[V.Narayan]

We have threads of cars or two wheelers we have owned or driven or done other things with, and we have a large and active community of aviation readers and flyers, so here is a thread on aircraft I have flown in. This list got made as today I had a young visitor a 7-year old grandnephew who after gaping at my collection of aircraft scale models asked me, "Nanu which all aircraft have you flown in". I have actually never made that list- it never occurred to me. And this list followed after some memory scratching and old records digging. Sensible little fellow who loves aircrafts. He got a scale model ATR as a return gift with a Toblerone chocolate bar tossed in for good measure:-)

My list follows. I have tried to put them into buckets, but other post contributors need not follow this categorization: -

Airbus airliners

Airbus A380
Airbus A330-300
Airbus A340-300
Airbus A320, -NEO
Airbus A319
Airbus A310-300
Airbus A300B2

Boeing airliners

Boeing 747-400, -300, -200, -8
Boeing 777-200, -300
Boeing 767-300ER
Boeing 757
Boeing 737-200,-300,-700,-800
Boeing 787

McDonnell Douglas airliners

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 {Later Boeing}
McDonnell Douglas DC-81
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30

BAe airliners

BAe 746
BAe ATP
BAe/Avro HS.748

Embraer airliners

ERJ 195
ERJ 175
ERJ145
EMB120 Brasilia

Other Regional airliners

ATR-42, -72
Fokker 27
LET L410 Turbolet
Shorts 330
Sukhoi Superjet {only demo flights}
CRJ 100
DeHavilland Q-400
Dornier 228
Dornier 328 {only once}

Helicopters

Sikorsky S76
Bell 427
HAL Dhruv
Mi-17 {only test flights}

Executive Jets & Others

Bombardier Challenger 300
Bombardier Challenger 650
Dassault Falcon 2000
Gulfstream -550, -650 {both only demo flights or test flights; tradesmen don't fly in the cabin of the Rolls Royce of Executive Jets}
Phenom 100
Boeing 737 BBJ {only test flights}
De Havilland Canada Twin Otter {Survey work}
Beechcraft King Air, Super King Air


Invite other aviation fans and flyers to list the aircraft they have flown in as passengers or pilots or crew of other type :-)

Our non-aviation readers would be familiar with most of the airliners but may not be with some of the lesser known types. So, I've picked a handful and pasted representative photos to liven up the thread.


EMB120 Brasilia: Embraer's first pressurized regional commuter that took the market by the horns and launched that wonderful Brazilian company to its current heights. Its predecessor the unpressurized Bandeirante was a classic example of the step by step progression they pursued starting 1969. An example of what our aviation industry could have been with visionary leadership instead of being saddled by bureaucrats. Rant for another day. The EMB120 was flown by United Express on shuttle services every so many minutes between DC and NYC and many other city pairs. Often used it in the 1990s and 2000s. Totally like a bus service. Superb aircraft. Third rate airline, the worst in fact at least where service goes though very strong and well organized technically.


HAL Dhruv: Our own Dhruv chopper:-). A gem of an aircraft according to me. Lots of arduous experience on it - where and how is not for this thread.


Sukhoi Superjet100: Interestingly this is the very machine I have sat in on a few demo flights at various air shows for business purposes. Outside Russia only the Thai Air Force, notorious for corruption, purchased 3 of these for VIP duties. In a way it is a pity the Soviet/Russian aviation industry has all but collapsed in the civil aviation sphere and left the market in the vulnerable duopoly of Boeing & Airbus. Only Embraer has emerged in the last 40 years as a viable alternative. The West is now so far ahead in airliner design with built in reliability, MTBO, safety, economics, ease of maintenance etc. that Russia, who always lagged on these measures IMHO can simply not catch up now. Let's see how the Chinese do.


