Virgin Atlantic 747 on eBay

A few of my friends brought this to my attention over the weekend so I thought I had to post this

Virgin Atlantic's Lady Penelope is on sale on eBay. Picture: eBay

LADY Penelope, the first 747-400 series jumbo jet to enter service with Virgin Atlantic back in 1994, has been put on sale on eBay.

The plane which flew her last commercial flight in September last year from JFK to Heathrow has been sitting in an aeroplane graveyard in Arizona since then.
However despite being one of the most glamorous planes when she came into service, only one bid exists for Lady Penelope of $US299,000 ($415,000).
However while there is only one bid, the page is getting about 2000 views per hour.
Before making a bid though there are a few disclaimers.
1 — The price does not include delivery
2 — You are basically buying the shell. The engines and all key avionics have been removed.

“We have all of the capabilities to disassemble and transport the plane in sections. It is also possible to section out the plane out if you only require the fuselage, cockpit or the wings,” the seller, Concord Aerospace, says on eBay.
“Lady Penelope, as with all Virgin Atlantic plane liveries, has a unique feature that is the large illustration of their iconic ‘Flying Lady’ on both sides of the tail section,” the pitch on the eBay page goes on. “There is a 50’ by 30’ large scale painting on the fuselage that could be cut out and can become one of the most unique aviation memorabilia in any collection.”

Wellcamp Airport - Qantas to Shanghai Charter

Wellcamp Airport; A REGIONAL airport built on an old cow paddock by one of Queensland’s wealthiest families reached another milestone yesterday when it announced its first passenger flight to China.

Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, located on the outskirts of Toowoomba, is set to reveal the landmark journey to Shanghai in a bid to draw closer trade ties with the Asian powerhouse.
The Qantas charter flight, which is expected to take off in October this year, will be carrying an Australian delegation of business people and industry leaders as part of a push to develop stronger trade links with the manufacturing giant.
Toowoomba Surat Basin Enterprise CEO Dr Ben Lyons, who has helped spearhead the initiative, has been integral in leading the charge to attract Chinese business back to the Darling Downs region.
“We are in the heart of one of the world’s best food producing and value-adding regions and businesses and investors in China want to meet us,” Dr Lyons said.
“It’s not just about beef or infant formula, whilst China consumes across all commodity groups I would encourage people in the services sector be it health, education, construction, tourism, finance and investment to carefully look at this flight as an opportunity to investigate what those opportunities are.
“We can sit back here and wait for the Chinese opportunities to come, but I think there is much more to be said about being proactive about the China opportunity, and the Access China delegation is a big part of this.”

TBSE has based its own fulltime employee in Shanghai to develop links and opportunities for companies from Toowoomba and the Darling and Western Downs right through to the Burnett region.
Wellcamp Airport, which is owned and operated by the well-known Wagner family, has already branched into the domestic market since opening in 2014, with ­return routes available to Cairns and Melbourne through Airnorth, which uses a code sharing agreement with Qantas.
The China charter flight comes on the back of a Boeing 747-8 freighter departing from the airport in November last year carrying tonnes of mangoes, pecans, lettuce and beef to Hong Kong.
Wagner’s Global chairman John Wagner said any company considering doing business with China should be part of the delegation.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to network with like-minded people who deal regularly with China.

Story sourced from here

http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/brisbane-west-wellcamp-airports---first-passenger-flight-to-china-an-attempt-to-build-closer-trade-ties/news-story

Another rare visitor for Brisbane

As mentioned in yesterday's story we were expecting a Embraer E190 around 5.30pm last night. Unfortunately this aircraft didn't arrive until around 8pm. So this afternoon I headed out to the airport to get a few photos of this aircraft before it departed.

EMBRAER ERJ 190-100 N760CC (CN 19000656)

While I was at the airport a fellow spotter informed me of a Gulfstream up at the G A area, so just on dusk I made my way up to that area to grab a photo.

