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Post by beagle on Dec 1, 2012 15:55:21 GMT 12
Who has a story on their best flight ever..............
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Post by raymond on Dec 1, 2012 17:31:11 GMT 12
Sitting in the back of 1015 circling a friends place to give him a buzz, rest of the flight was great too!
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Post by Gavin Conroy on Dec 1, 2012 18:21:48 GMT 12
That would have been fun Raymond :-) Several I can think off but flying in a Spitfire taking this photo is one of the most special times in my life for many reasons. I have a huge amount of respect for Dave and Warren in the Mossie, Have flown alongside Dave in the Hunter, Anson, and Mosquito this year and caught up with Warren during my 15 visits to Ardmore this year, and he gave me the opportunity to fly with the Mossie so will always be greatful for that. Brett is flying the Vampire and his father Flew Mosquitoes during WW2 and told us a few great stories on the day we took this photo. Was great to fly with Doug is his wonderful Spitfire, something I had waited for all my life. If one word summed up looking down the Spitfire's wing it was Sacrifice.   |
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Post by haughtney1 on Dec 1, 2012 18:33:56 GMT 12
August 29 1998, A QFI friend of mine was "air testing" a hawk just out of a phase check....after signing the good old 700, we launched off for 90 minutes of pure joy, the last 30 of which included the Mac loop at 250AGL and 480kts.....little did I know but in 2 short years I'd be in his seat :-)
Still my most joyous aviation memory....
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Post by TS on Dec 1, 2012 18:49:11 GMT 12
Best flight was in ZK TAF doing aero,s with Peter B... ;D ;D ;D ;D Just for the hell of it the second best was in the Trojan you guest it doing aero's  PLUS being able to fly her aswell... |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Dec 1, 2012 19:17:25 GMT 12
I've had so many best flights I'd find it almost impossible to choose.
But one very special flight was in ZK-ADI flown by Ryan (DragonflyDH90) and sharing the cabin with a couple of old-timers who had flown in the same aeroplane piloted by Bert Mercer when they were kids. The stories they told during that flight (which was a joyride out of Hokitika Airport) were absolutely riviting stuff. Ryan would have had absolutely no idea of the fascinating conversation which was going on in the cabin while he was flying us around Hokitika airspace.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 1, 2012 19:32:01 GMT 12
I have a tie for best flights, the flight from Wigram to Wanaka in Sir Tim Wallis's Avenger "Plonky", and a great flight with Simon Gault in the Thunder Mustang. Both magic and forever memorable experiences.
Second place was doing aerobatics in the RNZAF's Tiger Moth. Mind you, my flights in Iroquois, Sioux, Hercules, Andover and Orions were all memorable too for various reasons, but nothing beats the Thnder Mustang and the Avenger.
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Post by beagle on Dec 1, 2012 19:50:37 GMT 12
you got a flight in the thunder mustang, you lucky bastard.
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Post by chinapilot on Dec 1, 2012 20:09:57 GMT 12
Many since then...but at the time it was the best :-)  |
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Post by phil82 on Dec 2, 2012 0:14:59 GMT 12
First of all, looking out over that Spitfire wing and even further to what I take to be the Coramandel, and you have to think how damn lucky we are down here in this fantastic country!
Best flights? That's a hard one. I've flown in [that is bludged rides!] in over fifty different types Anson, Shackelton, Argonaut, Canberra, Vampire Dakota, Beverley, Hastings...the list is long. Each and every flight has always been a joy, still is! I paid for my son Mumbles to do aeros in a Tiger Moth at Paraparumu for his 21st birthday, and enjoyed it because I'd done it before him, some years ago.
However, a few years ago my wife and I were in a hotel in Christchurch and I was up and about, and she wanted a lie-in, so I took myself off to the RNZAF Museum. I was wandering around the back and the hangar doors were open and a Stearman was being wheeled out, so I got chatting to the guy about to warm it up and he told me he was operating fee-paying flights, so I offered to be his first customer! We went out over Lyttleton and a few loops and barrel roles etc, then back to Wigram. I think it took about a week for the smile to disappear. The Stearman is a wonderful old bird, really!
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Post by corsair5517 on Dec 2, 2012 1:04:51 GMT 12
1988 or 89 and the Canterbury Goose from Chch airport to Akaroa and a water landing then return the following day.... magic!
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Post by The Red Baron on Dec 2, 2012 9:30:55 GMT 12
I had a ride in a Fletcher..(CBG...be envious Zac.. ;D)....ah...the smell of superphosphate and freshly splattered cow dung.....heaven....  |
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Post by ngatimozart on Dec 2, 2012 12:41:32 GMT 12
Harvards over Canterbury doing aerobatics and other things. I'd bludge rides. Iroquois flights especially low level & again I'd bludge flights. Most memorable flight was an Iroquois flight from Wigram to Gore - 2hrs 10 mins of whocka whocka with one of the worst hangovers I ever had. I was going home for my 21st and had celebrated round 1 in the Wigram baggies club the night before. My Dad thought it a helluva funny when he saw me.
