26 October 2024
The plane broke and then I had sky internet
Cairns airport and onboard VA77
In a rare thing, right now I am onboard Virgin flight VA77 bound for Tokyo Haneda and I have internet. So I can type some more of this nonsense now.
For about an hour it seemed like I may not be getting to this point at all today, as the plane did not leave Melbourne for an hour beyond scheduled departure time as we sat onboard while an engineer seemingly worked on the captains seat. This may sound frivolous, but recently an airliner nearly crashed when the pilot's seat unexpectedly slid forward and his fat stomach smashed into the controls pitching the plane into a steep dive.
The engineer left and we pushed back seconds later, and tore out to the runway in Melbourne faster than any flight I have ever been on, with no stopping at the runway threshold or anything, just a 90 degree drift turn onto the piano keys before we then seemed to climb all the way to cruising altitude at near full power, at which point they announced that we will be making the connection in Cairns to Tokyo. It was never really in doubt as half the people on the flight to Cairns are continuing to Tokyo.
The flight was quite full and as we were about an hour out a guy nearby started rolling smokes and putting them in his mouth, by the time we landed he had 3 in his mouth ready to run off the plane.
As for Cairns airport, the domestic side is busy, the international side less busy than ever, with just one cafe. I barely had time to drink a litre of water, shotgun a coffee and eat half a $12 sandwich and it was time to board.
Which brings me to here, typing this, on a plane that is largely full of Japanese people. I have a row to myself again just like the last time I took this flight. Soon we will fly over a hurricane. These are short sentences. No one near me is sick. The photos below are terrible, but they fill a spot on a page.
Here is the little 737 max 8 that will take me to Japan. Again this is shot through blurry tinted glass. You can tell it is one of the new faulty Boeing's by the wingtips that are overly complicated and prone to failure.
This is basically, all of the international terminal at Cairns airport. The cafe must hate it when the connecting flight is delayed as mine was, there was basically no time for people to get any food. I was almost first off and barely had time to inhale half a sandwich and burn myself on a terrible expensive coffee.
LOOK AT MY COOL MASK! I am the only person wearing one, including all the Japanese people. I guess they are going home and do not care as much, perhaps they wore one on the way here. Now to sit back and wait for the tiny drip feeds of water they offer on this 7.5 hour flight. They bring the communal bottle around maybe 3x if you are lucky.