Inter-Island flights

Well we're in Nassau and last night we participated in the Chrism Mass, which was absolutely wonderful - that's a blog entry all by itself. What I want to tell you about in this entry, however, is our flight from Andros to Nassau Wednesday morning.

Usually we fly a small airline called Western Air. They fly to and from Nassau daily and are pretty reliable, however the last few times they've been late so we decided to try one of the smaller flights. GlenAir (owned by Glen), has daily flights as well, but its a 5-seater or a 10-seater plane. From what I'd seen though, they always were on time so we took the plunge.

We arrived at the airport at 6:30 for the 7:00 flight and the plane was waiting. We met the other passengers, handed our one bag over to Johnnie, who carried it to the plane (no radar machine or baggage exam here), and all 5 of us walked onto the tarmac to board (it was the 5-seater plane).

The pilot stood by the wing and took our $60/person fare (cash only please but $10 cheaper than Western). Then came the task of getting into the plane. There was a step sticking out of the side of the plane, then the next step was the wing, then into the plane. There was no aisle, those in the rear 2 seats stepped over the first 2 seats to get to their seats. The pilot wisely had the two more athletic-looking men climb into those seats. An older woman struggled with the stepping on the wing deal, but she did it and got into the first seat, then Ginni was next - up onto the wing, ducking into the body of the plane and into the last of the 4 seats in the body of the plane. It was then I realized my seat would be the co-pilot's.

The pilot looks at me and says, "let me get in first." He needed to get in first because there is only 1 door and his seat was on the far side of the plane. So in he goes, then I follow, plopping myself into the co-pilot's chair, complete with steering wheel, pedals, and the windshield right in front of me.

I tried to close the door and he told me to leave it open so we'd have some ventilation. Propellor #1 gets cranked up (on his side of the plane), then #2 (on my side). I try to close the door with the prop spinning about 4 feet away and he says, "Not yet, leave it open", and I do while we taxi down the runway. So we taxi, and taxi and taxi and I am holding onto the door by the arm rest, leaving it open a few inches with the sound of the prop, and the associated breeze, filling the plane.

Once we finally reach the end of the runway and turns the plane into the wind, reaches across my body and pulls the door tight, pushes down the little button to lock it (just like your car door lock), then off we go into the sunrise. I a few minutes we're flying through clouds, I'm trying to read the altimeter and speed and compass and the tiny GPS screen - and 15 minutes later we're descending into Nassau. As we taxi toward the terminal the pilot's phone rings and its Johnnie back in Fresh Creek. I hear the pilot say, "Yeah, I can get back to Fresh Creek this morning, how about 9:30?" and I wondered if the Western Air flight had been cancelled again and Glen Air was going to pick up the slack.

Getting out, this time I am first and the whole boarding procedure takes place in reverse, with me helping everyone go from the wing to that little step sticking out of the side of the plane, and then the ground. The door at the nose of the plane is opened and we all take our bags and head out to the taxi stand to go into town.

As we walked across the tarmac I look at Ginni and say, "Its just one little adventure after another isn't it" and she laughed and said "I just prayed really hard the entire flight".

Bottom line - we were on time without a hitch and our visit to Nassau was off to a flying start - literally.

More about our visit here and the Chrism Mass in the next post.