What was your best flight ever?

[HPaul3]

What made it your best flight? What were the details? Was there some obstacle or emergency you had to overcome, or was it just a cool day to be out there slipping the surly bonds of earth? I'd like to hear about it.

(By the way, this is a common interview question, so for the moderator nannies in the crowd there is some interview value here.)

Cheers!
HP

 

[Capt TedStriker]

Flying in the Bush....

Here goes..... C-130/Bush pilot flying at its best.

Low level over the copper river in Cordova, AK then "surfing" over the glaciers.... inland AK around Denali .... then low level over the iditarod trail for 500nm.... only to finish off chasing iceflows on US/USSR border.... what a day.... Great wx... good tunes on ics and Homer homebrew/ and Kodiak Reds waiting in the fridge for "desert".

 

[MaxFly]

Great Flight

July 4th, 1998

Was asked to perform a fly-over for a parade in Rhode Island. While waiting for our slot time...flew the VFR corridor down the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty. Was asked by the controllers to make a tight turn around the statue and head back north. Beautiful Day. NYC. 4th of July. U.S. Navy Plane. Statue of Liberty, WTC.

Will never forget it.

 

[HPaul3]

Right on!

Awesome stories, guys. Keep them coming!

Here's mine:

Four-ship of little white jets, I'm number 4. October 14th. VFR at 2000 feet AGL over northern Arizona. The aspens are turning all sorts of colors--red, yellow, orange, purple. The mountains around Flagstaff are brilliant with fall color. We hold over the mountains for about a half-hour, then leave the holding point just a *little* bit late...gotta make up about 25 seconds to be over the parade at Northern Arizona University on time....we cross the "show center" on time, at about 400 knots, in afterburner, in a 3G turn, 75 degrees of bank. I'm at the bottom of the turn, so all I see is above me is the bluest sky you can imagine, and three gorgeous, gleaming T-38s, with flames streaming aft.

Just might have been the coolest thing I've ever done, in or out of an aircraft. Awesome.

Cheers!

 

[mar]

Lots of good ones

I don't know that I can pick just one and say it was the *best*.

The short list:

--Flying in the passes between Dillingham and Bethel, coming around a corner and finding a small glacier that I didn't know existed; flying further and coming upon the single largest herd of caribou I've ever seen.

--Buzzing antelope in northern Arizona.

--Taking a 12 year old kid on a 30 min intro flight when I was an instructor. Low clouds in the area; gave him the controls; let him turn the airplane and watched him look *down* on a cloud for probably the first time in his life. I knew exactly how he felt.

 

[BacktoAA]

'Round the world in 7 days in Freddie - Eastbound. 18 Hour layover on last day and first day of month in the desert for 2 months tax free, 28 hour layover in Honolulu after picking up NASA guys in Diego who didn't care where we stopped but had the authority to let us go where we wanted. Sure enough, this ball is round.

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

Wow..
Tough question..

Most fun..
J-3 Cub...Summer day in central VA..Giving my best friend his J-3 check out and landing on nothing but grass strips and chasing cows every chance we got..Door nor window was ever closed and we laughed so hard we nearly crashed a few times...

Coolest flight..

Take off out of SFO just as the sun is setting and see the moon rise and 41/2 hours later see the sun rise again as we landed in BOS in a Challenger..Think about it for a minute and you we say...COOL!!!

Picked up a Challenger in flip flops,shorts, and tee shirts and ate banana pudding and BBQ ribs all the way back to LGA with Aerosmith playing on the CD player..Its good to be Captain..

Mike
MLBWINGBORN

 

[navhnt]

Easy one for me...

The fly-off from my last deployment. We get our 12 jets airborne and proceed home as three separate four ships. It's a beautiful winter morning, crystal clear with a few puffy clouds around. After about an hour we see the west coast of the USA come into view, the controllers are welcoming us home as we check in. Very emotional as we are returning from a combat deployment.
We join all 12 jets up about 30 miles south of our base and I get to lead all 12 in a fly-over at 500'. I look down and see all the families and friends standing on the reamp and know that my wife and two little girls are down there watching. We land right in front of the crowd and walk to the waiting arms of our families after six months away from home. I'll never forget it.

