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Flying experience on JOEY

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My name is Callum and I work for Travelsmith. As well as working in reservations I also help with the Social Media activity updating such sites as Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Last month I had the opportunity of an educational visit to Guernsey and Alderney and wanted to share with you my experience of flying on little JOEY as I was so taken back with this small aircraft. I am personally not the most comfortable of fliers even though I grew up with a family of long-haulers. The whole aspect of getting on JOEY with his 18-seat capacity frightened the living day lights out of me! However I soldiered on as it was a necessary part of work and we needed to get over to Alderney.

At the airport we all lined up on the tarmac waiting to board and as our names were called out I could feel the fear start to bubble. As soon as I heard ‘Mr Darcy, Callum Darcy?’ I confess to feeling more than a little apprehensive but when I started to walk toward JOEY and see that glorious smile he has it did reassure me and reminded me from one of my favourite Disney cartoons ‘Cars’! With myself now strapped in and the doors locking I did still feel a little uneasy but the pilot was so reassuring explaining that JOEY could only fly about 1000ft, just under the cloud line and explaining other fascinating facts. When we all settled in and the chocks were moved away I could hear the roar of JOEY’s engines as we sped down the runway.

When we finally took off and reached cruising speed I was shocked that I couldn’t feel a thing (granted it may of been a good weather that day) but it was such a smooth flight and the fact that we flew under the clouds we could see everything. Watching the beautiful island of Guernsey underneath as we passed overhead was brilliant.

The whole time I was fascinated as I watched the pilot flip switches, pull levers and check maps as he skilfully flew little JOEY towards Alderney. It was really interesting I found myself staring for ages, just fascinated about how much work goes into flying (from what I could see, a lot!)

Just 15 minutes later in the horizon we could see Alderney and the cliff approaching with runway stretching over the island. The pilot then started our descent and little JOEY’s nose started to point down to the runway the whole time staying on course with one of the most smoothest landings I have personally had and may I say also one of the smoothest flights I have had to date.

Aurigny’s little JOEY aircraft amazed me and I was so impressed with the whole experience that I can’t wait to do it all again. For anyone planning to do a spot of island hopping I would thoroughly recommend an inter-island flight on JOEY.

To Aurigny I would just like to say once again thank you so much for your service on that day and of course for many days to come!

Guest blogger: Callum Darcy

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About the author

Posted by Tracy

Tracy has worked in travel and tourism marketing for over 30 years. She joined Travelsmith in 1987 and enjoys her role as Sales & Marketing Manager for the group. Having moved from Essex to Cornwall in 2001, Tracy loves life in the southwest. She is married with two children, one lively Cocker Spaniel and a lazy cat. Tracy can be contacted via email: [email protected]

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