St Lucia July 2022

[Barry]

LHR to Bejing, LHR to Bangkok, LHR to Laos, and Cambodia back to LHR. And LHR to Havana, and to Panama and Mexico, have IME always involved a refuelling stop.

The same with flights south to the African continent; being with European carriers, always stop in their home country, where you will, more often or not, change flights. And the same with some Asian countries: Burma, Bhutan (via India) and Nepal.

The only non-stop flights I have made have been to some Middle Eastern countries, and some North African countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania etc.)

[Sherwood]

My experience is completely different. I have worked in around 30 countries, and visited over 80 in total. When I lived in Botswana in the late 80's I flew direct from Gatwick to Gaborone with British Caledonian. Same was true when I lived in Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh: non stop flights from London. When I lived in Malawi, my routing was typically LHR-JHB-LLW. London to Johannesburg is further, so the last leg was backtracking. Namibia was a bit different as it involved one stop, but that was in Frankfurt with Lufthansa (due to the German colonial connection).

Perhaps the airline industry has changed and there may be fewer nonstop long-haul flights these days. However, my most recent (holiday driving trip) to the USA was an open jaw ticket Heathrow to Denver outbound, Seattle to Heathrow return (both nonstop flights with British Airways).

One factor may be relevant. The respective work flights were paid for by the agency employing me. The nonstop flights may have been more expensive but I would typically be booked on the most direct route. If I was paying myself and stopover flights were cheaper I would probably have gone for them (within reason).

LHR to Bejing, LHR to Bangkok, LHR to Laos, and Cambodia back to LHR. And LHR to Havana, and to Panama and Mexico, have IME always involved a refuelling stop.
The same with flights south to the African continent; being with European carriers, always stop in their home country, where you will, more often or not, change flights. And the same with some Asian countries: Burma, Bhutan (via India) and Nepal.

The only non-stop flights I have made have been to some Middle Eastern countries, and some North African countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania etc.)

[Barry]

Well at least we agree on LHR to Namibia using Lufthansa.

When we travel to Cameroon (my partner is Cameroonian, and we have a house there) we fly Air France and change flights in Paris.

[Sherwood]

Although at a distance of more than 5000 miles, the Frankfurt to Windhoek non stop flight is still over 10 hours in duration.

In hindsight, I think the longest non stop flight I ever took was as part of a 10 leg journey back in 2002. Hong Kong to Los Angeles on Cathay Pacific. IIR correctly that was nearly 14 hours.

Well at least we agree on LHR to Namibia using Lufthansa.

When we travel to Cameroon (my partner is Cameroonian, and we have a house there) we fly Air France and change flights in Paris.

[CageyH]

With the new generation of airliners, you can now do an 18 hour non-stop flight.
Routes like JFK to Singapore are now possible.

[dave2010]

With the new generation of airliners, you can now do an 18 hour non-stop flight.
Routes like JFK to Singapore are now possible.

Agreed. I forgot to mention LHR - Nairobi - also non stop. I have also been on some flights which did stop, and some when I had to change planes. One of the shortest "stopping" flights was from Sweden to Glasgow, which stopped briefly in Edinburgh, then just about cleared the lights at the end of the runway before coming down outside Glasgow. Also I have listed the long flights, but ignored the shorter feeder flights - so sometimes there were several flights to get to or from destinations in Vietnam, the USA or Africa, and sometimes the total time would have been more than 24 hours - but the longest flight time was about 15 hours.

[Barry]

True, current airframes are capable of doing long-haul fights in one go; and making the experience a lot more comfortable.

My experience of long-haul travel was made mostly in the '80s and '90s, here the air frames I flew on were Boeing 707s, 727, 737, 747 and 757s. An occasional Lockheed Tristar, Airbus A320 and several Russian craft: Ilyushin; Tupolevs and Antonovs. Travel on the Noughties have been done using more modern air frames; whose identity I neglected to note. apart from a Boeing 777 ot two.

The weirdest flight I ever made was an internal flight in Laos in an old Soviet (SU8?) cargo helcopter. Oh, and once for an internal flight in Uzbekistan on some propeller driven plane, where in order to calculate the amount of fuel required not only was the baggage weighed, but so too the passengers.

[Macca]

I been weighed before getting on small helicopters. With them it's so they can do the seating arrangement for the best stability. You don't want all the fatties sat on one side.

[struth]

was on a couple of choppers. wasnt weighed tho that i remember. long time ago now. betting if i went on one now i'd be charged overweight

[Sherwood]

I vividly recall my most dangerous flight. Back in 1993 I was team leader on a British government funded project design mission in the north of Kenya. Specifically, the semi-arid district of Embu, Meru and Isiolo. The project anticipated a strengthening of primary health care facilities in Isiolo. As team leader it was my responsibility to meet with representatives of the two villages we thought were suitable locations: Merti and Garba Tulla. The security situation precluded travel by road so it was essential to fly in. For this we sought the help of the African flying doctor service (Amref) and chartered one of their twin engine Cessna. The plan was to fly over the villages first to signal our arrival and the army would drive out to escort us safely to the respective village. Our pilot was very experienced being an ex Ethiopian Air Force officer. The journey from Wilson airport in Nairobi was amazing and took us at low altitude over the Rift Valley and around a snow capped Mount Kenya. The first stop was fine and we proceeded to the second location. As instructed he flew over the village before attempting a landing on a nearby dirt airstrip. It did not go well. As we were landing a strong side gust caught the left wing so that the right wing dipped close to the ground, certainly no more than a couple of inches (I was in the co-pilot seat). The pilot managed to stabilise the aircraft and land safely although he did not speak for over a minute after the landing. To add insult to injury the army escort did not arrive and after 15 minutes an increasingly anxious pilot insisted we leave as our landing would certainly have been detected by the “ bandits” operating in the area.