A small moment with Mrs. Morris

Loading luggage



Gassing up




The "Shedport"


Flying is not one of my favorite forms of transportation. Obviously I tolerate it which is why I am here in Australia. For the most part we have not taken any unnecessary or risky flights, until last Saturday. Check back to my small moment for that day to refresh your memory of that harrowing flight,
If you recall I described the “airport” at Shark Bay as a shed. It is literally a metal corrugated roofed building that is open and separated from the runway with a chain link fence. There are two rows of 5 or6 plastic patio chairs and a wooden lattice roof covers an area with two small round tables. I’m sure this “shed”port is quite lovely on a sunny, clear day, unfortunately we’ve never seen it on such a day.
Upon entering, two quite cheery blokes are there to greet you and check you in. Check in requires a form of ID, the usual questions—are you carrying any explosives, aerosols, sharp objects, etc.—and they weigh your luggage including your carry ons. I fully expected them to weigh me!! At this point you are issued a boarding pass and move to security, Wait, there was no security!! The blokes then move to their next job which might be the sale of a soft drink, chocolate or Mentos. Meanwhile you sit and wait patiently for the plane.
Now if you are anxious about the arrival of your plane or IF it is coming at all, you can ask one of the cheery blokes and they can tell you the latest they have heard over the radio as they also serve as the control tower. Eventually you hear the crackle over the radio and hope that the “shed”port workers/control tower can understand better than you what the pilot is saying. The “shed”port/ticket taker/concession/control tower worker relays back to the pilot information about the wind speed, direction and other vital info which he gathers by looking out at the runway and checking a windsock.
The announcement is made that your plane will arrive shortly and you should be boarding in about 20 minutes. As the plane arrives the “shed”port workers don their bright yellow vests, put on their earphones, and grab their orange ping pong paddles to assume the job of air traffic controller. He scampers out to direct the pilot to its “gate”. I don’t know about you, but if the pilot can’t find his way to the only spot to park on the runway without help I’m a little concerned about flying with him!
With this job completed the air traffic controller dashes off to get on the tram with our luggage to load and unload the other luggage. While he is taking care of this job, the pilots and flight attendant are busy checking and refueling the plane. Two 50-gallon cans are rolled out to the plane, some sort of syphoning-type instrument with a crank handle are inserted into the drum and plane and the pilot begins cranking! Thank goodness there are two pilots because when one gets tired of cranking the other takes over! Meanwhile your luggage can be picked up in the shed at the back of the building.
Refueling and plane check done and it is now time to board. Final job of the “shed”port worker, to announce boarding of flight #192 to Perth at gate #--well, at the only gate we have! In a nice single file line we march across the runway to the plane, climb the stairs and find our seats.
Nervous yet? As the plane taxis out, the flight attendant collects our tickets, does the usual emergency procedures, of which I pay particular attention to the life vest section, and we prepare for take-off. Eventually she comes back through to get out drink order—juice or water. Once served she comes back through passing out cookies—arrowroot biscuits. Back again asking if we’d like tea or coffee! Guess she needs something to do! Our delicious snack is topped off with a chewy mint candy.
If all of this wasn’t enough to make you think twice about boarding this plane add to it the fact that the weather once again was cloudy, rainy and windy. Supposedly Shark Bay gets 3 days of rain a year and we happened to fly on two of them! Lucky us! It was also a small plane which to some of our mates didn’t seem that small when we described our harrowing first flight. Needless to say we were a little concerned—ok I was petrified—about this flight. As it turned out, it was not too bumpy or harrowing and we didn’t have to circle the airport 4-5 times. We landed safely in Perth with only 3 more flights, on bigger planes, to get home! Cheers!