First airplane you took flight in?

Delta DC3 out of Chicago (Midway). Grand old gal!:)
 
DC-3 CA to IA probably 1951
My uncle's C-170. I might have been 8 or 9yo. Sacramento Muni. to Davis. He let me fly it a little
 
Airplanes in general, had to be a Northeast Airlines DC-9. Regularly flew as a kid from DCA to BOS to visit relatives.

By the time I was 14 I'd flown in all sorts of airliners from 747's (Pan Am, SAA, BA) to DC-3's and Vickers Viscounts in Africa.


For GA it was

Mine was a Cessna 172 owned by a Transcarribean Airlines flight engineer (he was probably an American Airlines employee by the time this happened) who my father was representing in the merger. He did three flights. One with my dad in the right seat and me and my brother in the back. One with my mother and my sisters and then one more with me in the right seat. I was probably 12 at the time. I remember it was fall (leaves changing color).

Second flight was a 182 rented by one of my university professors who was trying to get a flying club going. Took ground school from him. BWI->FDK.

Third flight was my first flight lesson in good ol' 714YF, a cessna 152.
 
First airplane was a super Connie on the way to basic training,c130 as a loadmaster ,first time at the controls piper 140.
 
In the back seat of a Cherokee 140 that my father was taking a lesson in, circa 1967.
 
Boeing 707 from Portland to Anchorage in 1960. Flown by Pan Am. First GA flight was in a Cessna 180 on floats - about 1964 or 1965. Took off from Lake Hood in Anchorage to some small stream/river for a day of fishing and return. The pilot was Al Fleener, a long time Alaskan pilot who like my father worked for the FAA. The most amazing thing about Al was he only had 1 arm. His other arm had been severed above the elbow at some point in time, IIRC from a motorcycle accident. He was also and A&P I believe and in his spare time rebuilt a number of aircraft.
 
First ride in an airplane was in a 172 out of First Air in Monroe, WA. Dad told me I was going to the dentist and had to stay home from school that day. I knew something was up when we didn't take the exit to the dentist office... He had tricked me, and paid for a senic flight. Got me hooked at a young age of seven or so. "Thanks DAD!"
 
First flight was as a baby in the C-180 my grandfather owned in Torrance, CA.
 
"Discovery flight" in a Piper Aztec twin several years before starting lessons.
 
Convair 440. Delta, remember sitting in the Co Pilot's seat, holding the wheel. Got a pair of Delta wings. Got hooked for life. Must have been around 5 yo.


Cheers
 
First plane ride, AA B727 (1966?);

First GA plane, Comanche 250 (N6540P), somewhere in the 1970 time frame.
 
If you mean *any* flight it was a Peoples Express 737 from BDL to PBI.

If you mean as pilot it was a C152 at 7B9.
 
First flight ever was when I was already 24 years old, in a DC-3 that belonged to a UK company that manufactured radio altimeters [ STC , if I am not mistaken] . I worked for Fokker Aircraft at the time and some of us were the lucky ones who were invited for a demo flight. The captain was retired RAF and sported a large handlebar mustache...
 
A couple different airliners in the early 70's including "Big Al" Braniff's orange 747 to Honolulu when I was in the second grade, 1972, I think. First GA was in the original N747JB, my dad's then brand new 182P in the summer of 72. :)
 
My first was at the age of 9 or 10 in a Cessna (I suspect 172, but it could have been a 182) in North Carolina around 1968 or 1969. Huge deal to me since I was already air minded. Second was in a friend of my dad's Bonanza. I don't remember it having a V tail, so it may have been a Deb. Probably around the same age. Next one was a discovery flight out of Falcon Field in Arizona as an adult in 1986. Then I started training in 2004.

John
 
First ever, an Eastern Airlines Whisper Jet.

First GA, kiddie bench seat in a 150 or 152.

First at the controls, an O-2.
 
God I'm getting old! Northwest Boeing 337 Stratocruiser from SFO to Elemendorf AFB (Anchorage) for a fuel stop. Then where after that I don't remember but my Dad and us were on the way to the Phillippines for his assignment at Manilla Air Force Station.

First flight I did as a student was a Cessna 150 at the Aero Club at Osan Air Base, S. Korea.
 
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747 from Detroit to Phoenix when I was 4. They let me play the piano in the upstairs lounge during a delay at O'Hare. I'm sure the pax were thrilled...
 
This was taken about 12 years later. The 1st airplane I flew (and received my private certificate in) when I was in Massachusetts - a Tomahawk - had been sold to an air traffic controller who worked KRDU. I visited it on a trip to visit my in-laws. The real treat was a few years later on another trip - when I met the owner at work and we went flying together.
mark_9674t.jpg

BTW, I'm limiting it to airplanes I took lessons in. I had a chance some years earlier to fly once with a friend in his Cutlass and he let me take the controls.
 
My first flight was in a 172 when I went to Canada with my family to visit my Uncle. After enjoying Invermere for sometime, my Uncle Mark asked my cousins Kelly, Laurie, and I if we wanted to go flying. Being the 11 year old I was, I said oh yeah, lets do this. We flew over the Rocky Mountains, and my goodness that was the most beautiful view I had ever seen! The way the sun was shining on the snow covered tops of the mountains was stunning. That view is one that I would never forget. I was kind of nervous, holding the camera by the window without looking in the viewfinder to see what I was taking a picture of. I fell in love though. Flying was the most beautiful thing I had ever experienced.
 
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First flight was at 3 weeks of age on Mom's lap in Dad's Cessna 140, from old Raleigh Municipal to Hendersonville NC. That trip configuration (me on lap at that age) would never of happened if her father wasn't on his deathbed. She said she was more worried about holding onto me than anything else.
 
C-150/152 was the first airplane I ever flew in. He let me fly it for a few minutes, I got hooked, and I decided to be a pilot at that moment. I was 7. I never sat foot in another airplane until I started taking lessons at 19. :)
 
I cannot beat Connies, but my 1st ride was in Il-18. I remember the wing and the props fairly distinctly. Boy that thing smoked. I also took a ride in Tu-104 and remember the passage over the wing box with 3 tiny portholes. I paxed on Tu-134, Tu-154 (of course), and An-24. The last one performed an amazing cross-wind landing and rolled on 1 main wheel for a couple of seconds in heavy rainstorm in Harkiv, Ukraine. Back then I didn't know a thing about piloting, so this maneuver puzzled me for many years. Sadly, my family wasn't connected enough to hitch a ride on Tu-114.

In post-Soviet times, I flew Il-96-300 once to a freshly independent Uzbekistan. It already had the PS-90 engines - the last gasp of Soviet aviation industry. However, even high-bypass turbofans could not make competitive a ship with 4 crew on the flight deck.

My first ride in a little airplane was in a Skyhawk for a sightseeing trip over Lassen Volcanic Park in California. I flew the right seat and made a couple of tentative turns.
 
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North American AT-6. I crewed with a Dr that owned two. In trade for sandblasting and zinc chromating parts for a restoration job he would take us flying at the end of the day. Still look fondly to the sky when I hear a big ole P&W radial flying overhead. Unmistakable!
 
Possibly a J-3 Cub, but more likely a straight-tail 172. Don't remember that far back.
 
Have to cogitate a bit on it, but I believe it was a Piedmont or Eastern Martin 404
 
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