On the jumpseat, back to the mainland!
We got to the airport, where we left the bus, and farewelled Adrian. By this point, it seemed all the members of the tour group developed a fondness of him and his very indepth passionate knowledge of his local community. We gathered in the terminal, where we could see our bird to fly back home, had infact been pushed back a few metres to the end of the tarmac to allow the day’s inbound REX SAABs come in and park. The SAAB had since gone, however, it seemed the keys to open the terminal door onto the apron were misplaced, so we were all gathered to walk out of the terminal’s front door and around the side to an airside gate and through there to the aircraft.
We were milling around the aircraft in glorious afternoon sunlight, before one by one we climbed on for our flight back to Melbourne.
I made my way to my seat, and once all the passengers were seated, I was then invited upfront to sit in the jumpseat for the Take-Off out of King Island. This experience was indeed valuable for me, as at the time, I was studying for an Instrument Rating and a Commercial License, and I could get to see how a Multi-crew environment works, albeit in an old aircraft!
Not my most flattering photo...
It went by very quickly, the pilots started up the right engine, and a minute later, the left engine. A taxiing call was made on the Centre and CTAF frequency, and we were off, to taxi for our runway. Before we entered the runway, I glimpsed an Airlines of Tasmania Jetstream 31 coming into land on the main runway, then exiting onto the apron. We then left the apron and instead entered runway 35 (As the wind was favouring that more), and backtracked to the end.
We then turned around, the First Officer made a ‘rolling’ call on the CTAF, and then the power was applied to both engines as we made a smooth acceleration along the runway, raising the tailwheel, then, like the same sensation at the start of the day, we just started rising above the runway and then climbing for our way back to Essendon on the mainland. We climbed to 5500ft, by then, Captain Falls was the Pilot Not Flying, and made our departure call to Melbourne Centre, followed by a PA announcement.
I stayed in the jumpseat until cruise, then I finally had to be pried out of there to return to my seat to allow the other passengers to visit upfront again. I returned to my seat, pretty much completely satisfied of my day’s activity. I just sat in my seat for the rest of the flight, with a massive grin, and enjoying the ambience and vibe aboard. The afternoon light bathed a nice shade of red highlighting the aircraft cabin.