NAVHNT

 

[leftseat10]

Like my C-5 brother above, eastbound in 7 days via the big tanker. #12 for landing at Frankfurt, what noice sensors? Rare RON in Aviano, after the flight up the boot from Sig. Picking our way through the Red Sea cause Jeddah didn't want us that day, go figure! Diego and the open Pacific, finally seeing land once again on the west coast. Close 2nds are those early OEF sorties!

 

[KC-10 Driver]

Proudest (and most emotional):

Flying a Noble Eagle sortie over NYC on September 12th, 2001, and looking at fully armed fighters flying actual CAP 80 miles from my house where my wife and kids are sleeping. It's the first time I could say I was truly defending my homeland.

Most fun:

Around the Pacific in 6 days with an awesome crew -- Santiago, Chile; Pago Pago, Samoa; Guam; Honolulu. It's a big beautiful ocean.

 

[KlingonLRDRVR]

Best Flight

10-26-1991 C172 over my dad's plowed field were I had 40 foot white letters that said "WILL YOU MARRY ME". She said yes and two boys and a 10 year Anniversary behind me life is still good.

KliingonLRDRVR

 

[MoneyShot]

Getting laid at 27000 feet over Saudi Arabia at the radar station with the curtain closed.

 

[MoneyShot]

I don't use that one at interviews....

 

[JimNtexas]

When I was a USAF Electronic Warfare officer I converted from the F-4G to the EF-111A Raven. To get to the Raven, I first had to qualify on the F-111A fighter-bomber.

I came to the F-111 school pretty arrogant, and I way underestimated the effort that would be required. The F-4G had a very powerful electronic warfare system, but as an airplane the F-4 isn't a whole lot more complicated than a Harley Davidison. It's two motors, push forward to go fast, pull back to go slow. It had a primitive autopilot, a simple INS and radar, and a very simple weapons computer that was seldom used, since pilots could drop better bombs manually. Plus, the F-4 is really a single pilot airplane, with the back seater more of a system operator.

The F-111 was a much, much,more complicated airplane, and was designed from the ground up as a two pilot airplane. It had very complicated systems which included three radars, swinging wings, and the ability to fly night IMC at 200' and 500 knots. Unlike the F-4, the F-111 WSO sets up the weapons and in many cases releases the bombs. And the F-111 flew very long high speed low levels, and we were expected to time everything so that bomb impact was within +/- 30 seconds of the planned time. On training missions we alternated between nuclear and conventional deliveries, in order to maximize switch confusion.

By the time it dawned on me that I'd better get serious about the training, I was well behind the power curve and had a couple of pretty marginal rides, including one in which I got lost (considered poor form for a navigator).

But for some reason, on the day of my checkride, I woke up and just understood the airplane. All of sudden, I just knew that I could do this mission.

I aced the oral, and the three hour checkride was perfect, the most perfect flight I've ever had. I didn't miss a switch, a radio call, or a turnpoint. My first bomb was within 10 seconds of planned. Every bomb was qualifying. I ran through the complex checklists with no problems. None of the simulated emergencies threw me. The evaluator didn't write anything up, it was a perfect ride.

I don't know how it happened, but on that day I was the hottest WSO in the fleet!

Jim

 

[AlbieF15]

Ride home on World Airways L1011 after umpteen weeks of h*ll wanting to get home after Gulf War. Rode back from Dahran with a bunch of other soldiers and fellow FACs anxious to get home.

"Leaving Saudi Airspace" call got crowd estatic.

World had a 4-6 hour video program of snippets from things we might have missed during war...SNL clips, comedy specials, music videos, etc. To this day I still have a crush on Patty Loveless after watching her singing "I'm that kind of girl" on a music video on the way home. She along with some other country (and rock) stars had "thanks for serving" spiels, then they would flow into th video clip.

