Out of curiosity, what is the most unusual aircraft you've flown in? I know we have some pilots and ex-military people in the group, so there's likely to be all sorts of surprising aircraft.

I've been in a lot of commercial aircraft including most of the airliners made by Boeing and Airbus, but also other less common types like those from Embraer, SAAB and Shorts. Possibly the most unusual aircraft I've been in was this modified Drifter ultralight which was modified for aerobatics. For most ultralight aircraft, you'd never contemplate loops or rolls, but this one was designed for it.


Wayne Fischer in his Drifter by RobGeraghty, on Flickr

I took this photo air-to-air from another Drifter (non-aerobatic) using a Pentax MZ5n, and in this instance I think Fuji 400 ISO negative film.

Excellent image, and it's film which makes it even better!
I won't list my own "strange" crafts I flew over the course of 35 + years but this one lands with the airspeed indicator showing "zero" and 100 ft landing roll with no brakes - the model with the 300Hp Jacob round engine is the one I mean. One of my first jobs throwing 3 parachutists overboard ...:
MORANE-SAULNIER MS-505 CRIQUET

Thank you!

I haven't seen it with that name - I know it as the Fiesler Storch. It's a scale replica of the German Storch potter plane built in WW2. I've seen one of the Fiesler Storch replicas take off with a takeoff roll of about 50 feet into a stiff breeze. Funny you should mention it, because I was just talking about it with one of my colleagues. I had a flight on an Aeroprakt Foxbat STOL aircraft - he landed it well inside a 100m distance between the end of the strip and the piano keys at Narromine, leaving the runway on a taxiway which was normally used to enter the runway.

I'm guessing that you weren't tossing parachutists off a Storch?

Size-wise -- you could land that on one wing of the 747 . . . one horizontal stab if the wind cooperated.

Which reminds me of the comparisons between the length of a 747 and the first flight at Kittyhawk.

Nothing too unusual to report: probably an Airlines of South Australia Convair in the mid-70s flying to Kangaroo Island for a family holiday. Both long gone!!

You remind me of flying on an HS-748 between Nandi and Suva around the same time. I assume you mean Airlines of SA and the Convair are long gone as opposed to Kangaroo Island and family holidays. Although at the moment, family holidays are problematic. Actually, is Kangaroo Island open again after the bushfires?

Hello there!
The most unusual Iv'e flown in, Antonov An-2 at an airshow, what an amazing beast! (pictures at the end)
Christian Eagle, for an aerobatic ride

Not so unusual but for nowadays...
Boeing 707, in 2003 was one of the 07s from the Argentinian Air Force
L100-30 (C-130 civil version) on 2000 also from the Air Force. It was my very first flight
Both flights during highschool, which was kinda part of an air force base.

Not unusual plane at all but unusual flights... several Airbus 330 and 340 with like 10 people on board for several flight tests after maintenance (I'm an aircraft mechanic). A very nice experience

I might be mistaken, but I think Pazmany "designed" a scale replica of the Storch as well

Wow! I've never seen a biplane that big. What sort of aerobatics did it do?


A 707 was flying that recently for an Air Force?

Cool! I had never seen a civil C130 until last year when one was involved in fighting bushfires. Sadly, it crashed, killing all aboard. I'm glad your experience was different!



Nice! I got to fly in an Army Iroquois helicopter in High School thanks to being in Army cadets.

That would be an unusual experience for sure! I've never been on an A340, and I think they are mostly retired now along with most other four engined passenger aircraft. Cathay flew them; I think that was the only airline which flew the A340 to Australia.

Sorry, the An-2 was not aerobatic, though the Russians used it to cropdust and whatever they wanted, its the most powerful single engine (piston engine) in the word they say with 1000 hp. And also the biggest biplane in the world they say...

The aerobatics were on a Christen Eagle



Yeap! in Argentina they flown until 2005 or so, I think. Last year they got retired, some parts sold to other air forces and the rest chopped away




A340-200 and-300 are wonderful aircrafts! I loved working on them, the engines (CFM56) are a piece of art and engineering, so easy to work, so dependable. The company I work for retired the last one on February. We really miss them!!! Even though the 330 is the "same" but with two less engines... is not the same!

Hey! three of the 340 I worked on were previously owned by Cathay Pacific!

I have flown in an RAAF C130E (I think) alongside an International truck and Landrover with trailer in 1985. Also in an RAAF Chinook at Puckapunyal maybe a year or two prior to that. Also a couple of flights in Australian Army Bell Kiowas.

Have also flown from Sydney to London in a Virgin Atlantic A340 in 2010.

Nice!! The Chinook ride must be something hard to forget

The biggest one still flying I would imagine!


Cool! I guess they worked well for Hong Kong as a hub in the same way that the A380 worked well for the middle eastern hubs.

Cool! I remember the display they did at Amberley with a pair of Chinooks performing "the mating flight" flying nose to nose. The only helicopter I've flown in was an Australian Army Iroquois, and that was a lot of fun.
I can't imagine that the flight in the C130 would have been pleasant though.

This C130J was doing circuits and bumps at Canberra airport a couple of days ago - someone forgot to tell them not to touch down to avoid charges from the Airport corporation.


Circuits and bumps by RobGeraghty, on Flickr