[DavidSmith2]

I offer this in the full expectation that some of you will be able to trump me without too much trouble, but here goes.

We fly Accra-London in a couple of weeks now. BA Airbus 350 – capacity 331 pax, speed 488 kn.

After a stopover in London and train to Exeter, we then fly on a DH Twin Otter – capacity 17 pax, speed 145 kn on to the Isles of Scilly.

Obviously a 380 would have been an even more impressive contrast – or we could have trained down to Penzance and got on the 8-seater Islander aircraft – but it’ll still make for quite a contrast of size, speed, space and service. Fortunately (for me) I don’t think they weigh you on the Otter. I think they do on the Islander, to keep things balanced.

Anyway – I await your tales of even greater extremes!

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alainboy56, Switzerlanding, fqtvgla, esselle, PatJordan, rferguson

[esselle]

In about 1993, I flew BA on a 767 in J to Bahrain. During the flight I went up into the cockpit and sat in the FO’s seat, smoking a cigarette (!) with the Captain.

I then flew from BAH to DXB on Gulf Air, and subsequently on the 8 seater seaplane that in those days operated from the Creek to Abu Dhabi. We sat waiting for the last passenger to join, who would sit in the empty seat next to me.

After some time, a Land Rover pulled up on the jetty; a somewhat overweight and very sweaty Brit ran down to the plane, boarded, and sat down next to me.

We realized we had been together at school some 25 years earlier.

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alainboy56, Switzerlanding, tomwjsimpson, DavidSmith2, PatJordan, fqtvgla, rferguson

[FormerBA]

Many years ago my wife and I flew to Fiji from London and were due to stay in a resort on Malolo Lalai.

We had flown First Class from London and then business from Sydney to Nadi where we were picked up and taken to a port to connect, we were told, with a ferry!!

We are left on the dock with two Delsey hardshell suitcases with BA First Class snob tags flapping in the breeze. we were booth decently attired for the Sydney lounge visit and I can still picture it now…..but no boat, no ferry, no other passengers! Just two over dressed tourists!

10 minutes pass and a small rowing boat with an outdoor motor appears on the horizon and duly arrives at the dock. Our ferry!!

We get in, the bags are perched on a seat, snob tags still flapping in the breeze and we head out towards an Island some way off, but my attention is on the the blackest most evil looking storm clouds I have ever seen. It was a close thing but we arrived just ahead of the storm at our “resort” which does not have a jetty and so have to wade ashore. I don’t think I have ever looked more ridiculous!!

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LuganoPirate, alainboy56, thecartoonman, cwoodward, fqtvgla, ASK1945, esselle, DavidSmith2, MartynSinclair, Tand, CathayLoyalist2

[Inquisitive]

My first international flight experience included quite extreme aircraft type.

The itinerary was from Delhi to Lafayette in USA. Delhi to New York via London was in was in a Boeing 747, then New York to New Orleans in a DC 9 and then New Orleans to Lafayette in a very small turboprop that had only 7 seats. I had no clue what kind of aircraft that was. It was parked at the last gate where we (4 passengers that day) had to go down to tarmac and when we went down saw a small plane with one man was checking the engine in front. He greeted us and said he is the pilot and told us to board. He placed our luggage in a hold and closed the door from outside. He then hopped on to the pilot seat, and spoke from a cutout between pilot cabin and passenger cabin indicating that he will take off soon and we shall fasten our seat belt. We soon took off, it was probably a 30 minutes flight and a bit scary initially but as well as exciting as well.

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fqtvgla, ASK1945, esselle, DavidSmith2

[GivingupBA]

In the 1980s I flew on a scheduled flight (on a through ticket) from Seoul (then Kimpo airport) to Geoje Island heliport in Korea. The first leg was Seoul-Busan on a 727. Just outside the terminal a helicopter was sitting on the tarmac, passenger capacity 3. As a couple boarded with me and sat in the back seats, the pilot (ex Korean air force) indicated I should take the front seat, next to him. He flew straight up for 400 feet, then headed for the nearby coast. Over the ocean, though, he grinned at me, said “Sit back” to me, and skimmed just above the waves all the way to Geoje Island, approaching the heliport from some height. A good flight!

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alainboy56, Johnnyg, DavidSmith2, fqtvgla

[TGRW]

In the early 2000’s in my previous career, we landed at Belize International on a C17, we were staying a few days. As we landed at a different time to the commercial flights, we were flown to our accommodation on San Pedro on a Cessna 182 instead of the usual Caravan , a very different flying experience.

[nevereconomy]

For many years I flew all round the world in great style on a wide range of widebodies, but always had the last leg home to Maryland on a Shorts 360 (the flying Winnebago)or a prop plane which I can no longer indentify which had no flight attendant, no toilet and the captain had to kneel to get in the cockpit. I can see them now on a stepladder on the runway putting in a quart of oil before we left !! That was always the best flight of the whole trip as it meant going home…

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alainboy56, DavidSmith2

[superchris]

Me and a friend once travelled First class on Lufthansa Frankfurt to New York, and on arrival checked into a shared dorm in a Chelsea YMCA!

1 user thanked author for this post.

FormerBA

[GivingupBA]

[postquote quote=1109887]

That’s pretty good.

In the early 1980s I flew LHR to JFK on a one-way Concorde ticket (I didn’t have a US to UK return ticket at all), and flew back to London a couple of months later on a standby Y class ticket on TWA.

Funds had run a bit low.

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superchris

[Jonathan]

In February 2019
LHR to JNB British Airways A380
JNB to MUB SA Airlink RJ-85
MUB to KHW Mackair GA-8 Airvan

469 passengers to just 6
12,800 ft runway at LHR to 3,700 ft runway at KHW (Khwai River airstrip in Botswana if you aren’t a regular commuter!)

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DavidSmith2, Switzerlanding

[IanFromHKG]

Cathay Pacific HKG to Manila in great comfort. Transfer to plane so small that we had to be weighed with our hand luggage before boarding. The Memsahib was heavily pregnant and deeply unimpressed at having the combined weight yelled across the departure shed. Land on small island, approached at wave height, touch down and then barrel up a hill on a grass strip – when the plane stopped there was a very smart about-face and out with the anchors, as clearly they were going to use the downhill to get enough speed to take off on the return. Traipse down the hill to the grass hut where we wait for the next transfer by boat – only they didn’t have a jetty so when we got to the beach we were given lifejackets, pointed in the direction of the boat – which was beyond the surf – and told to wade out to it. All in our travelling clothes! Memsahib deeply unimpressed at this point, especially when it became apparent there was no proper boarding ladder, and of course she couldn’t bend in the middle to help climb on, so a bunch of the burliest Filipinos they could find had to manhandle her on – three pushing from underneath and three more hauling her up from the boat.

Entertainingly, the trip went downhill from there…

So CX to wavehopper to wading through the surf…

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DavidSmith2, Johnnyg

[LuganoPirate]

I was one of the first tourists to arrive on Male (the Maldives) with Singapore Airlines, in the mid ’80’s, which then made a stop there before continuing to Bahrain and Amsterdam.

We were about 20 people waiting for the ferry transfer, late at night, to our “resort” island with all the baggage piled up on a trolley. Someone had forgotten to secure the wheels and the whole trolley slipped into the water. No one had realised until about 40 minutes later, when I saw my red Samsonite case happily floating about 10 yards away from the dock.

My case was quickly retrieved and everything in it perfectly dry. The others got their cases the next day with everything soaked through!

Since then i have only bought and traveled with Samsonite hard shell cases.

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thecartoonman, PeterCoultas

[Author]

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