Doing the bad things

Location Any seat I like | Mood Excited | Date 19 October 2005
Filed in:
Author (full name): 
Franny Armstrong
Location: 
Any seat I like
Mood: 
Excited
Soundtrack: 
Fan twirling
Ailments: 
Jetlag
Date: 
19 October 2005
Current crisis: 
Only have tourist visa, but arriving in India as aeroplane crew
Current silver lining: 
Didn't get arrested for smuggling DVDs
Next job: 
Plane preparation in hanger

One of the best things about making documentaries is that you get to do all the bad things in the name of helping the rest of our species realise that they should stop doing the bad things. In this case, I'm flying from Singapore to Mumbai on the spare seat in the cockpit of a jumbo. Except I now know it's the jump seat on the flight deck of a 320. That's not such a good thing about getting immersed in so many new worlds - coming out with the lingo.

Captain Peter is a Canadian/Dutch pilot training dude, who is here to make sure the plane gets to where it's supposed to with all the right certificates. (Presumably without crashing too, but the certificates are definitely more important.) Luckily, he seems to have taken to me and says that now I'm "one of the team". Didn't quite believe him last night in the bar in his jeans and checked shirt, but come the morning and the pilot uniform, I would've believed him if he said this climate change stuff was all nonsense.

The only other people flying today are Lucky from the airline (very lucky for us that Lizzie bumped into him in the corridor when we were last in India, as he has been the only person to give a straight answer to a straight question. He gave me a slightly overfriendly hug in the foyer when I arrived, which was a good thing overall as it convinced the hotel staff that I wasn't here to rob the place - in my inferior clothing - but was in fact a valued guest), plus two giggly Spanish pilots (more later) and one engineer. So that'll be six of us in a plane built for 230. Can't wait to find out my carbon emissions.