Embraer Phenom100: The babiest of baby business jets. Better have a good pee before you board :-) Some customers opt for the belted lavatory configuration where you need to sit and pee. But if you are more than 5 feet 3 inches in height and over 60 kgs in weight I suggest you don't even attempt to use it :-) Achieving success is an altogether different level of moksha.


LET L-410 Turbolet: Actually, a very successful aircraft from the Warsaw Pact era from the Czech Republic. Over 1200 were built. Flew often in it in the 1990s and 2000s especially in Europe. Rather noisy by the standards of today. The large windows were great fun to peer out of as it bumped along at below 10,000 feet. It was unpressurized.


BAe ATP: This was a lengthened, modernized version of our venerable HS.748 Avro. A reasonable aircraft that could not match the seat-mile economics of the ATR series due to a heavier older basic air frame. ATR dominate the Indian skies today. We lost a chance to be a co-share partner with BAe in the early 1980s and could have licensed built and further developed this otherwise fine machine. All due to our lack of vision for the aviation industry of this country and BAe's arrogance towards the third world - they are a little better today but 40 years back it was not so. I often flew in it on regional routes within the UK in the 2000s.


Shorts 330: A true bush aircraft with STOL {Short take-off and landing} capabilities. Trundles along unpressurized at 275 to 300 kmph. Flew it a few times in East Africa. Flying at below 10,000 feet is real fun watching the landscape below and getting bumped along merrily.


Sikorsky S-76: A queen amongst executive choppers. Quiet, elegant, fast. It is actually beyond my pay grade. Whenever I used to visit Sikorsky's plant(s) in USA they would send their company machine to pick me up from which ever big city I was based out of for that business tour. I loved doing business with that company. The courtesy was a reflection of their culture. They have preserved the office of the founder Igor Sikorsky the way it was the day he died in 1972.

Welcome other members to post their lists. It will be especially interesting to receive inputs from pilots on the forum.

[SmartCat]

Moving thread from Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Scarlet_Rider]

I travel by air very rarely. Have been a passenger in only the below.

• Airbus A320
• Airbus A321
• Boeing 737
• ATR 72

[Shreyans_Jain]

We all book tickets with whichever airline that gets us to our destination at the preferred time the cheapest. Choice of aircraft is generally inconsequential. As a casual flyer, I don’t even bother to check which aircraft I am flying on. Unless it is something unique and unusual, like a turboprop. It is only when an aircraft is in the news, which is only for the wrong reasons, that I bother to notice. As was the case with the 737Max.

Basically, it is like Uber. You don’t really care if you get a Dzire or an Xcent. You know they are both priced the same, and they are both gonna be dirty and smelly and bouncy. So, as long as there is minimum delay, you are fine with either.

[condor]

Narayan sir, that's another super thread from you. The usual interesting details that I have come to expect from you, while sharing the rich experience you have with these birds. Thank you !

For me, I can say - yes, I have flown in a 747. The rest are the usual Boeing's and Airbus. Wont know one from another.

[narayans80]

I mostly remember mostly the international flights and only a handful I've flown over the years

Lufthansa 758-759 in 3 different aircrafts between 2001 and 2015. Airbus 330-200 330-300 and 340-300.
Once on a Boeing 747 (don't remember minor version) in 2002-3 on British Airways 35 and 36. My BA35 flight was on 31 December 2002 with scheduled arrival 1 hour after New year moment. One of those flights that we gained loads of time, we landed at 0007 hrs on 2003 New Year. This was also one of the miserable boarding processes I've ever experienced.
Boeing 777-300 and 777-300 ER on Emirates.
Airbus 310, 319 and 320 Neo once on domestic India routes.
Embraer 145 and 195 in US domestic.
ATR-72 once. Gets delayed for anything in the name of wind. The flight was also super scary. This was my only experience with a super small prop. Have been avoiding extreme short domestic routes ever since.

