Fun Flight

[Bob Wright]

Many years ago, many, many years, I was on a flight leaving Atlanta. I had been to a sales meeting there and was on my way back to Memphis. Policy was that our sales force had to be separated into three flights, in case of disaster. I had flown down on a then new Douglas DC-8, the most upscale thing flying then.

But now, returning to Memphis, we were on a DC-3. And a dense fog was rolling in. We borded and were taxiing down the taxi way. We were in along queue of aircraft taking off. I noticed a DC-8 pass us on the taxi way, then another jet. I asked the stewardess what was ging on.

"Oh," she replied, "they're letting the jets take off while thay can still see." Because it was a tail dragger airplane, sitting on the taxi way left one seated sort of in an relcined position.

Wefinally got off, and the exhaust flame was a dim glow in the fog, and I could not see the wing tip navigation light. We landed a little later, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The stewardess opened the passenger door, one man got off, and she closed the door and we were back out on the runway.

The engines revved up, then went back to idle. Now what?

Again the friendly, cheerful stewardess: "Some cows got out on the runway. They'll be clear in a minute."

I got into Memphis near midnight, the Memphis airport was dark and dark air liners were parked at the gates. No one was thereto meet me. Got my wife on the phone. Her information was that all flights from Atlanta were in and Atlanta had shut down, and so had the Memphis Airport.

We were all late for work the next day except for those who had flown back on the jets.

Bob Wright

 

[soflaac]

Good story, appreciate it.

My only interesting travel story, 2 co-workers & I were in Ohio for a training class. (We were all south Florida residents). There was tropical storm off-shore when we flew up on Saturday but was predicted to pass harmlessly.

By Monday morning the storm gained speed, upgraded to a hurricane and took a turn toward Florida. Things were not looking good. By the end of the day, hurricane warnings were out and they would be closing affected airports within 2 days.

We were all on a national telecom account and they'd need our help to batten down the client's buildings, position mobile eqiupment, etc. Shop canceled our class and told us to get back ASAP. One fellas wife was with us, man she was wonderful, worked the phones to get all four of us travel back - we had like 2 layovers and she ran point every stop and got us all on the absolute last flight into Fort Lauderdale before airport closure.

11:30 at night, weather was terrible, plane was maxed out with passengers. We bounced on the runway like 3 times, I was convinced we were gonna turn sideways and crash. Agh. Pilot brought it in safely, we rolled to a stop, everyone stood up and gave the dude a standing ovation.

All I could do was sit in my seat and swear I was never gonna travel by air ever again.

 

[Armybrat]

"Some cows got out on the runway. They'll be clear in a minute."

Never have heard that one before. Good stuff.

My most interesting flight:
Christmas 1958 - my family flew from Taipei to Hong Kong aboard a C-46 that had a long range fuel tank in the cabin across from our seats.
Supposedly so we could take a long dog-leg route around mainland China to avoid being shot down by the Chicoms.
A 3rd crewman, the coolie baggage handler, laid on top of that fuel tank on a grass mat all the way - reading comic books and smoking cigarettes.
The landing at old Kai-Tak airport which jutted out into the bay was pretty exciting as we flew alongside the massive apartment buildings lining the flight path to touchdown.

 

[Kevin]

I was on a flight once coming home from California. The last part was Salt Lake City to Boise. Saturday morning.

We took off and then the pilot on the intercom said they couldn’t tell if the landing gear was up or down. They made a couple passes by the tower so the tower guys could look and see the wheels. I guess the instrument panel was faulty.

We flew around the Salt Lake area for about an hour to burn off enough fuel to land, and without a doubt that was the softest landing I’ve ever been on in a plane. They must not have had any faith in the wheels staying in position. And yes, they even had a fire truck out just in case.

After we got out of the plane, I rented a car to drive back to Boise.

 

[Ride1949]

 

[Colonialgirl]

The most scared I was happened when the Air Force Cargo transport landed on Wake Island the entire crew piled off the aircraft and ran up to the nose wheel--------------
OH NO !!! I thought we must have almost crashed !!

Then one of the crew looks at the others, holds out his hand and says :
MY NAME is on the bottom, give me the cash !!

 

[BarkeyVA]

In 1978, I was flying from Florence, SC to Charlotte, NC on a small twin engine aircraft (12-15 passengers) operated by Air Carolina Airlines. While waiting for clearance to take off, the right engine died! The pilot said, “That never happens in the air.” He re-started the engine and took off. Fortunately the rest of the flight was uneventful.

 

[BarkeyVA]

Many years ago, many, many years, I was on a flight leaving Atlanta. I had been to a sales meeting there and was on my way back to Memphis. Policy was that our sales force had to be separated into three flights, in case of disaster. I had flown down on a then new Douglas DC-8, the most upscale thing flying then.

But now, returning to Memphis, we were on a DC-3. And a dense fog was rolling in. We borded and were taxiing down the taxi way. We were in along queue of aircraft taking off. I noticed a DC-8 pass us on the taxi way, then another jet. I asked the stewardess what was ging on.

"Oh," she replied, "they're letting the jets take off while thay can still see." Because it was a tail dragger airplane, sitting on the taxi way left one seated sort of in an relcined position.

Wefinally got off, and the exhaust flame was a dim glow in the fog, and I could not see the wing tip navigation light. We landed a little later, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The stewardess opened the passenger door, one man got off, and she closed the door and we were back out on the runway.

The engines revved up, then went back to idle. Now what?

Again the friendly, cheerful stewardess: "Some cows got out on the runway. They'll be clear in a minute."

I got into Memphis near midnight, the Memphis airport was dark and dark air liners were parked at the gates. No one was thereto meet me. Got my wife on the phone. Her information was that all flights from Atlanta were in and Atlanta had shut down, and so had the Memphis Airport.

