Let us know your first flight in the comboxes.
First Time Flying
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
1989, Providence to Tampa in July (work related). Flew through thunderstorms, nerve racking, first and worst flight. On return my wife picked me up at the airport and said “the weather is sooo hot!” and I laughed and said “no it’s not”.
Whoops, forgot about our honeymoon in Jamaica 1987. My wife was so witchy (nervous about flying) I wondered if I’d made a colossal mistake.
Late November/early December 1987. We went to Alaska to visit one of my mother’s friends. The flight was uneventful in itself, as I recall, but I’ll never forget a 3:45 PM sunset and a 9:50 sunrise. It was then I learned all the different distinctions of twilight.
My first was for our honeymoon to the West Coast!
From Detroit to Milwaukee on a Lockheed Constellation. If that doesn’t date me I don’t know what does
Rochester to Washington National, 1968. With mother, visiting grandmother (who lived in the Maryland suburbs) and spinster aunt. We arrived at her home and my uncle and his family (grandsons 1 & 2) were just leaving.
My first was also on a “Connie”, in December of 1958, a couple of weeks before my fifth birthday. A TWA flight from St. Louis to Baltimore for Christmas with my paternal grandmother in Chambersburg, PA. I still remember a couple of brief scenes from the trip, including dinner being served on china with real glasses and utensils and cloth napkins. I had fried shrimp. 😋 I didn’t fly again until I was in college.
My first flight in 1977, (I was 25), was to Colorado with my friend’s family to go skiing .
1966 to Morocco. I was 2 1/2.
My mother had a family passport on which were pictured Mom and her 4 already born children. My youngest sister was still in the womb.
Denver 1983 B737
Maybe to Detroit in the 1960’s, probably too young to know how to pop my ears, so I must have been pleasant to sit near.
I never flew until I was in my late 20s. Ft. Lauderdale to Laguardia. Crazy airport to fly into for a first time … Steep turn over skyscrapers and a short runway. It was fun!
Detroit to Washington National 1984.
Fall 1987, I was 24. I flew to Springfield Massachusetts for a Friday morning interview at Milton Bradley. They paid for the weekend. I turned the offer down since the living costs and taxes were going to be so high and the next day I was laid off my current job in Ohio.
Such is life.
What does everyone have against Detroit? I mean, now, yes, but back then it was the place to go to.
(Don’s wife here:) Early 1959. I was 1 or going-on-1. Mom, Dad & I flew Midway Island-Honolulu-San Francisco. My brother was in Mom’s womb at the time, and would be born at a Naval base in the Bay area, not long before Dad was to be discharged from the Navy.
I was flying to Atlanta, GA for Basic Training.
In 1949 when I was 7, my mum took me to Auckland from Tauranga to see an ENT specialist for my sinuses, & the return flight. Plane was a Douglas DC 3 – the workhorse of many airlines & air forces in those days. Flight distance direct is about 100 miles.
Steve C, I’ll bet you didn’t have basuc in Atlanta. My guess: Ft Benning. I was there for basic summer of 69. 5 trainees died in our basic training, 4 from heat exhaustion. My first flight: 4 prop plane, 1961 Oklahoma City to San Antonio where I entered minor seminary. Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Guy,TX
Round trip from Anchorage to Minnesota and back with my mother. Occasion was a summer visit to my maternal grandparents in Mankato. My father was stationed at Elmendorf AFB. We lived in quarters. It was late 1950s. I was young so I don’t remember airline but I do remember the pretty stewardess giving my brother and me plastic wing pins.
Baltimore to Cleveland, November 1991 on USAir. It was the only time I flew to see my parents over a holiday weekend. It was a very uneventful flight two days before Thanksgiving.
In 1991 I flew from Peoria to O’Hare to Phoenix for a Catholic Press Association convention. The first leg was on a commuter plane flying at around 8,000 to 10,000 feet – low enough to see the Illinois River Valley and recognize my hometown when we passed over it. When I got home 4 days later the first thing I did was go to Blockbuster and rent “Airplane!”, which was now a lot funnier to me. I was very tempted to say to the commuter plane pilot on the way out after landing, “I just want to tell you, good luck, we’re all counting on you…” I flew 3 more times for other CPA conventions in 1995, 1997 and 2000 but haven’t flown since 9/11