Fokker F100 Jumpseat Trip Report

[NewZealand2]

This is my very first trip report ever, so your opinion would be appreciated.

F100 Jumpseat P2-AND - Air Niugini.

It was arranged that I was to travel in the jumpseat of an F100 from Port Moresby to Mt. Hagen and back.
It came the morning of the flight, 23rd of December, and for some reason, I was really nervous.
My father took me to Jacksons Domestic Terminal, which took a quick 5minute drive from where he lives.

We arrived, and had to fight through the crowds of the holiday rush, continuously feeling my back pockets to make sure no one was, or had, taken my wallet and ticket, pick pocketing is quite common in PNG.
After about 10minutes fighting through smelly crowds of people and being pushed around, my father had had enough, and decided to show his ID card to the nearest security officer, who immediately pushed the public out of the way, and made a pathway for us, I have to say I felt quite privileged then. We finally got to the check-in counter where we went straight through to load control. I met the lovely lady that was in charge, and she wrote out my boarding pass for me, after speaking with her about how unusually busy it was out in the terminal.
After that was all sorted, we went up to the crew briefing room, where we stood around for what seemed like a VERY long time in a non air-conditioned room with the morning sun pouring in, waiting for the Captain that was taking me up to Hagen. Finally, the Captain made an appearance, and introduced himself to me. He has just arrived from an early morning flight from Lae. After he sorted out the paperwork for our flight to Hagen, he invited Dad and I down to the aircraft, that we were going to be taking up to Hagen, P2-ANB.
Once we were onboard it was discovered that the aircraft had come in with a computer fault, and so the captain decided to leave that aircraft with that crew, and we were to take another aircraft to Hagen, P2-AND.
So while this discussion was taking place, I was chatting with the cabin crew that brought the aircraft in from Cairns, who were quite concerned that they had to change aircraft or else they were to end up in Mt. Hagen. So back up to the crew room I went to sweat some more, while this was all sorted out. The captain went back to "“AND to get the pre-flight started and advised me to wait in the briefing room.
The captain then sent a message to the briefing room via radio, to tell me to now board the aircraft, but of course, typical PNG, the message didn't get through to me. The captain ended up having to run back up to the briefing room, which is not exactly in close proximity, to pass the message, I was very grateful for that, because he could have quite easily just not bothered, as he was very pushed for time.
So off I went, down the hallway, down the stairs, through the check-in crowds to the boarding gate. I presented my boarding card and I made my way to the aircraft. At this stage, the flight had been delayed considerably due to aircraft swaps, slow boarding, ground staff shortage etc.
No passengers were onboard at this stage, so I introduced my self to the Flight Attendant at the door, told her I was doing the return, and she wished me a pleasant journey, I then proceeded to the cockpit, where I met F/O Gaegae.
The captain wasn't in the cockpit, so F/O Gaegae instructed me to take a seat in the captain's seat. YAY! (It kinda felt uncomfortable sitting there, I felt like I was taking someone's place) We then proceeded with a conversation about aviation, of course, and after that, he took me through the safety drills, such as, how to use the smoke goggles, how to open the windows, and where the escape rope was, and flash light etc. and finally, how to operate my seat. (I still never figured out how to unfold, and stow it properly).
By this time, the captain had arrived, so it was time to give up the "driver's seat', for the very rigid, upright, cramped, and quite simply"¦uncomfortable jumpseat. By this time, my father has also left, to go back to work.
We waited for loading, and boarding to be completed, and then for the load sheet to arrive. After all this, we were set to go. F/O Gaegae radioed for our clearance, and following that, out taxi clearance.
After the F/O started 1 engine, the captain offered for me to start the second! Now that was cool!
I proceeded to push the starter switch, and watched for the N2 gauge to get to 4% (!from memory!), and then introduced the fuel, and as simple as that, away went the second engine.
So off we went to the hold point runway 14L, crossing the flight path of 14R.

I'm going to leave this report here, and I will post continuations of this report in the near future.
I would like to thank Captain Padigaga, and F/O Gaegae for making me feel very welcome, and for giving me this opportunity.

Remember, your comments are appreciated!

[Naki]

That was interesting - I have never seen a Fokker 100 let alone been in one - where is Mt Hagen? - keep posting!

[ardypilot]

Very interesting NewZealand2, I'd like to here more.

Do you happen to have any photographs of your flight? Jumpseats sure make for a great pic snapping spot during landing

Also, do you live in PNG or were you on holiday? Sounds like you had a lot of fun!

[mailman]

I flew from Auckland to Wellington in the jump seat of a 737 on september 11, 2001. Last jump seat ride I ever got!

Clearly the terrorists were out to ruin my fun!

Mailman

[creator2003]

awesome man crazy and i are flying over asia and have just left that papa new guinea zone for singpore currently in WAAA heading out early this morning for more endless action
i was suprized to see png was simular to nzlandclass and the hills mountains etc WOW just like flying around home {in the sim }

great boarding so far id like to hear the rest about the flight later ,

[JonARNZ]

Great report, keep it coming.

[ZK-Brock]

Awesome dude

[Charl]

Excellent first post, thank you for sharing.
Be interesting to hear your impression of how busy the Fokker cockpit gets.
Did it have a glass cockpit, or was it an older one with steam gauges?

[NewZealand2]

Wow, so many responses! thanks guys.

Now...to answer your questions

1)Mt. Hagen is in the middle of Papua New Guinea, the airfield there is next to the highest peak in PNG, which stands at around 14000ft.

2a)I didn't take a camera with me unfortunatly (ill know for next time )
2b)I was on holiday visiting my Dad, who lives there.

3)It was a glass cockpit, so it stayed fairly calm in there. It's the F28 that gets very busy.

Now that school has started, im gonna have to find some time to write the rest of the reports.

Thanks again for reading guys,
Tom.

[FlyingKiwi]

That must have been awesome fun, make sure you take pictures next time!