GULFSTREAM G550 N793CP (CN 5473)

While I was on my way to work this morning I managed to get a few departures

EMIRATES A380-861 A6-EEQ (CN 141)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBJ (CN 940)

LAST NIGHTS FULL MOON

Qantas 767... A rare sight in Brisbane

After visiting family members on the Northside of Brisbane we thought we would drive past the airport on our way home.. (as you do)
Anyway there was a small group of spotters there so we asked if anything unusual was coming in; and they replied a Qantas Freight 767 in about 30 mins and then an Embraer 190 from America around 5.30pm
We decided to wait because the Qantas Freight 767, although it has been here 3 times this month, it is a rare event here in Brisbane. It had called into Brisbane on the 1st and 15th May and of course today, but before then it was 12 months to the date. It turned out the 767 was an hour later then expected, arriving just after 4.30pm and the Embraer was delayed until 8pm.
Below are some photos my wife took while we were there.

QANTAS B737-8FE VH-VZD (CN 34198)

QANTAS LINK DASH 8 Q400 VH-QUO (CN 4275)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-8FE VH-VUC (CN 34014)

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VQR (CN 2651)

SOLOMONS A320-211 H4-BUS (CN 0302)

QANTAS LINK B717-200  VH-NXN (CN 55095)

VIRGIN SAMOA B737-8FE VH-YID (CN 38709)

TIGERAIR A320-232 VH-VNH (CN 3734)

AIR NIUGINI 767-341 P2-PXV (CN 30341)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA EMBRAER ERJ 190 VH-ZPC (CN 19000170)

QANTAS FREIGHT B767318F VH-EFR (CN 33510)

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VGR (CN 4257)

Disastrous day in the sky

In the past 24 hours there has been 3 aircraft crashes and a total of  73 people killed.


Silk Way Antonov AN-12 crashed on departure
A Silk Way Airlines Antonov AN-12, performing a cargo flight from Camp Dwyer to an unspecified location (Afghanistan) with 9 crew, lost height after an engine had failed on departure from Camp Dwyer before 19:00L (14:30Z). Flight AZQ 4717 with seven occupants on board perished in the accident. Two Ukrainian crew members survived with serious injuries and have been taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The aircraft, with the registration of 4K-AZ25 (CN 3341209) was 54 years old.

Air Force B-52 Crashes at Guam Base

Then there was the B-52 bomber which had crashed shortly after take-off at a US base in Guam.All seven crew members safely left the aircraft after the incident at 08:30 local time (22:30 GMT Wednesday) at Andersen Air Force Base.
The US Air Force told the BBC it was treating the incident as a "mishap".
The bomber was deployed to the US island territory from North Dakota as part of the military's continuous presence in the Pacific.

Egyptair flight MS804 missing
An EgyptAir Airbus A320-232 with the registration SU-GCC ( CN 2088)  carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo went missing earlier today, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt's national airline said. Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the Airbus A320 probably crashed into the sea.

EgyptAir flight disappears from radar

BREAKING NEWS

An EgyptAir Airbus A320-232 with the registration SU-GCC ( CN 2088)  carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo went missing earlier today, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt's national airline said. Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the Airbus A320 probably crashed into the sea.
Aboard the flight were 30 Egyptians, 15 French nationals, one Briton and one Belgian. Families of passengers rushed to Cairo International Airport shortly after dawn while the Egyptian and Greek military scrambled aircraft and boats to search for the plane.
"An official source at EgyptAir stated that Flight MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar," the airline said.
Later Tweets by EgyptAir said the plane, which was travelling at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,280 metres), disappeared in Egyptian air space at 02:30 a.m., some 280 kms (165 miles) from the Egyptian coastline, before it was due to land at 03:15 a.m.
"There was nothing unusual," EgyptAir vice chairman Ahmed Adel told Reuters. "The search and rescue aircraft from the Egyptian air force are at the position where we lost contact. They are still looking and so far there is nothing found."
Rescue services from the Egyptian armed forces reported receiving a locator transmitter or beacon at 04:26 am local time (0226 GMT) from the EgyptAir plane that went missing overnight, an official from the airline said in a statement.

