Best flying experience was during the airline pilots strike. I had to go to Adelaide on business, and caught the dreaded army cargo carrier there. Which was interesting in its own way but NOT COMFORTABLE. Rows of high school moulded plastic seats welded together and bolted to the floor with seatbelts superglued onto the plastic. Only some of the bolts were loose and the whole confection wiggled and groaned whenever we hit a patch of rough air. Felt like a Centrelink waiting room with added sound effects and no toilet.
On the way back, however, I scored a seat on a 12 seater private jet - single line of seats, sheepskin seat covers, ample leg room, luxxury food, and the pilot did a low altitude sweep over the Coorong which was humming with birdlife and full of water. That flight was magical. We stopped in Mt Gambier to re-fuel, so I got to see the blue lake which was very blue. Also some of the best fish & chips I’ve ever had at one of the hotels. All courtesy of the plane’s owner.
Another good one was from Alice Springs to Sydney over the western plains of NSW. It was just on sunset, and we got high enough that we could see the whole terminator from the plane windows - that is, behind us was broad daylight, then a fuzzy zone, then black night ahead of us. No clouds, you could see the darkness creeping over the land as the sun set.
Best flying experience was during the airline pilots strike. I had to go to Adelaide on business, and caught the dreaded army cargo carrier there. Which was interesting in its own way but NOT COMFORTABLE. Rows of high school moulded plastic seats welded together and bolted to the floor with seatbelts superglued onto the plastic. Only some of the bolts were loose and the whole confection wiggled and groaned whenever we hit a patch of rough air. Felt like a Centrelink waiting room with added sound effects and no toilet.
On the way back, however, I scored a seat on a 12 seater private jet - single line of seats, sheepskin seat covers, ample leg room, luxxury food, and the pilot did a low altitude sweep over the Coorong which was humming with birdlife and full of water. That flight was magical. We stopped in Mt Gambier to re-fuel, so I got to see the blue lake which was very blue. Also some of the best fish & chips I’ve ever had at one of the hotels. All courtesy of the plane’s owner.
Another good one was from Alice Springs to Sydney over the western plains of NSW. It was just on sunset, and we got high enough that we could see the whole terminator from the plane windows - that is, behind us was broad daylight, then a fuzzy zone, then black night ahead of us. No clouds, you could see the darkness creeping over the land as the sun set.