I arrived at the airport in Calgary at 08:00 December 26. My flight wasn’t until 11:30 but because I was traveling with my hang glider they wanted me there 3 hours early so the baggage handlers can deal with it. The airport was busy and I had to wait in a long line. One of the ticket agents thought it looked too big to fit on the plan and had some one to find out who it belonged to. I put my hand up and the guy told me it wouldn’t fit on the plan. I said yes it will. Check my reservation, it should have a note that I am flying with a hang glider. We have traveled with them before on West Jet. He scurried off and made some calls. After getting by the ticket agent customs made me take it to get x-rayed. After that I dropped it on the luggage belt and hoped it would get loaded on the plane. It’s always stressful waiting to see if it gets loaded on the plane. You can see them load the plane from the terminal and I saw it was the last thing they loaded on the back of the plane. Well at least I will get to LA with my glider!
It’s a short 2 ½ hour flight to LA and then I had a nine hour lay over before my flight to Sydney. It wasn’t much fun hanging out at LAX for five hours with my glider. I had to go two miles around to the other side of the airport and then up an escalator to the second floor. I grabbed a hot dog for lunch and then got over to the United gates. I spent the afternoon sitting with my glider listening to my new ipod touch (very cool). A very large Chinese family sat next to me for just about the whole time and I had small children just lay down and sleep on me. I went to the ticket agent four hours before my flight to see how much they were going to charge me to take my glider. She didn’t think they could take it. I told her their should be a note on my reservation that I would be traveling with a hang glider. She said they had no note. I told her it came here on a 737 I’m sure it will fit on a 747. She told me some one would come up and look at it but no one ever did. When I went to check in they didn’t give me any hassle but the guy said theirs going to be a big charge to take that. I know. They charged me $220us. The guys last year paid close to $400!
I now had a long 14 ½ hour flight to Sydney. I had an empty seat next to me so we had lots of space for the flight. I was able to get about 8 hours sleep on the flight and felt rested when we landed in Sydney. I got lucky and the flight attendant gave me an express pass to get through customs easier. The flight arrived in Sydney at 08:00 December 28th. I got thru immigration quickly and was off to get my luggage. I wait for a while and never saw my harness so I headed to over size baggage to see if my glider was over there. I found my harness but my glider wasn’t there. I went and asked it they had seen a glider yet and they told me they were still unloading baggage. After a short while they brought my glider out. The airport was wall to wall people. The only place you had room to move was at the over sized baggage. Lucky for me the express lane was right next to the oversized baggage and I just cut into the line and didn’t even have to go through customs. Then out to the arrival area which was also packed like a busy night club on a Friday night. One of the airport workers said just keep moving. Ya right. I managed to get through the crowd and found a spot to wait for my ride.
It’s a short 2 ½ hour flight to LA and then I had a nine hour lay over before my flight to Sydney. It wasn’t much fun hanging out at LAX for five hours with my glider. I had to go two miles around to the other side of the airport and then up an escalator to the second floor. I grabbed a hot dog for lunch and then got over to the United gates. I spent the afternoon sitting with my glider listening to my new ipod touch (very cool). A very large Chinese family sat next to me for just about the whole time and I had small children just lay down and sleep on me. I went to the ticket agent four hours before my flight to see how much they were going to charge me to take my glider. She didn’t think they could take it. I told her their should be a note on my reservation that I would be traveling with a hang glider. She said they had no note. I told her it came here on a 737 I’m sure it will fit on a 747. She told me some one would come up and look at it but no one ever did. When I went to check in they didn’t give me any hassle but the guy said theirs going to be a big charge to take that. I know. They charged me $220us. The guys last year paid close to $400!
I now had a long 14 ½ hour flight to Sydney. I had an empty seat next to me so we had lots of space for the flight. I was able to get about 8 hours sleep on the flight and felt rested when we landed in Sydney. I got lucky and the flight attendant gave me an express pass to get through customs easier. The flight arrived in Sydney at 08:00 December 28th. I got thru immigration quickly and was off to get my luggage. I wait for a while and never saw my harness so I headed to over size baggage to see if my glider was over there. I found my harness but my glider wasn’t there. I went and asked it they had seen a glider yet and they told me they were still unloading baggage. After a short while they brought my glider out. The airport was wall to wall people. The only place you had room to move was at the over sized baggage. Lucky for me the express lane was right next to the oversized baggage and I just cut into the line and didn’t even have to go through customs. Then out to the arrival area which was also packed like a busy night club on a Friday night. One of the airport workers said just keep moving. Ya right. I managed to get through the crowd and found a spot to wait for my ride.