No further details were provided as to the nature of the distress signal

Perth to Brisbane Flight

Well after a few wonderful days in Perth catching up with family and of course watching history in the making, by the way of the Antonov 225 arriving in Perth, it was time to head home.

I started the morning with hearty breakfast at a famous tourist attraction in Perth called Kings Park, unfortunately the low morning sun didn't do the city pictures justice but you get the idea.

My flight wasn't until 4.30pm but I got to the airport around 2pm and headed up to the Qantas Lounge. There I knew I would get a great view of the runway and of eat and drink to my hearts content.

ANTOVOV 22 UR-82060 (CN 13102)

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS A340-313 ZS-SXA (CN 544)

SINGAPORE B777-212 9V-SVB (CN 30872)

REAR: ETIHAD A330-243 A6-EYG (CN 724)

FRONT: VIRGIN A330-243 VH-XFC (CN1293)

SKIPPERS EMBRAER 120 VH-XUB (CN 181)

COBHAM AVRO RJ 100 VH-NJY (CN E3331)

SKYWEST FOKKER F28-100 VH-FSW (CN 11391)

NETWORK FOKKER F28-100 VH-NQE (CN11457)

MALAYSIA (ONE WORLD) A330-323 9M-MTE (CN 1243)

AIR ASIA X (RED PHOENIX)  A330-343 9M - XXT (CN 1459)

COBHAM BAe 146 VH-NJL (CN 3213)

The boarding call was announced at 3.58pm and I headed downstairs to gate 14 where my Airbus A330 (VH-EBA) arrived a few hours earlier, for this flight I was sitting in seat 35A. We pushed back at 4.22pm and at 4.27pm we taxied out for runway 21. We became airborne at 4.37pm and after a long slow left hand turn we headed out towards Mossman as we climbed to flight level 410. Our track took us out over the Great Australian Bite and over flew Woomera, there we tracked to Lightning Ridge and on to Brisbane via Toowoomba 

We began our descent at 8.05 and landed in Brisbane on runway 19 at 8.30pm. Due to the time difference we had to put our watches forward 2 hours so we landed at 10.30pm local time.

Perth Airport Day 2

With the arrival of the Antonov 225 later on today and not wanting to miss a good spot, I set my alarm for 3.30am and I headed out to the airport at 3.50. Having a 10 minute drive to the viewing deck I arrived at 4am only to find the road was closed and they were trying to turn drivers away. But I stood my ground like the many other drivers that were there and at 5.15 the road to the viewing deck was opened.

Below are a few of the 230 photos I took today.

CHINA SOUTHERN 787-8 B-2787 (CN 34831)

EMIRATES 777-31H(ER) A6-ENZ (CN 42319)

AIR ASIA X A330-343 9M-XXD (CN 1066)

SINGAPORE A330-343 9V-STE (CN 1006)

THAI 787-8 HS-TQA (CN 35315)

GARUDA A330-343 PK-GPV (CN 1577)

CHINA SOUTHERN 787-8 B-2787 (CN 34931)

AIR MAURITIUS A330-202 3B-NBM (CN 883)

COBHAM ERJ-190LR VH-NJA (CN 19000404)

SOUTH AFRICAN A340-313 ZS-SXC (CN 590)

SINGAPORE A330-343 9V-STV (CN 1427)

ETIHAD A330-243 A6-EYJ (CN 737)

SKYWEST FOKKER F 100 VH-FZO (CN 11305)

ED FORCE ONE 747-428 TF-AAK (CN 32868)

MALAYSIA 737-846 9M-MXI (CN 40136)

MALAYSIA A330-323 PM-MTC (CN 1229)

MALINDO 737-8GP(WL) (CN 1229)

After spending 12 hours to minute at the airport, tied and aching I headed home.