Coolest flight you've been on?

[hornadylnl]

Other than commercial planes, what are the coolest flights you've been on?

While in the Army, I got to fly on a Russian Hip, C130, Huey, and Blackhawk.
I flew on a B17 a few years ago at the Purdue Airport. I flew on an AT6 Texan in Kissimmee, Florida. It was a 1 hour flight and I got to take the controls for several maneuvers but had a much better time letting the pilot give me a joy ride. Doing a loop and a barrel roll at the same time was really cool. The G meter on the dash showed a high of over 3 g's. He kept asking me if I was going to get sick but I made it through fine. I also flew on a biplane in Key West. I figure about the only joy rides left that I need is in a fighter jet.


Take that HOA! Here's a couple pics from the B17 experience. We got to go in the nose section during the flight. It was an amazing experience as we got to do a hands on pre flight check. They turn each prop 12 or so blades to make sure none of the cylinders are full of oil.

Here's a couple pics from the AT6 Texan. Notice where the ground is.

Here's the Biplane ride.

Here's the Hip. We got to fly on these in Ukraine. We had to jump out of them as they hovered.

 

[Scutter01]

I took air combat training for an afternoon in a SIAI Marchetti SF260 light attack fighter. Spent about two hours going head-to-head with another Marchetti. I also got a chance to fly a Waco biplane once, which is the only time I've flown an open-cockpit aircraft. It was quite a bit different than the usual Cessna.

My opponent is about to have a Bad Day...

 

[hornadylnl]

Nice pic, Scutter. Keep em coming guys. I'd really like to take a P51 flight but they start out at several hundred dollars just for a few minutes and can go well over $1000 for a longer flight. I'm sure my future fighter jet ride won't be cheap either.

 

[Eddie]

I don't have a pic but about 1985 I flew from Madrid to New York on a Spantax flight. It was storming for most of the flight and the plane was full of high school girls coming home from a summer abroad program. The in flight meal was what looked and tasted like home made paella wrapped in aluminum foil. There was no in flight movie and the stewardesses kept circulating these big jugs of brandy that they were pouring into plastic cups. Nothing like a storm, high school girls and alcohol to make for the coolest flight ever.

 

[trnsplntfrmohio]

Don't know about the "coolest" but I can tell you about the 2 worst ones I've been on, back to back.

Got to the airport at 0300 for a 0400 departure. Well, turns out there was mandated crew rest. Flight they switched us to was for 1100. In the mean time we got "stared" by security and had to go threw advanced security screening procedures. Not to bad this time, gets better...

We finally got on our plane and arrived in Naples, FLA at 1330. Our original flight was scheduled to get in at 0800 in our final destination of Miami, FLA. The plane we had to take from Naples to Miami was a cargo plane straight out of the movies. It had cargo netting for the overhead storage. Noisy that ported shotgun you own and felt every single pocket of air. I puked about 7 times during the 45 minute in air time.

To top things off, we got to our hotel at 1600, and hour after check in time. Well our room wasn't ready, and wasn't ready until 1800. But the plus side was the hotel manager handed us a bunch of free drink passes and we spent the next 2 hours getting drunk at the swim up bar on the roof. 95 degree southern FLA head in Mid July. Absolutely the best thing I could ask for.

So on the return flight, WE GOT FLAGGED FOR SECURITY AGAIN. We sat separated in these plexi-glass boxes for 90 minutes. Got questioned on where we were going. Why we had been in Miami. etc. etc. Once we finally got out it was like the movies. We ran and ran to get to our gate and she was closing the door when we got there.

During the flight back it was late, 2300 late. The pilot did not turn off the cabin lights. We got in the air, informed us that the landing gear would not retract and we would be traveling at 10,000 feet. Good lord talk about a sickening ride. I think I puked at least 10 times. There were little kids screaming, their parents screaming back in Spanish, and to top it off. There were 4 arab looking gentlemen, pacing back and forth the isle and going into the lavatory every 10 minutes alternating. Talk about being on edge.

Finally landed back in CLEV to find out they lost my girlfriends luggage.. WITH HER CAR KEYS IN IT.

She never heard the end of that one being stuck at the airport for 2 hours while we waited for someone to bring the spare.

 

[50bmgshooter]

Went for a 1 1/2 hour flight in a P-51 about 2 years ago at the Mt. Comfort airshow. It was, to say the least, the best flight I've ever been on.

