Your Top Five Coolest Flights

August 1972, C-150E, OXR-IZA: I borrowed my dad's airplane to take a young lady to a picnic in Solvang, CA. We landed at Santa Ynez and rented one of the FBO's fleet of rental cars (all 1958 Chevys, all $5/day) and drove into town. She must have enjoyed the trip; 39 years later she's still flying with me.

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June 1972, Douglas DC-3, LGB-MFR: Four hours of first-officer time.

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May 1971, American AA-1, LGB-local: As a green-as-grass 20-year-old CFI I gave a familiarization flight in the Yankee to a genuine fighter ace (18-1/2 kills in WW2 and Korea), and logged the "instruction given".

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June-July 1990, PA-28RT-201T, VNY-PVF-3S8-PDX-COE-FCA (now GPI) -PUC-CEZ-IGM-VNY: To this day our boys say it was their favorite family vacation -- 11 days, all over the western US. Fortunately the rented Arrow waited until the last leg to have a hydraulic leak which forced us to fly the last hour back to Van Nuys with the gear down.

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June 2011 (two weeks ago), CubCrafters CC11-100, VUO-COE-GIC-ID28-LWS-RLD-VUO: Cubs, canyons and a dirt airstrip. It doesn't get better than this.

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Yes, thanks for posting it. Good memories and wow haven't the members done some neat things?!
 
1. Flying the Hudson River Exclusion when the ink on the temporary PPL was still wet (we flew from Florida to New York City and back to Florida in three days and did a short stop at First Flight Airport)

2. Death Valley when there was water in the lake

3. Grand Canyon and Monument Valley

4. Flying the Mini-Route in LA, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and landing in Palm Springs below sea level - all in one day

5. Touch & Go at DTW - that was unexpectedly offered and we took the opportunity

...

It's really good that we are both pilots and don't mind long flights.
 
  • I got to fly an OH6A that served in Vietnam. The machine had been shot down and put back together. Still had bullet holes in it. I'm a sucker for Loaches and Hueys, so it was a dream for me.
  • Did a flyover for the memorial service of a Vietnam veteran that was a helicopter pilot. We came in low, hot, and on cue. We were hired by a close friend of the family—as a surprise. The report from the ground was that the family was very touched, so I enjoyed being part of that. If I could afford it, I'd retire early and buy a Huey just to fly around the country providing flyovers and giving rides to Vietnam vets and their families. The self-loading cargo can sit in the middle. The old crew chiefs would be assigned to the door and the old pilots on the controls.
  • Had some cool news flights. One that comes to mind is shooting tornado damage. Seeing the track and damage from the air, just hours after it happened, was pretty incredible.
  • Mountain pinnacle landings at 8000' at night (under NVGs) was a hell of a lot of fun.
  • Took my highschool/college sweetheart on a flight last year when I was back in my home town. We've long been broken up, but remain close friends. She was audience to this pilot dream for 15 years before I could get there. Got to take her up for the first time, doors-off over the fields and country roads we used to loiter on as kids. Looking over and seeing her enjoying the sun and breeze from the helicopter, instead of my '91 Cutlass Supreme, was surreal.
 
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Clark1961 said:
- First VAC flight, STP to MHK, crossing a front @ 13,000+ between towering cumulus
- Second VAC flight, MHK to CO12, helping a soldier and his bride-to-be get together
- Mountain flight training/checkout, down a valley about one wingspan from a rock wall, hey, that's where the instructor said to put it!
- Follow the B-17 on Alpha (okay, technically not a flight)
- First real flight for business, BJC to SAF & back. Very cool to have someone else pay for my flight.
Click to expand...

About 5 years and 500 hours later, following Bob B into the Minum Lodge strip is definitely on the cool flights list. The strip is at the bottom of a mile deep valley and the canyon is bit tight for the turn from downwind to final.

Now if we had a thread on memorable but not necessarily cool flights my list would be very different. Also might have to post anonymously...
 
First solo! it was in the PNW in a 7AC Champ

Flying back from the east coast in my first plane, S108

First paid flight as a CPL, Arrow IV

Flying across the US and back with a friend in a 207

First river landing at my house, kinda the end of my nomadic pilot days.
 