I'll be those sweet FAs had a 1000 marriage proposals those months they were taking the troops home--they could do absolutely no wrong!

Bunch of great Eagle sorties...but that ride home is still one of my "best" flights...even if someone else got to do the flying that day.

 

[Cokie907]

Viewing those lovely towers!

My best flight used to occur almost every Friday night (Sat morn.) at around 1am. It was 1995 and my normal bank check run in a 310R (callsign Cokie 907) was from Teterboro to Islip via Northeast Philly but on Fridays it was truncated to go directly from TEB to ISP as a Part 91 reposition flight. I'd request the Class B clearance from TEB tower and Vinnie would clear me to go "direct the George Washington Bridge at 1,000 feet or less".

I'd level the ole "Long Nose" at about 700 agl and as soon as I was handed off to LGA tower, I'd ask for clearance to transition the Class B. That place is the dead zone at 1am on a Saturday morning except for an occasional "Skibble" or "Fredex" so the controllers would approve anything I wanted. I'd circle Yankee Stadium then depart southbound along the Henry Hudson Parkway to CIRCLE THE TWIN TOWERS AT 700 AGL. Oh what a lovely sight indeed to see those magnificent towers off my wingtip at perhaps 1,000 feet or less. After circling them 3 or 4 times I would go to Times Square and loiter on station to observe the massive hustle and bustle for a few more minutes. Other nights I might circle "the Lady" at 500 feet or some other point of interest but it was hard to keep from being fixated on those lovely towers which dominated the landscape.

I remember thinking how lucky I was to be experiencing this as a result of my flying career. Now, I thank God for the privelage of doing something that nobody will ever be able to do again.

Half the fun in this career IS getting there!

 

[tredding@swa]

best fun flight yet...

In 1988 I flew a helicopter from coast to coast. WHat a blast!

As we took off from CA I headed west, out over the Pacific, did a 180 and then headed east....

With 28.5 hours of flying, 10 days and AZ, NM, TX, MS, AL, GA, SC & NC behind us - we touched down at Ft. Eustis, VA. after flying out over the Atlantic in CHS.

My average altitude was approx. 100' AHO - airspeed ranged from 0 to 175KTS.... we met some of the most amazing & patriotic people from the heartland of this awesome country!

Most of our fuel stops had never seen an AH-1(S) Cobra... some remembered having a Cobra save their butts in a rice patty in SE Asia, dozens of people showed up to the airports just to meet us and see what we were doing. It was really a great time.... chasing cows, pigs, antelope and farmers on tractors was a blast!!

There was one other flight @ FL390 when I crawled into the back of a LR-35 with my girlfriend..... also fun, but in a different way than the coast-to-coast Cobra adventure!!!!

Nice thread - thanks for askin' Paul.... Tred

 

[LuckyDad]

thirty something

Cold, clear February day in Missouri, ferrying an old Waco from St Louis to Springfield, Missouri, hunkered down in back, trying to stay warm... I see something move off the left side, and a Ford tri-motor pulls up and stays alongside for a few minuites... we all wave and laugh... like being in the 30's for a while

 

[TXPilot]

Best flights

Well I have 3 that sit on the top of the list.

When I was on active duty in the Air Force (enlisted- Egress troop) I had an opportunity to get a ride in an F-16, TWICE.

The first came while or Squadron was deployed to Decimomanu, Sardinia. Due to me being assigned to a Maintenance Squadron and deplayed with the Fighter Squadron we were like the orphan in an unfamiliar family. Well if you go on a few TDY's with a squadron that feeling changes a bit. Anyway, The Fighter Squadron commander came looking for me and I was told I made Senior Airman Below the Zone (early promotion due to over and beyond duty - Good airman with no screw-ups and good performance reviews) and he said to go to life support and get fitted (Flightgear) I was going up in 2 hrs.

Wooo Hoooo!

