Remember flying in the 90s?

[Skyway]

Hi everyone,

I was just looking through some old magazines of mine from the 90s killing some time, (does anyone on here even remember career pilot or Airline Pilot Career magazine) and got to feeling alittle nostalgic about flying back then. I was a youngin back then just starting out on flight lessons. I remember how I couldn't wait to fly for the airlines and that was a time when it took 2,500 hours and 500 multi just to apply to place like American Eagle or the like to fly Jetstreams or ATR's.

Anyway, I don't mean to create a pointless thread or anything like that but I am curious, what were some of your experiences flying back then for both old and young alike? What was it like to fly for commuter airlines back then and what did you fly? What about your general aviation experiences back then as well. it just seems like things have changed so much in even 11 years especially technology. it is just weird how an old magazine article or song on the radio can bring you back so far in thoughts. I heard Sugar Ray's old song " I just wanna fly" and I was transformed back into the traffic pattern in KGON flying in Piper Cherokee.

Well if anyone has time to chime in what do you remember and I apologize if there was a similar thread on this.

 

[Cessnaflyer]

I remember when I was in training in '98-'99 we used to line up the 152 to pretend to land on the carriers at the Bremerton Naval base. Those were the days

 

[MikeD]

A good number here were probably in gradeschool

Was flying cargo before mil; 135 in a 208 and PA-31 in the early 90s. Back in the days of jumpseating with no CASS, where you could walk into the airport terminal, go through security without a ticket, and go all the way to the gate to wait for arrivals if you wished. Jumpseating on classic planes like the L-1011 and 747SP......where most airliners still had 3-crew cockpits.

Seeing places I flew at, such as PHX, go from being a TRSA, to an ARSA, to a TCA, and now to the busy Class B it is.

Where the regionals didn't exist as such yet, just as the commuters, and most of them under 135.

 

[rframe]

I started around '93, graduated high school in '95. I paid $38/hour wet for a 150 and 172's were about $55 wet. The expensive Arrow was $65 wet and a Senecca was $140/hour, now what one can pay for a Skyhawk in some places. I know it's just one of those "when I as a kid milk was 50 cents a gallon!" things, but it's still funny to think how "cheap" things were a mere 15 years ago. We used to take an old '62 172 with manual flaps up to this gravel road in a valley somewhere around Elroy, WI and fantasize being bush pilots in Alaska.

 

[rframe]

I also remember being all PO'd about the change to METAR/TAF... all hard and set in my ways at the ripe old age of 18? Hehe, what an idiot.

 

[MikeD]

I also remember being all PO'd about the change to METAR/TAF... all hard and set in my ways at the ripe old age of 18? Hehe, what an idiot.

I was ingrained in using SA's, FT's, RS's, SP's etc. So going to METAR was a little more of a tougher sell.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

Oh, I definitely remember the old Air Inc. magazines. Back in the days when you used to scoff at the "low" salaries in there for the FedEx and UPS guys and drool over the pay rates for the USAirways pilots.

In the '90s I was still in training. Started in '95 or '96 at Falcon Field in Peachtree City. Paid $35/hr wet and $12/hr for the instructor. That flight school is gone now, and so are those rental rates.

 

[MQAAord]

Nostalgia for flying for an airline in the 90's? Funny, when I was flying for an airline in the 90s the nostalgia was for flying for an airline in the 80's.

These are the good old days. Enjoy the moment now, because in 20 years you'll be wishing you could relive it. Don't miss it the first time around...

 

[thevideographer]

I wasn't flying in the 90's, but I do remember my dad taking me to get lunch at the airport and being able to go through security without a ticket or seeing any TSAholes. Being a passenger hasn't changed much though. The seats were still cramped adn the planes still ran late.

