China Eastern brings in "Special Livery"

Earlier this month China Eastern had one of their A330's repainted into a special livery advertising "Eastday.com" a Chinese company. I looked up the website www.eastday.com but unfortunately it is in Chinese and I couldn't understand it. We found out it was coming in so with my wife and eldest daughter in tow we headed off to the airport to get the arrival. We also decided to wait for the departure.

CHINA EASTERN A330-243 B-5943 (CN 1520)

SPORTING THE EASTDAY.COM LIVERY

Arriving at the airport around 9.30am we had a surprise in the way of the daily Emirates A380 which usually departs at 8.15am was still on the ground. It ended up pushing back at 10.03 and taxied out for departure to Auckland New Zealand.

EMIRATES A380-861 A6-EEH (CN 119)

Below are some other movements from today in order of arriving and departing.

QLD GOVERNMENT RAYTHEON 850XP VH-SGY (CN 258780)

EVA AIR A330-203 B-16311 (CN 693)

CATHAY PACIFIC A330-343 B-HLS (CN 423)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-838 VH-VOR (CN 33799)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA ERJ 190 VH-ZPN (CN 19000312)

AIR NIUGINI B767-383 P2-PXW (CN 25365)

CHINA SOUTHERN A330-323 B-8359 (CN 1714)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-838 VH-YFU (CN 41029)

Mid morning we changed spots from the east side of the airport to the west side of the airport to get better up close shots of the departing aircraft.

ALLIANCE F28-100 VH-XWM (CN 11276)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B777-3ZG VH-VPD (CN 37938)

QANTAS A330-303 VH-QPG (CN 0603)

EVA AIR A330-203 B-16311 (CN 693)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA ATR 72 VH-VPJ (CN 1169)

QANTAS B747-438 VH-OJT (CN 25565)

QANTAS A330-303 VH-QPJ (CN 0712)

SUPPORTING THE SYDNEY MARDI GRAS

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VGF (CN 4497)

KNOWN LOCALLY AS "THE JAFFA"

CORPORATE AIR SAAB 340 VH-VEP (CN 340B-377)

AIR NEW ZEALAND B777-319 ZK-OKO (CN 38407)

AIR NEW ZEALAND A320-232 ZK-OJM (CN 2533)

CATHAY PACIFIC A330-343 B-HLS (CN 423)

SOLOMONS A32-211 H4-BUS (CN 302)

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE LOCKHEED MC130H

87-0023 (CN 382-5091)

PHILIPPINE A320-214 RP-C8614 (CN 3652) 

FALCONAIR DASSAULT FALCON F5 VH-FAI (CN 3800)

Sydney - Brisbane Flight (April Trip)

It was time to head back to the airport for my 4.30pm flight home.
I arrived at the airport around 3.15 and went straight upstairs to the Qantas Museum to do some plane spotting. Unfortunately the dial on my camera had moved and I didn't realise for about 30 minutes. A lot of the photos I took at the start were unacceptable. Shooting through double thick glass and shooting into the sun didn't help either.

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VGT (CN 4178)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBL (CN 976)

QANTASLINK DASH 8 Q400 VH-QOW (CN 4285)

ETIHAD B777-3FX A6-ETS (CN 44548)

QANTASLINK DASH 8 Q400 VH-VOP (CN 4238)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VXG (CN 30901)

QANTASLINK DASH 8 Q300 VH-SBT (CN 580)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBR (CN 1251)

TIGERAIR A320-232 VH-VNJ (CN 2982)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBO (CN 1169)

QANTAS A380-841 VH-OQA (CN 0014)

S G AVIATION BOMBARDIER BD 700 VH-SGA (CN 9369)

TIGERAIR A320-232 VH-XUG (CN 6032)

Boarding time was 4.10pm and departure was 4.30pm. So I headed down to gate 12. One thing I have learnt about Qantas is their boarding times don't mean a thing. Wednesday our boarding time was 6.10am and they boarded at 6.02am. Today was no different, I got to the gate at 4.05pm and boarding was well and truly under way. I lined up and boarded in turn, passing the main door I noticed the registration plate and for this sector I was on VH-VZX (CN 34188) I took my seat on the Boeing 737-838 which was 22A. I was allocated 18A but I changed it because I hate sitting on the wing, this was a bad move as the seat was a terrible seat as I had the pillar between the two windows.
The last cabin door was closed at 4.26pm and we pushed back at 4.27. We commenced taxiing at 4.30pm and taxied out for runway 16L. This took around 8 minutes to taxi out to the holding point, we lined up immediately and had a rolling start to the south, getting airborne at 4.39. Airborne we bank left and headed east out to the ocean for a few minutes before banking left again and headed north to Brisbane. We tracked up the coast flying over the ocean for a while then we crossed the coast line just north or Newcastle. Climbing to flight level 370 out track took us over Grafton and Lismore. The great thing about flying after 4pm is you get free alcohol so I had Colby cheese and crackers and two cans of James Boags beer while watching two episodes of "Bush Pilots in the Outback". We began descent at 5.21pm,  at Coolangatta we banked left and followed the coast line up to Brisbane before turning south and landing on runway 19 at 5.42pm.