Your Top Five Coolest Flights

In no particular order:

Landing on the dot at Oshkosh solo my first time there
9 months after getting my PPL, sitting on the ramp in El Monte, CA in my first airplane, looking at the Banning Pass and the 1100 miles to get back home, and being totally excited and totally terrified at the same time
Ruidoso New Mexico. Landing on that high mesa is a hoot. Los Alamos, NM is a close 2nd, with its one-way-in-one-way-out and the National Atomic Lab next door.
Coming over the tall green hills into Mena, Arkansas
St. Simon Island, GA

Honorable mention: taking up my first pax, a good friend who had taken me up as his first pax just a couple of months earlier.
 
1. The entire trip going out to Cody, WY including flying over the Badlands/Devils Tower/Yellowstone
2. Landing a Cessna 170 at IAD with the Concorde coming in on the parallel.
3. Formation flying with Snowbird 10 and 11 at Oshkosh.
4. Touring Sidney Harbor on a Beaver float plane (right seat for that one)
5. Flying around Australia in a 172 (Brisbane, Darby, Coober Pedy, Uluru, Alice Springs, Broken Hill, Grand Keppel).
 
Ok, you guys have had _way_ too much fun. ;)

  1. Flying to Arkansas with my Dad to see the Arkansas-Auburn football game and try to find our old house there (never found it). We still had a fun trip together and found his name on the sidewalk; it's a University of Arkansas tradition.
  2. Flying to NYC with my wife then Cape Cod with friends and flying one of the friends back to Atlanta with us. First time flying GA for one of them and they had a blast.
  3. Flying around Illinois to avoid bad/icing weather to see a niece graduate at UW, then hopping to Minnesota to visit a couple of my wife's friends and bringing 5 dozen fresh eggs (one of them has a small farm) and enjoying nice tailwinds all the way home.
  4. Spring break trips with the kids hoping around since we were flying GA. One was a few days at Disney World, then a few at Ft Lauderdale and then swinging by Sarasota to visit my MIL on the way home, because we could. :D
  5. Flights to college with the kids. Moving one out of her dorm in the Baron. Or the disappointment on her face after dropping her off at college after Thanksgiving and telling her I got her a ticket on Delta for Christmas break. She wanted me to fly her instead. :D
 
In no particular order:

-5 hours of aerobatic instruction in a Pitts S2-C:
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- 1.0 hr trike flight over Kauai (yes, except for the landing, he really did let me fly it):
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-All the hours flying with my son (who is currently at OCS in Newport, RI, and will be headed to Navy flight training next):
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-Daddy/daughter flight to McMinville to check out the Evergreen Air Museum.
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-The 5 hour "Bush flying" course at Alaska Floats & Skis. The guy in the pic is Don Lee, the owner, and a renowned Alaska pilot. The pickup in the picture once belonged to the famous Don Sheldon.
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No particular order:

1. 10 traps on the USS Dwight D Eisenhower. I've never had anything make me involuntarily giggle out loud like a cat shot.

2. Surprising my new bride after our wedding with a C-172SP flight from KVLD to KCRG to kick off our honeymoon. The back was LOADED with brand new luggage, and I had less than 50 or 60 hours.

3. Overflying the Saudi desert, then the Nile, and then going feet wet from Egypt to the Mediterranean on my way HOME from Operation Inherent Resolve.

4. 300 feet and 450 knots pretty much any time I do it (which is intentionally as often as possible:D), but especially in the canyons and cuts south of Boise, ID (of all places).

5. Tanking in the thick goo and then skirting the edges of a thunderstorm in holding to support a CAS (close air support) mission. Then had to penetrate the thunderstorm to drop JDAM within 100m of friendly troops who just wanted the bad guy to stop shooting. Turns out there's icing and turbulence in thunderstorms.

6. My first flight with my boys which was just a few months ago. It was incredible for them then. It's just of blasé for them most of the time now. I guess that's just part of being human, though.
 
* Done OSH. (1994). Rented 172.

The rest are only meaningful to me. I regularly fly home to have lunch with the parents (1.5 hours). A trip that would take 6 in the car. I can do lunch in a single afternoon. That's magic, and it occurs often.