No experience with Sikorsky. Bucket list will be to fly a Gulfstream

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Invite other aviation fans and flyers to list the aircraft they have flown in as passengers

Nice of you to have kickstarted this topic, @V.Narayan. Thank You for helping me do a memory recall. Here is my list, from the time I can remember (post baby days), not listed in sequence but by my experience as a passenger.

1. My first flight on my own was a short one on an Indian Airlines Avro HS748 in 1981. It did seem eerie when the flight climbed, but the weather was good so no rough ride
2. The best landings I've encountered were on a Delta A320 from Houston to Detroit sometime in 2009 and a Thai A330 at the old Bangkok Airport in 2005.
3. One night, IIRC Oct-2005, an Air Sahara flight had overshot the runway at Mumbai and thus the main runway 9-27 was inoperational. All flights were diverted onto the secondary runway 14-32. I was on board a Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 from Frankfurt and the touchdown on 14-32 was amazing. I later understood that some airlines (SQ) refused to land on 14-32 and diverted elsewhere. Am not too sure of the reason but was told it was because 14-32 was too close to the ATC tower. Pilots can confirm this piece of info.
4. I've experienced rough take offs on board a Lufthansa B747-400 in Oct-2005, and on an Etihad A340-600 in 2009, both from JFK.
5. The most rough descent and landing was on board an Air Sahara Bombardier CRJ200 on the eve of the Jul-2005 downpour in Mumbai. The take off from Chennai and cruise was excellent, and it seemed like an executive jet, until descent.
5. Bad turbulence while in cruise was on an Etihad A340-500, an A340-600 and an Emirates A380, all headed to the US, enroute somewhere over Iran and over the Atlantic. Some of this was jaw dropping.
6. My smoothest flight from origin to end was, surprisingly, on a noisy B747-400 from Frankfurt to Mumbai in May-2003.
7. I normally can't sleep on flights, but one to and fro from Dubai to Houston on a B777-300ER Business Class helped me get three 4 hour naps on that 90% flatbed on that long flight.
8. I was looking forward to some great sleep on a 0200hrs departure on an Emirates A380 in 2013, but that was not to be; couldn't sleep more than 2 hours on that super flat bed.
9. My best meals till date have been on Etihad in 2005, 2009, Kingfisher in 2006, and Air India (on all flights till date). Jet Airways was also good. My worst meal has been in Emirates Business Class in 2013 (on two separate to and fro flights spread over 3 months). In fact, after experiencing the sub-par food on the first flight in May, on my next trip in July I decided to gobble up some tasty food at the lounge in Dubai and only had buns and fruits on the flight.
10. The worst seats I've travelled in are on Emirates economy B777-300ER in 2017; 3+4+3 and no elbow room

Here are a few other airline types that I've flown in:

1. The A320 (both old gen ceo and neo - most of them on Indigo, Air India, Etihad, Kingfisher and Vistara)
2. A321 (ceo and neo - Air India and Indigo)
3. Airbus 340-300 (Lufthansa)
4. ATR 72 (Indigo)
5. Boeing 737-700, 800, 900 (Jet Airways and Spice Jet)
6. Boeing 767 (Gulf Air and Etihad)
7. Bombardier Q400 (Spice Jet)
8. Dehavilland Dash8 (US Airways shuttle from LaGuardia to Philadelphia)
9. Embraer E175 (Air Canada)
10. McDonnell Douglas MD81, MD82 (SAS and Northwest)

and last, but not the least, the good ol' A310 of Air India. This was a Mumbai - Chennai - Singapore flight and I travelled domestic sometime in 2005.

Midway through my career, I wanted to become a Jumbo commander, but never pursued that dream seriously.

[Arun_S]

Excellent thread Sir, as usual on Aviation.

Leaving aside the usual's 320, 747, 380, 777 and 787.


The unusual' s according me which i have flown are MD11, 767, CRJ100, A340. Remember using ERJ once.

[Samurai]

Wow, amazing variety of aircrafts. Sadly, I belong to the category of flyers who never notice the aircraft type beyond two things...

