As it seems with all commercial flying, the company put the aircraft on the longest routes possible, putting the pilots under extreme pressure to extract every last minute out of the aircraft without breaking the rules. It operated on sectors of longer than 1000nm, no mean feat for the F.28 in the trying Australian conditions of high temperatures and frequent thunderstorms, compounded with the possibility of low cloud or fog at the destination.
So, the F.28 was viewed as Fokker's dream machine: power and beauty, the ultimate culmination for the long and distinguished careers of many of the original MMA pilots who had seen the birth and maturation of the modern airline operation. Reg covers the thrill of flying his 8,500 hours in the F.28 in captivating detail in "I Flew For MMA"     
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Even more so than when the F.27 Friendship replaced the DC-3,
the arrival of the pure-jet-powered Fokker F.28 Fellowship catapulted
MMA into the modern airline age. From 240kts in the Friendship to 420 knots
in the Fellowship, MMA's pilots were thrust into the world of the
swept-wing, the jet engine
and high speed flight. The jet required a wholly different technique
to fly, especially near the ground. With its higher landing speed
and heavier weight, flying it was more demanding than ever, especially
in bad weather.
As a taste of what the F.28 could do, Jas Moll, the Fokker test
pilot who demonstrated the F.28 to MMA in February 1969, staggered
all the pilots watching by touching down on the very end of the
runway and pulling up within 1000ft or 330m. And in another demonstration
of how versatile the F.28 was, he landed from 6nm from the runway
doing 330 knots: no mean feat in a jet. While never done with passengers
on board, these demonstrations served to highlight the capability
of the aeroplane.