skipness1E

BA5731 GLA-MAN on BAeATP G-BTPC and back on ‘PD the same day on the BA5740, in the year of our Lord, 1991, (13-8-91).

Or are we restricting this to real aircraft?

Back before T3 at MAN when flying from the Domestic terminal was a relaxing joy by comparison.

bjh123

First BA was in fact BOAC/Cunard on a B707 from Heathrow (terminal 3 - there was no 4 or 5) to Kingston, Jamaica via Bermuda. This was in 1968 and I was en route to a VSO post in the Jamaican bush teaching English. Returned to the UK a year or so later on a BOAC VC 15 via Nassau and New York.
I realise that this specifies BA but I also remember flying on BKS Ambassadors, Autair Heralds, Dan Air 748s, all of the Tridents
including the Series 2, which had the rear half of the seats facing forward and the front half facing the rear, BCAL 1-11s and DC10s, Viscounts with a number of operators and a number of DC8s with KLM, and Tristan 500s to end the list with BA. There were others but I’ve been boring enough.

lhrpete

IIRC most of those EI flights through MAN operated with 732s. I think Paris, Frankfurt and Copenhagen were among the destinations too. I lived near MAN at the time and used to listen to ATC and a couple of times during the day EI seemed to operate to DUB every five minutes as the waves returned and one after the other you would hear "Shamrock 123 is cleared to Dublin, standard Dublin2Romeo departure..."

lhrpete

My first flight was MME-JER in April 1967 on a BMA 1-11 - they lasted in the fleet about six months before being replaced with Viscounts.
The return was JER-LHR on a BEA Viscount - great but slightly disappointing after the speed and take off of the 1-11.
First long haul was in August 1967 and BOAC VC10 LHR-SIN I think via Bahrain and return the same way. IIRC the plane went onwards from SIN to HKG.
First BA service 2nd April 1974 LHR-NCL on a Trident that was wearing BEA livery with British airways already stencilled on the cabin the southbound three days earlier had been operated by a Northeast Trident in the canary yellow livery.

Symmetre

First BA flight - and first flight period - was a Super VC-10, Toronto to Prestwick back in the 70s. I loved the look of those four big Conways at the back and that massive T-tail ... such an elegant airplane and a heck of a nice start to flying overall.

Return leg was via JFK in a 707 that still had the classic BOAC livery.

Ancient Observer

Pucci,
thanks for that.
That was then my first BA flight. Manchester to Paris with SWMBO-to-be, back in early 1979.
Flights before then had been cheapos to Europe, and Mr Laker to the West Coast.

Claranda

Mine was also a BOAC trip as a VSO, but it was also my first EVER flight. This was in 1971 and I’d been posted to Papua New Guinea, so was on a DC10 all the way to Sydney via Los Angeles. I can remember getting a beef burger in LA and being appalled that the meat was red (we only had Wimpy hamburgers in the UK back then), and being woken up apparently over Hawaii to be given a cocktail complete with pineapple and umbrella, but not much else.

The later flight from Port Moresby to Wewak in a Focker Friendship over the jungle-clad ranges of PNG, wow, amazing (not BA but Air Nuigini).

Varig_dc10

My first confirmed BA flight was in September 1983 on a classic 747 from London Heathrow to Johannesburg, with a short stop in Nairobi.

However in August 1980 I flew from Miami to London Heathrow and in December 1980 I flew from Los Angeles to London Heathrow.
I think one of those flights was operated by BA and the other by Pan Am. But I can't be certain.
No idea what aircraft they were either. I assume it was a 747 or a Tristar.

Hoch

My first BA flight was nearly 21 years ago on 29 July 1999 from PHX to LGW and then onwards to ARN. I was a bright eyed student on my way to Uppsala for a year.

I remember signing up to the BAEC a few weeks prior and naively went to the lounge at LGW expecting to be let in. I recall the man politely declining me entry (rightfully, of course as I had flown in Y) and suggesting where I could go to relax and wait for my connecting flight.

Good times.

H

nordic

My first flight was from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur in August, 1990. It was kind of exotic to fly a western airline after having flown Helsinki-Leningrad-Sofia-Abu Dhabi-Colombo-Bangkok on Balkan Airways (a really cheap student ticket). The first to legs were on a Tupolev so even the BA plane was like back to normal.

I don’t remember much of the flight. The crew was very friendly and a drink was served on the short leg. I read somewhere (menu or inflight entertainment sheet) that the flight would continue to Auckland.

Even though I liked the flight a lot my next BA flight was only around 2008 when KLM/AF ruined their FF programme. Now that BA has stopped the Helsinki route I wonder if it is time to find a new home.

PresRDC

JFK-LGW in June 1993 on a DC-10. I think it was flight 172 at the time, but I could be wrong. Continuing flight from LGW was a 737-200 to GVA. This part of an exchange program with a high school in Grenoble, France. We took a bus from GVA to Grenoble.

Return trip in early July was CDG-LHR on a 767-300 and, three days later, LHR-JFK on a 747 classic (unsure if a -100 or a -200). The LHR-JFK flight was a 6 pm departure with a 9 pm arrival.

I have memories of the legroom on the DC-10 being substantially better than the 747.

Also, the pilot of the LHR-JFK flight was Stanley Stewart who wrote several aviation books, including "Emergency: Crisis in the Cockpit" and "Flying the Big Jets". Got to visit him on the flight deck mid-flight.

DIRECT MERIT

BEA Trident (can't remember the variant) LHR-NAP c. 1970. The aircraft was continuing on to Malta!

FamilyOf6

217 on 6th was G-BDXK a 747-200, 222 on 12th was G-VIID (777-200ER). I wish I could find this info for my own first flights!

FamilyOf6

I've posted about mine previously, but in summary:
LHR-MEL BA11, March 1986. Age 5
Staff travel. At least first sector in Club, before we were bumped backwards to make room for revenue pax.
We made several stops- Dad reckons Colombo, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Adelaide, although I can't see a variant of BA11 which included Colombo.

The trivia for this one is that we only "flew" as far as Adelaide and were bussed onwards to Mel due to a firefighter strike. 12 hours on a bus for me wasn't fun, but now with my own kids, I can only imagine how hellish it was for my parents!

internetplumber

Wow.

You are the reason the Internet is awesome. Thank you so very much! A beverage of your choice is on me.