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- Seasons Greeting everybody!
2019 has been a great year
producing unique aviation contents
like you've never seen before.
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- Not just flight reviews but of a variety of
aviation newsworthy items.
Behind the scenes are my focus.
The aim is to take you on my journey of
aviation discovery together.
- Konnichiwa.
- So I flew 130 times, travelled over 300,000 miles,
made 75 YouTube videos with 180 million views.
But none of this could be achieved without your support.
Here I would like to thank you very much
again for your support in 2019.
We made it happen together.
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- First let's take a look at the
record flights I made this year.
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- [Female pilot] 78-79, the threshold wind is 320 degrees
one zero knots.
- [Tower] That's the runway 3, clear to land.
(aeroplane engine roars)
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- We just landed at the world's highest airport,
number one, Daocheng Yading at 14,400 feet.
I'm so happy, the world's highest airport, I made it here.
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- [Male pilot] So the shortest scheduled service between
Westray and Papa Westray takes two minutes and
the reason the flight exists isn't to take passengers
from Westray to Papa Westray or back,
it's because people on Westray want to fly to Kirkwall,
and folk on Papa Westray also want to fly to Kirkwall.
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- Today I'm flying the world's shortest A380 flight
from Dubai to Moscow.
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You ready for the world's shortest flight?
Follow me, let's go.
Hi, good morning, how are you?
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Final Boeing 747 flight look at this.
I'm walking down the jet bridge boarding the 747
it's a very special feeling.
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Now we're starting to draw the 747.
You can feel the aeroplane is throttling up and down now,
because soon it's going to do turns, to draw the 747 shape.
- Yeah we just started drawing, I mean amazing.
I'm a great drawer.
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(crowd clapping)
- First time in the air.
- Thank you.
(laughing)
- Thank you so much.
It's the history making flight
with the most amount of nationalities on board today.
(cheers)
- Nice to meet you my African brothers.
Italian.
Look at your hat.
Uganda, high five.
- Scotland.
- [Sam] What's going on here?
- We're making history.
- [Sam] Belgium, India.
He's actually the captain flying us today.
People form different backgrounds, different colours,
different religions, all going on one plane, this is great.
(crowd cheers)
- Yay!
[Sam] Latvia.
- Woo-hoo!
- It's our pleasure to take you
around the UAE and the seven Emirates today
and it's an honour for us to be doing it as well.
- Sam!
- [Sam] Oh, Jafar!
(Sam leads the crowd in a cheer)
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- We're offering a special Year of Tolerance snack box.
- 145 nationalities on.
(cheers)
You're officially amazing.
- When we left,
we're all going to be friends together right?
- [Crowd] Yeah!
- All the nationalities on this flight together now.
We not only focus on the flights,
I've also visited three brand new
airport terminals this year.
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Welcome to the new Istanbul Airport.
In just two days,
this new airport is going to be fully operational
for all flights in and out of Istanbul.
And in fact this is
the world's largest single roof airport building.
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- So we will open with 90 million passengers
and we are going up to 200 million passengers per year.
- 200 million passenger a year.
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- Daxing Airport is actually quite smart.
From one end to the other end, I walked around,
no more than ten minutes in total
because of that five pier shape like a starfish.
And right in front of me there's actually a very nice
Chinese Garden.
Wow, who doesn't like to have a beautiful,
quiet, tranquil moment before your long haul flight?
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The airport here had became a major tourist site.
Look at these people continuously like a river
coming in, taking photos, and selfies.
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My opinion, both Istanbul and Daxing
are brand new, built on a clean sheet, 21st century airport
with a lot of good connectivity, technology,
and good features.
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- This is an aquarium, it has one million litres,
and more than 2,000 type of fish.
- Wow, Finding Nemo is here in Jeddah Airport.
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- We have a special entrance for our premium passengers
to arrive.
- Let's go check it out.
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I also recorded from two major airshows this year.
Paris Airshow and Dubai Airshow.
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- Welcome to Dubai Airshow 2019.
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A lot, a lot of great aeroplanes on display that show here.
The A350, brand new, Fiji Airways.
- Bula Vinaka!
- 779 kilometres from South Korea to meet you here.
I can't believe this is (mumbles).
This is great improvement.
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- I fell in love with this direct mode side stick.
- Out of 130 flights I've flown this year,
here are my top five favourite flights of this year.
Are you ready for the countdown?
Number five.
It was beyond amazing experience to fly on 737 200 Combi
With gravel kits into one of the remote arctic mining fields
with very experienced pilots in Canada.
It's not every day you get to fly 737 200 Classic Combi.
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- This one is going to be my take off,
so it'll be a scary one.
- There's free meals on board.
