I know it's not a regional, but it's still kind of interesting...

First flight was as an engineer on a 727 on Haj flight from DXXX (Lome, Togo) to FTTJ(N'Djamena, Chad), headed, after fueling, to OEJN.

Had arrived from the USA with a wet engineer certificate from PanAm Flight Academy after a 19-day firehose session. At 2:30 A.M. the next morning, out to the airplane, fuel, load bags and pax (the FA's were a mix of FIRST timers and retirees back out for a haj adventure). The guys up front were friends who had been in the sims back in Miami too. The cockpit was set up Exactly like the sim in MIA (not that common in the 727 world), so off we went, just like another sim session.....No check engineer, no IOE, no nothin'... But it was just like the simulator, even night outside... Little U , Big U (727 FE scan flows), tweak thrust levers, checking and rechecking every gage, and NOTHING was ever amiss! No red lights, horns, bells, no misbehaving needles that had been steady just a second before....All was well....until an FA knocked at the door. Opened the door and there are 149 black faces looking back at me, as amazed as I was (it was their first airliner flight, too...)

The weirdest part was the sun coming up out ahead of us... THAT never happens in the simulator!!

I was very grateful to true professionals back in PanAm-MIA, Bob Koval, Dick Clough, Fred Crum.....I'd have to say I actually felt prepared.