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Mile High Flight: Experience it for yourself |
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Frank Cerabino I've heard of the so-called Mile High Club, that loose confederation of air-travel storytellers who claim to have put more than a seat in its original upright position at the end of a flight. But I've had my doubts about these tales of carnal interludes on airplanes - especially since the extent of my "getting lucky" has involved no more than an extra bag of peanuts. What a naif I've been. The Mile High Club, it turns out, is much more tangible than I had ever imagined. In fact, memberships can be reserved with a credit card, and memorialized with post-flight souvenirs - even a video. What educated me was the crash of a small plane off Key West last week. The plane carried two would-be hijackers who wanted the Piper Cherokee flown to Cuba. The couple got aboard the plane by booking it under false pretenses. They were pretending to want to join The Mile High Club. The plane was flown by a company called Fly Key West, which was in business to run the Key West Mile High Club. "We fly at 5,280 feet, give or take six inches," the air service's motto says. The service's Web site advertised the plane's customized cabin, the promise that the pilot would be screened from the guests, and a price list of flights, ranging from "The Quickie" (20 minutes at altitude) for $199, to "The Big Bone Islander" (40 minutes at altitude) for $299 - with a $50 premium for sunset flights. As it turns out, there's a whole industry of small companies that make money initiating people into the Mile High Club. Arlynn McMahon is the operations director and a pilot for Aero-Tech, a Kentucky-based company that has operated a Mile High service for 30 years. The company uses a single-engine Cessna with a two-seat cabin that hasn't been altered at all. "You have the same amount of room as in the back of a car," McMahon said. "That's part of the fun, figuring out where the body parts will go." The flights are priced in 15-minute increments at a $160-per-hour rate. "The pilot can usually tell when the festivities are done," McMahon said. "And the stability of the plane is excellent. It can handle any kind of turbulence, whether inside or outside of the plane." Trimotor Air Tours of Fullerton, Calif., got into the Mile High business a year ago, adapting its large, 13-passenger plane by replacing some of the seats with a queen-sized bed for a luxury one-hour, $1,195 flight. "It's a great touring type airplane, so it does lend itself to that kind of romantic activity," said Bobby Hayden, the company's general manager. The company relies more heavily on its more traditional flights, but the Mile High service has been an interesting addition, Hayden said. "We had one couple who had been trying to have kids for three years, and the woman's gynecologist suggested they do something wild and crazy," Hayden said. "So they took a flight, and in fact, she conceived." Now, that's a souvenir. Other companies offer mementos ranging from certificates, pins, coffee mugs and T-shirts to videos of the flight. The Key West company even lets its customers keep the souvenir sheets. What isn't offered, though, is the forbidden thrill of avoiding discovery. The commercial airliner tale typically involves a long red-eye flight, a chance meeting and a furtive lavatory rendezvous. But that may soon change, too. Virgin Atlantic became the first airliner to order jumbo jets equipped with private cabins that include beds. Not that any of this will affect me, although it probably will be tougher to get excited about that extra bag of peanuts. frank_cerabino@pbpost.com |