 

[ChasenSFO]

I was born in 90, but I'm still very fond of anything 90s with the airlines. My dad worked for United and I was constantly hopping on 727s, 737-200s, DC-10s, and classic 747s. SFO-ORD was almost all heavies, I remember almost never being bumped as it was sometimes 4 DC-10s on the route in a 2 hour time period, fuel was cheaper and they didn't need a huge load factor to make a profit. Spent lots of time in that viewing park SFO used to have next to 1R, watching all the big old planes take off before I went to school. I remember the morning Hawaii rush where it seemed every US airline was flying an L-1011 or DC-10 from SFO-HNL at 8am. Pilots were very friendly, and the ones that knew my dad would sometimes let me go up front in flight. I remember being like 5 and being invited into the cockpit of a freshly painted grey(that was important, because it was uber new and shiny) 727 and the crew letting me press some buttons and telling me the airplane was trying to have a conversation with me. It was obvious the United pilots loved their jobs, always nothing but smiles and they walked so dignified through the terminal, and were treated accordingly. Sometimes my mom would take me into the terminal just for fun, no ticket needed, just a smiling guy at the metal detector to get past. Have tons of old crappy pictures of TWA, National Airlines(the Vegas based one), America West, all those guys. I spent every summer in the 90s in MSP, and man were those Northwest DC-9s awesome! I'd sit in a dirt lot on Post Road by 30L with my grandpa and watch them push back with reverse thrust and take off and land, the whole ground would shake, it was like a non-stop airshow. Even the commuters were cool, there were so many different aircraft types, they were fun to watch.

This is the stuff that made me want to be an airline pilot, I was just in love with airplanes they were so cool. I used to think the louder an airplane was, the cooler it was. Now it looks like 11 year old kids are smack talking the old, loud, and smokey airplanes and soiling themselves when an A380 almost silently climbs away. Magenta line ftw!

 

[thevideographer]

One thing I don't miss about the 90's - United's paint scheme:

 

[Skyway]

Good times indeed and so are these days, but I remember being able to go into the terminal and I used to stand by those floor to ceiling glass windows by the jet bridges and stare out onto the ramp and I would always go up to the pilots and ask them questions( which looking back now probably annoyed them) and maybe it was just me but they seemed to walk taller and they always looked so sharp and I remember telling myself that would I wanted to be like that some day. I too remember the many different types of airplanes and all those different names like Simmons airlines and CC Air and wasnt there another airline that flew 727's called Planet or something like that? I can't remember exactly. I also remember taking flight lessons for 100/hr including instructor and the B-1900D US Air carrier ( can't recall who that even was) who flew direct to KPHL and since then that airport does not even have airline service anymore.

 

[JordanD]

One thing I don't miss about the 90's - United's paint scheme:

I dunno, that livery holds a certain nostalgia factor for me always seeing the Air Wisconsin 146's in it at my home airport.

I remember going to see my brother off on a TWA MD-80 or Valujet DC-9 back in the day and always having the FAs run up and give me a set of kiddie wings. Too bad I lost all of them. Yes, I'm a nerd.

As for actual flying, I just miss the good old days for me back in 2004/2005 when I started flying and avgas was still below $4.00 a gallon. I remember paying less than $3.00 a gallon in late '05. And I could rent the 172 for $65 dry instead of $88.

 

[Whatusername]

One thing I don't miss about the 90's - United's paint scheme:

That's the 80s paint scheme which I rather liked. The 90s scheme was the grey and blue which I also liked.

I don't care for United's livery that came out in 2004 or the current one.

 

[dasleben]

