What's the rarest aircraft type that you've flown on?

Thought of a couple more
DHC-7 Rocky Mountain Airways in/out of Avon STOLport
Dornier 328-110 (turboprop variant) VIP Ecuador
B747-200 Combi (with back section full of freight - reckon the longest take-off roll in my life on a wet steamy night in Bangkok)


A regret was missing a BOAC VC-10.
Came close, but aircraft changed to a B747-100.
 
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harvyk said:
L1011 and BAe146
I wouldn't have called them rare, but both certainly not types pax can easily get on these days (and unlikely to be any new airline aircraft built these days which are either a trijet / baby quad)
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Agree.. the BAe146s were quite common, across many airlines. Qf used to fly lots of them. L1011s the same. Not so much in Europe, but the USA. And Cathay Pacific.

Some of the others mentioned here like the Trident were only across a handful of airlines. And concorde only two.

I quite liked the A310. Odd little aircraft but with all the comfort of its a300 and a330 colleagues.

The MD-11 was relatively rare.
 
I'll kick off with a 340-600; not many were operating out of OZ, and nor were many produced.

Britten-Norman Islander BN2 - piston engine (not allowed to fly pistons by many (reputable) companies - I'm not good with rules). Although I don't feel totally safe flying pistons, I always got to where I needed to be. There can't be too many of these birds left.

Several Russian Choppers, including various Sikorsky, operating in less than salubrious parts of the world. Reliable workhorses.

Who remembers the Continental DC10 pub flights out of Sydney? Continental also had half pax/cargo flights around Micronesia.

I think a few AFF members will have done PNG, which will open up the forum.
 
Not sure what qualifies as rare, but before the went bust, I flew Royal Tongan Airlines from Apia in Samoa to Nukualofa in Tonga on a Hawker Sidley HS-748. According to Wikipedia, only 12 remain in commercial service. The whole in-flight experience felt like flying in the 1950's.
 
Supersonic Swinger said:
Not sure what qualifies as rare, but before the went bust, I flew Royal Tongan Airlines from Apia in Samoa to Nukualofa in Tonga on a Hawker Sidley HS-748. According to Wikipedia, only 12 remain in commercial service. The whole in-flight experience felt like flying in the 1950's.
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Yes, I remember the HS-748, were they used by the RAAF during the pilot's strike in 1989? I have flown on this aircraft, and I recall it was comfortable.

I also flew the Hercules for the same purpose - not so comfortable!
 
Supersonic Swinger said:
Not sure what qualifies as rare, but before the went bust, I flew Royal Tongan Airlines from Apia in Samoa to Nukualofa in Tonga on a Hawker Sidley HS-748. According to Wikipedia, only 12 remain in commercial service. The whole in-flight experience felt like flying in the 1950's.
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The Navy operated a fleet of them. Fun fact, the two remaining were reconfigured for PAX and used during the 1989 pilot strike.

Hawker Siddeley HS 748 | Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy
www.navy.gov.au www.navy.gov.au
 
Sprucegoose said:
Yes, I remember the HS-748, were they used by the RAAF during the pilot's strike in 1989? I have flown on this aircraft, and I recall it was comfortable.

I also flew the Hercules for the same purpose - not so comfortable!
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Yes. The hs-748. I routed CHC-ROT-AKL just to fly one! Mt Cook Airlines back in the days when they couldn’t compete directly with Air New Zealand, so the only way they could offer CHC-AKL was via ROT (Rotorua).
 
I hadn't thought that Viscount or Electra flights, or DC3s would count as rare, just indicative of how old i was.
 
Does a 737-200 count? Zambian Airways had one, and I used to go from Lusaka to Ndola. It was pretty comfortable, and we managed to land every time we took off.

Due to their robustness, I hear there are still some 732's used in remote arctic regions.

Noel Phillips did a great youtube of this which is on my (expanding) bucket list.

 
My unusual aircraft pales into insignificance compared to some of yours but I did fly Impulse Airlines Beechcraft 1900 from Sydney to Canberra. This was at the time they were operating the 717s, prior to the purchase by QF. I remember the service was to go on to Cooma but was delayed so they informed the two continuing pax their service would be in a taxi…
 
AIRwin said:
Is DHC-6-300 Twin Otter considered rare?
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I did many a flight in them, from Kununurra to the Argyle Diamond Mine in the 89s

Looking back through my notes for flights, for the 'odd' aircraft I had to pay for:
Il-62 Aeroflot (a really cheap flight to London)
Beechcraft Baron (out to the oil and gas fields in WA)
Beechcraft 1900 (Impulse)
Beechcraft Kingair (Ansett NT)
F27 Friendship (MEL to northern Tassie)
F28-100/400 Fellowship (Tons of flights with MMA/AWA)
BAE 146 (as above)
DC9 (Ansett and TAA)
Boeing 727 (Ansett and TAA)
DH6 Twin Otter (in the Kimberley and PNG)
Short 360 (Sunstate airlines)
Fairchild Metroliner (Brindabella Air and in NZ)
Jetstream 31 (Brindabella Air)
Airbus A300 (TAA)
Cessna 421 (Conair)
DC3 (Conair)
DC8 (British Caledonian)
DC10
And there's probably a few more that I've missed
 
Sprucegoose said:
Yes, I remember the HS-748, were they used by the RAAF during the pilot's strike in 1989? I have flown on this aircraft, and I recall it was comfortable.

I also flew the Hercules for the same purpose - not so comfortable!
Click to expand...

Around 1984 I did a morning as a passenger in an RAAF HS748 while the pilot was practicing touch-and-goes out of Fairbairn (CBR) whilst an ATC cadet - was configured as semi-VIP so yes, very comfortable!
 
I am not sure how rare there are and as others have said they maybe just not flying any more.

A300
B707
BAe 146
BAe JS31
DH6 Twin Otter (float plane)
DHC-4
Beechcraft King Air
Beechcraft Super King Air
Short 360
HS-121
L-1011 TriStar
Macchie Jet (back seat ride)
PC-9 (back seat ride)
LearJet (I think it was the 25)
 
MEL_Traveller said:
Yes. The hs-748. I routed CHC-ROT-AKL just to fly one! Mt Cook Airlines back in the days when they couldn’t compete directly with Air New Zealand, so the only way they could offer CHC-AKL was via ROT (Rotorua).
Click to expand...
Also flew HS-748 with Mt Cook Airlines in mid 70's.
Christchurch - Mt Cook - Queenstown and back.
 

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