Hello, my name is Paul Stewart and I'm in Wollongong Australia's 10th largest city and home to the HARS aviation museum, which, as you can see behind me, has their own Boeing 747. Now today
I am checking out a new airline called fly corporate who have a fleet of Saab
340s, one of which you can see behind me, on a new route that they have from here in Albion Park/
Wollongong through to Melbourne, Essendon
My journey began at Albion Park train station, which is approximately a 15 minute walk from the airport.
There's also a bus service that runs to the airport or you can simply drive there.
There's plenty of time limited parking. Although you can park your car in this locked section for around $12 per day.
Here's our aircraft, a Saab 340B Plus
This aircraft type was first introduced in 1984, although this particular
B+ model rolled off the Swedish assembly line in
1994 and comes with active noise and vibration reduction.
According to wikipedia 210 of them are still flying around the world and it has gained a reputation for being a sturdy and reliable
regional airliner. As you can see from this footage, it's powered by two turboprop engines
And while these are slower than the Jets they use less fuel
This makes sense when you consider that the aircraft was planned just after the 1973 fuel crisis
Unfortunately this meant that the Saabs take around 15 to 20 minutes longer to fly down to Melbourne than the Embraiers that used to fly
from Wollongong
It's pretty basic inside the terminal although the council have just announced plans to expand it in the near future. As I arrived early,
I headed over to the museum next door to grab a quick bite.
While you do have to pay to see all the aircraft in there, access to the cafe is free.
Then it was back to the terminal after grabbing a few shots of the Saab through this retired 747-400
On board, there's two pilots and 1 flight attendant
looking after the 34 passengers. The seats are in a 1-2 layout
So if you're traveling alone, you might as well sit on the left hand side.
If you're traveling as a group of 4 and must sit next to each other then the back-row is for you.
I'll go through seat 10A in a little more detail
Above is an air vent which I particularly appreciate as I enjoy cool air blowing over my head during the flight.
Behind the seat in front is the usual fold down table and a cup holder, which was quickly filled with a cool bottle of water
The legroom is perfectly adequate and of course there's a view outside which you'll be seeing more of very shortly.
The engines were powered up and we headed for the runway
and again
We got a great view of this retired jumbo
the museum offers
detailed tours where you can crawl through the entire aircraft and play with the controls on the flight deck. If you're an av geek you
Must add this to your bucket list
Now sit back enjoy the views as we take off fly a big circle over the airport and then head south towards, Melbourne
I'll speed through some of it and upload the full takeoff footage in a separate video with a link to that in the video description
below
Shortly after we reached our cruising altitude complimentary snacks were provided
There was actually a reasonable amount to choose from including hot and cold drinks
Theyre was even a packet of nuts which made me feel like I'm flying in Korean air first class.
Now if you look closely you'll get a glimpse of Canberra Airport and for my international viewers
Canberra is Australia's nursing home where we send our old people to go and argue about how things were better back in their day
When they were creating debt and unsustainable pension schemes for the grandchildren to pay off.
From memory the first officer said we'll be cruising at around
13,000 feet which is quite a bit lower than the usual 737 or A320s.
Unfortunately this meant that we have to fly through some of the rough weather which made for some rather exciting turbulence
The flight attendant was really great making sure we were all still comfortable and gave us lids for our hot drinks
once things settle down I figured I might visit the loo which was an experience! For reference sake I'm
182 centimeters struggled to fit in there. One rather unfortunate surprise was the lack of a tap and sink.
Instead they provide an alcohol-free and hand sanitizer.
I'd certainly be visiting the toilet before leaving the airport terminal and keeping this from emergencies only
On the walk back to my seat
I checked to ensure that the propeller had remained attached and enjoyed the view as a clouds cleared just west of the alpine national park
Now I figure there's two major types of people watching this video
The first are avgeeks keen to see what it's like to fly this route while there's others who are considering taking this flight
For the latter the alternative would be flying out of Sydney
So I'll compare this flight with that option
The main obvious advantage of Fly Corporate is that you avoid the several hour journey of
Either catching a train or driving up and parking at Sydney
even if the Saab
Takes an extra twenty minutes, the time saved getting to and from the airport would easily mean it's a shorter trip overall
I have to be honest and say that the aircraft themselves, whilst praising the sturdy, are small turboprops
Which means that they're loud and because they cruise at a much lower altitude, they're unable to fly over rough weather
So the lower altitude and the aircraft's small size did make for a few dramatic bumps
Which you may have picked up in some of my footage
The single crew member looking after us was really great and regularly checked that we were doing OK.
I might also add that the previous airline
Jet Go had issues with bad weather in Wollongong forcing them to divert their Embraer Jets to Canberra or Sydney
Although I've been told that this isn't an issue as these Saabs are actually able to land in rough weather.
Now that might make for a dramatic landing
But it would be still worth it as to avoid a several hour bus trip from Canberra or Sydney
So in the end it comes down to a simple question.
Do you want to risk a rougher flight to save a few hours of time?
I personally didn't mind the Fly Corporate Saab 340 and would happily fly with them again, but if you're terrified of turbulence
You'll probably need to spend a few more hours commuting to and from Sydney Airport and catching a larger jet.
If you enjoyed this flight report or found it useful, be sure to click the thumbs up button and comment below if you have any questions.
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Thanks for watching and I'll see you another time.