- Today I'm going back to flying. (indistinct) just like a ghost town. (bright music) Wow! - Because of COVID, we
don't do so many things. - This the way to travel,
Lufthansa First Class. Scrambled eggs freshly
made, tastes so much better. (aeroplane engine humming) (gentle music) It's actually better than my expectation, there's at least food. It's not just packaged cookies
and chocolate and stuff. There's actually real food here but it's actually served
behind the counter. - [Short Blonde Man] That is potato sauce. - [Sam] Potato sauce, okay, very good. - [Short Blonde Man] Okay. - Oh my God! My beer pouring skill is terrible, I need better training. Look at how much form I've got. I'm already exhausted. I think it's about 3:00 a.m in L.A time and I'm at the Senator's
Lounge at the concourse here. I've tried to go to First Class Lounge but it's not open to the B23. There's a selection of food out there which is little bit better than I expected because I have seen a lot of
pictures on other lounges, all have packaged snacks, chips, cookies. So here is actually, has
some really good food. I have that chicken
schnitzel which is great. And they have wrapped pretzels and I'm enjoying a beer here. Ready to go for my next flight
to Dubai in about an hour. Look at what's behind. I think Dubai is really calling me but today I'm going to continue
flying Lufthansa to Dubai. And hopefully when i return to the U.S in a few weeks to
continue my PPL training, I'll be flying Emirates direct. Since when they opened? Before they didn't open.
- [Blonde Lady] Three days. Just three days. - Just three days ago, they opened? - [Blonde lady] No two days, yesterday. - [Sam] Since yesterday they just opened? Yeah.
- Nice. Last minute I came here
and then, surprised to get showers actually open. But it's too late I have
to board my fight now. - [Announcer] Flight LH630 to
Dubai is ready for boarding. (gentle music) - Well, this floor is actually
busier than I expected. A lot of people, you see that? The boarding process has changed. You just self-scan your boarding pass. There's no one touching
your boarding pass, it's all contact-less. - Hi this is Oliver. And today we're flying to Dubai. The flight is LH630. It's going to be a flight
of six hours and 30 minutes. We will be a little bit late due to the fact that we are
flying over Saudi Arabia. With me, my other Captain Andreas. And we going to bring
you as quick as possible to Dubai, have a good flight. - [Sam] What would be the
flight altitude cruising at and speed? - We will be at about
39,000 feet and 0.80 today. - [Sam] 0.80? Quite slow, no tailwind? - We have to save some fuel. It's expensive enough
so we keep a slow speed. - [Sam] Hm-mm. 1976 I did my,
- [Sam] Before I was born. - Yeah, I flied solo on a Beechcraft, Aeroplane Beach 33. I did three patterns as usual. And it's a stop and go. After the last takeoff,
my door opened on the side and I was, "Oh!"
- [Sam] Oh! - But keep calm, keep calm. I did my pattern, - [Sam] AVA, AVA, navigate, communicate. - (indistinct) - [Oliver] You know the basics already. - Yeah. My teacher listened to the to the ATC and he knew what was happening because the noise in the cockpit. - [Sam] Yes. - But after landing everybody was happy and my flight, my crew member, my flight members came to me, and in Germany we did this
habit after your positive solo, you have to bend over the
leading edge of the Beachcraft and everybody of the flight is coming and clap one of the big hands, is a strong hit on your, what do you tell it here? - [Sam] A strong arm on your ass. On your bottom. You have a clap on your bottom. - [Oliver] Bottom. - [Sam] What a weird habit in Germany? - And you can imagine if 10 or 15 people, - Yeah, so your ass is on fire. Everybody clapping on your ass. - Okay, that was a long time ago but I remember.
- [Sam] You still remember because you have such extraordinary, you saved the aeroplane. You came back to land in
one positive (indistinct). - Yeah, that flight,
navigate, communicate. - [Sam] Awesome. Well, I don't know what this is. Every seats there's a box. I think maybe it's food. There's a box on the seats just like that. I asked the purser, the purser told me, they're serving this box
meal is because of the UAE, United Arab Emirates country regulations. It's not the typical Lufthansa catering. (gentle music) We are already 30 minutes
late and still at the gate. I think we're waiting
couple more passengers but I'm getting seriously tired. It's about, 4:00 or 5:00 a.m in L.A time. I think for this flight, since
the food is just in a box, I'm just going to take a break
and take a nap after takeoff. (aeroplane engine humming) (calm music) This seat goes fully flat. I think this is pretty average, honestly. You have to cross your
neighbour to get out and also it's pretty narrow. But I think the biggest
challenge right now is there no pillow, there's no blanket. We just have to sleep like this. (calm music) (aeroplane engine humming) The time here is 11:50,
we just arrived Dubai. I flew nearly 22 hours
from the U.S via Frankfurt. Glad I arrived safely, in one piece. But this fight was a contrast
to my last 747 flight. This flight literally has no service. It actually reminded me, flying
right now is not for fun. It's actually for people
who needed to get there, to get home and to get things done. I'm rather glad. I know there's a lot of
formalities waiting for me ahead but I'm just really glad
I made it at the end. Because of all the quarantine
and border restriction, entering Dubai right now, we need to have self-help
declaration form. - Thank you - Alright, see you next time, thank you. - All the best, take care. - Here I come Dubai. (lively music) It looks like we are coming to Terminal 3 to go through the formalities which this is the
Emirates Airline terminal. Very interesting, it's actually
in the Emirates terminal and I remember this giant escalator. Let's go inside. Different lines, this one is for residents and visitor don't need a test. I guess the good thing is
that there's so many people returning to Dubai, it's coming alive. But after a 20-some hours flight, I'm so tired and just so long the queue. The process is pretty fast. I waited about 10 minutes in the queue because there's a fast track queue. And I registered and they
gave me a specimen bag, I guess it's for the COVID PCR test. And I went through the immigration and now I guess I'm
heading to the test room. Hi.
- Hey. I'm getting my first COVID PCR test taken. (dramatic music) (heart throbbing) I got tears coming out. (simple music) After the COVID test, came to the baggage claim, get my bags. The whole process is not bad, it's probably just
taking about 30 minutes. Thanks for that fast track
I had in Business Class. Looking forward to go out to
the street in Dubai right now. Just came out of Dubai Airport, I met um Ahmed and Ibrahim. Look at how cute it is. Are you waiting for your
families, relatives? - Yeah. - Who's coming in? - My father's sister. - Father's sister, okay. Happy holiday
- You too. - Take care. Just came out the building, crazy hot here, crazy humidity. Just the Dubai I remember. But I'm so glad I made
this long journey home and thank you so much for watching again. (gentle music)
