Kitty Hawk was taking part in Exercise Tandem Thrust. The plane is a typically utilitarian military aircraft suited to flying off aircraft carriers or short landing strips. David and Steve were kitted out in protective head gear, goggles, life preserver and full seat harness, which was to come in mighty handy.
Crew sleep in 'racks', three-tiered bunks looking like giant filing cabinets.
They're quite narrow, with no room for anyone over 1.8 metres tall, and barely enough room to roll over. The ship hums, clunks, clanks and whirrs constantly. The food is adequate, and there's lots of it, after all, there are 5,000 souls aboard, including 300 females. The noise cannot be imagined, the raw power of the jets causes the 89,000 tonne vessel to tremble. Come Sunday, the ship's chief of internal communications had been able to get more bandwidth on the satellite phone and, ultimately, the broadcast was sent to Hawaii, to San Diego, back to Melbourne, ultimately to the Rockhampton studio for music mixing, then back to Master Control Brisbane for dissemination.