Flying experience

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the responces, I was still doing an engineering apprenticeship when I did my ATC gliding course and couldnt afford to take gliding up as a hobby and by the time I was 23 I got married and by 28 we had our daughter, that and the usual mortgage etc brought a halt to any further thoughts. Years later we used to go to a gliding club near home, Sudbury to watch the gliders on a Sunday and if they were short handed they would ask if I would help move the gliders around and this usually lead to a thank you flight and an aero tow.

Over the years I have never said no to a ride in an aircraft and with the ATC air experience flights and flying in Airliners etc I have managed to ride in 37 different types, my most exiting flight was flying from and back to a little farmers airfield near Nayland close to Colchester, the aircraft was a Rallye and the runway started on the top of a hill on the flat, the aircraft was taxied to the hedge and turned round, the pilot then opened the throttle full holding on the brakes then he released them and we rolled forward for a few yards when the ground dropped away and we ran down the hill and took off clearing some power lines at the bottom of the hill, he then took a ride around the area and after a while we then returned but this time we had to land going up the slope which meant as you approached the runway you were looking at the hill in front of you, when we landed the pilot then had to open the throttle to increase the revs to pull the plane up the hill to the top to park on the flat again, if you got it wrong it involved a farmers tractor to tow you up to the top.

Martin P

[Fowlers FuryParticipant @fowlersfury]

Apologies for a 2nd post but as the thread is "Flying experience" another, non-ATC, civil flight, later in life is remembered. Business required regular trips from MIA to Brussels and one night myself & colleague were booked to return to Manchester with SABENA (aka Same Awful Bloody Experience Never Again). The 737 had just lifted off when there was a loud bang & judder. The captain announced "some problem and we would return to Brussels after we'd flown around to dump fuel". After 20 or so minutes we made several low passes over the now closed airport with the undercarriage down. Next from the captain "Seems one of the starboard tyres on our landing gear has disintegrated on take off and we're going to do an emergency landing". As all adopted the crash position my now very stressed colleague said "how many wheels on each side does this have?" I thought it best to say 4 !
As we gingerly touched down with all the fire trucks trying to keep pace, the remaining starboard tyre blew and the aircraft slewed around. Once down the emergency 'shutes there were some very relieved passengers with no doubt reclosed anal sphincters. Apart from the uneventful replacement flight, that was the last time I'd fly with SABENA.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

My Airline experience is no where near as bad but I used to fly regularly to Dublin for work and on one return trip home I boarded a delayed Friday night flight back home on a Ryanair BAC1-11, we were all aboard and the aircraft was pushed back to start the engines but they couldnt get the right hand engine to light up so an engineer appeared with a step ladder and proceeded to remove covers for a fiddle, he gave the crew a thumbs up and they tried again but they had to call for an airstart, the said truck arrived and was connected up and they got the engine running so covers back on, second engine started and we were ready to go, by this time there were several engineers stood by the right wing tip and as we went to move one of them stepped forward and in full view of all of the passengers on the right side placed one hand on the wing and with the other made the sign of the cross on his chest, I've never heard a passenger area go so quiet so quickly, we took off and returned back to Stansted with no further problems.

As an ATC Cadet we were on our summer camp at RAF Colegne and our air experience flight was from RAF Lynham aboard a Bristol Brittannia, the aircraft had come off the maintenance line so this was a check flight, we took off to fly the coast line all the way up to Prestwick and then come down the east coast we got as far Prestwick and the crew announced we were going straight back to Lynham as they had a problem, whilst they were telling us this they shut the starboard side inner engine, we arrived back to find every ambulance, fire engine and other vehicles waiting at the end of the runway for us to land and some of us noticed why as when the undercarriage and flaps were lowered gallons of oil flowed out because of a leak.

For us cadets it was such fun

Martin P

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