In no particular order:
- Bahamas
- Jackson Hole
- Fairbanks to Kotzebue under a 2000' overcast, all above the Arctic Circle
- Last flight in the rental Super Cub before moving away
- Any flight into Aspen
 
- Cessna Pilot Center $15 introductory fam flight in 1974; THE MOST EXPENSIVE airplane flight in my life as it turned out (I can trace every subsequent aviation expenditure back to that moment).
- The flight back to my home airport flying my own airplane for the first time (a well worn Cherokee 160 I just paid for).
- First time flying myself over the Rockies to the West Coast, on a picture perfect utterly calm day.

Under "Memorable, But Not Necessarily Cool":
- First time flying into Oshkosh; had a brand new King radio installed in the Cherokee 3 months earlier that chose to go dead as we were approaching Fisk (what are the odds of that!), broke off back to Ripon to do it again - this time with the portable radio out of the bag, on and tuned to Fisk. Every subsequent trip into OSH has been a cakewalk.
 
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All the firsts with family....then
Downtown Seoul Korea, landing on a sand bar on the Han river (in an ultralight)
Downtown Bangkok Thailand, in a park (also in an ultralight)
Burke Lakefront park (KBKL) airport in Cleveland and walk to a game (best alternative to Meigs)
Many trips to Spruce Creek Airpark in Daytona Fla.
 
Not so much 1 flight but a series. Memphis to Seattle in one day in my Canard. 11.5 on the Hobbs. Long, fun day.
Then, of course, first landing at Oshkosh. Was filmed and is in their video called Line Watchers.
 
1) First solo
2) First solo XC
3) First flight with my mom and brother
4) PnP flight to Indy with my friend. We got a flat tire and had to wait about 3 hours for it to get fixed but we had 3 puppies and the NFC championship to keep us busy. The flight home at night was beautiful. Glassy smooth air and a huge tailwind. KMQJ->KOSU took about an hour in a 172.
5) Taking my cousins up for the first time on Thanksgiving.
 
long solo xc. it was pretty bumpy and I got the snot kicked out of me. bumpiest flight since I started flying.
first PPL'd night flight when we lost all electrical
first PPL'd trip to myrtle beach navigating some incredibly beautiful clouds
taking my parents for a great lunch flight from KLNA to X01 in FLA
I'll lump all the PnP flights into one, they are all rewarding

BONUS
first solo xc in the Lance after getting HP/Complex. great learning experience.
 
I'd have to say my first solo was the least coolest flight. To me, it was the same as all the other previous flights except without the chatterbox in the right seat. The long solo XC was far more memorable since I had a chance to actually enjoy the scenery and it was to places I'd never been.
 
My highlights, in no particular order, would be:

Coeur d'Alene, ID to Napa, CA, by way of North Bend, OR: It was a spectacular day with unlimited visibility for the most scenic flight I've ever taken. At one point I had almost every snowcapped volcano in the Cascades in sight, from Canada all the way down to central Oregon.

Denver to Cabo, and then Cabo to San Diego. My first two flights in Mexico. After 25 years of flying at the time it was awesome to be overflying something completely new and unfamiliar.

Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef) to Cairns, Australia: The captain of the commercial twin Commander let me sit right seat and hand-fly the entire flight, including the landing. Most of the flight was IMC. As we rolled out the 6 passengers in the back clapped and cheered. Unforgettable! Can't do that in the US.

Napa, CA to Minneapolis, MN. A two-day adventure in my Piper Archer II. Stops in Idaho Falls, Sheridan, WY and Watertown, SD along the way. It was by far my longest XC to date at the time. I flew solo and really enjoyed the solitude and spectacular scenery along the way. Probably the last flight where I relied solely on VFR charts and pilotage; I've been flying turbo Mooneys IFR in the flight levels ever since.

The first greaser wheel landing in my RV-8. It didn't come easy, and I almost wound up in the weeds on several attempts, but once everything finally clicked the feeling of learning a completely new and foreign skill was quite rewarding.
 
