And you walked from the terminal out to the plane and climbed up a portable stair to enter the larger aircraft. Through the rain or snow, and kids got to go look in the cockpit. And my favorite all the really good looking stewardess.
I remember going up to the cockpit on Eastern Airlines in 1980, and getting a free pilots wings pin from one of the pilots. Probably kept that pin until I was a teenager, when girls became more interesting than planes.
I was a bit to old to be offered that opportunity when I first flew, but on occasion on the short haul puddle jumpers did get offered the opportunity to sit in the copilots side.
I made one from plans in some magazine when I was maybe 11. It worked, but all I could get during the day was our crappy local station and at night there was a jumble of stations you could only sorta tune. Got a transistor radio for my 12th birthday and never looked back.
First time I flew was when I was in my mid-ish 20s (mid 70s). Mix of prop and jet planes, with prop ones mostly on shorter routes. It was fairly dressy still, but that was changing fast. Fine by me...I've never liked getting dressed up, haven't worn a tie in 40-odd years, and don't plan to ever again.
KAAY Little Rock
My cousin who is very beautiful was flying Paris to Salzburg and was getting bumped where she had early morning business meetings...
