I don't remember my first flight - but I'm sure Dad has it written in his log book somewhere. Yip, my Dad keeps a log book of all his flights - has done since he was a kid. Even the big boring commercial ones. Type of plane, rego, everything
Growing up with a father that is a plane nut, I spent a LOT of time at airports as a kid. Very, very occasionally we were rewarded with a flight in a little plane around the airfield - a takeoff and landing usually (there is a term for it that my memory seems to have lost, bump circuit perhaps?). We spent far more time looking at planes than going in them!
But mostly we were stuck on the ground watching while he talked planes with old men for his latest book! http://www.nzaviationpress.co.nz/
The worst flight I did was Hamilton (NZ) to Sydney in about 2002. We were due to take off at 6am, so arrived at the airport at 4.30am having had a piece of toast for a quick breakfast. Went through customs, and waited. At 7am they announced that the plane was broken and a part had to come from Akl. So we had a 2hr wait while the part arrived and the broken one was replaced. They did this while we waited in 'no mans land'. Which at Hamilton airport is one very small room with one very small shop - nothing like Sydney with loads of shops and restaurants!! Read the book that I'd taken for the trip..... Eventually the powers that be decided that the new part didn't fix the problem and we were all going to put on a bus to go to Akl airport. So it's lunch time, and we haven't eaten since 4am and we had to go back thru customs and get on a bus for a 1.5hr ride.
The bus drove out the driveway of the airport, and about 1km down the road when a big bird (presumably a turkey) flew up in front of it and smashed into the windscreen! That poor driver. Everyone on the bus yelled out "keep on driving" and he drove all the way to Akl with a half broken windscreen! We arrived at about 2pm and were, thankfully, given vouchers for lunch at the pub. And told to wait for our flight at 4pm.
So we had 2 hours to get SMASHED at the pub before getting on our plane
We did make it to Sydney, but the whole thing took more than 15 hours. There is a photo of us somewhere on arrival looking dreadful.
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