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Post by FlyingKiwi on Dec 2, 2012 19:44:22 GMT 12
One lap of the circuit in a Cessna 172 at Ardmore with no one sitting beside me - May 31st, 2007, about 9:30AM. Nothing will ever beat that.  |
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Post by beagle on Dec 2, 2012 19:49:46 GMT 12
I was going to say the best one I have had was in a Hercules from WP to Lyneham and back stopping at Richmond, Darwin, Changi, Maldives, Bahrain, Crete, Lyneham, St Johns, San Fran, Hawaii, Samoa, WP, but it was mainly visiting the the places we stopped at, so my best flight would have been from OH to WP after some para there, and as soon as we lifted off we levelled off and and after arrival in WP, another S&S guy who had been in the cockpit all the way said that we never went over 500 feet.
I remember looking up at the road as we went through some gorge, might have been the Manawatu Gorge. From memory it was Kev Mc Evoy at the controls, while I was with the PTSU guys down the back sipping on some cold beers. Arrival at WP was a low level buzz over the sports field as it was the end of year sports day with all of base there.
Another good one was 1 hour of aero's with Des Ashton in the Airtourer at Woodbourne back in about 1985. A good way to sober up.
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Post by krashguard on Dec 3, 2012 7:09:13 GMT 12
Best flight ever? How about Aspen , Colorado to Madera warbird show in Calif. in 1989 in Bill Greenwood's Mk.IX 2 seat TE308. 7 am departure out of the rockies with that elliptical wing and Merlin magic up front(am I still dreamin' or blink-blink is that wing out there connected to a real live Spit ).
I knew I was in the right aircraft when we got to Madera, parked, and the lady came up and asked me "excuse me, did you just arrive in the Spitfire and when I said yes she said, here's your key for your renta-a car and your hotel room.
Like a dreamer I said to Bill I would help pay for gas for the Spit so at (160 mph on the ASI cruise we burned 1 gal/min.!) but DID NOT matter. You are a Spitfire virgin only once.
When we were flying VFR at 11,000 feet, in the USA you can ask ATC if they will watch you on radar and give you vectors to your final destination (if they are not busy). So the Salt Lake center controller hands us off to Oakland center for VFR/IFR advisories. We check in Oakland with ident of aircraft but controller misses type aircraft and he says "say type aircraft" and Bill says "Spitfire". There is a pregnant pause and then he asks again and Bill says "Spitfire Mark 9". Then the controller loses all monotone and excitedly says to a United Airlines flight "turn left 20 degrees, I gotta SPITFIRE coming thru!". Then United asks "can you vector us closer!?
Fun stuff.
Remind me to tell you about the next X country trip we did next year 1990 (50th anniversary of the B of B) when I flew with Bill in TE308 from Trenton, NJ to Colorado after some ceremonies in New York.
You always remember your first "heavy duty" girlfriend and your first flight in a Spit.
Cheers, krashguard - BCMC Nanton, Alberta
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Post by planecrazy on Dec 3, 2012 19:55:11 GMT 12
Any Pic's I've seen that Spit up close and personal, flying in it must have been awesome!
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Post by craig on Dec 3, 2012 20:39:09 GMT 12
Bit tame compared to some of the above but...
Circuits in Citabria on skis, Ontario Canada. Minus 20 and the air so calm and dense you could almost feel the wings carving thru.
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Post by mumbles on Dec 4, 2012 22:18:43 GMT 12
Not the longest flight I've ever had, but this was easily the most fun way I've ever boarded a helicopter, at the Wellington Life Flight Trust open day back in May this year ;D:  The flight around the city on a perfect day that followed was pretty cool too (and hopefully the only circumstances under which I get a ride in that aircraft!). What else has been fun? The Tiger Moth aeros Phil82 mentioned earlier were a blast (thanks Dad!), chasing the QE2 in a Vincent Aviation DC-3 (and taking the jump seat for most of the flight), flying through hail and lightning over Cook Strait one night coming back from Wanaka, flying backwards in a C150 in a winter southerly near Paraparaumu, and a whole bunch of others. Again pretty tame compared to some, but any day I get to fly is a good day |
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Post by ngatimozart on Dec 5, 2012 10:47:28 GMT 12
Yes, winching is a fun way of boarding & exiting a helo. Totally agree would be only way would want a ride in that one too |
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