Favorite Widebody - real life experience?

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I am curious how flyers have enjoyed wide body airliners over the years.  I have three favorites--my all time favorite was the TWA L1011.  Just loved flying in it, and on approach to JFK once from SFO our pilot announced we were doing an autolanding to the suddenly hushed cabin passengers.  Yes, I was a bit nervous too, it was my first such landing, in 1982.  I just loved the look of the L1011 head to toe, it looked so nice the way the rear engine was faired into the tail, unlike the DC10 where it just stuck out.

My second favorite was the Boeing 767, I loved it because of its economy seating, there was only a window and aisle seat, felt like first class when I flew on one from Pittsburgh to Frankfurt in 1995.  My first flight on a 767, in 1987, we flew at FL410, the highest I had ever flown at that time, and it seemed like we were in space, the clouds looked so small below.  I still have an 8mm video of that flight, archived to mp4, on my computer.  My last flight on a 767 was with Hawaiian, nonstop Honolulu to Phoenix, with my wife and daughter, and we had such a nice flight and enjoyed the service on that airline, some of the best I have ever had.

Last, but not least, the iconic 747.  I first flew on one in 1980, last flew on a 747-400 coming home from Heathrow to Phoenix last year.  Whenever I flew in a 747 I felt I was making some type of statement to those on the ground below--look at me, I am going somewhere far...  I have crossed the Pacific and Atlantic on a 747, but the Pacific only twice (roundtrip of course).  My last US city to city experience in a 747 was way back in 1994, Dulles to SFO, where one of my colleagues in first class snuck back to coach and gave me a can of beer....

John

[Chock 17,769]

That's easy, an L-1011 flight from Manchester, UK to Palma, Majorca, quite a short flight for a wide body jet. Got free drinks all the way because I was chatting up one of the cabin crew girls lol. That was back when you could smoke cigarettes on airliners too. I got alchohol poisoning when I was there in Palma, because of drinking too much lol, I can remember getting back to the UK (on a B757) and having to go into work the next day feeling like death warmed up. That's being young free and single for you! Fortunately I've a much healthier lifestyle nowadays, but those were the days eh?

Edited October 18, 2018 by Chock

[Adrian123 1,015]

Hands down. 787!

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

American Airlines DC10 from Chicago to Los Angeles when I was a kid. What a beautiful Shiny Aircraft that was

My second choice is the Air New Zealand 747-400 back in 1986 from Los Angeles to Honolulu to Auckland then Sydney. Took a long time but I was using my fathers air miles so it was a free flight

Edited October 18, 2018 by Matthew Kane

[Roger Ramjet 72]

L1011 no question.You didn't feel  like a vacuum packed sardine in that lovely plane. All Air Canada flights all uneventful save for the time I was in a half empty one near the back and got to stretch out flat across that middle row. You can't do that these days,  How I miss that bird.

[jon b 2,041]

5 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

 

 Whenever I flew in a 747 I felt I was making some type of statement to those on the ground below--look at me, I am going somewhere far...  

 

Thank you John for such a wonderful comment.

As the captain of a 747 in the real world I have been flying her for over 20 years, but now sadly there’s only 2 years left before she’s retired, and I am starting to get sentimental. Your comment has brought a tear to my eye.

cheers

Jon

[Mace 1,902]

I have flown on 747's (I believe, 747-400's) to Europe and back several times during the period 1998-2005.  On at least one of the flights, it was fairly lightly-loaded, and I remember being able to stretch out across several seats to relax.  I love that about widebodies.  I remember the first time I overflew Greenland in clear weather -- that was really interesting and gave me notice about how big the world is -- or should I say, how small the world is.   You think Greenland is some distant place of ice and sea, but yet, here I am a couple of hours out of KORD...seeing its vast expanse of white ice roll below me.

I have also flown in an A340.  I would suppose it qualifies as a widebody, too?  I do not remember the A340 being as roomy as the 747.

Sadly I never flew on a DC-10, and now the only way I'd get to do it would be to tape myself up into a Fedex package.  

[Captain Kevin 586]

3 hours ago, Mace said:

I have also flown in an A340.  I would suppose it qualifies as a widebody, too?

Pretty sure a widebody jet has two aisles, to include the 767 and the A330.

10 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

Whenever I flew in a 747 I felt I was making some type of statement to those on the ground below--look at me, I am going somewhere far...

Last time I flew on a 747 was from NRT to TPE and back, so I guess that's not nearly as far. Flown on a 757, a 737, and even an A320 on a flight longer than that.

[BlueStar 323]

Although I never flew an L-1011, I have jump-seated home on them several times.  True to the Lockheed commercial aviation tradition I always thought it had a great cockpit from a pilot's perspective. 🙂

Never rode in the back.

Grace and Peace, 

[Howellerman 104]

Heh. My favorite wide-body flight was on a nearly-empty 767 from (somewhere) East Coast to SFO. The plane had maybe ten people on board, perhaps to get the plane back to where it belonged for the morning flight, which in the new age of Sabre flight planning you no longer see. Had a great time with the flight crew, as I was young (probably mid-thirties).

First time I flew to Narita out of SFO I flew on a 747, in Executive Class in the upstairs section on JAL (my company did a LOT of business with Japan, so we accumulated a lot of bonus miles as a corporation). Very pretty, very attentive flight attendants - talk about spoiled! I was amazed how high above the tarmac I was sitting.

I don't miss air travel at all (member of the million mile club), but some flights I can look back upon and recognize that pre-TSA I had it pretty word not allowed good. 

[John_Cillis 2,406]

1 hour ago, Howellerman said:

Heh. My favorite wide-body flight was on a nearly-empty 767 from (somewhere) East Coast to SFO. The plane had maybe ten people on board, perhaps to get the plane back to where it belonged for the morning flight, which in the new age of Sabre flight planning you no longer see. Had a great time with the flight crew, as I was young (probably mid-thirties).

First time I flew to Narita out of SFO I flew on a 747, in Executive Class in the upstairs section on JAL (my company did a LOT of business with Japan, so we accumulated a lot of bonus miles as a corporation). Very pretty, very attentive flight attendants - talk about spoiled! I was amazed how high above the tarmac I was sitting.

I don't miss air travel at all (member of the million mile club), but some flights I can look back upon and recognize that pre-TSA I had it pretty word not allowed good. 

When I flew from JFK to Geneva on an American 767, we had a stop in Zurich to let off passengers.  The aircraft was almost empty into Geneva and only climbed to FL190.  The captain urged us to switch to the port side of the aircraft to see the Alps, so that's what many of us did.  Had a wonderful view of the Bernese Oberland, which I saw from the ground again just last year when I went to Europe on my last widebody flights, the British Airways 747, in premium economy.  I remember enjoying Star Wars, Rogue 1 on those flights coming and going to pass the 10 and 11 hour flights from Phoenix.  I also loved watching the track of the aircraft as we flew to Europe (sadly it was not working on the way home).  But I saved my Flightaware images from both flights.  I remember looking down on Hudson Bay and the ice flows on it on the way home.  Outbound to London we took a southerly route over much of the US and Canada just north of Montreal and Newfoundland.

Rounding out my widebody experiences (DC10, 747, 767 and L1011) was an Airbus A310 from Caracas, only time in my life I ever flew on Pan Am. 

Favorite narrow body aircraft is the CRJ 700 followed by the BAE 146 and EMB 120 puddle jumper.  Looking forward to Carenado's release of that aircraft, it will be my first commercial aircraft I will purchase from them when they release it.

John