We took off in max climb then went out into the Adriatic and did all kinds of stuff. (loops, 9g turns, ect) I also flew it and it was so fun. (40 min ride.)

Allmost 2 years later while Deployed to Kenitra, Morocco, I was STEP promoted to Staff Sgt, again I recieved the word I was going to get another flight in an F-16.

This time we were canyon hopping over the mountains and flying low-level over the desert. We did a few maneuvers then had a mock dog fight with a Moroccan F-5. This time the flight was almost an hour and a half long.

Man, I saw why it is important to stay in shape flying a fighter. You could get worn out fast. I was not used to all of the stuff we did and my legs felt like jello when we landed and I am in good shape.

My last best flight was the day I first soloed, My folks had more family and friends there than I could count. We had a huge party. When I passed my PPL they did it again. What a blast.

Aviation has always been a dream of mine and I got to fulfill 2 of my dreams: Fly in a fighter and become a pilot myself.

WOO HOOO!!!

Happy skies,

TXPILOT

 

[HPaul3]

OK guys, here's my disclaimer: I know this is a REALLY OLD thread...I just stumbled upon it while updating my profile....but some of these stories are AWESOME. I would like to refresh this idea. So I'm admitting pride in ownership, but I'd like to hear some more stories!

I realized that, after I started this thread, I never finished reading all the posts...I think it's because my wife went into labor on the 15th of September 2002 (about the date of the last post) and my beautiful daughter was born on that day SO... I was probably a little distracted and would have been shot if I turned on the computer for the next, oh, six months or so

So in the Spirit of great Aviation Lore and Mojo, I offer this BUMP!!! Good day, and I look forward to reading your new stories!

Cheers,
HP

 

[Ill Mitch]

Cool stuff.

My best flights was whenever I strapped a WWII pilot into the front seat of the T-6 I used to fly. They ranged from Navy Wildcat pilots, to a P-47 guy that got clobbered by his wingman over occupied France (his 2nd bailout...his 1st was when his wingman hit him during training in the T-6), to a B-29 pilot, and even a Flying Tiger.

 

[blzr]

Blasting off out of Olympia Washington with St. Hellens going off ahead of us and the view if Mt. Ranier out my left window. Very cool.

 

[FastCargo]

Aw man...'best','most fun'...so many!!

Most fun:

Just before the end of my active duty tour at Beale AFB, CA, flying T-38As in Air Combat Command...all of the fun, none of the training command rules...

Anyway, I went cross country for a weekend, solo vs solo in two shiny black with red T-38s. Saturday morning, at North Island NAS operations (San Diego), as we are prepping to fly, a B-25 Mitchell comes in to land...an old B-25 squadron was having a reunion, so the CAF flew in one. We got a free tour and a chance to chat with those guys...awesome!

Then we go fly, heading up to McCarran airport in Vegas. I had talked to the Nellis AFB guys (preplanned), and reserved their MOA/ATCAA for our use. That airspace is surface to infinity, and other than you (a) couldn't go supersonic, and (b) a few noise sensitive areas, there were no restrictions. Basically it was the best combination (for a T-38) of a low level and MOA rules...we explored the legal limits of the T-38 envelope as a two ship...

We then landed at McCarran, got fuel at Signature, launched, and did it AGAIN! Then landed and spent the night at Nellis AFB.

I haven't had that much fun flying (hell, the whole day in total) since!

Best flight:

Much harder to decide...

1. Flying as a 2 ship over Victoria, British Columbia at 1500 AGL...
2. Flying as a 2 ship up the San Fran bay at 1000 AGL...
3. Flying over the interior of British Columbia including peaks of 13k at 1000 AGL...
4. Low levels through Washington State...or the Sierras...500 AGL...
5. Doing a flyby at my 10 year USAFA reunion...
6. Getting pictures of ALL of the above...with a NICE camera...all in the T-38...

Fly Safe,
FastCargo

 

[Peardc10]

One to remember!

