- This week I'm taking a ride on the longest turboprop flight
in the entire United States, which is quite a feat considering America's
dislike of turboprop planes that mean most airlines in the US only operate jet aircraft these days. But not the airline I'm flying on today because they don't own any jets. They are entirely turboprop airline. And today they're starting to fly the longest turboprop flight
in the whole of the USA and we're going on board for a ride to find out what it's like. Now, I always enjoy flying
through Tampa Airport. It's just such a cool vibe about it. You sort of check in here and then there's like little trains out to all of the different concourses, it's a bit like you
when you go to Orlando. TSA is all done at that end. So this area here is pretty much public and you can walk around a little bit, I mean it quite nice these
shops and things here. The train over to the gates at
Tampa airport is pretty cool. You get on board and it
takes you right the way across to the gates where
you clear your TSA clearance before you head down to the plane. So my flight today is with an
airline called Silver Airways and they only fly turboprop planes. So it's no surprise that
they are going to be flying their longest route with an ATR 42 and it's about a three-hour run today from here in Florida all the way up to Greensboro in North Carolina. It's a route that hasn't
been served before today. Today is the first flight, so we're gonna head down to the gate and figure out what it's like. Silver Airways board from the
downstairs gates here at Tampa where you walk straight out to the plane. So I headed downstairs
to wait for the flight. This is pretty convenient really. There's like these little desk
areas down here at the gate which is pretty cool 'cause it means you
can get some work done. And actually I'm gonna be trying out the new Acer Swift Edge 16 laptop today. Because it's quite a slim laptop I thought it would be a
perfect chance to try it on such a tiny plane as the ATR and maybe give me something to do for the three hours it's gonna take me to get up to Greensboro, North Carolina. I sat down and used the airport's wifi to download some Netflix to watch during the flight up to Greensboro. This was going to be a really long flight with not a lot to do on the plane so I needed to do everything I could to keep me occupied for the flight. With it being an inaugural flight, they've laid on a bit of a celebration. We've got some cookies and
little gifts and things. It's pretty cool when
airlines do stuff like this. I'm gonna grab a
Greensboro cookie I think. So here's the thing, this is the inaugural
flight up to Greensboro, but there's like 10 people
on the entire flight. Not really surprising for the first one because it's really
aimed, I guess, at people coming from North Carolina down to Florida rather than the other way round. And obviously with this
being the first one there's nobody really going back home that's flown down with
Silver from Greensboro. So just 10 folk on the flight today, nobody until now aware that they're actually on the
first ever flight to Greensboro so, which is pretty interesting. But hey nonetheless, I'm really looking
forward to today's flight. An ATR 42 with 10 people on
it, that should be pretty cool. Quite spacious too I imagine. And I didn't have too long to find out because fairly soon the
ATR 42 pulled onto stand after its flight from Pensacola. Now that's a flight I've
done with Silver Airways before flying from Orlando to Pensacola. I'll pop a link on the screen so once you've watched this video you might want to check that one out too. And given the fact that there were only 10
passengers on today's flight, there were plenty of cookies to go around so they were handing them
out to the passengers that were inbound from Pensacola too. Congratulations guys,
you've just got off a plane that's about to do something
for the first time. - [Announcer] We would like to welcome you to Silver Airways and thank
you for flying with us for the first time, it's
an inaugural flight. - [Noel] So fairly soon it was time to board the flight up to Greensboro. Thank you. - [Announcer] Flight to
Greensboro and once again- - You're all done. - Alright, thank you.
- You're welcome. - [Announcer] And thank you for being on our inaugural flight. - [Noel] As it would turn
out that was the last mention of the word inaugural flight for my entire trip up to Greensboro as I headed across to
the plane to get on board for the three-hour ride
up to North Carolina. - Hi, how are you?
- Good, how are you? - [Noel] I'm good, thank you very much. - [Attendant] Good. - [Noel] Thank you very much. - [Attendant] There's like eight of you, so you could honestly, open
seating is fine with me. - Okay.
- Kind spread out one. - [Noel] That's fine, that's awesome. Thank you.
