Sunday Roast

Since Air Canada was changing aircraft from the usual 788's to the 789's today; Eva Air was bringing their A330 "Hello Kitty" livery and Air New Zealand were bringing in their 777 in the "All Blacks" scheme we, meaning my co-pilot (youngest daughter) and cabin crew (wife and eldest daughter), decided to head out to the airport to grab some photos of these aircraft. It was so hot we were all roasting in the midday heat so unfortunately the heat haze made taking photos challenging.
Apart from the first photo all other photos added below were taken by my wife Judy.

AIR CANADA B787-9 C-FGEO (CN 37180)     

This photo of Air Canada arriving was taken by Lloyd Fox

AIR CANADA DEPARTING FOR VANCOUVER

EVA AIR A330-203 B-16311 (CN 0693)

HELLO KITTY HAPPY MUSIC THEME

AIR NEW ZEALAND B777-319 ZK-OKQ (CN 40689)

ALL BLACKS THEME

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VFP (CN 5775)

ALLIANCE FOKKER 28 MK 70 VH-QQX (CN 11571)

THAI B787-8 HS-TQA (CN 35315)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B777-3ZGER VH-VOZ (CN 35302)

QANTAS A330-303 VHQPA (CN 0553)

AIR NIUGINI B767-383ER PE-PXW (CN 25365)

CHINA AIRLINES A330-302 B-18360 (CN 1540)

QANTAS LINK B717-200 VH-YQW (CN 55914)

CATHAY PACIFIC A330-342 B-LAH (CN 915)

QANTAS A330-303 VH-QPF (CN 0595)

QANTAS FREIGHT BAe 146-300 VH-NJF (CN E 3198)

Two Aircraft Fires in the States

                    BREAKING NEWS

Two aircraft fires with the last 5 hours in the States

The first one which has happened around 45 minutes ago from writing this was FED EX flight 910 from Memphis, Tennessee, where FedEx is based; crashed on landing in Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport (IATA: FLL - ICAO: KFLL). The aircraft, a DC 10 with the registration N370FE (CN 46608) crashed when the left hand undercarriage collapsed on landing. The pilot and co-pilot escaped unharmed by using a rope ladder on the right side of the aircraft.

The second one was an American Airlines jet which caught fire moments before take off at O'Hare International Airport (IATA: ORD - ICAO: KORD), prompting the crew to abort takeoff and evacuate passengers via emergency chutes. The takeoff of American Airlines Flight 383, a Boeing 767-323 with the registration N345AN (CN 33084) bound for Miami with 161 passengers and a crew of nine, was prompted by an "engine-related issue," the airline said.
The Federal Aviation Administration cited a blown-out tire reported by the flight crew as the plane was rolling down the runway before takeoff was aborted. All passengers and crew walked away uninjured.

Sydney to Brisbane Flight (October Flight)

Once again it is time to head home after a few great days here in Sydney.
The weather was awesome, the days out on the road with my reps was eventful and the evening aircraft spotting at the airport was fantastic.
Our office is at Moorebank so at 1pm I made my way to the airport for my 4.00pm flight home.
I thought I had better check in on line and got a pleasant surprise as the aircraft home was an A330 not the usual 737, I knew this because my seat was 48K
I arrived at the airport around 1.50 and after clearing security, who pulled me up for a bomb swab (they do this every time I fly I swear) I made my way to the Qantas Club for some lunch.
After a quick bite to eat and a few beers I went to the Qantas Museum to do some plane spotting; unfortunately you have shoot through dirty thick double glazed glass, but it is the best place in the Qantas terminal to see the runway. I only found out a few hours earlier that a Qantas A330 with the new livery had arrived into Sydney from L A that morning. I couldn't believe my luck when it taxied out passed me being towed to an international bay.

QANTAS A380-842 VH-OQL (CN 074)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBO (CN 1169)

QANTASLINK DASH 8 Q402 VH-LQG (CN 4376)

AIR CHINA A330-343 B-6101 (CN 1685)

QANTAS A330-303 VH-QPJ (CN 0712)

BRAND NEW COLOUR SCHEME

CATAY PACIFIC B777-367 B-KQO (CN 41757)

LAN B787-9 CC-BGI (CN 38764)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-8FE VH-VUP (CN 36604)

CHINA SOUTHERN (SKYTEAM) A330-243 B6538 (CN 1267)

MALAYSIA A330-323 9M-MTN (CN 1470)

I made my way down to gate 4 at 3.35 and we commenced boarding a few minutes later at 3.46
We pushed back at 4.10pm and commenced taxiing at 4.13; the runway in use was 16L so we had a very long taxi out to the runway. We had a rolling start getting airborne at 4.22pm.
As we climbed out we banked left and continued our climb to 360. Our track took us to the right of Newcastle, left of Port Macquarie, over Grafton and the Gold Coast before banking left and flying over my suburb before landing in Brisbane.
We began our descent at 5pm and landed on runway 01 in Brisbane at 5.28pm. Because we have gutless pathetic members in government, Queensland doesn't have daylight savings so we had to turn the time back one hour making our arrival 4.28pm.

Sydney Airport Spotting (day two)

This being my last night in Sydney I couldn't resist going out to the airport again tonight to catch Etihad and Qatar. Once again they didn't disappoint. It took me 28 minutes last night to drive the 17 klms and an hour and fifteen minutes tonight.... go figure.

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBE (CN 842)

REX SAAB 340 VH-EKX (CN 257)

REX SAAB 340 VH-ZJS (CN 186)

JETSTAR B787-8 VH-VKL (CN 36-238)

WALKER AIR SERVICES BOMBARDIER GLOBAL EXPRESS

BD-700 VH-LAW (CN 9299)

HAWAIIAN A330-243 N379HA (CN 1672)

ETIHAD A380-861 A6-APC (CN 176)

QANTAS A380-841 VH-OQJ (CN 062)

PHILIPPINE A330-343 RP-C8762 (CN 1531)

FED EX MD-11 N586FE (CN 48487)

AIR VANUATU B737-8SH YJ-AV8 (CN 42052)

UPS MD-11 N281UP (CN 48538)

QATAR A380-861 A7-APA (CN 137)

SINGAPORE B777-312 9V-SYI (CN 32327)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA A330-243 VH-XFH (CN 1452)