HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

To my wonderful family, friends and loyal followers that frequent this site, I would like to wish you and your family a HAPPY NEW YEAR and I hope this new year brings you love, joy and happiness. I wish you good health, good luck and laughter, beautiful moments and treasured memories. 

12 months ago today I started this blog and now I have over 22,400 hits, thank you, thank you for being there. 

After 8 years in the manufacturing business I resigned from my job late November leaving behind a job that took me to places in the Northern Territory and all of Queensland, and as far South as Armidale in NSW. I did 46 flights last year, 29 business and 17 personal, below is a graph of where I went and who I flew with and the highlights from 2015 starting off with a trip to Sydney 

Early January Qantas 767's were retired from the fleet and started heading out to either Alice Springs in the Northern Territory or to Victorville in California

Garuda pulled out of Brisbane AGAIN... and QATAR Airways was the first airline to take delivery of the worlds newest aircraft, the Airbus A350.

February

I was lucky enough to get a tour of the new aircraft graveyard in Alice Springs.

Virgin Australia (previously Virgin Blue) had their last B737 repainted from Red to White

March

After over 25 years in service, carrying almost 4.1 million passengers on 13,833 flights over a distance of 85 million kilometres, Qantas' first-ever Boeing 747-400  (VH-OJA) made one last flight to its new home at Australia's Historical Aviation Restoration Society (HARS) museum in the NSW city of Wollongong.

Australia made it mandatory for two people to be in the cockpit at all times on all international and domestic flights after 150 people were killed when a Germanwings plane crashed in the French Alps last week.

April

The Airbus A380 turned 10 this year; its crazy how fast the years fly past. My wife and I were at the airport to see the first A380 come into Brisbane back on the 12th November 2005.

May

Silk Air started flying into Cairns from Darwin three times a week using B737 aircraft.

 

June

Etihad brought in their daily Airbus A330-243 service from Abu Dhabi via Singapore for the last time. The daily 9.50am arrival and 12.30pm departure changed to a 5.50pm arrival and 9.35pm departure. Not only did the times change but so did the aircraft and the routing. The new flight is a direct service; so no stopping off in Singapore. Etihad now brings in their new Boeing 787-9.

The USS George Washington, a Nuclear - powered aircraft carrier and its 5,500 crew members on board arrived at the Port of Brisbane for a four-day stay in June.

Qantas retired another Boeing 747-438, this time it was VH-OJI (CN 24887) and it departed Sydney bound for Victorville California, via Honolulu where it faces an uncertain future in storage.

July

My family and I headed off to Auckland on holiday for a week going over on the Emirates A380 and coming back on the China Airlines A330

In July we had a Aeronexus 767 bring in the Manchester City Football team and a few days later a second aircraft; a Hi Fly A340 arrived in Brisbane from Manchester via Bangkok bringing in the Liverpool City Football team.

 

 

August

Malaysia Airlines pulled out of Brisbane on the 8th August 9M-MTI did the honours.With Malaysia Airlines cancelling its daily services this means there will no longer be direct flights between Kuala Lumpur and Brisbane

China Eastern announced it will launch direct flights between Brisbane and Shanghai from early next year beginning 16th January 2016.

September

Australia woke to the news that we had "another" new Prime Minister in the name of Malcolm Turnbull; Mr Turnbull is the 5th Prime Minister for Australia in 5 years and our 29th in total.

Jetstar's last A330-202 VH-EBE (CN 0842) made its final revenue flight when it came in from Honolulu as JQ 6 touching down in Brisbane just before 5pm on the 25th September.

A DC-10 water tanker N612AX touched down here in Brisbane after arriving from Pago Pago. N612AX the aircraft overnighted here and departed for Williamstown Air Force Base (YWLM) the next day.

 

October

Qantas announced it will acquire eight Boeing 787-9s to gradually replace five of its older Boeing 747-400s

We said "Goodbye" as Thai Airways brought their Boeing 777-200 in for the last time. (HS-TJU had that honours) But we said "Hello and Welcome" to their Boeing 787-8 HS-TQE.

Over the years Thai has brought in many different aircraft types like the Boeing 747-400, the MD11 and the 777-300 and 200 and now we can add the 787 to the list.

Qantas with their famous Qantas Retro Roo – a Boeing 737 decked out in eye-catching 1970s livery –  made a special charity joy flight from Sydney to Longreach on the 31st October, raising much needed funds for the Western Queensland Drought Appeal. I was lucky enough not only to be on this aircraft and enjoy my first trip to Longreach, but I also made it on TV when Qantas ran their TV program Ready for Take Off.

 

 

November

After receiving an invitation via email from Brisbane Airport Corporation asking if I would be interested in joining a group of aviation spotters from England on an airside tour of Brisbane Airport; I was very excited to spend the morning with these guys airside and then enjoying a breakfast afterwards.

A little more than a year after its first scheduled airliner services began with Qantas link turboprops on 17th November 2014, Brisbane West Wellcamp saw its first international service on the 23rd November.

History was made when a Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 747-800F B-LJA landed at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, Toowoomba and later departed for Hong Kong

December

Philippine Airlines made their inaugural flight from Manila to Auckland via Cairns.  I was up there for this inaugural flight which was performed by an A320-232 RP-C8613 (CN 3579)





A few days after getting back from Cairns I headed down to Sydney with my little Co-Pilot (daughter) for the night as something exciting was happening that many aviation buffs like myself (and Star Wars fans) have been waiting for some time. All Nippon Airways were flying back into Sydney for the first time in over 15 yrs and they were bringing in their Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in the "Star Wars" R2-D2 colour scheme. All Nippon pulled out of Sydney in July 1999 and on the 12th December they had their inaugural flight coming in from Haneda Tokyo, The aircraft with its registration of JA873A (CN 34530) touched down right on time at 9.35am.

That was my year in review; and although I wont be travelling much next year I will continue to do my best and bring you great photos and good news stories.