George Harris
Engineer
Over a period of 17 years, I made, either 19 or 20 trips between the US, usually Memphis TN, and either Taipei or Hong Kong, with a couple to Singapore thrown in for variety.
My first overseas jaunt was earlier in the form of two round trips to Saigon (I refuse to say Ho Chi Minh city) from Travis AFB CA in 1971. These were in many senses the most memorable, first because they were my first long flights and second because the military used the cheapest charters they could find and on airlines you never heard of and hoped to never see again and were set up with sardine can seating density. Then as you board, they ask everybody their weight. Two round trips because at that time you could take a mid-tour trip back to the states on your own dime, which was more around $1,500 as best I recall. These flights all had an intermediate fueling stop at Anchorage between Japan and the US. To shorten the story, my final flight out of Vietnam was delayed over 24 hours after its arrival to pick us up due to mechanical difficulties, and then there was an additional long delay in Japan for mechanical work. All in all really inspiring and comforting. Then we go down the runway accelerating like a freight train. Finally, we get off the ground before we run out of runway, and as we are climbing the pilot came on the intercom an announces, "We will attempt a non-stop flight to Travis AFB California." At that point I'm thinking, can we take a boat? If you are the pilot and stating the flight plan in the form of "attempt" what happens if we don't? There is not much else between here and there but water. We made it. I finished my trip home by train.
Back to doing it commercial while working in Asia: We generally figured on 24 hours door to door Memphis to Taipei. These were all on Northwest. All except one out of Taipei was via Tokyo. The other was via Soeul. Then there was the 12 +/- from Tokyo to either Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle or Detroit. Our contracts with Taipei Rapid Transit System stated that home leave travel was to be by lowest cost economy class air fare.
My first overseas jaunt was earlier in the form of two round trips to Saigon (I refuse to say Ho Chi Minh city) from Travis AFB CA in 1971. These were in many senses the most memorable, first because they were my first long flights and second because the military used the cheapest charters they could find and on airlines you never heard of and hoped to never see again and were set up with sardine can seating density. Then as you board, they ask everybody their weight. Two round trips because at that time you could take a mid-tour trip back to the states on your own dime, which was more around $1,500 as best I recall. These flights all had an intermediate fueling stop at Anchorage between Japan and the US. To shorten the story, my final flight out of Vietnam was delayed over 24 hours after its arrival to pick us up due to mechanical difficulties, and then there was an additional long delay in Japan for mechanical work. All in all really inspiring and comforting. Then we go down the runway accelerating like a freight train. Finally, we get off the ground before we run out of runway, and as we are climbing the pilot came on the intercom an announces, "We will attempt a non-stop flight to Travis AFB California." At that point I'm thinking, can we take a boat? If you are the pilot and stating the flight plan in the form of "attempt" what happens if we don't? There is not much else between here and there but water. We made it. I finished my trip home by train.
Back to doing it commercial while working in Asia: We generally figured on 24 hours door to door Memphis to Taipei. These were all on Northwest. All except one out of Taipei was via Tokyo. The other was via Soeul. Then there was the 12 +/- from Tokyo to either Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle or Detroit. Our contracts with Taipei Rapid Transit System stated that home leave travel was to be by lowest cost economy class air fare.