I wrote about my last flight on my blog (http://petitmondemoi.blogspot.com/20...to-travel.html) but thought I'd like to share it with you here. It's ADL - MEL, which is only about an hour, so there's nothing overly dramatic, but I tried to make it relatively interesting. Having just read it over again now, I think I do prefer the story-type of trip report, rather than what I've written below, which is more of a "report" or review of the flight. Shall have to do more of a story sort of thing next time. In the meantime, any comments, questions, criticisms etc. are most welcome!
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"Have you ever travelled on one of these before?" asked the lady sitting next to me on my recent flight aboard Qantas CityFlyer 2066, from Adelaide (ADL) to Melbourne (MEL).
"No, this is my first time," I replied.
"Well they're certainly a bit different."

And she was right; that plane really was quite different. The reason being it was a De Havilland Dash-8. I have to say, having now been on one, they are the way to travel if you cannot take a helicopter. Dare I say, just as fun. The Dash-8 almost makes the more regular Airbus A320s and the Boeing 737s seem rather boring in comparison.

I never knew Qantas (let alone Qantas CityFlyer) flew such small planes on such a busy route until the day I booked my flights. To my pleasant surprise, while looking to see if I would be fed a full lunch or just a small snack, I discovered that this flight was scheduled to be on the Dash-8. All thoughts of getting a good feed for the same price disappeared out of my head, and I immediately thought how fun it might be to try out a new type of plane, especially one much smaller than the Boeing 737 on which my flight to Adelaide was to be (especially evident by the 2-2 seating arrangements) and the fact that it was a turbo-prop sort of thing.

Since it was such a small plane, I was at first worried that there would not be much leg room but, in fact, I was extremely comfortable. There was no entertainment box or any other such thing under the seat in front of me (or maybe there was and it was something to do with the design of the plane) but I was even able to stretch my feet out under the seat in front of me. I can't do this with Tiger Airways, due to their cramped seating arrangements and my 6"3 figure. In fact, on Tiger, there isn't even any space between my knees and the seat infront.

There was little to no cloud cover the whole way over, which meant that when not eating, my eyes were fixed to the view outside. With the recent heavy rains in Australia, the paddocks were not as dry as usual and were very damp, most with some extras dams here and there. One whole town was completely flooded, amidst a massive body of water. Obviously, it is not only Queensland that has been affected.

Another pleasant surprise was the food. Being a Qantas flight, I was sure that they would serve something, but was expecting something more along the lines of a somewhat stale biscuit and tea for a "light refreshment". Instead, like an excited 6-year old awaiting a birthday present, or a middle-aged businessman awaiting his next pay check, I waited eagerly for the flight attendant to place the small lunchbox on my tray table. For I had seen people in front of me opening up theirs; inside was not merely one biscuit, but a packet of two nice ginger biscuits (the sort that taste like Grandma's recipe), cheese and crackers, water, an apple and something else too, I seem to have forgotten what. On top of that, there was a selection of complimentary drinks, either tea or coffee, juice, more water, softdrink and so on. All followed up by literally as many 'after-snack' mints as we wanted. Some flyers might have been concerned about the lack of alcohol, especially after the only problem - a three hour delay sitting on our backsides in the terminal - but I wasn't worried. Even though it wasn't exactly much come to think of it now, it was certainly more than I had expected food-wise.

Ah yes, the delay. Funnily enough, the last three times flying to Adelaide, three out of three of my return trips have been delayed. With Tiger Airways, an almost three hour-delay, causing me to touch down in MEL close to 7pm in the evening, instead of the 4pm scheduled time. With JetStar, a mere twenty minutes due to heavy thunderstorms in the area. And with this Qantas flight, instead of departing at 10:50am we did not take off from the runway until just after 1pm. However, despite these annoyances, they have occurred when I've been in a rather happy mood and could not have cared much less. I'm sure the airlines are thankful for that, unlike some other fellow flyers onboard....

On that somewhat sad note, I return once more to a merrier note; the Dash-8. What really makes it spectacular, and the main reason why I like it so much, is the fact that the engines, propellers, wing-flaps and landing gear are all right outside your window. With any other more 'regular' plane, you can see the wing-flaps working. But on a Dash-8 you can see the whole lot in working order. I somewhat regret now not taking any photos, but my phone was in the overhead locker and anyway, the flight attendants probably wouldn't have wanted me to switch it on as it wasn't on flight mode.

I saw the landing gear pull up and disappear as we took off over Glenelg, and as we came down again over Melbourne and its surrounding suburbs, they then reappeared, giving me a full view of the wheels touching the runway, complete with the puff of smoke from the rubber, as we landed. Admittedly, I could not quite see the propellers because I was at the very back of the plane, but perhaps next time I'll sit a little further forward to see them as well....

CLICK HERE to see stats for the Qantas Dash-8, including seat maps