First Plane Ride

[mavman]

As an UM (unaccompanied minor) in 1987, NZHN to NZWN Boeing 737-219 ZK-NAV, still remember it's name Pukeko!

[brownbox]

Hmmmm... Ok heres what I remember.

1996. I was a wee fella, (3 or 4 years old), and it was an ANZ 747. One of those old style painted ones, and when they actually used to give you toys, and free models to play with during the flight. It was Auckland to Singapore. I remember sitting in those huge seats. I also remember drinking juice, falling asleep, and finding for breakfast I had WheatBix I just gave them to my brother (who reluctantly ate it), and carried on as usual, watching the clouds going by, etc. Thats about all I remember. Also, I remember on our way back from that same holiday, it was a real mess. It was meant to go Delhi-Singapore with Air India, but somehow we didnt "reconfirm" our seats, and we got to the airport finding they had given them away to someone else! So, they plonked us onto another Air India flight, which then took us to Tokyo, and then another Air India Flight which took us to Hong Kong, only to find that our luggage was still stuck in Tokyo or something. Ahhhh, good times.....

[scon]

Oh a would have been 2 or 3 Air New Zealand 744 old colours AKL- SYD (we were moving there to live for a few years)

[Nunner]

G-ASKK Dart Herald EGHI - EGJJ and return flew backwards all the way ? The airline were trialing seats facing inwards and the first two rows at the front faced the cabin so that was my effort into aviation history,think BUA then kitted out some of their 1-11's but might be wrong...didn't last long........my next flights were DHC1,COMET4B,VICKERS VISCOUNT,BOEING 747-136,FK27-100'200'500,BOEING 737 200 AND ON IT WENT.
Nunner

[Jenks]

My first flight was from Christchurch to England, but in 1966 it took a while...

Left Christchurch on 29 Dec 1966 on an NAC Viscount ZK-BRF. Flew to Auckland, and then over to Whenuapai the next morning to catch a ride the rest of the way to England by RNZAF Hercules.

So, the Herc left Whenuapai on the 30th of Dec 1966 and we went...

WHENUAPAI > ALICE SPRINGS (Australia) > CHANGI (Singapore) > ADEN (Yemen, Middle East) > NICOSIA (Cyprus) > LYNEHAM (England)

...arriving in England on the 4th of January 1967!!

There were no slip crews, so there were overnight stops all along the way - hence it took a little longer than it does on the average airliner today

Other interesting flights early on in my life were - RNZAF DC6 NZ3631 on 26 March 1968 from Whenuapai to Brisbane (and then on to Changi in Singapore), and what was probably one of the last (it may have actually been the last?) flight of an Air New Zealand Electra ZK-TEB from Wellngton to Sydney on 14 July 1971.