Please tell me your memories of flying.

[rowlandellis]

It was 1993, I was 7, and we were going to Australia.
I remember we were on a Boing 747. The air hostess let me peep upstairs into the first class lounge, it was all blue with soft looking sofas.
I was offered to go and see the pilot, but I was too scared as the cockpit was noisy and looked scary!

There was a curtain separating the smoking section from the non-smoking section, and a big screen at the front of the cabin to show films. The film on the way there was Corina Corina with Whoopi Goldberg. On the way back it was Muriel’s Wedding which mum wouldn’t let me watch (hid my headphones!)

Quantas airline gave us a drawstring canvas bag full of goodies, including a colouring book and crayons, pack of cards, stickers, peaked cap and probably other things too. We also had a blanket, mini vanity set with teeny toothbrush and toothpaste, an eye mask and a pillow.

My mum also packed lots of little toys and games. We had a walkman to listen to audiocassettes - we had to turn it off during take off and landing.

We had a freddo chocolate bar or mini mars bar or chocolate buttons with our meals. I remember being upset when I slept through one meal, but found the kind air hostess had given dad my chocolate for when I woke up.
There was a little girl with her grandparents further down the plane and we periodically ‘visited’ each other to draw pictures and show each other our toys.

What are your memories of flying as a child?

I got married in Vegas I 92 my mum and dad flew over I told them it would be murder in economy(they'd never flown before) my mum didn't get it . She said they had their own armchairs and coffee table the whole way to Chicago which is where they changed and got similar to Vegas, lucky sods had got up graded both times😁but didn't realise, they thought that this was the norm ( plus free champagne)🤣

I remember smoking at the back. Always food even on short flights to Spain. And the cockpit door was always open to meet the captain.

The smoking. Having a smoking and non-smoking section on the plane - in an enclosed space that shared air, so essentially the entire plane was smoking.

Passengers were polite and civilised and in return air crew were amazingly good natured. Now there just seems to be a complete loss of social norms when most people enter the plane display despicable behaviours, and the poor crew have clearly lost the will to live and would only be happy if everyone dropped dead.

People used to get dressed up to fly, to the detriment of comfort. Now most people dress down with comfort foremost.

First main Air plane flight, 9+ hours to new York, must admit nervous at first but then it was excellent

Ah, what lovely memories OP. I'm glad you had such a nice trip.

I never flew as a child but made up for it in my twenties. There was always free food and booze, sometimes quite a lot of it especially if you were on a route to/from Eastern Europe, which I mostly was Newspapers and blankets too, yes even in economy class. I was pretty disorganised so often used to cut check-in times fine which really wasn't a problem because we didn't have to take our shoes off or have our nail polish binned by shouty security guards. My best record was 25 minutes from arriving at Heathrow to getting on the plane. That was a bit stressful though because they did tell me off.

The smoking section was at the back so effectively the entire plane was the smoking section. Fine by me as I was a smoker then but so were lots of other people. In fact they used to come and stand in that section just to smoke, there was so many of them they'd had to be accommodated towards the front.

Best flight : tripped over in the morning, ankle hurt a bit but soldiered on to the airport then when I was waiting it got worse so I boarded, explained to staff that I couldn't walk so well. They put me in a row of three seats and fed me whisky all the way home ("we don't carry painkillers but this will help") then onto one of those massive buggies with the big flashing lights, there was fuck all security anyway but I was waved past, pissed and with around a thousand duty free fags in every pocket plus a rucksack full of black market ripped Bulgarian CDs I'd bought during my stay that put me way over any luggage limit you'd encounter now ... and then they arranged for a taxi so I went to hospital where I found I had indeed broken a couple of bones.

Worst flight from that time ... first flight on monarch airlines, I got to my seat and it had crumbs on it plus there was no blanket and no newspapers.

I knew then that that was the beginning of the end.

I've had mostly good experiences (but I am now terrified of flying).

Coming home from Florida in 1991 we hit a storm, there was always a thunderstorm around 5/6 in Orlando. Anyway, as we were mid climbing the plane literally dropped for what seemed like ages, reality maybe 3-5 seconds. About 10 minutes later it happened again, but for longer, this time people were screaming, vomiting, it was fricking awful!

I was at Heathrow and our gate had been opened to start boarding. I was off to Australia with my mum for 6 weeks. Everything was going amazing until I saw the plane. I dropped my bag, looked at my mum and said 'nope, not
going on that'. The plane was HUGE! She simply replied, better get the train home because I'm getting on it! I had a temper tantrum (I was 20) and reluctantly got in. Turned out I was fine on the journey, my mother, not so much!

Same trip landing at Singapore it seemed as though the plane was going way too fast and as if it was going to go off the end of the runway (which is into the sea). We were sitting opposite the air hostesses and even she looked scared!

The worst one was doing an internal flight from Cairns to Brisbane on a little 737. I felt insanely claustrophobic. I was getting more and more anxious, so much so, when the plane started to taxi I decided it would be an amazing idea to try and get the captain to stop, I unbuckled my belt and ran down the aisle to be met with who I can only describe as a 1950s matron who literally just pointed at me and said 'GET BACK TO YOUR SEAT NOW!'. I basically shit my pants and walked back. I shook the entire journey biting my nails and planning my escape route mid flight - Luckily I didn't decide to jump out of the plane, but it did scare me, even more so with the fact I still had to fly home for 20 something hours! That was actually fine though.

