I just recieved my new National Geographic and it contains some good material about the history of aviation. So it got me to thinking. I wonder how many people can remember their first flight?

Airplanes are so common these days I'm sure there must be people who flew when they were infants or have flown so much they just can't pinpoint the first time.

I also wonder if some people took their first flight in something besides an airplane. For example, maybe it was a helicopter or a balloon. I took a short, low-level flight on a bicycle once, and I still have scars to prove it, but bicycles aren't supposed to fly, so that didn't count.

My actual first flight was in a Piper J3 Cub. It was the summer of 1947, give or take a year, and I flew off a dirt strip in Kentucky. It lasted about 15 minutes and cost $2.

So I'm hoping to hear about your first flight. When was it or how old were you? What kind of aircraft was it? Where did you go? That sort of thing.

I am a frequent flyer and I've flown in almost everything you can think of. But I am still a glued-to-the-window flyer. I resent it when I fly the red eye and drop off to sleep. Even at night, I'm afraid I'll miss something. If I'm not near a window, I keep track of direction, changes in speed or altitude, and I even listen for the wheels to come up or down. Everything that pilot does is part of the experience.
Howard