Sophie Foster, Deputy Travel Editor for Mailonline
June 22, 2024 9:01 a.m., updated June 22, 2024 9:01 a.m.
- Captain Anthony Blake is a Love Cloud Vegas pilot in the United States
- A small airline offers a “mile high experience” in a twin-engine Cessna 414
- Would you join the milers club? Scroll down and vote in our poll…
- READ MORE: Cathay Pacific – Premium Economy vs Business Class
“If those wings are flapping, we know something’s going on in the back. We don’t know exactly what, but we’re pretty sure… that they understood the task.’
Captain Anthony ‘Tony’ Blake, a pilot with 42 years’ experience, tells MailOnline Travel what it’s like to fly a twin-engine Cessna 414 during his ‘mile experience’.
It’s a flight he’s taken 3,000 times over the past four years as co-founder and lead pilot of the Love Cloud Vegas tour.
The experience is a private flight over the desert and the Las Vegas Strip, where up to four customers simultaneously join the millionaires’ club with sex on a double bed installed in the back.
“It’s a very private, romantic date,” says Tony. “We feel it. I feel it. I like to say that I have a very responsive joystick up front.
“They move their legs and move backwards. I feel it. It is a smaller mid-sized aircraft. And we feel everything – unfortunately.’
While Captain Tony says he can feel everything going on in the back, he claims he can’t see or hear anything his beloved passengers are doing.
He explains: “We have headphones and they block out all the noise. We are flying in very restricted airspace. We are generally the busiest in the country on Friday evenings and Sunday evenings.
“We circle in and out, down, under and around the airspace. We probably have 50 pilots taking off, 50 pilots landing at any given moment – 24 hours a day.
“We hear directional vectors all the time – if we miss two calls, my 42-year license is gone.” So my ears are very busy.’
The pilot also can’t see into the back of the plane because of a bulkhead placed between the flight deck — “we can’t call it the cockpit anymore,” he says — and the cabin.
He commented: “We never took that divider off. We have the curtains drawn. Unfortunately, that’s all we can do.
“They never accidentally fell in flight. So we won’t see it.’
The interiors of the Love Cloud planes are “continually being improved,” but for now they include a spacious bed, sheets and blankets, pillows and seats where passengers can be strapped in for takeoff.
What passengers get up to during the club mile experience is up to them – according to Tony it’s “fair game” and some go with “toy bags”, arrive in “sexy lingerie” or “blindfolded” lovers.
Fortunately, Love Cloud is strict with the hygiene process.
While Captain Tony jokes about cleaning the sheets “once a year”, he told MailOnline they usually “throw them away” after every flight.
He says: “We have four aircraft and they all have 45 minutes to an hour of downtime between flights.
“We’ve got a ground crew, we’re throwing sheets, we’re putting new sheets on. One time last year we bought all the red satin sheets that Google has. We buy for 500 per month.
“We have linens and the beds themselves are thrown away every 60 days – they’re the cleanest beds in town.”
As well as the experience in the air, passengers are picked up from the hotel in a limousine – “comes with complimentary chocolates, champagne and flowers” – before boarding the flight.
We bought all the red satin sheets that Google has. We buy for 500 per month Captain Anthony Blake, pilot of Love Cloud Vegas
Captain Tony notes, “They get them to the airport, no security, no TSA, nobody fumbles or looks in your purse, and you go straight to the plane on the ramp with the red carpet rolled out.”
However, if the passengers are too drunk, they are grounded.
Tony explains: “When I open the limo door and see people falling, they immediately get back into the limo.
“This is not a drunken party or a disrespectful party. They are lovers. If they’re sloppy drunks, they don’t have to fly here.”
Other common reasons for cancellation include maintenance and aircraft faults.
Tony says: ‘We’re in the aviation world, we have the same bar as any flagship in terms of maintenance, probably a bit higher because we’re a smaller company.’
Love Cloud passengers must be over 18 years of age and from all age groups above.
Tony says: ‘The demographic is 21 to 80. People aged 80 and over used to come here. More than you can actually imagine.’
However, they tend to fall into one of two demographic groups.
“Most of our clients, 90 percent, are ordinary workers. Most of them have never been in a limousine before,” says Tony. “The remaining five percent are – I can’t say porn anymore – content creators.”
Adult video makers book Love Cloud to film in the air – five AVN (Adult Video News) awards have been presented to airline passengers for their work behind the counter, notes the captain.
When asked if Love Cloud hosts any big names, the pilot replied: ‘We didn’t have any big name monsters.’
Click here to resize this module
While the miler’s club may not be everyone’s cup of tea, ex-commercial pilot Tony flies for his success, fueled by his small plane that “keeps costs low” so the experience can be afforded to ordinary people.
He says: ‘This is the only job in my life I can’t wait to get out of bed for… I love it. I mean, I like flying in airplanes and I like having sex.
‘I said to my wife, I said, “We’re going to put the two of them together and make it the most magical thing.”
“Even though we don’t know what’s going on in the back, our clients always come in with a huge smile and come in happy and leave twice as happy.
“At the end of the flight, passengers get a mile-high certificate and a wallet-sized plastic card that says, hey, they’re a member of our club.”
Love Cloud Vegas also offers honeymoon flights, where passengers get married on the ground before takeoff, and sunset flights.
The mile high club experience comes in three packages: Copper (30 minutes, $995 / £785), Silver (45 minutes, $1,195 / £943), Gold (60 minutes, $1,395 / £1,101) and Platinum ( 90 minutes $1,500 / £1,184). Visit: lovecloudvegas.com and www.instagram.com/love_cloud_vegas.