Another Local Travel – Jet Flight – Archerfield Airport Brisbane

Last November (2023) our family, including my ex participated in contributing to a fund raising for an extreme jet flight to fulfil our eldest son Scott’s dream & goal to fly in a jet fighter. It was in fitting with reaching his milestone age of 40 … yes, that makes me much older & thanks for the sly grins on that. To be clear, that’s Scott on the left .. LOL!!! The photo below is from our just completed the 4-day Machu Picchu Trek.

Scott was always trying to match the time with his work and stressing about the potential variable cost of higher jet fuel expense if the voucher money didn’t cover it. With constant badgering from the sidelines on those involved my son-in-law Jason coordinated the time for Scott, and also his work shifts which is far more demanding than Scott’s. Well done, Jason, for the time was set 26^th September 2024.

Now we have a commitment I travelled to my daughter & Jason’s home at Canungra Queensland some 3hrs by car the day before the flight and to meet up with Scott who also stayed overnight. The only issue was for clear weather and in the hope the flight isn’t postponed.

Up early knowing the traffic to Brisbane can normally be horrendous we arrived at Fighter Pilot Adventure Flights, 612 Lores Bonney Drive Archerfield on the outer perimeter of the airport at their assigned hanger well before Scott’s timed flight. https://fighterpilot.com.au

We arrived to be met with Paul who conducted the induction session and allowed us to be air side to be closer to the operations. The L39 Albatros 2-seater jet was going through its initial warm up & testing procedure. The jet has a max speed of 872Km/h & producing up to 6.5 G forces but the airstrip region closely monitors these jet runs in this busy domestic airport. The L39 Albatros is the safest jet trainer in the world, so that was very comforting. It has been used in over 30 air forces for training & some are weapons fitted.

We purchased the Gold Level 30minute flight (most popular) $2,550.00. There is a Platinum Level @ $3,450.00 & definitely has some upgrade features in the flight.

Scott was fitted out in a proper flight suit & fighter helmet. The suit only just fitted him in the largest size available. The flight path is heading west to Wyaralong Dam, which is located at the base of Mt Joyce, north-west of the township of Beaudesert some 60klm straight line away & due west of Canungra.

Being airside we were able to see a male walking past us in an approved air suit full of injected adrenaline and promoting the experience. We all thought he was the pilot. Our surprise was to see the pilot then exiting the jet with Paul’s help of a medium step ladder. The pilot was dressed in jeans and a shirt normally fitted out for a farmer. He was too large for a flight suit, so he doesn’t use one. He was the most unassuming image of a jet pilot, with us being judgmental.

The jet was now undertaking re-fueling and there was a time period for us to peruse the hanger & memorabilia including an Indian suicide shift war motorcycle in extremely good condition (suicide shift is a gear stick extending up from the gearbox, alongside the fuel tank & is positioned between the legs of the rider). Apologies for no photo. There was also a radius map showing the flying range from London towards Germany by some set aircraft at the time of WW2 & this confirmed how well the war of flight was so well orchestrated to reach their targets.

Some 20mins later, Paul ushered us to the aircraft area & to take photos of Scott sitting in the cockpit and gaining the safety drill & instructions from the pilot, Cameron. Within another 10mins the jet was underway for the 30min flight. There was a thin cloud cover being pushed by high winds above and Paul confirmed this was the perfect weather for a jet flight as clouds like these really show Scott the true jet speed. I mentioned to Scott prior that Goose was in the 2nd seat behind Maverick so he must be Goose for the day. A sly grin & a quick retort followed of course.

I can’t believe how quick the 30mins passed us by and seeing the jet land at quite some speed, compared to the single prop plane taking off a minute earlier. The jet taxied over to the parking bay near the storage hanger and from there we experienced Scott’s adrenaline of the flight, which is quite rare for us, as Scott is usually very calm & subdued in conversation. With Scott’s flight being the last for the day we enjoyed a very long chat with the pilot & owner, Cameron. Jason scored a wonderful interaction with Cameron as he is a registered light plane pilot who when upon leaving school entered the air force to become a jet pilot only to have the air force damage his back and forced him out after major surgery.

Cameron has a large property out at Warwick (West of Brisbane) & commutes to Brisbane on set days in his Cessna light plane as he has his own airstrip on his property. His father who originally had the 2 L39 jets, 2 war prop planes, hangers, etc over time sold them to Cameron as he started to retire. Cameron learnt to fly by his father when he was 15 and kept evolving and is also a qualified Jet Engineer who maintains and fixes his own jets & planes and others who have such aircraft. He also has a specialist Jet Welding workshop.

In seeing most of Cameron’s aircrafts and what is involved it surely boils down to the love of the industry & flying, for this adventure jet flight setup there is approx. $150k just in insurance costs alone annually. The jet takes about 250L of jet fuel each flight @ approx. $2.60/l currently. The registrations, maintenance, etc is a cost that would scare anyone entertaining such an operation.

Our next mission is to get Jason into a flight with his idol, Matt Hall who operates adrenaline light plane acrobatics out of Port Macquarie & Sydney under https://www.matthallracing.com

I’ll end this Blog here, so stay safe, happy & hopefully enjoy the photos as much as I have had reviewing them.

“Communication … Communication … Talk to each other”. From a song “Kite” on the concert DVD “Go Home” by U2 @ Slane Castle. YouTube have it also.

Thank you again for reading my blogs and I trust you will stay safe, happy & healthy for 2024. I do not receive any commissions &/or ‘perks’ from the above nominated businesses & locations as I am purely happy to provide the acknowledgement and connection.

I always look forward to seeing the feedback so don’t be afraid to comment. Live life to the most and a quote that I truly love is from Eckhart Tolle ..

“If I am not the hero of my life … who in the hell could be?”