1) How many seats in a row. I have flown types between 10 seats to 4 seats, which is not much.
2) Jet or Propeller driven. I have been on both kind plenty of times.

This disinterest was probably because flying was a very expensive affair while I was growing up.

[B747fan]

Okay so I certainly have not flown on a variety of aircrafts, but my list is as follows:

Airbus
A319 (Air India)
A320(GoAir, IndiGo, Kingfisher, Indian Airlines, Air India)
A320neo(Indigo, Air India and Vistara)
A321(Air India)
A321neo(IndiGo)
A380(Singapore Airlines)

ATR
ATR72-500(Jet Airways)

Boeing
737-700(Jet Airways)
737-800(Jet Airways, JetKonnect and SpiceJet)
737 Max 8(SpiceJet)
777-200ER(Emirates and Singapore Airlines)
777-300ER(Emirates)

Bombardier
DHC Dash 8 Q400(SpiceJet)

So I started to keep a track of all the flights I have taken since 2015 on my.flightradar24, and here are my most frequently flown types (Some of the aircraft types listed above in my list were flown before I started keeping a record and are excluded from the list)


I ended up flying on one of the last few ATR flights operated by Jet Airways, and that's the story of how I ended up flying on an ATR, which sadly also happened to be my last flight with Jet Airways





I am expecting to fly on more airlines in this year on hopefully some long-haul flights!

[skpprabhu]

Here are the airlines and the aircrafts I have flown:

Indigo:
Airbus A320/A320 Neo

Air India:
Airbus A321

Spice Jet:
Boieng 737-8/737-9
Bombardier DHC-8-400

Air Asia(India):
Airbus A320

Jet Airways:
Boieng 737-8

SriLankan:
Airbus A320

Air Asia (Malaysia):
Airbus A320

Tiger Air:
Airbus A320

Many more aircrafts I fly on my Microsoft Flight Simulator ��

[no_fear]

A few memorable ones. I have added the airlines also

Cubana - Ilyushin 96
Albanian Airlines - BAE 146
Singapore Air - B747-200, B747-400, B777-200, B777-300, B787, B737 (ex Silk Air), A380, A310, A330, A350 ULR
United - usual mix + B757, B767
Iceland Air - B757
Air Tahiti - ATR 72
Air Mozambique - De Havilland Dash 8
Lufthansa - A340

[sandeepmdas]

Now only I realise, I have never been on a Boeing, except a flight in the Air India 787 Dreamliner.! My first flight was from TRV to BOM in the 1981 or 82, but even that was on an Indian Airlines A300 widebody . Let me sum up: (IAC) A300, (IAC, Kingfisher, Air Arabia, Indigo, Air Asia) A320, (Indigo) A320N, (Scoot) A321/321N and (Emirates) A330 and the AI 787.

Let me admit that I always preferred the (Emirates) A330 over the available B777 in TRV-DXB because of the couple-friendly 2+4+2 seat configuration on the A330. One is a window seat and the other is an aisle, making the A330 my favorite aircraft.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by B747fan

I ended up flying on one of the last few ATR flights operated by Jet Airways, and that's the story of how I ended up flying on an ATR, which sadly also happened to be my last flight with Jet Airways

I have flown tons of these ATRs from Deccan Airlines, Kingfisher and Jet Airways for decades, because I regularly flew between Mangalore and Bangalore. Maybe it was because of the short distance or less number passengers.

[B747fan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I have flown tons of these ATRs from Deccan Airlines, Kingfisher and Jet Airways for decades, because I regularly flew between Mangalore and Bangalore. Maybe it was because of the short distance or less number passengers.

Oh I see! Must have been a wonderful experience!

I would say mostly because of lesser demand, because these smaller aircrafts are very efficient and provide lower costs to operate on small feeder routes, because we have large Airbus A320s and A321s operating short routes like Mumbai-Vadodara as well, and now we even have A319s operating Mumbai-Pune