Today's flight back to Brazza is operated by a plain white 737 sporting the name "Karen" in lovely italicized letters on the nose. At least people still give real names to their planes. All that's missing is a lovely pin up girl painted next next to the name already on the plane. This aircraft used to be all economy. The now converted to first class front section still has three overhead lights and the seat indicators still have three lettered seats for each row. The first row on the right has ridiculous leg room. A small bed could probably be fit in. They're really packing them in on this flight. The flight crew is all English speaking. I'm thinking South African maybe. The door closes. Here we go. The safety card says Quarius Air on it. I wonder if this is a Serenity type situation where the plane and it's crew go wherever there is work. The take off roll feels a bit sluggish but what do I know because the pilots choose what seems to me to be a quite aggressive climbout angle. Near the end of the flight one of the passengers quickly stashes away one of the flight safety cards in their bag. Considering that I'll probably never be on a flight like this again it would be a unique souvenir, but what would I really do with it? And I definitely don't need more junk. The crew has a pretty relaxed attitude to the whole flight. It's rather nice actually. After a smooth and interesting (for me) landing I'm soon off the plane.

Jump to a few hours later and I've done a quick internet search on this Quarius Air plane that I just rode. They're actually called AirQuarius Aviation and indeed they are based out of South Africa. Now here is where things get really interesting. This company specializes in operating in some of the most challenging areas if the world. Their crews flew the only passenger service into Baghdad during the Second Gulf War and they have planes and crew throughout Africa with mostly minimal external support. This is the real deal here. I guess after the type of flying these people do, 40 minute flights ferrying passengers between two quiet airports is rather pedestrian. I really wish I had the time to talk to the crew a bit. I wish them the best of luck and open skies ahead.