- You're welcome. - The ATR 42 600 is the smallest plane in Silver Airways fleet. and seats 46 people across 12 rows. My seat today was towards
the front end row two, but to be honest we were
allowed to take any seat that we wanted. Alright then welcome on board
the Silver Airways ATR 42-600. I've flown on quite a few ATRs,
this is the first ATR 42-600 that I've been on. It's the smallest one that they do. A very short, little plane,
not really surprising. There's only actually
eight of us on board. There were 10 booked
but two didn't show up so there's only eight people on an ATR 42. So as you can see there is
plenty of space to go around and they said we could
sit wherever we like. This is my assigned row two, there's my view out over the engine. And you know what, it's
not actually too bad. I've got quite a decent
amount of space here and leg room and stuff, considering this is a
small turboprop plane it's kind of quite handy really 'cause it is a sort of three-hour leg in an ATR 42. but it is quite spacious. I'm quite happy with that. So I think we're all on
board, all eight of us and we'll be getting on our way very soon for our ride up north to Greensboro, North Carolina. - [Recorded Voice] Ladies and gentlemen, at this time I will be
closing the main cabin door. - [Attendant] Once again,
welcome aboard flight 44 with service to Greensboro. Your flight Captain Jokorge assisted by first Officer Dennis. - [Recorded Voice] In the
unlikely event of a water landing there is a life vest
located beneath your seat. - We taxied out to the runway at Tampa to get on our way for our
mammoth three-hour flight to cross America to North Carolina. Our route today then took
us north across Florida, crossing Georgia and South Carolina before entering North Carolina and descending into Greensboro. Flight time today was
two hours, 44 minutes, cruising at 19,000 feet. So whereas in other parts of the world, turboprops are still
pretty popular really, you can generally fly
around Europe or Asia or South America even on turboprops. Here in the US, well,
they've kind of fallen out popularity quite some
time ago with the advent of jet aircraft to the point where if you speak to most people they would much rather take a flight on a jet than they would on a turboprop. It's not difficult to see why. They're small and cramped, noisy as hell, especially if you say nearby the engine like I am foolishly and they
fly at lower levels as well. So you tend to get bounced around quite a lot more by the weather. So it's not difficult to see why Americans prefer jet aircraft. That being said though,
Silver Airways are building up a nice little market here
in the southeast of the US from Florida all the way up
across the southeast using ATRs and they seem to be pretty popular usually at least from the flights
that I've taken with them. Today's flight not quite
as popular, but then again, with one flight a week between Tampa and Greensboro it's probably
not difficult to see why, but I'm looking forward to it anyway even if there's not many other people to enjoy the experience with.
- Ladies and gentlemen, your seatbelt- - [Noel] Once we leveled off
at our cruising attitude, it was time to crack open the laptop and Netflix and chill for
the rest of the flight. Now I have to say I haven't
used a Windows laptop in a very long time, so I'm
a little bit outta the loop. I've not seen this fancy
new Windows 11 before. It's pretty cool actually. It's quite nice. It looks quite pretty. It seems to have quite a lot of useful functions with it as well. The thing I really like about it though is this
Windows studio effects. Basically like when you
do a webcam or a call, like a Zoom call or something like that, it kind of follows you as you move around and keeps you focused on the frame all the time
so you look really nice. Well, if you're not me
you look really nice when you do video calls and stuff. It's really cool. It uses like AI technology and stuff. It's pretty nifty, pretty nice. It's also got high speed wifi as well. So when I was on the ground down in Tampa I downloaded some Netflix to watch. So I'm gonna sit and watch
some Netflix on me laptop. Because it's powered by
AMD's Ryzen processor, the Swift Edge 16 has no
problem at all playing videos or even some gaming to keep
you occupied on the go. Check out the link in the
description to get your hands on one of these core pieces of kit. - [Commentator] It's time for
the Noel Phillips loo review. - It is indeed time for the
Noel Phillips loo review and this is the longest
turboprop flight loo review. There ain't much room,
it's an ATR bathroom. These things aren't exactly
amorous A380 class bathrooms. We've got no showers or
anything on here apart from when the water splashes on the floor as it appears to have done. But this is the loo at
the back of the ATR 42. We've got some sanitary towels there, some hand washing wipes
and stuff like that. We've got the toilet just
there, baby changing table and everything pops out just there. We've got the little
caravan style sink here, a bit of a nasty air vent there. And that's pretty much it really. These things aren't exactly
known for their spaciousness, let's say, but with
only 10 people on board, sorry, with only eight people on board 'cause two didn't turn up remember. It's actually not actually
that bad and we've only got a three-hour run today,
so it's not like it's gonna be doing like a 12-hour flight
and having people using it for 12 hours. It's not the end of the world. It's not massive though, that's the thing. So if I were you, I would
probably make sure you go before you get on the plane,
a mistake that I made. - [Commentator] That was
the Noel Philips Loo Review. - [Crew] The flight crew
would like to welcome you again aboard Silver flight 44
with service to Greensboro. At this time we level off 18,000 feet. - I see the average length of flight on the ATRs here in the States is just around 300 miles long. This flight today is 600. It's double the length of
the average ATR flight. And you can kind of see why. I'm sitting here right now, my head is absolutely pounding right now. We've got still an hour left. We've done like over