Ketchikan Alaska float plane (the flight that got me hooked)
OSH
Key West
Hudson corridor/vectors over Newark (@1500) to head home.
X01 everglades is still one of my favorite airports (first solo cc)

Hoping to add:
Flying the rv12 we are building (maybe the first flight)
Northern lights
Grand canyon
something that runs on Jet-a
 
In no particular order:
1) My first solo around the pattern, screaming at the top of my lungs "I'm flying a $#@%&*( Airplane by myself!"
2) Memorial Day Flight to KPVC with my family, first longish IR flight to an airport I've always wanted to fly to
3) Flight from KLOM to WV62 with good friend and fellow POAer Gary Shelby. Learned a lot about Wx and had a good time
4) Hand Flying a CJ from the right seat from WV to PA
5) The first flight in MY bonanza, thinking what the hell did I get myself into!
 
Mine's pretty simple:
1) solo
2) long solo xc
3) first time ever in IMC (a PP training flight), breaking out an hour later, and seeing the rabbit right where it should be.
4) PP checkride
5) taking my kids for their first rides
 
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No particular order

1) Flying from WI to CA to visit my brother in Oceanside for Thanksgiving in the Diamond
2) First solo in the Ka-6 glider (single seat) before I took my checkride ;-)
3) Diamond goal (300km triangle) in WI
4) Hudson river corridor
5) Landing at first flight (KFFA)
 
1. Flying the Hudson River VFR corridor
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2. Solo in the Pitts S2A I bought a share of after selling my first airplane. Along with this was my first aerobatic competition. I was lucky enough to have the picture of my Pitts was signed by Curtis Pitts at Oshkosh before he passed away.
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3. Flying my Maule from Seattle where I bought it to Virginia and then flying it back to the Seattle area 2 years later when I moved there.
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4. Flying into Dulles International so my Maule could be displayed at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy museum for one of their events.
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5. Flying to the Dead Cow dry lake bed in Nevada where I camped with a bunch of like-minded backcountry pilots for a fabulous weekend. Lots of
flying and no airport landings for 2 days!

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A list of only 5 favorites is a bit constraining because there were so many more. I've landed on the actual ocean beach where Washington State has designated a strip of sand as an airport at low tide (S16). I got to fly into the 7,000' long Bermuda grass runway at Triple Tree aerodrome in South Carolina. I've flown to the San Juan Islands for lunch numerous times and each trip is better than the last. I've camped next to my plane at Oshkosh, at Sun-N-Fun and at small grass strips tucked away in the Cascade Mountains. This has been a FUN aviation life.
 
1. Teaching my son and his 1st solo.
2. Wet PPC and the NY Corridor, but I chickened out.
3. Checkout flight in a Citation for insurance purposes. Blew my mind going to 10,00' for a few maneuvers.
4. Taking my father-in-law up and giving him the controls in a Cub. The best!
5. All the fun flights and crews at my airline flying the Brasilia, ATR72, and all the RJs. My last flight was a CRJ900 and I didn't f*%# up my last landing or ding the jet!
 
1. First solo in a 150 - shortest landings I've ever done.
2. Long solo XC as a student, a 450-odd nm tour of MI's Lower Peninsula.
3. First long XC as a PPL, 76G-MCD carrying a friend as pax, about two weeks after my checkride.
4. PHN-ATW in a 177RG with a defective HSI that became a partial panel instrument flight over Lake Michigan.
5. First solo in hard IMC after my instrument checkride.
 
My first flight lesson. CFI was my son

First long cross country after getting my license to learn (PPL). Russellville, AR to Melbourne Florida and back included multiple weather diversions finding fields that weren't previously planned, sectional getting sucked partially out the crack under the door and making a hell of a racket beating against the side of the plane, unplanned overnight stop, visit to a FSS, 1'st class B transition, light gun signal take off, and taking evasive action on flight following input and seeing a V-tailed Bo cross right above me (avoid, then see vs. see and avoid).

Introducing a 4 yr. old grand-daughter to small plane flight. Will always wish I could have made of recording of her spontaneous ultra-enthusiastic reaction.

First ride in my son's self built RV-8.

4 will do.
 
1. First solo in a C150. That's a given.
2. First flight from Kuwait to Iraq leading 2 AH-64s.
3. Flying a dual control P-51C "Betty Jane."
4. Picking up my first plane (AA-5) and flying it cross country back home.
5. Flying in "Fat Albert" at our air show.

Many other memorable flights but those are the ones off hand that I recall. Anytime I'm off the ground and it's a beautiful day, it's a cool flight.
 