Wow, yummy.
That was so exciting.
First time landing on gravel for me, man.
You have a really good job,
you only have one plane coming every day.
You're taking every since inch of the runway?
- [Pilot] Yep.
This is what I love about aviation, amazing.
Number four,
Paro Airport in Bhutan is one of the most dangerous airport
because of many terrain during the approach.
Only a handful of pilots are able to land there.
They have to switch off the ground proximity warning system.
Check out the almost unbelievable approach.
- That is the six sides Mahalangur.
And you can see how pointed peak there, with some snow
getting blown off.
That is the Everest.
Now our aim is to, you can see there is a bridge there.
- [Sam] Yep.
That's where aiming there,
and we're looking for 12,000 feet,
and then we're going to make a slight left turn.
- [Sam] Yep.
- Head in towards the airfield.
Only at the last leg are you able to see them,
because of the hills.
And I'm a Buddhist so I have to pray to God.
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(aeroplane engine roars)
- [Robo Co-pilot] 50, 40, 30, 20, retard, retard, retard.
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- Number three,
Not every day I get to fly on a 747,
let alone a 747 Cargo.
It is an interesting experience to
watch how the cargo operation differs
to passenger operation.
Today going to fly on a cargo plane.
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Oh, every little inch is precious here on a 747 cargo.
(communication over radio)
- We don't need any cute suites on the aeroplane,
I'm going to show you something even better.
There you go,
your full flat bed in the sky.
- Flashing lights because the seatbelt sign
has been turned on.
- Let's quickly go back to the upper deck because
we need to go a seatbelt, there's a turbulence.
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This is probably the best restaurant in the sky.
Walking down on the 747, what a glorious arrival.
Huge pleasure to fly on 747-8 Qatar Airways Cargo.
And also see the world-class facilities here in Doha.
- It was a great pleasure to have you.
- Thank you.
- Number two,
I got a call from the plane owner when I was in Mauritius,
saying 747-SP would be ready for a flight in 24 hours.
I have to drop everything and rush
from Mauritius via Paris to Canada to get on this flight
because I knew that a chances like this
won't happen again.
- [Crew] Here we go.
(engine revs up)
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- Best VIP aeroplanes that I've seen in my career.
- Wow.
This aeroplane was built in 1979.
I guess that's the King's bathroom.
Here there's another small private office here.
There's a shower room.
Big conference room here.
Bodyguards probably like sitting here.
The King's bedroom, basically.
Oh.
- Main equipment centre.
- The aeroplane will go in a hangar, do a C check.
(voice over radio)
- I've never thought in 2019,
I could fly again on the 747-SP.
Number one,
I have a double number one flight this year.
It is the Qantas non-stop Project Sunrise
research flight from London to Sydney.
We saw a double sunrise on this flight,
and when we arrive,
we officially kick start the Qantas Centenary Celebration.
Qantas non-stop research flight from London to Sydney,
here I come.
And we will see double sunrise today?
- We will see a double sunrise today.
High five.
- 1919, 100 years ago,
it used to take 28 days from the UK to Australia.
Beautiful, this is the magic moment of the day.
- Trying to stretch to the locker.
- Sitting can be exercise as well.
- Absolutely.
- Can you show me the sitting exercise?
You can even take on more passenger.
Everything on this flight is actually special.
I think I'm going to lose some weight after landing.
We need to adjust our body clock to Sydney's time,
so this is supper right now.
- I'd like to share with you something
very close to my heart.
The A-350 or the triple 7X,
what is your favourite aircraft?
These are the typical Australian outback landscape.
This is such a history making flight.
So I've been flying 19 hours inside this
great Qantas Centenary Aeroplane.
What a great livery.
I just got out of the aeroplane and
realised what a great livery this aeroplane has.
(cheering)
- Cheers to Qantas 100.
(cheering)
- [Sam] The other top flight,
is much more than just a flight on the Orbis MB10
on a trip to Ghana.
This amazing aircraft as been an example of marriage
between the medicine and aviation.
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Let's go inside, explore.
- [Tower] Runway 1 2, clear for take-off Orbis 1 Heavy.
- Well we just arrived at Jeddah.
- [Flight Attendant] It's Sam's birthday.
Not everyday you have a birthday.
(voices over radio)
- Welcome to Africa.
Full flying high hospital is thrown into action soon.
We are at the local hospital.
Tomorrow you'll be going on the
flying high hospital to have the surgery.
All right we're all dressed up so we're now in the,
going to the recovery room.
How did the surgery go?
When aviation and medicine came together,
that is a brilliant idea.
There's nothing more beautiful than,
you can actually see the beautiful world
in your beautiful eyes.
(cheering)
(dings)
(pops)