First Plane Rides

[blueldr]

John,
That Connie doesn't look like a 1649 to me. The inboard nacelles look too close to the fuselage. In myt memory, the engines were moved way out and the landing gear had a very wide stance on the 1649.

[johneeb]

John,
That Connie doesn't look like a 1649 to me. The inboard nacelles look too close to the fuselage. In myt memory, the engines were moved way out and the landing gear had a very wide stance on the 1649.

Thanks Dick,
You know I knew it was a 1049 when I posted the link but my fingers are to quick on the keyboard and my proof reading skills are awful. And now I have edited the original message that ought to cause some to wonder what you and I are talking about. There were a lot of subtle and not so subtle differences between the 1049 and the 1649, longer fuselage, completely different longer wing (probably why the engines appear further from the fuselage) no tip tanks and I think the 1649 was the only model with walking (much to the chagrin of many an airman) main gear.

[GAHorn]

John,
That Connie doesn't look like a 1649 to me. The inboard nacelles look too close to the fuselage. In myt memory, the engines were moved way out and the landing gear had a very wide stance on the 1649.

Thanks Dick,
You know I knew it was a 1049 when I posted the link but my fingers are to quick on the keyboard and my proof reading skills are awful. And now I have edited the original message that ought to cause some to wonder what you and I are talking about. There were a lot of subtle and not so subtle differences between the 1049 and the 1649, longer fuselage, completely different longer wing (probably why the engines appear further from the fuselage) no tip tanks and I think the 1649 was the only model with walking (much to the chagrin of many an airman) main gear.

It's humbling to realize and appreciate the wide-ranging expertise in these forums.

[flyguy]

John,
That Connie doesn't look like a 1649 to me. The inboard nacelles look too close to the fuselage. In myt memory, the engines were moved way out and the landing gear had a very wide stance on the 1649.

ELDER - - My first ride on an airliner was on one of TWA's 1049s from Phoenix to Los Angeles.

My first airplane ride ever was in a Stearman at the old Deer Valley airport on the outskirts of Glendale AZ. There were some fellows buying the retired PT17s and converting them to dusters. I would hike through the mesquite thicket between our house and the airport to just hang around the age of 14 and I jumped at the chance to do stuff for these guys. One day one of them took me around the corner of the hangar and pointed out a new arrival for the conversion. He said to me "Son, that airplane doesn't have "RESTRICTED" on it's sides yet and I know you want a ride don't you? I think I answered "yes" and When he told me to follow him and get in the front hole but keep your head down till we are in the air! Well when that big round engine started shaking, smoking and roaring I couldn't tell if we were flying or dying so I poked my head up and we were taxiing out to the runway. What a thrill for a kid! ! I never knew that fellows name even though I hung out at that hangar as often as I could. They would let me roll tires from a trailer to the hangar, sometimes let me carry bags of duster powder to the plane from the truck but I never got another ride! That pilot who gave me that first ride also instilled in me to pass it on. With that same attitude I have given kids at airports all round the country, the chance to experience their first airplane ride. I did fly some Young Eagles while manager at the Many airport but when the EAA got real uppity about their paper work and insurance, I just decided to do my own "young airmen and airwomen" anytime I had a chance. One of them may become someone very important to our passion of flying.

BLUE, when I went to work at TWA in 1966 as a Machinist/Mechanic, one of my first assignments was working in the "rod shop" grinding reconditioned rods for new bearings. I loved working on those big old round engines. The Connies were being phased out but all the rotable parts were being MOCed (Airline version of Yellow Tagged) and when they retired the last of the flying planes all those parts went with them to the new owners.

[johneeb]

Gary,
That is a great picture, is it the SAC from MKC?

[SteveF]

First Ride:
In September of 1951 my mother and I were going to Florida from Boston. We were going to NY on a Northeast Airlines DC3 then to Miami on a TWA Constellation.

I had just turned nine and my mother and I did not have adjoining seats. The businessman next to me with not swap seats with my mother as his friend was across the isle.