 

[snorko]

Maybe not as cool as above, but in 1998 I took a driving tour of the west. Ended up finding a helicopter tour of the badlands in a bubble front "MASH" style chopper. I was travelling alone and they had a 2 passenger minimum per flight. I really wanted to go so I offered to pay double. they extended the flight and it was cool.

Also, while it is commercial, I flew out of Moscow, USSR for London. The cabin burst into spontaneous applause when the plane lifted off. I had read about this in spy novels ala Tom Clancy but it was strange to experience.

 

[down3green]

B-52, North Vietnam, December 1972. That's my Squadron patch over there on the left.

 

[DocBoCook]

Definitely a ride on a CH-46 Sea Knight from a supply ship to a destroyer while at sea. Loved the brief where they stated that we shouldn't worry about the dripping hydraulic fluid. We should worry if they stop dripping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kedie]

Doors open, nap of the earth flights in Blackhawks. Wish I had pics.

 

[rmabrey]

Rode in a Blackhawk at Atterbury in high school. about the coolest ive done

 

[03mustgt]

Lifeline helicopter, only cool because it was for a demonstration in high school before prom therefore I wasnt hurt.

 

[Fishersjohn48]

Beech 18 in Northern Ontario. Unfortunately all of the other pictures were lost in a hard drive crash. Pretty uneventful flight other then the awesomeness of taking off and landing on water! Flight back home was a treat for me as he banked the plane hard over as we flew over the dock so we could see straight down. The poor guy sitting across from me (on a wooden plank by the way) was reaching for anything solid to hang onto. I couldn't believe how smooth the takeoff and landings were. Quite a feeling as your sitting in your boat on a lake in the middle of nowhere with no one eslse around to see that plane rev up and take off down the lake and dissapear out of sight. God I hope he remembers where we are!

 

[U.S. Patriot]

HH64 Dolphin, the pilots flew us around the island of Kauai.

 

[22lr]

Ive been on a few KC-135 flights, not a F-15 but seeing another Boeing 707 just sitting right below you is pretty sweet. The KC-135s on both flights were older then the pilots flying them (and both were flown by full bird Colonels).

Filling up a JSTAR

And a RC-135

 

[hornadylnl]

Doors open, nap of the earth flights in Blackhawks. Wish I had pics.

Ever do that in the right rear seat? The only doors open blackhawk flight I went on, that's where I was at. The rotor wash so so bad I could barely keep my eyes open. I don't think my k pot webbing touched my head the whole flight.

I love helicopters. I flew on one at the ribfest in Ft Wayne and we took my daughter up in at the beach in Michigan City when she was about 5. She was almost hysterical but after she settled down, she admitted she liked it.

I went up on a cessna sized sea plane in Minnesota when I was about 10. That is a cool experience.

I worked with a guy who was an air force admin guy. They took him up in a helo about like the blackhawk. He was in the door gunners seat that was on rails. Once they got up, they banked it and kicked the release on the seat. He thought for sure he was going out the door.

 

[Cemetery-man]

Crew Chief on this little Cessna A-37B "Dragonfly". Got to go up a few times when there was an empty seat available. Also got to ride C-130, C-141, C-5 but didn't care much for those noisy lumbering rattle traps.

 

[patience0830]

cool looking little buzz bomb!

Crew Chief on this little Cessna A-37B "Dragonfly". Got to go up a few times when there was an empty seat available. Also got to ride C-130, C-141, C-5 but didn't care much for those noisy lumbering rattle traps.

Only flight I've been on that I thought was "cool" was a helicopter ride off a barge on the Mississippi at the St. Louis Arch on my 8th birthday. Parents had just enough cash left to send me up. Li'l sis was six and stayed on the barge with Mom and Dad. Helo crashed about two weeks later off the same barge if memory serves. 1968. ages ago. All the other flights I've ever been on have been just unnerving, uncomfortable, but necessary, transportation. It'd be different if I had the funds to fly one myself.

 

[hornadylnl]

Went for a 1 1/2 hour flight in a P-51 about 2 years ago at the Mt. Comfort airshow. It was, to say the least, the best flight I've ever been on.

Did you have to pay for that?

 

[60Driver]

Some great pics and flights above much respect to all the warbird fans and the little girl in the Waco warms my heart....next generation right there!

Not sure what the "coolest" flight was, pretty sure there are "no pictures". But one that I was proud to be part of....Katrina. If anyone ever says that the US Government did not do everything in its power to help New Orleans I would like to chat with them. I have never seen more Navy, Coast Gaurd, Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, LEO, and civillian lifeflight pilots and crews putting their butts on the line to save Americans.

Your humble author going in to a hard hit part of the city....