[tomwed]

I'm from Secaucus NJ, a suburb close to Hoboken. I was in the CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] and we were pretty active. Every other year there was a convention and in my sophomore year 1967, it was in Miami. We had all kinds of fund raisers but our biggest money maker was the musicals. They were so much fun .We did Bye, Bye Birdie, South Pacific and Guys and Dolls. Flying to Miami out of Newark was something else. I think we sang "I'm leaving on a Jet Plane, don't know when I'll be back again" a hundred times. I think there was a movie too. When we landed we all clapped. We stayed at the Atlantic Towers but snuck into the Fountainbleu pool pretending we were big shots. At the convention., at the Fountainbleau our guest speaker was Hubert Humphrey. I met a girl from Texas and fell in love with that accent.

[Walter123]

Yep, from Newark to DC on a Lear jet in 1973. I was 20yo and had to pick up a repossessed Cadillac and got my first speeding ticket in Maryland!

[eweissenbach]

I was thirteen when I flew with my teacher's father in his Beechcraft 4 seater. I got to actually take the wheel for a minute and was beyond thrilled. I did not fly on a commercial flight until I was 38 and my company flew me from Kansas City to San Francisco for a meeting. After that I flew quite a lot, but that first flight was very memorable.

[villagetinker]

Out of a grass strip, 2 seat Cessena, several figure 8 over a power plant I was working at (try that now and you would probably be shot down...) quick fly over the house and back to the grass strip for a landing. After that commercial flight was nothing. Oh yeah, that was 1971-2.

[onslowe]

Nope. I was one and a half when my mother and I emigrated from England in 1948. My dad came out here about nine months before to secure a job in Con Edison in NYC's manholes, and a work out super's job in a small tenement for our housing.

I was told I kept getting up and taking my little bag and trying to leave the plane over the Atlantic. So, anyway, when we landed in NY, I had not a cent and couldn't speak the language. Another immigrant success story!

[tainsley]

The first time I flew was from Philadelphia to NY for a job interview with Eastern Airlines!

[MikeV]

My first time was from Newark to San Antonio TX for basic training.

[manaboutown]

I was probably about 12, around 1954. I flew on a four engine prop engine commercial flight (not a TWA Constellation) between ABQ and San Diego. All I remember is that three out of the four engines eventually quit before we landed safely. That did not deter me from flying at all and I eventually learned to fly.

[Carla B]

I think I spent $25 of my parent's hard-earned money to fly in a DC3 around Laramie, WY for 30 minutes when I was out of high school. My first jet flight was in 1960 from Houston to JFK on Braniff in a Boeing 707. The thrill of that experience was tempered when I experienced Barotrauma (excruciating ear pain on descent) that has plagued me ever since. I wish I could travel by boat and train, but it's just not practical.

[DougB]

The first time I flew was in the Goodyear blimp when it was based on Watson Island in Biscayne Bay. Think I was about eight.

[Mikeod]

My first flight was Boston to DC on Eastern. I had a window seat and was fascinated at the view. So much so that when we landed I couldn't turn my head straight for a long time!

[getdul981]

From Basic Training at Ft. Bragg, NC to AIT at Ft. Polk, LA. in Jan or Feb 1968.

[Halibut]

It was 1959. My sister and I would fly from San Diego to our father's house in San Francisco for our summer and holiday visitations. We were 8 and 9 and at the time, airlines would let children fly alone. The stewardesses (as they were still called) were tasked with looking after us on the flight and walking us off the plane to meet Dad. We used to help pass the bowls of mints and chewing gum to the other passengers while in the air.

We had to get dressed up, too, with me in a tie and my sister made to wear a hat and gloves. Flying was fancy!

[OpusX1]

1965 Cleveland to London via Totonto. My best friend and I traveled alone to visit his family in The Isle of Mann and to see The TT races. We were 13, wore a coat and tie. My how things have changed!

[John_W]

I still have my log book so I know exactly, it was Nov 3, 1969 at Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg, today that's right behind the Dali Museum. It was a Piper Cherokee, the call sign was 8269 November. I was 19 years old and started flying lessons that day, they were $16 an hour for the plane and $5 for the instructor, $21 total. Today I believe it's about $125 an hour for plane and instructor. The Cherokee looks like this, it's a low wing plane versus a Cessa 150 which is a trainer with a high wing.



First time on an airliner was Saturday April 4, 1970 from Jacksonville to Ft. Polk, Louisiana for Army Basic Training. I had taken the Greyhound Bus from St. Petersburg to Jacksonville on Wednesday and checked into the rather drab Ambassador Hotel in downtown Jacksonville. There was about 200 of us staying the night on the Army's dollar and the next day we were all sworn in at the induction center. Several buses pulled up to the building and they said for everyone to board a bus, you're going to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina for basic except for, and then they called my name. They said that since you have an aviation MOS, you must go to Ft. Polk for basic and the only way to get there is to fly. However, due to the controller's sickout, you need to go back to the Ambassador and stay until Saturday, that's the earliest we can get you a flight. So it was somewhat ironic that my first two days in the Army were spent in a hotel in downtown Jacksonville because I had enlisted to become an air traffic controller, but I wasn't able to leave because of the controller's sickout.

Eventually I took a Delta Airlines jet to Atlanta, changed planes and then boarded another Delta jet to New Orleans. Then I took a step back in time and boarded a Trans Texas Airline DC 3. Later at Ft. Polk I would learn that TTA Airline stood for "Tree Top Airline" because when we were at the firing range and a TTA DC 3 was inbound we had to stop firing until it passed. It looked like this and they actually flew down range just above the tree tops.