TAA- Townsville to Brisbane
I rode back from Townsville on a DC9 once. I was young, It was 1989 or so. I think a two or so hour trip. The captain let me up the front onto the flight deck. I was naturally amazed by the sheer makeup of the buttons and clocks that made the jet fly. Awestruck ever since.. At one point I remember the captain talking onto the microphone and then asking me to help change direction. He asked me to carefully and slowly rotate a small wheel located on the panels between the two pilots. I gave it a small twist to the right and the DC-9 gave a slight bank right. The captain told me the align the white line with a letter marked on the panel, and the after some seconds he told me to rotate back left, Carefully so, to centre the white mark. Pretty amazing a pilot would let the happen. I have been grateful ever since. I also remember looking out the window of the flight deck at the coast line and seeing all the different colours emerge to those that get high enough. And, then the captain said, “look, that’s Fraser island down there. Astonished I was. From that day, my thoughts were always, ‘that flying job has got to be better than chasing sheep and cattle around everyday!
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