A380 Adventures Down Under!

A380 Adventures Down Under!

G’day, Mates!

Folks, from the Flight Blog, this is Cap’n Aux speaking. As you know, I rarely post these days, so when I do, you know it’ll be something fun!

Last week, Bunny and I flew “Down Under” to Melbourne, Australia—you know, the land of “Crocodile Dundee,” of koalas and ‘roos and didgeridoos, the Outback, and lively, supremely healthy people with legendary drinking habits and those great, twangy accents!

We went to visit Bunny’s best friend Annie and her family—and they hadn’t seen each other in 15 years. Needless to say, a good time Down Under was had by all!

Made it!!

Bunny and I with Annie and Mon!

A380 Adventures Down Under!

What’s more, we got to experience, for the first time, a flight on the venerable Airbus A380! The world’s largest airliner, this double decker behemoth can be configured to seat over 800 passengers. A plane so big, it comes with its own ATC designation: not a “Heavy,” but a “Super.”

And, Super, it is!!

But, woe be unto those airplanes who succumb to its ginormous wake turbulence! (Which happened a couple of years ago to a private jet, by the way. See link below!)

Sadly, ironically, we traveled on the wonderful plane the very week that Airbus announced it would be discontinuing production…

 

A380 Adventures Down Under!

Don’t miss this “hoppin'” 12-second video—too cute!

A380 Adventures Down Under!

But, that’s not the story I want to tell you…

While Bunny continued on to her home country of the Philippines to play tour guide to a couple of her sons, I only had a few days to play in Melbourne before returning to the States to fly my beloved A321.

A380 Adventures Down Under!

 

Then, serendipity took over. I was able to book a flight back on, not just any A380, but one piloted by…

My good friend and fellow pilot/author/blogger, Captain Richard de Crespigny!

You may recall our fascinating Black Swan Event video interview with Captain de Crespigny a couple years, ago, after he safely landed his crippled A380 when the Number 2 engine exploded inflight, damaging all but one system onboard.

Jumpseating on the Breitling 'Round the World DC-3 Part 1!He is the Australian equivalent of Captain Sully, and his story is remarkable. If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to grab a copy of his memoirs, QF 32! (qf32.aero.)

The interview also appeared as a 3-part interview in Airways Magazine, issues July, August and September, 2015.

 

Well, as fate would have it, on the same day I had to fly home, Captain de Crespigny was scheduled to fly from SYD-DFW. Well, as our beloved Cap’n Dillon likes to quote from our “Livin’ the Dream” video, “As an airline pilot, you gotta be ready for anything!” So, I hopped on a Virgin Australia 737 and “diverted to my alternate”—that is, flew over to SYD from MEL to meet up with him!

Once there, I headed over to the International terminal, where I met up with his lovely wife, Coral. Coincidentally, she happened to be flying with him on the same flight as well!

While regulations kept me off the flight deck during the flight, I was able to join the good Cap’n for his traditional walk around the cabin, visiting with the passengers, answering their questions and simply chatting. I ask you, how many airline pilots out there do that any more?!

In answer to your question of, “Who’s flying the plane?”, overseas flights have extra pilots, in order to provide each pilot plenty of rest. On this flight, Captain de Crespigny’s crew consisted of 3 First Officers during our nearly 16 hour jaunt (and that with a 100+ knot tailwind!)

During the flight, some of your fellow Blog Buddies had a little online tracking party. Here’s a couple screenshots, compliments of Miss TWA (http://misstwa.blogspot.com).

Thanks, Miss T!

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time mingling with the passengers and hearing their stories. And, it certainly helped to while away the nonstop global trek to Dallas!

A380 Adventures Down Under!

Captain de Crespigny, “First Officer” Coral and I in the A380 cockpit, post flight!

While my 24+ hour MEL-SYD-DFW-PHX journey home was a marathon, the extra 6 hours travel time to meet up with the legendary Captain de Crespigny and to watch him in action was PRICELESS! A once in a lifetime experience!

Along with his venerable A380, Captain de Crespigny is set to retire in a few years, so I must profusely thank him, as well as the skygods, for setting up this fortuitous, auspicious and serendipitous journey.

A380 Adventures Down Under!

So, until the next fortuitous, auspicious, serendipitous adventure,

THIS IS CAP’N AUX….

A380 Adventures Down Under!

Say, this A380 cockpit looks mighty familiar. I’ll have to get me one-a these! Wonder how much they’ll go secondhand?

SIGNING OFF!

A380 Adventures Down Under!

Related Capnaux Links

Other Related Links