If some of my flight stories might be funny, the next two...
My best friend at the time, Ze CP had just got his 1st Diplomatic post at Tokyo, and insisted me to visit him.
As I was loosing my enormous fear of flying I decided to go, but not exaggerating. At the time, we would have to fly to an European capital, then to Anchorage in Alaska, and from there to Tokyo.
Or there was another option, saving over 6 hours of flight: Fly Aeroflot to Moscow, and from there, direct to Tokyo, with a compulsionary, free stopover on both legs!
I decided to stay 2 nights in Moscow in the beginning, and do some photos.
http://www.pbase.com/jdrpc/russia
I'm glad I did. But: Aeroflot used 2 different airplanes on the route, this TU-155 of the 5 hours between Lisbon and Moscow, and the Ilyushin 62M, Moscow to Tokyo.
I had a surprizing experience with the 1st! I know it looked like a Soviet copy of the HS Trident or the Boeing B-727, but it flew completely different! In fact, at the time I felt it was the best flying machine I've ever been in! Very stable in turbulence, and fantastic in landing!
Ah! If only I could say the same about the IL-62...
Anyway, there were only 5 passengers on-board going, and an amazing number of 2 on the return...