LOL no chance! That would be the Grumman American AA-5B.
Mostly airline flights for me. However, I did work for a private ambulance company for awhile and we did patient flights around the country. King Air 90 and 200, PC-12.
Observation flight in EC-135. As a kid did a few flights in aircraft owned by friends and family, Beechcraft Bonanza V-35, Cessna 310.
Others I have been in: Cessna 208 Caravan, 717, 727, 737, 757, 767, 777. A318, A319, A320. DC-9, MD-80, DC-10.
Dawg, FBO is fixed base operator, the operations that handle non-airline aircraft at airports, or the only ‘terminal’ at small airports not served by the airlines.
For me, PIC time in a lots of varied single engine civilian stuff, plus a lot of Piper Seneca time, and a tiny bit of right seat time in a King Air, but perhaps the most notable is I got to sit in the front seat of an F-!8 at an airshow I was working security at many years back. Sounds lame but was an awesome feeling just sitting there.
Got to watch a live fueling op in the back of a KC-135 next to the fueler once, that was a hoot. With all the military experience here, probably lots of you have seen that. Big deal to me, though.
Most aggravating (and perhaps funny) one though is towards the end of flying days, took 4 or 5 hours of dual in a Piper Cub, and my buddy/instructor never did turn me loose. (Hey, it was 20 knots plus every time we went up, in my defense). I always say since I never truly figured out a taildragger, despite my 30+ years of flying, I wasn’t ever really a pilot.
Interesting thread, this.
Shoot, what a let-down…[:P] Heeheeheehee! Still an impressive list. Way to go!
Kevin, I am glad you posted again.
For just a minute there, I had you figured to be a “Really old Navy Pilot”, lol.
I wasn’t going to list at first, figuring that my list would bore people, but, I see some pretty cool lists in here.
All in the back seat or as cargo or passenger.
Phantom, Skyhawk (once Jato’d in a two seater), Hercs, C-141, C-1, US-2, C-39, well, okay, a fairly long list of the passenger and cargo planes used by the military,nothing “antique and cool” though, except a C-117 one time.
707, 27, 37, 47, DC-8, 9, 10, L-1011, etc,and some of the light civil planes, Cessnas, a Comanchee
that covers the Aircraft,then I had a reason to ride in some things that “didn’t belong in the air”,the Huey, H-3, H-2, CH-46 (I only get in Helos if I absolutely have to, and I haven’t had to since my discharge, rofl) We walked into the Chinook on display at Huntsville Space,and I spent the whole time inside there walking back and forth making rude comments about people that enjoyed looking back at that open ramp, waiting for the green light
I used to spend the money on rides at airshows in Cavalier Mustangs, and T-6s and stuff,but, I quit that after a few rides and now only fly on Airliners or Military cargo hops when Anne and I go somewhere we don’t want to drive to (or if we don’t have time to drive it)
Rex
I forgot about a flight in a DeHavilland Otter on floats in Seattle a few years ago. No stick time in it, but did get to do a relatively hard 360 degree bank around the Space Needle to get some awesome pictures, and got to fly over Bill Gates’ house. Well, at least the tour pilot said it was Bill’s house…
Greg, that’s awesome that you got some front-seat time in a Hornet!! Never got to sit in one of those. When I was in the Corps, I worked on the Harriers’ DECM equipment, so I got to sit in the cockpit of those quite a bit testing the DECM systems. Unfortunately, even though we had the only US Harrier training squadron (using the two-seat TAV-8B) at Cherry Point, I never got any flight time in the back seat of a TAV-8B. Lots of newspaper types and celebrities did, though… And that’s all I have to say about that.
Thanks for the FBO explanation. That explains a lot.
Dang, Rex! That’s a heckuva list there! I would LOVE to ride in a Cavalier Mustang! You were in Kissimee, FL, when you got to ride in one?
No, at an air show in Chino California. I was standing around “talking stupid” with a bunch of other prior service guys, and said I had never rode in any aircraft powered by the Merlin. One of the guys grabbed me and dragged me over to a Mustang owner.
Insults were exchanged, and money changed hands, (weren’t Mustangs with back seats all called “Cavaliers”?),and I was up in the air for about 20 minutes. He tried to make me throw up, I didn’t tell him that I was a “Blacksheep ramp roach with back seat time” until we landed.
Oh, and I forgot one,a PBY Catalina, based out of Long Beach. I forget how much those tours were, but, they seemed pretty cheap back then.
Rex
Yessir! I was a crew dog in the back. When I got out, I started taking flying lessons and fly for an airline now… People ask me all the time “Did you fly in the military before”?. Yes, I mean No…
LOL guys, yeah… I suppose between the T-34B and an F11F that would have made me a VERY old Navy pilot!
I was a Marine, but pounded the ground as an 03… hence the passenger time in C-130s and CH-53s. The closest I got to military flying was as a civilian contractor instructing in the IFS program for the Navy for about three years. I soloed about 90 of my own students and stage checked another 150 or so. My oldest students have just hit the fleet within the last year, mostly in helos but at least two that I’ve kept up with are in Hornets. Super proud of them!
Lots of cool rides being listed here. Making a young Pilot like me pretty jealous. I’ve flown about every single engine Cessna 100 series bird, along with Piper cubs, Warriors, Arrows, etc. Ag planes such as Air Tractors, Turbine Thrush, Piper Pawnee, AgCat. Cessna 206 and 207, Antonov AN-2, and of course my personal money pit, a 160 hp Citabria, with skis and bushwheels.
Dude!! A Catalina?? THAT is COOL!! The Only Catalina I’ve seen up close is the one with the sheet metal torn away on display at The Museum Of Naval Aviation in Pensacola. With so many of those being built, you’d think more would’ve survived.
What do you fly now?
And proud you should be! That’s a great story, Devil Dog! How long were you in the Corps?
Is that your avatar picture - you and the wife in the Citabria? Based on the above, sounds as though you’ve done some crop-dusting in your time.
There was actually an “Air Line” that operated Catalinas from Long Beach to Catalina Island back then.
We used to drive past the aircraft awaiting refurbishing at or near the Douglas plant at Long Beach Airport. One day, dad got tired of me bugging him, so he paid for his 13 year old to go on the tour.
The whole aircraft and air show culture was so different back then,you could sit on the wings of just about anything at a show and dangle your legs over the edge while you were talking. I was taught the “proper” way to climb up onto a Skyhawk wing before I had a driver’s license, at an open house in El Torro.
Rex
Cool stuff, Rex! Yeah, you’d be shot with no trial if you even touch some aircraft nowadays. At a recent airshow at the small airport in Monroe, NC, last year (about 3 miles from my house), they had the world’s only flying SBD-5 Dauntless there (I think it’s based in Peachtree City, GA, with the CAF), with “DO NOT TOUCH!!” signs all around it. I still got lots of good pictures of the dive flap mechanisms and the centerline bomb sway brace, though. I wanted some good cockpit pictures, but I ain’t that tall…
- It’s a great plane!
Nathan. I didn’t know you had a Citabria! Smelling the grass and doing your own thing is the way to fly! Maybe the occasional loop? lol
Hello!
Devil Dawg, those russian airliners were like a generation older than those Boeings, so they were louder, and the Tu-154 is quite fast. They also offered more space between the seats and that was nice. Those Aeroflot pilots were at times flying military missions, too, and that could be felt at times when they maneouvred pretty hard.
As for the An-2 many people love this aircraft, I heard that it is very forgiving for the pilot and supposedly has excellent low speed flying capabilities. Did you know that it’s related to the DC-3? The engine that powers it is a copy of the Wright R-1820.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day
Paweł