This year, though... after the instrument rating makes it a little easier / reliable to get down that way, I'm scuba diving in the keys a few times. THAT should be an "epic" trip.
 
1. Flying over Victoria Falls (Zambia/Zimbabwe) in a 182.

2. Landing my Dakota at Cienfuegos, Cuba.

3. Doing a low pass at 100' down the Space Shuttle Landing Facility.

4. Flying by the Chicago skyline and just off shore of Meigs where I learned to fly with MS Flight Simulator. :)

5. Flying up the Cascade range in Oregon on a perfectly clear day with snowcapped volcanos.

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Ok
Most of you out there have way outdone what I have ,but here's my best.

My first solo when my son/CFI got out of the plane and said ",go for it ,it's all your's Dad."
My first flight into my own airstrip/airport 6Y9
Left seat flying the B-17 "Aluminum Overcast" over Holland Mi. and lakeshore of Lk. Michigan.
Flying right seat and logging .3 hr multi engine time in a Ford Tri Motor.
First flight into North Fox Island out in Lk Michigan, an airstrip I was later able to open to the public ( 6Y3) for the RAF
Recently my first flight flying a J-3 Cub
 
Everskyward said:
I walked across that bridge from Zimbabwe to Zambia and back last year. Would have loved to fly over.
Click to expand...

I was there in 2012. We rented the 182 in Johannesburg and flew through South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana for 3 weeks. One of the best trips I have ever done. They have ATC around the falls for helicopters, singles, and twins/jets at different altitudes. I also walked across the bridge, but decided against the bungee jump.
 
1) Bringing home our new to us plane from Texas. - http://gmflightlog.blogspot.com/2009/10/bringing-home-08romeo.html
2) Helping a friend bring his new to him plane home from Texas. - http://gmflightlog.blogspot.com/2009/08/trip-front-and-ir.html
3) Attending BACFest in Gulf Shores, Alabama. - http://gmflightlog.blogspot.com/2012/09/bac-fest-2012.html
4) Attending BACFest in Dubuque Iowa and then heading to Rapid City to visit Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments.
5) Every date night by air with my Bride! Too many to post.

I would also add in my flight time in Hawaii, that was awesome!
 
DesertNomad said:
I was there in 2012. We rented the 182 in Johannesburg and flew through South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana for 3 weeks. One of the best trips I have ever done. They have ATC around the falls for helicopters, singles, and twins/jets at different altitudes. I also walked across the bridge, but decided against the bungee jump.
Click to expand...
I also decided against the bungee jump, but it was tempting...
 
I have been to many great places in my 40+ years of being a pilot. I have a list of 5 places that I have good memories. 1. Shafer Meadow (8u2) in Montana its a grass strip in remote part of the Rockies mountains east of Kalaspel. 2. Catalina Island (kaux) got a buffalo burger and ride in an old bus to Avalon beach area. 3. Valier Montana (7s7) landed on a grass strip next to a lake, took my small son with fishing poles in my first airplane. 4. West Yellowstone, Montana (kwys) flew there from Great Falls, Mt, rented a car and drove into Yellowstone park. 5. Watsonville, Ca (kwys), fun place to visit, rented a car and went to the Santa Cruz boardwalk. not sure if these are the best places I've flown too but they came to mind when I wanted to respond to this post.
 
Same as Jay's #1. Kept looking all over for planes up til then and seeing nothing. All of a sudden they were all around. They were filming an EAA video 'Line Watchers' that day and got my landing! Fortunately it was a good one.... Still go back and watch it for the memories.
 
1, Sydney harbour (AUS) vfr route in a Maule float plane.
2, Taking my first overseas trip to Le Touquet (FR).
3, Every trip to Duxford - its always good.
4, Apalachicola where I picked up a wooden aeroplane rocking seat for my kid. and the first ever time I've been marshalled to park.(don't ask how I ever managed to get it back to the UK, now stored in the loft)
5, Panama city / Tyndall AFB- where I never expected to have a language problem speaking real English to a real southerner at Tyndall AFB.
 
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