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Always a Kid: First Time On A 747
Flying, at least commercially, is sort of humdrum for me these days. I guess that when you fly at least four times a month for two years, the magic of rocketing through the sky five miles up in a chair wears off. It doesn’t help either that there isn’t much I haven’t done, when it [...]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nycav...~4/4iiNLj-275k
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Excellent writeup Jeremy. Brought me back to my first 747 trip in 1985, STL-LAX on a TWA -131. Complete with visit to the cockpit:
http://media10.dropshots.com/photos/...929/201136.jpg
I had looked forward to this trip for weeks. Also got my 'junior member' plastic wings and still have them. Do they even still do that for kids anymore? The flight crew even let me read out some of the before start checklists. Boy did I screw that up I was so nervous lol. But was I a happy camper when I got back to my window seat:
http://media9.dropshots.com/photos/3...929/201135.jpg
Anyway, you're certainly not crazy. 26 years later I finally got myself on a Virgin Atlantic -400 and it was like being that kid again. And yes, the 747 is one sexy b*tch.
Awesome article Jeremy! I wish I still had pictures from my days of cockpit seat approaches into Johannesburg and Cape Town - those were the good old days - rivaling almost the excitement you wrote about!!
My first flight on a 747 was on Pan Am from JFK to Moscow in 1990. Leaving Moscow after flying on Soviet planes around the USSR, it was a welcome sight to see that bright gleaming white Pan Am 747 lording over all the various dingy Soviet Bloc narrow bodies.
Great article.
If you love aviation, your nose will ALWAYS be glued to the window, mine is. I flew 200,000 miles last year, and other than the 15 hour HKG flights, my preference is a window. Book, glasses, and POS camera in hand, I cherish every take-off, cruise, and landing.
I too also try to fly different aircraft and airlines but am addicted to Star Alliance carriers... for the miles.
This hobby is in the blood, it truly is a passion. I remember being invited into the cockpit on Pan Am 707's and Laker DC-10's... over the Atlantic Ocean, can you imagine sitting and talking with the pilots for 20 minutes or so... those were the days.
A couple of years ago, I was talking with a NW 747 flight attendant, we were heading to Nagoya. She offered to take my camera up the cockpit where the pilots took some great shots over Alaska, it never hurts to ask.
Thanks for writing what, I hope, most of us feel.
AJ
Wow, this brings back memories....
My first trip on a TWA B-747 was in 1969 or 1970 when I was about 7 years old, and it was my brithday on a flight from LA to NYC. The took me to the cockpit, showed me everything, chatted with me, gave me a cake with a 747 on it, a plastic 747, and wings. The crew was so cool. I wish we had digital cameras then.
My first trip on a 747 was Bermuda to JFK on a British 747 back in 1974, BOAC was undergoing the transition to British Airways at the time, and British was painted on the side, I flew my last trip in the Classic 747 this December last before transitioning to the 400, it was PHX-JFK at the conclusion of the Christmas rush, we landed on 31R in the wee hours, completing circles.
Great read Jeremy! Thanks
Great pics! I remember my first 747 flight. Something magical about it. And ya gotta love that flight deck, with allQuote:
Originally Posted by megatop412
the old "steam gauges". Nothing like the glass cockpits of today. Thanks for posting.