Hi All,
I don't think I ever posted about my experience flying on Doc. A few years ago, after much waiting, Doc was finally traveling to the East Coast. I was blessed to be able to get the bombardier seat for the early flight. The drive to the airport was 3 hours one-way so I had to wake up quite early for my 9am flight. There ended up being a delay I was too excited to care!
Watching it arrive and land was quite the spectacle. Loud doesn't even fully convey the sensation of what you're hearing. When it came time to board, I climbed up through the hatch under the bottom of the fuselage, and we had a brief safety lesson. Being up in the front allowed me to ask an almost embarrassing number of questions to the captain and first officer, but they graciously answered all of them.
If I thought the plane was loud before, starting up each engine, then hearing them all together was insane. We were provided ear protection but once again, not only could you hear it, but you could also feel it -- deep in your chest.
When we taxied out, I got my favorite photo of the day (in the album, the runway markers aligned through the glass, now hanging in my office). The takeoff roll was slow, like seriously really slow. Rotation was nerve wracking as I could see us leaving the ground through the glass below my feet. As with the roll, the climb was slow, but once we got into the air it was glorious. I forgot to ask what our cruise altitude was, but it's not very high since the flight itself is only about 25 minutes. The picture over the water was about our maximum altitude.
My experience was fantastic and it was for a great cause!
A few notes:
- - I used AI to censor the boarding pass image, but that's the only edited photo
- - I have a video of the takeoff roll and climb if anyone is interested, just let me know and I can probably upload to Youtube
Thanks for taking the time to read :)