We were flying LA to Hawaii, HNL in a DC10. We were about 200 miles out when the controller asked us if we wanted to see something special and would like lower. I asked him what it was and said I did'nt want to start down unless the passengers would enjoy the view also.

He said they would enjoy the view. So we started our descent into HNL, went down to 10,000, broke out of the clouds and long and behold their is the USS Missouri being towed into HNL for its final resting place-. It was very awsome to see this historic ship getting towed into port, knowing the history and seeing the Missouri in the open ocean for the last time was .............priceless....

Some of our passengers were so excited, some of the passengers who served in WWII, thought it was the greatest sight they have ever seen.........

 

[G4G5]

Tokyo to ANC at night

Hail Bop comet directly in sight

Northern lights dancing over the pole

Sun rise to the east in full view

ANC center called us and asked us if we wanted to start our descent we said, "No thanks". we described to him the view and he let us fly directly to the VOR at FL450 and the cirlce down over the field.

Truly Awesome.

 

[AA717driver]

My first Atlantic crossing as an FO. Seeing the lights of the fishing boats off Lisbon, knowing you'd made the crossing. I thought "hey, this is pretty cool". Now, I just jump in and head off to London like it's no big deal...

Most memorable though is a line check in a 767-200 with a great sim instructor as Captain getting his annual line check too. The check airman was a great guy too--he owned a flying service in Montana and flew several floatplanes. We went from STL to LGW and he asked if I wanted to fly. Sure. The wind was a direct crosswind at 25 knots and gusty--you had to work the whole way down. So I'm jacking the throttles to stay roughly on speed and crabbing the whole way down thinking "don't screw this up--it's better to die and look good..." .

So we come over the threshold and I'm still working it like a one armed paper hanger. I kick the crab out and about that time the only thing you hear is the spoiler handle going back. I rolled it on. No one said a thing until we were on the taxiway and the check guy said "are we on yet".

It took an hour for the hard on to go down...

I got a hummer in the GIV in the hanger the other night. Does that count as a flight? TC

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

Nothing too sexy. Was kind of cool a few years ago leaving BUF the day after Christmas in a snow storm (they closed the airport a couple of hours later), it is snowing like crazy and get above 5,000 feet and it is severe clear everywhere except over Buffalo.

I got a hummer in the GIV in the hanger the other night. Does that count as a flight? TC

I need to get out more often. Had no idea a hummer could fit into a GIV. Better hope the boss doesn't find out.

 

[dane]

I have had some very memorable flights. Some funny, some demanding, some rewarding.

I still think that I haven't had the best one yet though.


regards,

dane

 

[hr2eternity]

Sand box to home

Circa 1997. Sand box to Germany. . . . Not so fast! Shut down #3 for overheat. Divert. PAR Down to mins in Italy. Land 200 and a half. Engine change. Meet future wife on day one of engine change. 6 days later, fix engine and leave future wife in Italy. 6 months later, return to retrieve future wife in Italy. Capture her, retrurn to US. 3 months later get married. Still married nearly 8 years later.

Fred brought me a lot of problems. But he also brought me the best thing I ever found, and taught me a few things along the way.

Now back to Brown and Boeing.


TH.

 

[bobs98tlr]

These are GREAT.....

Being a low time pilot i have experianced to much. But i have had lots of FUN. Night IMC, punching through a top layer of clouds at night in ORD airspace at 8pm at 090 feet is an AWSOME few.

Flew a cross country trip at night in an archer from Chicago to Fort Worth, Tx when i only had 70 hours TT....then back the very next day, that has to be the most memerable.

5 years ago got a ride in a skybolt (bi plane tail dragger). Pilot was an ex F-16 pilot and a captain on an MD-80, ill remember it forever because he tragically died in that airplane about 2 years later. He had an engine failure on TO and when he landed on a road we went into a ditch and hit a tree. Sorry for the downer but this is aviation and that man made an impression on me that will last a lifetime. RIP.