Adventures on the 717

I started flying on the 717 in September 2011. As I’ve mentioned before, settling into a new aircraft type takes time – well, at least it does for me – and for the first few months I felt uneasy and wondered if I’d made the wrong decision coming across from the charter side of the business. I was wearing the uniform I’d always wanted to wear, and flying on a bigger, better aircraft type, but I felt dumb and useless, and like all the other crew had to pick up the slack for me. On the 146 and Dash 8 I had known my stuff, even worked my way up to be an inflight trainer myself, and I was comfortable, but on the 717 I felt a bit out of my depth.

A picture of a 717 taken from inside the cockpit of a 717!

Thankfully this didn’t last and I was soon loving flying on a Boeing. The 717 is pretty unique I think, and not many airlines around the world fly it anymore, but it’s mostly reliable and a good size for certain routes. I stopped flying to mine sites and started flying to actual towns on the 717, which was an exciting leap up in the world. I also got much more exciting overnights than just Karratha, like I had at charter. Now I got to overnight in Cairns and Darwin, and I am telling you now, I absolutely loved Cairns!

My Dad is from Queensland, and when he was not long out of university himself he came to Perth for a job that was supposed to last a few weeks. He ended up staying because he loved it so much. I have always secretly thought he stayed because Western Australia is quite a lot like Queensland. Extreme temperatures, friendly people, a really laid back, holiday-ish type lifestyle and vibe. Brisbane and Perth are not the fast paced cosmopolitan type cities that Sydney and Melbourne are.

Cairns, Queensland

Anyway, I think I loved Cairns so much because being in Queensland, it was a lot like home. Just like how my Dad had felt about Perth when he first went there as a young man. I had so many great overnights in Cairns. We would do one or two night trips, going via Ayers Rock. On the two night trips, on the middle day, we would do an Ayers Rock return and then spend another glorious night in Cairns. We stayed right on the Esplanade, moments away from a tonne of restaurants, ice cream parlours, bars, backpacker hostels, boat charter and diving equipment shops. Cairns is so laid back, a backpackers paradise. I instantly fell in love with it. The hot humid weather that hung around even at night time always enticed me to walk with the crew out to dinner somewhere, or along the boardwalk or down to the marina to read all the obscure names on the boats docked there. Cairns was – is – casual and carefree and almost made me want to ditch being a flight attendant and come to Cairns with a backpack on my back and dive and swim and surf and tan by day, and wait tables at night to pay for it all. What a life.

Working for Qantaslink also meant I got some semblance of staff travel benefits too, and I used them many times to travel to Sydney and Melbourne, and then in 2012 to the US and Europe for another epic round of Contiki. It was fabulous (well, except for the time I got stranded in Los Angeles for three days on staff travel…but that’s a story for another time!).

Working on the 717 was awesome. There was much of the same team dynamic with the flight crew and cabin crew that I’d adored at charter, and we had fun on board, looking out for each other, drinking endless cups of coffee to stay awake after a 4am sign on, constantly marvelling at the beautiful sunsets and sunrises and landscapes that Western Australia gave us. It was pretty sweet – the best job in the world.

A spectacular Goldfields sunset

Once, my crew and I got stranded in Broome on an unscheduled overnight, and because we were naïvely unprepared, we had next to no spare clothes in our crew bags for such an occurrence. I think I had a spare hair lackie and a spare pair of undies and that’s it! So the lovely ground crew at the terminal in Broome gave us what they gave to passengers who were stranded – some poorly screen printed company pyjamas so that we didn’t have to wander around town in our boomerang dresses! Although once I put on this grey shorts and t-shirt set I considered for a second which choice would actually be worse. But it was nice to rip off the panty hose after a long day, so pyjamas it was!

Because it was a very last minute decision that we were to overnight, I suppose there was a bit of a scramble to find us some accommodation. Despite our hopes for a nice stay at Cable Beach, we still ended up at what must’ve been a 4 or 5 star place. I got a fully self contained room with a lounge room, a bedroom, a laundry, a kitchen and a spa! It was glorious! The girls and I explored a bit of downtown Broome in our pyjamas and had a drink at the local, hoping to spot the RAAF guys who had reportedly just landed. We didn’t see them in the end, but an afternoon of gossiping with your fellow crew is never an afternoon wasted, so it was a great overnight.



Such sexy pyjamas!

That’s another thing I love about being a flight attendant – the gossip! We sure do love to have a chat, and someone always has a story to tell about a passenger or our friends at a rival airline, or a trip that they just did that was crazy, or speculation about the company, or any other company. There’s always something to talk about, and I personally love hearing and sharing war stories with my fellow crew. Everyone always has a story to tell about a diversion they had last week or how turbulent a flight was or how rude a platinum frequent flyer was. I live to hear these stories – as they’re always juicy and interesting, and I love how no one else but other cabin crew would give two hoots about it or find it the slightest bit interesting.

Truth be told, a lot of being a flight attendant is waiting. Eating, and waiting. You’re always waiting for something – for the aircraft to be fixed, for the catering to be loaded, for the passengers to board, for the seatbelt sign to go off, for the seatbelt sign to go ON, for the rest of your crew to come back from their rest break and so on and so on. So what better way to fill that time than chat with your colleagues (when and where appropriate of course – not when you should actually be doing some work!). I’ve heard some hum dinger hostie war stories in my time, and experienced quite a few of my own! There’s a reason why we call it Galley FM.

But those too are stories for another time, so make sure you keep coming back and checking my blog for new entries!

Jorgs