Has anyone flown on the Concorde?

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What, like this?

 

[kirin]

The gifts ("goodies") they gave to the passengers were lovely. I used the gray leather luggage tags for years until I finally had to replace them. I still have one of the small pocket notebooks, bound in gray leather. The pen doesn't write after all these years, but the notebook is still usable. Whenever I come across it in my desk drawer, I feel a wave of nostalgia.

 

Different time, different era.......

[BeagleOne]

My Dad and I flew a chartered Concorde in 1985 from London to the Oshkosh airshow, with a stop at JFK for fuel and to clear Customs and Immigration. The British pound was very weak against the dollar, and combined with chartered rates it worked out to about $700. (Travel from LAX-LHR and OSH-SNA extra). Very memorable trip, my Dad's first time to England.

 

Since the flight was full of pilots and aviation nuts, the captain gave very technical commentary during each phase of the flight...along with visits to the flight deck.

 

The JFK-OSH flight was subsonic of course, but still about 30 minutes faster...nice touch-and-go on arrival with 3 or 4 flybys. This was the first time Concorde came to Oshkosh and it became an annual happening.

 

OMG! I almost took that flight since I was living in England at the time (grad school) and am from the general Oshkosh area. But I couldn't get my thesis done in time...however, on one of Concorde's subsequent visits to OSH, my brother and I stood at the approach end of Runway 36 as the plane was coming in to do touch and go (you can't stand there anymore). We were jumping up and down like idiots as she flew over our heads, touched down, and lit afterburners...stupid place to stand, but it was AWESOME!

 

I flew Concorde from JFK to LHR in 1982 on my way to summer school in England; I was supposed to sail over on the QE2 and fly back, but the QE2 was being a troopship in the Falklands at the time. So flew over, which was amazing and I still have the leather luggage tag they gave me, sailed back on the QE2's first crossing after the war. Got a great reception in NYC; confetti, fire boats, helicopters....

 

My brother got to fly her back from England in 1985 or 86. He has his pilot's license and when he told the pilots he went to OSH every year it turned out that the pilot, John Cook (Captain Cook!), was going to be the pilot flying her to OSH that year. So he let my brother sit in the cockpit when they landed at JFK. He about died. And when Captain Cook landed at OSH my bro was there to meet him. Pretty cool.

 

My parents flew her in 1984 when they came to visit me in England. Flew over free because they were insane enough to cross back on the QE2 in November. Fifty-foot waves, all doors to the decks locked, windows broken on upper decks, half the crew seasick...and there were my parents, scarfing up the multi-course meals and having a wonderful time.

 

I also saw Concorde a few times when I was living on Guam and she was doing "around the world in 24 hours" flights and landed there. I've seen the one at Duxford but haven't made it to the Air and Space hangar at Dulles, nor the museum in Barbados.

 

Beautiful plane.

[kenish]

My brother got to fly her back from England in 1985 or 86. He has his pilot's license and when he told the pilots he went to OSH every year it turned out that the pilot, John Cook (Captain Cook!), was going to be the pilot flying her to OSH that year. So he let my brother sit in the cockpit when they landed at JFK. He about died. And when Captain Cook landed at OSH my bro was there to meet him. Pretty cool.

 

Great set of stories and memories! John Cook was pilot on our inaugural OSH flight. I don't know if it's still available, but I have a copy of an EAA video, "Mach 2 to Oshkosh". Fairly good, though there's maybe 30 minutes of good material with filler for the rest. I ought to transfer it from VHS to DVD before it deteriorates.

 

My friend and I were partners in a Cessna 150 which we would fly from SNA to OSH every year. Since it was really suitable for only 1 person over the Rockies, we would split a RT commercial ticket. (This was before they matched names to tickets or really didn't check). One person would go by Cessna, the other commercial and we'd meet up in MSP or MKE and fly dual to OSH. Then switch off for the trip home. It was interesting to arrive on Concorde and depart in a C150 !

Edited June 13, 2014 by kenish

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My friend and I were partners in a Cessna 150 which we would fly from SNA to OSH every year.

 

Wow, brave souls! I wasn't so keen on a 150 for flying lessons!

[megr1125]

This was a great thread with awesome stories...loved seeing the photos too!

 

Thanks!!

[Eng23]

Thanks to those of you that had the experience to fly on Concode and sharing the experience with us. :)

[BeagleOne]

Great set of stories and memories! John Cook was pilot on our inaugural OSH flight. I don't know if it's still available, but I have a copy of an EAA video, "Mach 2 to Oshkosh". Fairly good, though there's maybe 30 minutes of good material with filler for the rest. I ought to transfer it from VHS to DVD before it deteriorates.

 

My friend and I were partners in a Cessna 150 which we would fly from SNA to OSH every year. Since it was really suitable for only 1 person over the Rockies, we would split a RT commercial ticket. (This was before they matched names to tickets or really didn't check). One person would go by Cessna, the other commercial and we'd meet up in MSP or MKE and fly dual to OSH. Then switch off for the trip home. It was interesting to arrive on Concorde and depart in a C150 !

 

I think we have that video somewhere! A couple of years ago they had a bunch of former Concorde crew members come to OSH and give talks on their memories/experiences, really nice.

 

Do you still go to OSH? If you can't transfer your VHS to DVD, I can have a look around next month to see if they have Mach 2 to Oshkosh on DVD there.

That is very brave of you to fly a 150 all that way! Yikes!

[kenish]

I think we have that video somewhere! A couple of years ago they had a bunch of former Concorde crew members come to OSH and give talks on their memories/experiences, really nice.

 

Do you still go to OSH? If you can't transfer your VHS to DVD, I can have a look around next month to see if they have Mach 2 to Oshkosh on DVD there.

That is very brave of you to fly a 150 all that way! Yikes!

 

I will have to try a transfer, thank you for offering to look. They don't have it on the EAA or other websites, though. I haven't been to OSH in probably 20 years; just got busy with other life activities!

 

Long cross country flying is an experience...the US is far more vast but diverse at 3500 feet instead of 35,000. Not really "brave"...it's just a lot of short flights in a row. The airspace congestion here in SoCal is replaced by weather as things to be wary of.

[Talisker92]

In June of 1994, Cunard had a deal where if you did a TA on the QE2 from NY, you could fly the Concorde back to NY for $300! We had enough FF miles to get from LA to NY, so we did it!

The QE2 was not that impressive, 5 formal nights, and the food was not good. It took the request from a table mate, a frequent cruiser on Cunard, to get us some good food.

I have the flight certificate from our flight as well as the luggage tags and the folio they gave us.

I went into the cockpit to take a picture, but unfortunately, it got tossed some time ago.

[Clay Clayton]

I hate all of you! :D

 

One of my big regrets in life is that I didn't jump on a short lived opportunity offered by what at the time was USAir. As I recall, there was a short window when USAir tried to merge or otherwise partner with British Air. During that time, for what I think was 100k points (biz class to Oz at the time cost 80k), one could fly to London one way on Concorde and return 1st class. I had the points but by the time I got around to figuring out when to book it, the merger or whatever it was fell through and so did the promo.:mad: This is one of the few regrets in my life...not doing something that I wanted to do and could have...of course after touring Concorde at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, I wasn't so sure just how much my 6'-7", 290 lbs would have enjoyed her! :eek:

[Lucy Jane]

Yes, I've flown both directions in concert with booking passage on the QE2. Really nice way to travel . In those days i could never had purchased flights outright.

 

 

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