We were all late for work the next day except for those who had flown back on the jets.

Bob Wright

My first commercial flight was in 1965 from Springfield, IL to Chicago on a DC3 operated by Ozark Airlines.

 

[Bob Wright]

My first commercial flight was in 1965 from Springfield, IL to Chicago on a DC3 operated by Ozark Airlines.

I was working on a job in Decatur, IL and we, my wife and I, went to the airpoort there. Ozark was operating a twin turbo prop aircraft made by Fokker, I believe. The infield was planted with corn, and in the late summer the corn was tall enough that when taxiing to the terminal, only the tail fin was visible above the corn. Made you hum the "Jaws" theme as the plane approached the terminal.

Bob Wright

 

[BarkeyVA]

My first ever flight was during the summer of 1964 on my company's a twin-engine prop plane on a day trip flying from Springfield, IL to Anderson, SC and back. We took off from Anderson at around 6:00pm on what normally would be a 2-1/2 hr flight back to Springfield. We flew about 45 minutes to another destination to let a colleague off.

The pilot took off again, made a wide circle and landed back at the airport because a warning light had come on. After about a hour on the ground it was determined that the warning light was faulty, and we resumed our flight to Springfield. Not long after we took off, we ran int a line of severe thunderstorms. From my seat I could see the plane's weather radar, and it was interesting to watch as the pilot altered his course multiple times to avoid the strongest storm cells.

As we got closer to our destination, the weather was too bad to land in Springfield, so the pilot diverted to Decatur, about 40 miles away. It was after midnight before I finally go home. As you can imagine, my wife was a nervous wreck thinking the worst since I was so late.

 

[Paul B]

Tail end of March 1979, I'd just graduated from the WSO course in Kansas City MO. WSO being Weather Service Operations. I got to the airport and was on the plane and the flight attendant was giving the instructions as the pilot was getting the engines started. Plane was a DC8 as I reall. Pilot ran the engines up, then shut the whole thing down. Ground crew pulls a panel off on engine tinkers for a while then puts it all back together. Pilot starts up again and the same thing. This went on for several more times delaying the flight for about four hours. Final a small group of people come up to the plane and enter at the front of the plane, pilot starts engines and away we go. So we're in the air and as we approach the Rocky Mountains it starts getting quite bumpy. One of the silly (?) thing we learned at at WSO course was if flying, make sure seat belt is fastened. We flew through a saddle in a line fo some very intense thunderstorms and said DC8 got bounced arould like a rubbr duch in a tub with a kid going wild. I mean more than one person left their seats in gravity defying form. We finally got out of the mess and the door for first class opens up and who comes out but "Slippery Dick" Richard Nixon. "Be calm everyone. This aircraft is in capable hands." From the back of the plane came, "Shut the (Expletive deleted) up! I didn't vote for you. First and only time I've had the opportunity to cuss out a President almost face to face. There was never anything wrong with the plane. They held the flight up for an ex-President. After graduation I was scheduled to go on leave and my family was waiting which included my Grandparent who raised me. They were in the 80s at the time and frankly flying terrified them, especially my Grandmother. It really torqued my jaws that they would inconvenience a plane full of paying passengers for that jerk.
Paul B.

 

[epags]

OK...Years ago when I was stationed in Alaska I had to visit remote radar sites semi annually to make sure the site civil engineer was still sane.
I was on the return trip to Anchorage (well, Elmendorf AFB) the commercial aircraft was on the end of the runway sitting since we were having humongus winds buffering the AC as we set waiting for a break in order to take off. The only flight I was ever on where the flight attendents kept coming around plying us with free booze (yes, while on the ground). I think they were trying to numb us to the dangers of the take off. Well, it worked. Finally took off and were probably airborne in a couple of hundred feet due to the wind.

 

[epags]

Did I mentioned the time I was on a Turkish DC3 (I was assigned to NATO AirSouth) and my Turkish liason and I were passengers on a military flight. We were approaching a remote Turkish airfield and my liason officer was up in the cockpit. As we made our approach, the aircraft suddenly jerked to the right and accelerated up. After we landed he told me that the airfield was under repair and someone had incorrectly relocated the ILS marker beacon, and if I believed him, he grabbed the controls and prevented the AC from crashing. Oh well, just another day in Europe/Asia.

 

[Colonialgirl]

One time on business I had ti fly from Brawley or was it El Centro Calif to San Diego; Flight was on a small single engine commuter airliner and I was the ONLY passenger (Got to sit in the Co-Pilot's seat) any way we passed out over the coast line and the pilot finally gets on the radio to San Diego airport controllers and says :
DID YOU GUYS FORGET ABOUT ME !!
Lol ; shortly there after we landed in San Diego airport.

 

[area51guy]

In 1985, I booked an Eastern flight from Atlanta to Moultrie, Ga (near Valdosta). At that time, Eastern had a subsidiary (Atlantis, I think) that flew the puddle jumper routes. When we took off in Atlanta, the entire load consisted of the pilot, copilot, a bag of mail and me. One passenger only! When we got to Moultrie about an hour later, I got off the plane only to discover that they had lost my luggage! That has got to be the record for baggage handling! I couldn't help but laugh.

 

[area51guy]

In 1971, I was flying with a bunch of SeaBees from Guam to Okinawa, on our way to start the base construction on Diego Garcia. The airplane was an old hand me down from the airforce, a 4 engine prop job. When we finally got to Naha and disembarked there was a wide black streak down the side of the fusalage. I asked on of the crew members what it was and he said that the reserve oil tank had sprung a leak! I asked if they had gotten it fixed in flight, he said "no, we just ran out of oil. Made me think about all the ocean we had just flown over!