For Aviation Buffs and Air Travelers

What do I remember the most? The smell of 115/145 AVGAS instead of jet-fuel.

Back in my crab-fishing days ~1980, Alaska Airlines had great meals, with real silverware and cloth napkins, in coach as well as first class. No doubt my employers paid for it, though.

Except for long flights, it would seem more efficient for airports to provide meal services.

I remember getting off the plane in the middle of the tarmac....

Stewardesses were all young....

Remember this one....?...no,,,neither do I..

That's the most ridiculous fantasy airplane I've ever seen, including even my fifth-grade design abortions. It looks like Hitler architecture transmuted to engineering.

Not Hitler, the soviets....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinin_K-7

That thing probably couldn't even float, let alone fly.

It is reported that it flew one time....there was only one built...

http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20041/92

A familiar (one flight) story, like the Spruce Goose.

And what of this 'little' wonder .... I guess it also might have flown? Details unknown.
What was that story going around about dragsters bending their frames?

Not the same plane.

That's got to be Braniff Airlines stews. Home base was Love Field in Dallas - got to love the 60's!!!!!!

I remember everyone dressed up to fly, planes were 1/2 full, and you were one lucky dog if you were dating a stew.

On the Southwest flights between Dallas and Houston, Friday afternoon was the businessman's special, where the stews in hot pants passed out mugs and went up and down the aisle with pitchers of beer. What a great way to end the workweek.

I used to go from Phoenix to LA for business.

If I got done early, I'd catch the next flight back home. No charge.

The buff aviators in post 3 weren't too bad, either.

Dad returned from a Boeing 707 trip between Australia and North America in 1962 .... with the Air India man statue.

The 2 local airlines in Australia ran a 'perfect duopoly .... same planes, same timetables (within a few minutes) and now one (TAA) was absorbed into Qantas and the other (Ansett) hit the tarmac. They did have hard plastic travel bags .....

I am sure the same idea travelled the world!

I remember the jingle "TAA the friendly way" and the hosties were like the monochrome ones shown in an earlier post. And then some really groovy music with "up,up and away" in the lyrics for their adds (borrowed from a contemporary pop song about balloons...).

Everyone had at least one of those vinyl bags.

He is "Maharaja" meaning "King" symbol of Air India. Discontinued for some years but reintroduced again.

How come other airlines died but few survived. TWA, PAN AM, and others closed the shop but JAP AIR, Lufthansa, Air India still flying.? Planes were same (Boeing), fares nearly same, food reasonably good, then how come few survived?. Is it due to bad management?.

Good management. Get out while your assets are still worth something and your competitors haven't under cut you to death. Early exit can be good.

Some survive despite their abysmal bottom lines, eg QANTAS, Thai, MAS....national pride.

What do you remember from the "good old days" of flying?

Lighting up a cig during flight. Also not having a cavity search prior to flight.

I was amazed at how similar the pictures were. Computers changed and props were changed to fans but overall they were much more similar than I expected.

I flew last week and 2 things kept popping up into my head:

1) That was probably the first time in my life I flew wearing blue jeans. In my hundreds of flights I don't think I ever did that before.

2) As we were crammed into the plane I remembered a flight many years ago. It was a long bird that was a "stretch" version to hold more passengers. I don't recall if it was Boeing or MickeyD but it was long. There were 3 passengers on board. Two were smokers so they had restroom seats. I sat about 5 rows behind the wing and there was not a single passenger in sight. 100 plus empty seats in front of me. It was actually a weird feeling. For a little while it felt a bit like being a movie star but after a while it was just weird. No need to worry, a flight like that will never happen again.

The good old days of flying…..

1967 - Flying Ozark airlines from Clinton Iowa to Chicago on a DC3. Altitude 5000 ft. Followed the CNW tracks the whole way. VFR LoL.

1970 - Flying Northwest Orient from Chicago to Orlando. Our 727 had problems so they "shuttled" us all for free on a new 747. We all got a full tour of all levels of the plane including the cockpit. There were twelve passengers and ten crew on this huge plane. We all sat in the upstairs lounge. Only time I ever flew first class.

