircraft over the years.
My list:

DeHavilland Comet (Dan-Air Airlines)
Grumman Goose (Piston and a Turboprop)
Boeing DC3 (it later crashed in Fog)
DeHavilland Otters and Twin otters (lots and Lots)

What's your list?
 
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Well in fact a friend of mine is taking flying lessons (lucky guy) and referred me to take a flight with his friend who has a modern kit version of a Piper Cub. I have never sat in a plane as mechanical as that. The throttle was a handle attached to a lever on the left. An actual stick controlled the control surfaces, and the the twin cylinder engine made a noise I'll never forget. There was no trim wheel, no auto pilot, just levers and pivot points. I have always been a light aircraft enthusiast, and the day I took that flight, I was sold on it.
 
A VC-47, a Military VIP DC-3...

An "A" model C-130, with three bladed propellors...

A C-141 "A" model, the non-lengthened version...

Piper L-4 Cub...
 
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Stearman, Pensacola fl, flew with a Marine fighter pilot

Single engine HU1b Huey helo, H34 Sikorsky helo, Navy DC-7 transports,t-34b trainer, DC3 Navy, RA4D Skyraider attack plane tail dragger..Most of my time was in helos, airsea rescue. The other stuff was joy riding for fun...most fun 4 years of my life..66-70USN
 
I did my first loop in a DeHavilland Tiger Moth when I was in my teens--I remember it really fell off as it went over the top, but I loved it!

I rode in a restored Beech Staggerwing at about the same time period (in my teens).

I got my tailwheel experience in a 1946 Taylorcraft and a Bellanca Citabria KCAB. The first spin I ever did was in the T-craft.

A friend of mine restored two Piper J-2s in the 90s and let me fly one for a couple hours--it took forever to get to altitude and around the pattern. . . .45 hp engine, but a great experience. I'm told that airplane is hanging from the ceiling of a shopping mall somewhere in MD now.

A Beechcraft Twin Bonanza. . . back in the 90s. . .I recall it had a bench seat running along the left side, rear fuselage--odd for a piston twin. I was a passenger on this flight and didn't have a lot of confidence in it--it looked really rough inside and outside.

A Stinson Gullwing. . .in my teens. Oddly, I don't remember much about it, except it was REALLY roomy inside.

I've spent the last twelve years flying a Partenavia P68 Observer II (light twin) doing photo work. Nice-handling, simple, easy-to-fly twin, but cramped inside and HOT in the summertime. That airplane has been sold and is replaced by another rare (in the U.S.) airplane-- the GippsAero GA8 Turbo.
 
Originally Posted By: expat
I was thinking the other day, I have at times found myself as a passenger on some interesting aircraft over the years.
My list:

DeHavilland Comet (Dan-Air Airlines)

I am officially jealous of you!

I have about an hour stick time in a T-34. Fun plane to put through its paces, though the A.D. addressing cracked spars was eerily stuck in the back of my mind as I beat the snot out of the poor thing... The AD had already been performed a week earlier, but I was still nervous about it. I'd do it again, though. Fun, fun plane to fly.
 
Originally Posted By: expat
I was thinking the other day, I have at times found myself as a passenger on some interesting aircraft over the years.
My list:

DeHavilland Comet (Dan-Air Airlines)
Grumman Goose (Piston and a Turboprop)
Boeing DC3 (it later crashed in Fog)
DeHavilland Otters and Twin otters (lots and Lots)

What's your list?

I know that Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas became one many years ago....but that's still a Douglas DC-3.
You flew on a Comet? Wow. Those things had a truly nasty start. What was it like flying in one?
 
The Comet flight was my first flight in a Jet back in about 1970, I was with my father on a cheap vacation to Italy.
I do remember the flight as being loud and some hard acceleration on take off. But this was my First experience, so I guess I had no real way to judge.
The plane was 'old' even then. Dan-Air had the nickname
Dangerous-Dan-Air
They were known to have a few 'shunts' from time to time.

Sorry about the McDonnell-Douglas / Boeing mistake
27.gif

I really enjoyed those flights, sitting in the rear of a large Tail Drager and finding yourself 'popping up' during take off. The plane was used for a year or two for transporting passengers. then was switched to freight.
Soon after it few into a hill while coming into land. Very sad.
 
Probably seven years ago, a friend who was a corporate pilot called and asked if I'd like to go on a flight from KC to Pueblo, CO. A Citation XL. One of the execs from the local group that owned the plane needed a ride home. I met my friend and helped with the preflight. We were wheels up at 2:30pm and back in the hanger at MCI just after 5:30. I flew right seat on the return leg. A lot of fun.

Then, the economy tanked. The local group sold the plane, my friend lost his corporate pilot gig and is now driving a school bus.
 
Convair 580. This plane had to be the yawingest, most unstable plane I ever flew on.

I really liked the Fairchild F-27Js.
 
Let's see.... Bell 47, minus its spray rig, touring the air over my home town at age 10 in the summer of 1955, with my little sis and I under the same seatbelt.
Convair 880 with Tree Top Airways...
Champion Citabria with a pilot who liked to show off its aerobatic capabilities.... unsettling.

C-119 Flying Boxcar
CH37 Navajo
Sikorsky H19
C-130 Hercules
C-141 Starlifter
Those last five involved take-offs but no landings. Back to earth with a T-10 parachute. The 141 at night. Exciting, to say the least.
 
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