THE LAST QANTAS 747 FLIGHT

 QANTAS BOEING 747

FOND MEMORIES MOST OF THE TIME

The last flight of a Qantas Boeing 747 on July 22, 2020 from Sydney to the Movae Desert in California has been well covered and was a fitting tribute for the aircraft that had been in operation for 47 years since September 1971 when the first Boring 747-238 (VH-EBA) and named City of Canberra was put into service between Sydney and Singapore.

My last flight on a Qantas 747 was in late November 2019 from Santiago Chile to Sydney and I assume it was the last in the fleet. The poor old thing was looking a little tired but was fine. It made me question, now I am locked down in Plague City (Melbourne) how many miles I did on a Qantas 747 and Qantas generally. I know I have about 2.5 millions miles on American Airlines and my guess is that Qantas would be about 3.5 million. There been numerous flights on other airlines , too many to be named.My guess is I have spent about three years of my life at 30,000 feet

Looking back some flights on a 747 and some were not so good. I recall one flight on Pan Am from Los Angeles to Tokyo in 1981 which managed to get only to Achorage Alaska because of head winds and we had to spend eight hours in Anchorage waiting for a new crew .

A memorable flight on one of the old 747 ;s operated by Qantas between Sydney and LA (there was stop-over in Fji and Honolulu) as I recall was in First Class and I had seat 2B. The legendry performer Sammy David Jnr. had 2A on the oposite side. Sammy spent the entire flight entertaining the economy passengers in the back of the aircraft.

Some other famous actors who have flow on Qantas and who I had the opportunity to be seated near were not so friendly. I did sit to a former  Govenro General of Australia sitting next to me in economy  down the back from Rome to Singapore. The poor guy sat on a square of butter that had dropped onto his seat. (Name with held).