The Alcan highway to Fairbanks
Block Islad RI
Sun n fun
The VFR corridor NY
The VFR corridor Pensicola
 
Flying into IAD in parallel with the Concorde.
Yellowstone via Cody Wyoming.
Landing at CGX on the way up the lakeshore to Oshkosh.
Circling Ayers Rock (Uluru) in Australia
IFR arrival to Runway 9 during Airventure

For ones that I wasn't the pilot on:

Taking a tour of Sydney from a Beaver seaplane
Taking a Twin Otter amphib out to the Dry Tortugas.
Taking a Jet Ranger out to the dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef
DC-3 flight out to a private animal preserve in Africa
Ford Trimotor ride at Oshkosh
 
In a C-150
Dragon corridor over Grand Canyon
Death Valley
Around Ship Rock
Around Devil's Tower
Landing at Sedona
 
Hard to place in a 1-5 order as they were all special in different ways or for different reasons but here are some standouts.

Flying to Catalina with my wife. I made a few solo trips and a couple with my CFI to AVX but the one with the wife was pure joy. My lady was impressed by my skills. :cool:

Flying with my wife and a couple of her friends through the hills going to Borrego Valley Airport in SoCal. It was her friends first time in a small plane and they were impressed.:cool:

Flying with a bald eagle "in the pattern" with me over a lake in WI while getting my seaplane rating. I don't think my flying skills impressed him at all. :(o_O

Flying with a friend in his T-6.

Right seat in the EAA Ford Tri-Motor.

Of course, first solo and passing each checkride.
 
I'll make an update.

Flying to Cedar Key for a Valentines Day with my wife of (then) 33 years.

Flying my Uncle over Kennedy Space center (down the shuttle runway) and over the St. John's river with the most brilliant yellow flower bloom I've ever seen. This was during what his family called their "bonus year", after he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, but still asymptomatic. I have a nice picture of him in the plane.

Flying to Marathon Key for a couple of days with my wife and picking up our daughter from Sea Camp.

Flying my cousin and her partner over the Kennedy Space Center and shuttle runway so they could see what her Dad had seen.

Flying my Dad to Cedar Key. He was a solos student in the early 1950's but never finished. He always enjoyed flying with me even if it was just T&Gs in the pattern. Something I'll never get to do again. He passed 12/5/2016.

I'm sure I'll have more updates in the future. At least I hope so.

John
 
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1. Flying 400+ miles down the Baja along the shore at 1,000 ft.
2. Flying Lake Powell end-to-end at low altitude
3. Monument valley up close 'n personal
4. Grand Canyon
5. Phoenix to Seattle, and back. 11.5-12.5k the whole way, with perfect blue skies and tailwinds both ways! In a LSA.
 
Sorry, had to list seven ...

1. Been flying 9 years so far ... my son was my first passenger (when he was 10) and has been on many trips with dad since:)
2. Flying my first and only airplane (Tiger in avatar) home across Texas.
3. El Paso to Fullerton and Catalina with my son and my high school buddy that got me flying right after getting the Tiger
4. El Paso - Fullerton - Yosemite (father-son trip)
5. El Paso - Stinson (father-son trip) 3.5 hours, last minute planned flight literally as wife was busy July 4th holiday weekend. Stinson FBO setup hotel-car arrangements while I was enroute, landed $19 Prius and $79 a night massive room near the Alamo. Stinson cart wing side before shutdown with ice cold water for us. Site seeing, visited extended family, Alamo, Sea World, Hemisphere, Cabela's all in a 2-3 day trip - it was jam PACKED with non-stop activity.
6. El Paso-Glendale NHL Playoff game Blackhawks-Coyotes (father-son trip again, wife hates hockey). This was both my son and my first NHL game in person and it went to double overtime if I remember correctly.
7. El Paso-Glendale NHL Coyotes-Avalanche (my son is a HUGE Avalanche fan). If you stand in the parking lot 3 hours before game time you can get autographs and pictures with all the players on way to arena quite easily.

My son is now in his 2nd year of college, and I fly solo most times now (wife only likes local flights). You guys that can fly with your kids, get as many trips in as you can before 18 ... I did.
 