Poetic justice:
At that time everyone dressed in suits and dresses when going the airlines.
The air was rough and I got sick all over the guy next to me. Needless to say he was very unhappy but as my mother explained it would have been a lot better if he had swapped seats.

The ride on the Connie was uneventful and I have always felt honored to have ridden on two of the greatest airliners produced.

First light plane ride:
At about ten a friend and I rode our bikes to the Homestead Civil Airport. There was a fellow, Carl Springer, who sold rides in a J3 cub for three dollars. As we were small he said he would take both of us at the same time for the three dollars.

I showed up twice with my dollar fifty but my friend did not. Finally Carl felt bad for me, or didn’t want the dollar fifty to get away, so he put me in with a pilot who had rented the cub for an hour. I had a blast.

Totally bitten by bug:
Started hanging around the airport and got friendly with a group of crop dusters at Hall Dusting Co. They used 450 Stearmans and did dry dusting and wet spraying. The 450’s came from BT-13’s.

The dusters would take me for rides in the baggage compartment of the BT-13's and in the dry spray hopper of the Stearmans. The only thing that bothered me was there was an auger at the bottom of the hopper that I would stand on and it had teeth to break up lumps of dry material. The auger was powered by a wind driven small propeller and gear that were tied off with a cloth when I was in the hopper. I always feared the cloth would come undone and I would be ground up and spread out the bottom of the plane.

Life was a lot simpler then but thankfully there are just as many good people in aviation today as there were then.

Now own 52B N2353D and every flight is almost as much fun as the first.
SteveF

[edbooth]

My first ride was in 1948, at the what is now, Flabob Airport in Riverside, CA home of Chapter 1 of the EAA....However this was before the EAA came into existance. My Uncle, a career Navy man took me and my Dad for rides in a rented J-3. I was 10 and I knew from that experience that one day I would fly..... and I have for about 51 years now and hopefully for a few more.

Ed Booth

[GAHorn]

click to ENLARGE Connie Cockpit

[dacker]

It is interesting to note the lack of radios and engine monitoring equipment in that cockpit... I am assuming that the engineer and radio operator/navigator have their own busy stations. I really like the old concept of multi-crew flying as opposed to how it is done today. I am not trying to knock what works today, I just like the nostalgia of how it used to be done.
Perhaps it is because I just got through reading Earnest K. Gann's "Fate is the Hunter" for the second time, I really like the way he puts you in the cockpit of those old airliners of the 40's and 50's. I guess that is one reason I like flying my 170 so much. I guess it's sort of a time machine in its own right!
David

[DWood]

First ride was in a Brantly Helicopter with my uncle who was a test pilot for Brantly. He picked me up at the High School and flew me to Lansing, MI airport. It was probably around 1965.

[GAHorn]

It is interesting to note the lack of radios and engine monitoring equipment in that cockpit...

Then you'll LOVE the first bomber purchased by the United States (and which Gen. Billy Mitchell bombed battleships to prove the superiority of air-power in 1921.)
Here's the cockpit of the Martin B-2 he used in that demonstration:

click to ENLARGE Martin B-2

Compare that to World War Two's B-24:

click to ENLARGE B-24

[HawkerCFI]

First Flight. A brand new or nearly brand new Cessna 170 with red trim out of the then grass airport in Governeur, New York about 1954. Bill Rotundo, Flight Instructor, FBO owner, in the left front seat and my dad, then a student pilot, in the right front seat. I sat in the left back seat with my brother alongside me in the right side. A short, smooth ride. Most interesting. Still a lot of the fear of the unknown present. (So unlike the present after a few years of flying, now the fear of the unknown totally replaced with the fear of the known!). Oh to be thirteen years old again! Little did I know then that I would someday be able to look back on a career mentoring aviators.

[flat country pilot]

J 3, 1969 give or take a year.

My grandpa was the owner and pilot who gave me my first ride.
The J 3 has been in our family since it was about 4 years old, now owned by my uncle.

Bill