1974 - Riding in the Engineers seat on a DC9 from Houston to Tampa. I was 14. Even got to sit in the right hand seat during taxi out. The cockpit door was open the whole flight. National Airlines.

Eastern Airlines Usually had decent food.

Always wanted to fly in the Pan Am space plane. (2001)

Trans World Airways. Usually had the nicest lounge in most terminals I passed through

2009 - The last time I flew anywhere. Now I take the train or drive. Had to endure special search. Was asked to give up seat as the plane was over booked. (refused! They were actually planning on splitting up my wife and I on flights two hours apart! Had to make one hell of a stink about it) Packed into plane from Chicago to Orlando with over two hundred other miserable souls. Had almost an hour tarmac hold. Between no room, (I'm 6'6'') close to a hundred children all wanting to see Mickey Mouse with parents already burned out. Underpowered AC. Counting the time in the terminals possibly the most unpleasant five+ hours of my life. United.

I feel the same way - retired in 2007, last commercial flight in 2005. Vowed never again to fly the Greyhound of the skies, cattle car haulers. Drive myself, take a train or walk. Will not voluntarily pay for and suffer the insult and injury of TSA and commercial air haulage. Ain't nowhere I need to go that badly.

Back about 10 years ago I was flying between Burbank and Las Vegas several times a year and I remember that particular Southwest flight was called the "Stripper Express" because the young college girls would fly from Southern California into Vegas to earn about $10,000 in the weekend at the strip bars then fly home Sunday.

It's not like that any more.

Too many girls in this town willing to show it all off!

Let's just say that riding in the jump seats was an adventure when you have a scantily clad stripper facing you!

Anyways, I do enjoy the Southwest flight crews, I have never had an issue with them.

I just don't like TSA.

They're a bunch of jerks!

A little off topic but fun: When I was at Collins Radio circa 1975, I would go between Dallas and Cedar Rapids in the company twin turboprop. Executive interior, wet bar, snacks. And I could go sit with the pilots and chat. Collins would beta test all their new avionics in the plane. The pilots often weren't familiar with the new gear and would fool around. "What's this dial do?", and the plane would roll and the big shots would spill their drinks and cuss. One night I was alone on the plane going back to Dallas. We turned off all the interior lights, put the Cowboys game on the intercom and I stretched out on the couch with a tall drink. Doesn't get much better.

This was at the beginning of computerized avionics. It was buggy and the pilots would ask me to punch the reboot button on the computer behind me. One day it didn't come back. The pilots had to get out their sectional chart to fly the approach to Dallas!

Time for another 'exposure' I feel ... the boys and girls airport toilets on Barrow Island, NW corner of Australia. Boys on the left with one sheet of galv and girls on the right with 2 sheets. You can make your own arrangements with the pipe between them. Yes it was a few years ago ... 1972 to be precise! Now that's true bush departure lounge comfort!

In 1980 I met the president of Learjet by accident at the old Stead Air Force base, he showed me the newest Lear Fan jet that they had developed, I remember the fine lines and attention to detail in the construction, I remember watching the test pilot taxi out and watching him perform maneuvers over the desert, I was just a 20 year old kid who happened to be in the right place at the right time.

The first time I flew on a plane was in 1985, it was a model 727, I remember noticing how crude and riketty it looked, I asked the captain if the plane was safe and if it was due for an overhaul, the captain said it had just been serviced.

I have flown 3 times since then and every plane I flew on looked like flying jalopies.

It's hard to feel safe in a vehicle that appears to be in worse condition than your own personal car.

Planes hardly ever fall out of the sky.

I've flown a Gullwing Stinson that was covered in cloth. Yep, fabric over a metal tube frame.

You ain't ever seen a flying jalopy till you've looked inside one of these.

Coming back from Orlando to Dallas, we were bumped for free from a day flight coach to night flight first class. My friend and I were hitting the champagne pretty good, and the stew brings an ice bucket with a bottle of bubbly and sits it in the aisle so we don't have to wait.

Horizon Air, in the Pacific Northwest, serves complimentary beer and wine, featuring Washington State microbreweries and wineries. I once got the rest of a bottle of wine after only one glass had been poured.