Oh gosh, that reminds me of my first flight
Aboard an RAF VC10 in 1981 en-route to Belize. Back then the RAF put the seats in backwards as they thought it was safer.
I was shocked at the sheer acceleration of the VC10. When it was taxi-ing I thought in my ignorance it was about to take off and then the pilot opened the taps. By gosh did it ever go... And remember backwards seats so rather than being pushed into them one was pulled out of them against the seatbelt. Up it went and I was looking out of the window over the wings. VC10 wings are slender things as they don't carry the engines and by golly do they flex. I was rigid with fear expecting them to fall off at any time. It took my fellow passenger to convince me it was normal...
And then landing... Full reverse thrust. I thought the world was about to end.
Taking off from Belize on a runway just long enough was a bit of fun too. Taxi to the very end, spin it around, brakes hard on and rev the engines to full tilt, the whole thing vibrated like a road drill until the pilot, still with engines going full-bore, released the brakes. It was like being on Rita at Alton Towers. The thing hurtled down the runway and lifted off just scraping the vegetation at the end of the runway...
That was my introduction. I've flown all sorts of planes since, some Ok and some real horrors. a BAC1-11 of Air Malawi will always stick in my mind as the one I thought I'd never walk away from... And the DC-10 that got struck by lightning... And another Cyprus Airways BAC1-11 - never did have much luck with those...
Best flight ever was in an RAF Hercules going to Cyprus. Second was an internal Saudia flight between Riyadh and Jedda during Haj when I was the only Brit. All the others, including all aircrew, on their way to Mecca, prayed before takeoff. Somehow it was oddly reassuring...
But don't get me started. I could go on all night about 'entertaining' flights I've been on. Only then will you all understand why I no longer fly
That was taken last Sunday. It was a lovely day and quite pleasantly warm down on the beach. I was quite staggered to see just how much further forward the season is in the extreme west. The conker trees are out in bloom there and here they're really only just seriously breaking bud.