an hour and a half now. We've got more than an
hour left before we arrive into Greensboro and yeah
it's, my ears are ringing. It's noisy, it's not been
too bouncy to be honest. The weather outside's been quite smooth for most of the flight, but
you can see why airlines and why passengers prefer
to fly on a jet rather than turboprops for
these sorts of distances. This is a bloody long flight on an ATR. The thing I do have to
say though is this flight to say it's the inaugural flight of the longest turboprop
flight in the whole of the USA, there's been relatively little fanfare, at least from Silver Airways
and now Tampa Airport put together a few bits and
pieces down on the ground there. Before we left we got
these cookies and things and they made a bit of a song and dance about it for the
main passengers on the plane. But even the crew aren't
bothered that it's the inaugural. I overheard the captain
as he went downstairs and went out to the plane
while we were on the ground and he was chatting to the
marketing guy from Tampa Airport and even the captain was
like, "Oh, it's an inaugural. Oh right, okay." Even the captain didn't
seem particularly well. There's been no announcement or anything since we've been on the plane. Part of me wonders how long
this route's gonna last, you know, up to Greensboro. This is a once-a-week service
from Tampa to Greensboro and looking at today, there's like eight people on the flight Yeah, I just wonder how long
this route's gonna last. Hopefully a long time. We are finally beginning our
descent down into Greensboro. The engine pitch has
just changed slightly. It's not quite as heavy anymore so my ears are finally
getting a little bit of a rest that we are
going to be descending down into Greensboro now. We should be on the ground pretty soon. It's a beautiful day out there. But nevertheless, our
flight on the ATR was coming to an end and I was looking forward to seeing quite how
busy the return leg down to Tampa would end up being. With a little look, it
would be a lot busier than just eight passengers. And the approach into Greensboro is actually really pretty as well. It's a beautiful part of the world. There's loads of lakes and
forests and hills and everything. It's just a really scenic approach. And after a flight time of
just under three hours long, we were finally touching down on the runway here in
Greensboro, North Carolina. - [Attendant] Ladies and gentlemen, Silver Airways welcomes you to Greensboro. The local time is 6:59 and
on behalf of Silver Airways, we would like to thank you
for flying with us today. We wish your stay in Greensboro or wherever your travels may take you. - [Noel] My flight up
to Greensboro cost me just $48 US or around 8 cents per mile. Now multiplied by eight people, that means they'd raised just under $400 for a three-hour flight in an ATR which doesn't seem to
cover that many costs. No wonder we just got a bottle of water. The crucial thing would be though how many people were waiting
to board back down to Tampa. And we didn't have too long to find out. A rough count of the passengers
waiting to get on board, there were 18 people waiting
to head down to Tampa. Now on a 46-seat aircraft, that means it was less than half full which considering the amount of marketing Silver Airways
had done for the launch of this flight still seemed a
little bit on the light side. - [Passenger] Is this
baggage baggage claim? - Yeah, you can walk to it. - [Passenger] Okay. - All right, welcome to a deserted Greensboro, North Carolina. And this is probably why it's deserted. There's like three flights going today. Two of 'em are already
left, there's only one left and that's the Tampa flight. Looked like there were quite
a few more people going back to Tampa than came up
though on that flight which was quite nice. But yeah, this airport is
just a little bit strange. It's massive, but empty. A bit like the Mary Celeste
and there's a pair of legs. Look. With a plane on them. Nice. Right, let's see how we get out of here. Now the airport might have been deserted, but there was one more
job on my list to do before I got on a Delta
flight back to Houston. Alright, now you cannot
come to Greensboro, North Carolina without
checking out Greensboro's biggest tourist attraction. And I found him, Mr Jeb
Brooks, greenergrass.com. - That's me. And thank you so much
for coming to Greensboro. We are so honored to
have a celebrity like you in our little town.
- You've already got one, but I mean like an extra one of course. - Well, you know, in
this little sub-segment of the world in our little aviation- - Little corner of the internet. Yeah, exactly. What do you think the Silver
Airways new inaugural flight down from Tampa? - Super stoked that we
have even more service from a new airline to us. Greensboro is a really cool town and we are so glad to have service from Silver Airways and I'm really stoked that you were on the very
first flight from Tampa. - Of course, you can't
do these random flights, they had to have somebody on there, even if there was no other passengers. At least there there was me. - Yeah, hopefully that
load factor does increase. Eight passengers.
- Yeah It's a little bit of a small market, but touch wood, there
were a few people waiting to get on the plane. - That's good.
- The other way. So that's good. - And now that your video's out, everybody's gonna book this thing. - Everybody's gonna book a
flight, aren't they, to Tampa. So yes, come and check out Greensboro. You might meet Jeb, he just
lives in the airport here. - This is my second home. - But yeah. Well thank you. Thanks for meeting me, taking
me out for breakfast anyway. Appreciate that. - Well, thank you for coming - And showing me around this
amazing town of Greensboro. It's been really cool. So check out Jeb's videos if you're not a subscriber already. I'll pop a link on the screen,
check out your videos too. And yeah, in the meantime, well thanks very much for watching. Take care and we'll see
you on the next one. - See ya.
- Bye for now.
