Sierra Del Barón Rojo

Well Thunder's harness worked well, she sat in the cargo hold and looked out the window in the cargo door.

After we got to 7,500' she lay down and slept. She didn't wake until I slowed down for the circuit at Moruya 32 minutes later, then she looked out the window again.

I wonder what was going through her mind? She seemed to enjoy watching the trees and then the clouds go by as we climbed through scattered cloud. She didn't display one hint of motion sickness as evidenced by the fact she fell asleep, nor did she seem uneasy when we came in to land. No fear of heights.

The noise in the back of the aircraft isn't bad, I have had passengers remove their headset in row 2 and say it isn't too loud, so the cargo hold ought to be quieter again. It was noisy enough though because I had to speak loudly to draw her attention, so on a longer trip she might have required ear plugs.

Thunder occasionally looked forward between the gap in the 2nd row seats, but preferred to look out the side-window most of the time, just like she does when she travels in our cars, except the window doesnt open in the plane.

I gave her a big feed as reward after we landed, and we walked the beach, and she played in the surf. It took her a while to get into the surf though, I had to walk up to my knees and call her in. It was cold and she wasn't that impressed with the waves and preferred to walk the beach instead.

She obviously enjoyed the trip as I had no difficulty getting her to jump back into the aeroplane. Well, when I say jump, I mean put her front paws in the cargo hold and wait for me to lift her in, because the cargo hold door is about 1 meter (3ft) above the ground, and is of sufficient size to take an adult and certainly children or a dog.

The cargo door is full sized

Thunder stayed awake the whole way home (which took 38 minutes) and was seen to be a happy looking dog looking out the window as we taxiied past the Regular Public Transport terminal, and because she didn't get sick, I suppose she might be invited to travel with me again some other time.

I am still trying to remove the dog hairs from my plane and from my car.

It's a dog's life flying to the beach - what a beach!