My First Flight Experience

It took me close to quarter century since I said hello to this world to experience my first journey in the air. Earlier this month I had been to Mumbai during the Deepevali with Diganth (My cousin!). To reduce the overall trip period we decided to book a flight for return journey.

The Mumbai plan was confirmed just a week before the journey. We were in confusion of which flight to go for. The tariffs were high due to last moment booking and festive season. Lowest available was around Rs.4.3k for Indian Airlines I guess. We finally decided to go for Mallyaji's KF Airlines. It was a pretty good choice to experience the first flight journey indeed. I think you guys can guess why we went for KF even though fare turned out to be whopping high, approx 5.3K!!! One more reason for high fare was the timing of the flight. It was 6:50 AM in the morning, very much convenient to most of the people.

We reached airport at the right time, one hour in advance, 5:45AM in the morning. Uncle (Appacchi) had booked a cab which was our transport till the Airport from Nerul in Navi mumbai. I was already dreaming about the sight in the air, when I was slightly sleepy in the car journey to Airport. The Airport was moderately covered with small queue in front of us. It was for the getting the actual ticket for journey.We had earlier booked the ticket online for convenience. Once the ticket was collected, the person in the counter questioned us to confirm that we are not carrying any deo, sharp edged items etc. As we carried only hand bags we had less process to follow. We immediately joined few other people for security check of the luggage. The luggage is made to pass in a rolling strap. Meanwhile we are requested to pass through metal detectors. I was actually made to go back and asked to place my mobile on the rolling strap as it was part of the procedure though it sounded strange. Once we cleared this basic procedures I collected my baggage and we headed towards the waiting room. Everything happened so fast unlike what usually happens if you are travelling in an international flight (I guess!!).

Minutes before travel: We heard an announcement roughly half an hour before the journey. It was the time to board the flight. My cousin was saying that we will be travelling in a bus or so to the flight location. But to our surprise the Flight was parked attached to the Airport building. We directly entered the flight welcomed by the couple of pretty Air hostesses. I could feel the AC the moment we entered the plane with cool breeze coming from the side of the plane. We had booked an economy class ticket and the seating arrangement inside the plane looked very similar to local buses except for luxury finish. Unfortunately I had to settle one seat next to the window seat. Soon, I was busy checking the internals of the plane. I found nothing special except for two things which dragged my attention. Air hostesses and the In flight entertainment systems attached to back side of each seat!!

We were instructed that the flight will get slightly delayed due to morning fog. Meanwhile we were requested to go through manuals provided on hadling the emergency situations etc. As expected each one of us was given a standard KF red earphones to listen to the offerings provided by the IFE systems. Most of the instructions were shown in the small display of IFE. There were couple of channels provided in the entertainment system. In middle of all this in back of my mind I was dreaming about the takeoff adrenaline rush!!.

Finally the flight started moving around around 7:15 AM. It was warming up slowly for some time in low velocity before taking position for the take off. Finally I could feel the plane accelerating. I slowly started bending left towards the window with full eagerness to see how does it look outside. Take off was lot simple than I expected in terms of thrill, but one of the best moments of the journey. The mumbai City looked beautiful with Sea Link (I guess) below so tiny. It was cloudy morning as we entered the city of clouds as the altitude increased. The sight at that height with clouds surrounded was spectacular, Clouds were sun lit and they were shining which looked simpy superb. Looked as if we were close to North or South pole. At that moment I remembered all the Hindi/Kannada movies where they picturize the heaven and I could exactly relate the present scene visible outside to it!!The temprature in the IFE display read -30degrees and height close to 10000mtrs. Just Imagine the speed, it was more than 700Km/hr! I was enjoying it even though could not feel the speed!. But the sudden change in pressure had hit me badly. I was not able to hear properly at that height. One of the Air hostess was serving the breakfast and she started to enquire on what I would like to have. I was able to respond only after asking her to repeat the same thing twice!! Sounds funny right :) By this time the external view was not very special anymore with only white screen visible! My attention switched back to the IFE device. I started my Veg breakfast watching the tiny screen fixed to the seat right in front of me. The food served was Idli, masala Dosa, fruits and Bun. Food was pretty ok, but it was extremely difficult to eat in the congested area. Journey was lot less interesting than I had imagined before. It was approximately 1Hr we were in Air when i started getting bored inspite of IFE. But great news was that we were just half an hour away from landing.

I was viewing the journey time left being displayed at regular intervals in one of the channels provided in the IFE. We could feel the flight changing the direction and also moving down. At one instant for roughly about 2 to 3 seconds I felt the effect of a free fall. Land was finally visible below. Suddenly captain made an announcement that due to Air traffic the landing will be delayed by few minutes. This actually did not bother me as I felt good in the plane as it was circling in the air near the Airport with the land visible through the window. Finally it was the landing time. I suddenly started worrrying for few seconds about my luck with the plane. Plane landed lot smoother than expected though you could feel the wheels touching the ground!! Pilot started applying the breaks, to slow down the plane. Its all over, I am safe back on this Earth!!! Strangely I felt so happy fom within just after the landing. I think this was because of lack of flight experience.

Minutes later I was travelling towards office in the BMTC Volvo Bus, back to the routine with my flight experience fresh in mind.... Couple of hours back in Mumbai now in B'lore...Wooow!!! :)