Joy Flight

AUSTRALIAN AIR LEAGUE

Jack joined up with the Air League a few months ago, and has now seen the benefits. At the Air League, the cadets learn all sorts of things about aviation, while also learning about discipline, respect and authority. But its not all learning, marching and salutes! They do get to have some fun, and on this weekend, they were able to participate in a 30 minute joy flight in one of two Piper Warrior's that the Air League flew in from Camden.

As Jack has not typically been the most comfortable when it comes to flying, I said I would go up with him. But when the day finally rolled around, I found Jack was full of confidence and excitement. Perhaps my lectures about the feeling of 'excitement' and 'anxiety' are actually the same thing had finally paid off!

We decided it best to not have breakfast in the morning, as we wouldn't want and turbulence induced accidents while we were in the air. We headed off to the airport (about 10 minutes away) in time to help the group set up the tent and get ready for the weigh in.

It wasn't long before a big group of cadets had gathered, and the first of the two planes arrived.

Jack and I were scheduled on the fourth flight of the day, which came around very quickly with the two planes in action. So we quickly go on board, and after a passenger shuffle to get the heavy adult up the front, we were off!

THE FLIGHT

We taxied down to the start of the runway, revved the engines to check everything was ready to go, then got the call for take off. The kids in the back were still excited I think, but I could hear the shuffle of sick bags getting ready - just in case (just so you know, they were NOT needed in the end). The plane headed off down the runway, and eventually lifted off the ground, to some very relieved passengers :)

Once airborne, we headed north away from the airport and towards Wollongong. As we gained height, we started to hit some low cloud, which provided a few bumps, but nothing too bad. We made it all the way up to fly around the Steelworks, and Port Kembla Harbour. We got some great views from here, especially of all the cars that had been offloaded from transport ships, awaiting delivery around the state.

We then headed back south, back towards home. We were lucky enough to fly directly over the top of our house. As we were a little unsighted at this point, the piolet banked hard so that we could all look at the window on the starboard side and see our little house all the way bellow us!

From here we continued on to Kiama where we got some great views of the harbour there. The town doesn't look nearly as busy from the air!

After Kiama, we headed back towards the airport and came in for a very soft and safe landing. Jack was very happy with his experience, and is now looking forward greatly to the next opportunity to fly!