In no particular order:

- Proposal flight w/ my wife (I'd written "Marry Me" in Christmas lights on my parents' roof).
- First flight into OSH as a low-time PPL (and every flight into OSH since)
- First trip in Meigs in a 172 (I made 3 or 4 total over a couple of years). We walked from Meigs to Navy Pier, then to the Sears Tower (those seemed a lot closer together at the time)
- My discovery flight
- Leadville (in a C33A Debonair)
 
In no particular order -

1st solo. If that wasn't enough, the local museum's Corsair was cleared to taxi out behind me and was still doing his runups as I came in for my 1st T&G. I also got the unusual view of an airborne Corsair, from above, the next time around.

One time in a glider. Flew out of a field near York, England. Yorkmister is an impressive building from the ground. From around 3000 AGL, not so much. A colleague is a professor at the University of York and an instructor at the local glider club. I logged .4 hours dual on that one and stuck the landing on the grass right where I wanted it. I see how folks get hooked on gliders.

While not PIC, I did some of the flying in a C-172 from Rome to L'Aquilla in Italy a few years ago. 4 of us flew up and back. The club member handled the take-offs and landings, but the two power pilots in the group did most of the flying (me going, the other returning).

Flying in Hawaii. 5 times. All spectacular.

Anytime flying around home on a clear day. Get up to around 5000-7000 MSL over KOLM and you can see Mt. Baker to the north (almost in Canada) and Mt. Hood to the south (Oregon). MIght ever be able to see Mt. Jefferson, farther to the south. And, of course, everything in between.

Took my brother flying around Pullman, WA 7 years ago. We had a great time.
 
In chronological order:

  1. My very first flight in a light aircraft - a treat from a friend who even let me fly awhile.
  2. Right seat on a commercial flight from St Martin to St Barts, with the infamous landing over the traffic on the hill. Also before I became a pilot.
  3. My first solo IFR flight, about a week after I got the ticket. Total flight time 1.3, Actual IMC 1.0, Night 0.8, plus a self-created unusual attitude recovery :eek:. Breaking out at 350' above DA and seeing all those lights was awesome, and answering the Tower's query to "report breaking out" made me feel ohhhh sooooo professional!
  4. Flying from Biggin Hill, UK to Le Touquet, France in a PA28. It was the result of a connection I made online in the usenet rec.aviation groups.
  5. Having a loss of power in the clouds over the Rockies. Cool mostly in retrospect; not that cool at the time :eek::eek::eek::eek:.
I could, of course list more, but those stand out a bit more that a lot of others.
 
Man, you guys have made some cool flights. I have not yet been the manipulator of the controls to anywhere particularly exciting yet, but just being a passenger for the Fisk approach at OSH was pretty awesome, in an old Apache. My most memorable flights as the pilot would be:

First solo, of course. Awesome, exhilarating, and a bit scary.

My first flight in MY plane.

Flying my wife for her first airplane ride up to Enrique's Mexican Restaurant at KNPC. It was my first flight after getting my ticket.

First flight with each of the kids is great, but even better was the first time we flew the 182 with the whole family of 5 aboard. They make flying even better.

Coming very soon to this list will be my first trip to OSH as PIC!!!
 
My top 5.

5. Flying from KGKY to Pleasanton Texas. Massive tailwind, 32*. Learned a lesson on Frozen Rain i'll never forget and got to go 200MPH groundspeed.

4. KGKY to Shreveport for a weekend get away with the wife, her first flight in the 235.

3. My first solo cross country from KADM to Poteau OK & Ada & Mcalester. Awesome to be in control of everything and know you did a good job!

2. First solo fight to Gonzales Texas for work, 2hr XC after I passed my checkride. Felt like I accomplished something.

1. Sadly, the coolest flight I had with my 235, was the last flight I had with her. As I flew her 5.3 hours to Georgia. Longest XC to date, landed on a narrow (narrow for me) runway in some baby mountains.


Honorable mentions:
-Picking my sister who flew in from the Navy at Alliance Airport.
-First Solo
-Taking up all my family and friends for the first time.
 
1) First trip in a small plane (passenger at the time) KLGB-KAVX for buffalo burgers.
2) First hour working on my license - C172N - KAUS
3) First time flying right seat in a jet - Citation M2 - KGTU-KBPT (Loggable due to Cpt. being an instructor)
4) First time to FL350 right seat KBPT-KECP (M2)
5) Coming soon... First solo, some time this next week!!!
 
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