I was born in 90, but I'm still very fond of anything 90s with the airlines. My dad worked for United and I was constantly hopping on 727s, 737-200s, DC-10s, and classic 747s. SFO-ORD was almost all heavies, I remember almost never being bumped as it was sometimes 4 DC-10s on the route in a 2 hour time period, fuel was cheaper and they didn't need a huge load factor to make a profit. Spent lots of time in that viewing park SFO used to have next to 1R, watching all the big old planes take off before I went to school. I remember the morning Hawaii rush where it seemed every US airline was flying an L-1011 or DC-10 from SFO-HNL at 8am. Pilots were very friendly, and the ones that knew my dad would sometimes let me go up front in flight. I remember being like 5 and being invited into the cockpit of a freshly painted grey(that was important, because it was uber new and shiny) 727 and the crew letting me press some buttons and telling me the airplane was trying to have a conversation with me. It was obvious the United pilots loved their jobs, always nothing but smiles and they walked so dignified through the terminal, and were treated accordingly. Sometimes my mom would take me into the terminal just for fun, no ticket needed, just a smiling guy at the metal detector to get past. Have tons of old crappy pictures of TWA, National Airlines(the Vegas based one), America West, all those guys. I spent every summer in the 90s in MSP, and man were those Northwest DC-9s awesome! I'd sit in a dirt lot on Post Road by 30L with my grandpa and watch them push back with reverse thrust and take off and land, the whole ground would shake, it was like a non-stop airshow. Even the commuters were cool, there were so many different aircraft types, they were fun to watch.

This is the stuff that made me want to be an airline pilot, I was just in love with airplanes they were so cool. I used to think the louder an airplane was, the cooler it was. Now it looks like 11 year old kids are smack talking the old, loud, and smokey airplanes and soiling themselves when an A380 almost silently climbs away. Magenta line ftw!

You might be in the wrong decade. Many of the current magenta line aircraft types (A320 included) were built in the 1980s!

 

[Springer]

I'd sit in a dirt lot on Post Road by 30L [/B]with my grandpa...

That is the first place I stopped after my long drive from AZ to my new job "across the street" in '85. Some things never change.

 

[TXsky]

I was born in 89' but remember loving getting to fly southwest out of love field to visit family. Breezed thru security and got first dibs on seats. Pretty sure it was what struck my desire to become a pilot.

Loved the old paint scheme on the SW 737s

 

[ChasenSFO]

One thing I don't miss about the 90's - United's paint scheme:

Seriously? To each his own, that is my favorite livery to have ever graced an airplane, hands down. Nothing but good memories come up when I look at a picture like that, its very nostalgic. It was super cool for me when a year or so ago I actually got a vote on the UA employee website on their retrojet(which was supposed to be a 757, not an A320), and I was able to vote for it. Oh well, did my part. This livery is globally a hit as far as I knew, the second a model comes out in that livery, its sold out in days. It also scored very, very high among employees on the choices of retrojets.

 

[ChasenSFO]

I really miss seeing those guys around. It was awesome during the .com bubble when San Jose was just this super busy downtown airport. My mom's friend in San Jose used to take me out to the observation deck in the old terminal C or to a park by the runway, and I'd see these smokey MD-80s, 87s, and 90s screaming by. Loved those colors, they sort of made me proud since, other than United, it was the only airline with a real large hub operation out of the Bay Area. In fact, SJC even surpassed RNO in flights in the airlines last years, thus becoming the operational hub for the airline. Reno Air even had a regional for a while, Reno Air Express op. by Mid Pacific Air, that flew JS-31s on a bunch of routes out of SJC Skywest serves out of SFO. Sad to see the airport almost a ghost town now a days.

 

[fholbert]

It was 1971, $12 and hour wet for a Cessna 150. The Cessna 172 looked like a really big machine to me. I was 15 years old and $12 was a lot of money

In 1972 I soloed. My mom saw my shirt tail and assumed I'd been hit by a propeller. Then got mad at me and made me buy a new shirt with my own money. I left for the store within 10 minutes to stop the yelling. So much for my big day.

1974 I was a fresh PPL. Av Gas took a big jump to $.75 a gallon, rentals to $14 an hour. I was the only guy in High School with a PPL and that did get me as many dates as I could afford. So many girls, so little money!

1977 I started my commercial. PA28-140 wet had jumped to $17 an hour. A near new Arrow 200 was $32 wet. The school then took delivery on a brand new Arrow III. $37 an hour wet.

1978 I started my ME. An Aztec with 250hp on each side was a $75 an hour wet.

By the way, after 1975 I was a Vietnam era vet and the VA was paying for 90% (yes 90%) of my flight training so my cost to rent the Aztec was just $7.50 an hour.