@Fentylipgloss
eech, I've been on a plane that dropped and it was exactly as you described - terrifying and seemed to go on forever. Mine was coming in to Santiago in Chile, fucking Alps to the side, really thought I was going to meet my maker.

I wonder if you've got some unresolved trauma from it that prompted you to behave so on the domestic flight. Lord knows it is a horrible experience!

Sorry, not Alps, Andes. Big bloody mountains.

Anyway it is awful. Unsurprising if you experience repercussions from such an event I reckon.

Early 1970s I flew alone (I was 14) to the USA ... really comfortable seats, plenty of room, wonderful choice of meals .. served on a china plate. Loads of 'goodies'.

It's insanity that they allowed smoking on flights. So dangerous. And totally pointless splitting into non smoking and smoking with a little curtain. 😂

Most of the time you didn't even have a curtain hahaha. It was just the back ten rows, then back eight rows etc. Like that made a difference LOL. Now you have to leave whatever city you're in to have a fag. Probably. (I dunno as don't smoke any more.)

Air France was the last major carrier to ban smoking entirely. I booked a lot of flights with air France around that time. They were busy enough so although it was getting to be a niche hobby there were plenty of us.

The last flight I had where you could smoke I was in departures with a very proper old style old European Madame sat fagging away in contravention of the airport rules and every time staff came up to her and told her to stop smoking she stubbed it out then lit another when they went round the corner. I started doing the same as did a couple of other young embassy lags, was quite blissful really.

Ofc they'd probably shoot you now. Or social media shame you or such bullshit.

My overriding memory of air travel as a child in the late 80s and 90s were all the delays! Hours and hours of delays at Gatwick airport waiting for our plane and whatever mechanical or other fault Monarch announced, as we tried to get to the Balearics. Very little to do then except run around the twirly bit that led you to the gates, no shops were open, no arcades or anything else to distract ourselves. Think we got a voucher for some food after about 7 hours...! Even now, I'm still amazed when planes take off on time, almost like I can't quite believe it and surely, we have to factor in delay time?

Once on-board dad would disappear for a cigarette to the back of the plane and at this point I think me and DB fell asleep from exhaustion! Loved the getting off the plane into foreign, warm air. Still my best bit on every holiday 😀

I got admitted to hospital on holiday. It was touch and go whether ide be discharged in time to make the flight home, but I was. Holiday company sent a taxi to hospital..
My mum.and I got to hospital about 30mins before plane left.

But they didn't have any seats left together on the plane... my mum and I were put I the seats allocated to my dad and brother. Someone swapped so my 10yo brother was across the aisle, dad was elsewhere on the plane. 4hr flight for my mum with a still ill child.

First time I flew with my kids... got to the airport, DH had been put on the Standby list as we were on different bookings!! Fortunately a seat came up. (RAF flight... low priority passengers can be bumped for more important passengers or cargo.)

I remember our first flights in the early 90s with British Airways going over to Northern Ireland. Used to get a little tray with a drink and biscuits, plus a kids activity book which has stuff like magic tricks. Being invited to go meet the captain! Was really cool

I remember going on holiday to the Channel Islands as a child and my younger brother was invited to go into the cockpit and meet the pilot. They never asked me, ha!

I love flying. Never had any bad experiences although longhaul and all of the queuing seems never ending. And wasn't a fan of the turbulence flying into Australia. Hopefully get to do it again sometime soon.

I never went on a plane as a child, first time I flew was to go skiing with uni aged 20! Now I go through spells where I fly more than I use the bus.

Not me, but when I was cabin crew in the 70s, I remember maybe 20 children described as underprivileged, who were being taken from Belfast to England for a holiday. There must have been 20 of them, and all of them were taken, two by two, to visit the flight deck. It was a small plane, the 1-11 - only about 80 seats.

We only got the last pair back and strapped in just before the three bells went for landing.
He was a lovely captain. Not all of them would have bothered.
It’d never be allowed - or even thought of, now, of course.

My early memories of flying are mostly in the 1950s and early 60s when my parents lived in Africa and we flew back to the UK every two years or so for around 3 months. So it was old BOAC Boeings with propellers and stairs to board and quite long flights, and Heathrow was relatively tiny. Unfortunately I used to get horribly sick, and the nauseous feeling would hit as soon as I encountered the smell of the plane on going through the doors, so my memories aren't happy ones..

Most memorable trip was the one when there was a fire in one of the engines and we had to make an emergency stop in Sudan - although it was an airport landing, so presumably not too much of an emergency.. The adults were admirably calm about it and for us as children it was just an adventure, but in retrospect it must have been really worrying for them. We had to stop overnight, presumably to wait for another plane as I doubt that they could have repaired the original one overnight.

After we settled back in the UK my family tended to opt for UK holidays, partly because we just didn't know the country very well, but I suspect my parents also felt they'd had enough of planes.