[orconn]

My first fliight was in 1956. It was on a Convair 340 from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. I remember the plane took off at a really steep climb after leaving the run way, which I thought was really cool, my Dad, who had flown a lot during the war and commercially in the early fifties was not impressed. He was even less impressed when the plane failed to stop at the end of the runway upon landing at Santos Dumont Airport in Rio. Dumont Airport sits on a spit out in Guanabara Bay (similar to Midway in Chicago) and they had to bring boats out to unload us from the plane. My Dad had brought me along to the dedication of the new Radio do Brasil transmitter, so I could meet the President of Brazil. We did make it to the dedication, but my Dad was not a happy camper.

The flight back was even more exiting as the DC-3 (Cruzeiro do Sul Airlines) took off from Santos Dumont rounded Sugar Loaf and flew directly into a horrendous thunder storm ........... I didn't loose my cookies but a lot of the other passengers did. The bounced and shuddered its' way down the coast to Santos where it had to turn inland and climb over a high escarpment before landing on the plateau where Sao Paulo was located. The pilot was having trouble attempting to get over the escarpment and was back and flying back and forth parallel to it, I quess, trying to find a pass. I remember looking out the window a seeing the mountains above us when the lightning lit the sky. It was a real "white knockler" for my Dad and the his staff members who were with us. Obviously we made it and all was well. I don't think my Dad would have flown again, but in South America flying was the only way to get around; the trains were next to none and the roads bad and distances long. In the 1950's Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo was second only to Chicago's O'Hare in the amount of air traffic handled.