exceladdict
Established Member
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
- Posts
- 4,889
- Qantas
- Platinum
- Virgin
- Silver
A (very) recent trip report by kamchatsky inspired me to do a quick write up on a short leg I had on REX this month. Unfortunately, I’m quite light on photos due to my regular phone (a nexus 6p) being in for repairs, relegating me to an old, cracked, Sony Xperia Z2 which can’t autofocus to save its life.
ALH-PER, ZL2126, 0:58, Saab 340 (SF34) VH-ZRZ
Long story short I was meant to be driving back to Perth but I ended up being gifted a ticket to take the short way back, which is a difficult offer to refuse. I had only ever flown a turboprop once previously in my life, from Queenstown to Christchurch, so on top of saving some time it was a bit of an experience too. My memory suggests that turboprop in NZ would have been bigger than this.
I was travelling back with a friend of Mrs Excel’s, who did not have much experience flying, so we had fun in the car to the airport, and in the departure lounge, explaining among other things how “big trucks go up to the plane and spin up the propellers, then they release the spring to take off”. Two of the other gems were that you weren’t allowed to use any electronics onboard, to the extent that you weren’t even allowed to take a phone with you in to the flight. A book I had packed became a handy prop in this joke.
It was interesting to see that ALH had ticket parking, with 4 hours free – arguably enough for a quick trip to Perth, a meeting at the airport and Perth and a flight back – I guess to deter fifolks from taking up the parking.
Unfortunately the check-in agent, who later turned out to be the boarding gate attendant, ruined the fun when he kindly advised I wouldn’t need to check in my small roller bag (I prefer to go HLO but was a bit uncertain about the size of the overheads on the Saab). He advised that the plane would be arriving shortly, and we waltzed through to the departure area.
I was interested to still see VA paraphernalia around the place, as I was under the impression VA had pulled out from the regional WA routes having been swapped by REX – but it turned out they still do flights on some days of the week. It was a bummer as I am only one flight (and a bunch of SCs) away from the ‘trial gold’ on velocity thanks to flybuys, but the 10scs wouldn’t have tipped me over the edge so my upset did not last long.
ALH-PER, ZL2126, 0:58, Saab 340 (SF34) VH-ZRZ
Long story short I was meant to be driving back to Perth but I ended up being gifted a ticket to take the short way back, which is a difficult offer to refuse. I had only ever flown a turboprop once previously in my life, from Queenstown to Christchurch, so on top of saving some time it was a bit of an experience too. My memory suggests that turboprop in NZ would have been bigger than this.
I was travelling back with a friend of Mrs Excel’s, who did not have much experience flying, so we had fun in the car to the airport, and in the departure lounge, explaining among other things how “big trucks go up to the plane and spin up the propellers, then they release the spring to take off”. Two of the other gems were that you weren’t allowed to use any electronics onboard, to the extent that you weren’t even allowed to take a phone with you in to the flight. A book I had packed became a handy prop in this joke.
It was interesting to see that ALH had ticket parking, with 4 hours free – arguably enough for a quick trip to Perth, a meeting at the airport and Perth and a flight back – I guess to deter fifolks from taking up the parking.
Unfortunately the check-in agent, who later turned out to be the boarding gate attendant, ruined the fun when he kindly advised I wouldn’t need to check in my small roller bag (I prefer to go HLO but was a bit uncertain about the size of the overheads on the Saab). He advised that the plane would be arriving shortly, and we waltzed through to the departure area.
I was interested to still see VA paraphernalia around the place, as I was under the impression VA had pulled out from the regional WA routes having been swapped by REX – but it turned out they still do flights on some days of the week. It was a bummer as I am only one flight (and a bunch of SCs) away from the ‘trial gold’ on velocity thanks to flybuys, but the 10scs wouldn’t have tipped me over the edge so my upset did not last long.