Hello and Goodbye

Today Brisbane said hello to one aircraft and good bye to another
Earlier this morning we had a PAE (Pacific Air Express) Boeing 757 arrive into Brisbane for the first time, and late this afternoon Brisbane said goodbye to the very last Boeing 747 to Los Angeles.
Pacific Air Express is an airline based in here in Brisbane. It operates cargo services to Honiara, Nauru, Noumea, Port Moresby and Port Vila. The airline was established in 1993 by Australian expatriate Gary Clifford (General Manager) and a business partner from the Solomon Islands. The airline was originally based in Honiara, but relocated due to civil unrest in 1999. PAE took delivery of this aircraft back in March this year but today it made its new home here in Brisbane. PQA has had many owners

05/12/1985	Eastern Airlines EAL	N522EA		Correct
22/10/1991	Air 2000	G-OOOW		Correct
27/09/2002	Air Atlanta Icelandic	TF-ARE		Correct
01/05/2003	Excel Airways	TF-ARE		Correct
01/11/2005	Air Atlanta Icelandic	TF-ARE		Correct
03/04/2006	Excel Airways	G-VKNC		Correct
15/10/2006	XL Airways	G-VKNC		Correct
30/05/2007	VARIG Logistica	PR-LGI		Correct
06/10/2011	DHL International Aviation	A9C-DHD		Correct
20/03/2018	Pacific Air Express	VH-PQA

PACIFIC AIR EXPRESS B757-225 VH-PQA (CN 22611)

For many years Qantas has operated a single daily flight to Los Angles using their Boeing 747-438 aircraft. From the 1st September Qantas dropped the early morning 747 service and replaced the aircraft with their new 787-9 Dreamliner. The very same day Qantas introduced a second service using the 747 and this service operated three times a week, (Mon, Wed and Sat) departing at 5.25pm.
Today Qantas sent their Boeing 747 to Los Angeles for the last time as come Saturday (1st Dec) the aircraft will be replaced with a new 787-9. QF 55 departed just before 6pm local time and will return on Saturday the 1st as QF 56 at 5.15am. It will be on the ground for a few hours and will depart Brisbane for Sydney as QF56 and this will be the last 747 departure Brisbane will see.

QANTAS B747-438 VH-OJS (CN 25564)

Below are some other photos taken today.

E V A AIR A330-203 B-16312 (0755)

CHINA AIRLINES A350-941 B-18905 (CN 073)

GULFSTREAM G550 N793CP (CN 5473)

STATE OF QUEENSLAND BEECH 1900D VH-PSK (CN UE-311)

HEVILIFT ATR42-320 VH-YWH (CN 0194)

QANTASLINK B717-2BL VH-NXJ (CN 55166)

ETIHAD B787-9 A6-BLK (CN 39654)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-8FE VH-YFT (CN 41028)

AIR NEW ZEALAND A320-232 ZK-OJI (CN 2297)

NAURU AIRLINES B737-319 VH-YNU (CN 25607)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VXQ (CN 33723) RETRO ROO II

SKYTRANS DASH 8 Q100 VH-QQB (CN 004)



TIGERAIR A320-232 VH-VNF (CN 3332)

AIR NEW ZEALAND A320-232 ZK-OJN (CN 2594)

Etihad's Grand Prix 787 calls into Brisbane

I got a call from my wife this morning to inform me that the new Etihad 787 in the Formula One livery is on its way to Brisbane and is due in around 5.15pm. This aircraft was delivered to Etihad only last week (21st Nov) as EY9011 landing in Abu Dhabi right on 6pm (local time). It stayed on the ground for a few days and then on the 25th it did a Abu Dhabi to Abu Dhabi flight for just over an hour, circling the city.
On the 26th it performed its first revenue flight from Abu Dhabi to Manchester and back and then today it came to Brisbane. This is a beautiful looking machine and I really love the monochrome tail.

ETIHAD B787-9 A6-BLV (CN 39676)

SPORTING THE "FORMULA 1" LIVERY

Below are some other movements I took while waiting.

ALLIANCE FOKKER F28 MK 100 VH-UQB (CN 11483)

ALLIANCE FOKKER F28 MK 100 VH-XWS (CN 11314)

AIR NEW ZEALAND A320-232 ZK-OJD (CN 2130)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VZR (CN 34193)

CORPORATE AIR SAAB 340B VH-VEO (CN 340B-366)

Hi FLY A340-313 CS-TQZ (CN 0202)

SINGAPORE B777-212 9V-SVE (CN 30870)

TIGERAIR A320-232 VH-XUG (CN 6032

Qantas Jumbo calls into Hobart after Antartica Flight

Every year Qantas operate a one day sightseeing flight over Antarctica departing from various cities around Australia during the Australian summer period.  As mentioned in my blog on the 7th June 2017 https://madaboutplanes.blogspot.com/2017/06/hobart-to-get-antarctic-flight.html thanks to the new runway extensions; for the first time Hobart has a flight listed departing Hobart on the 25th November 2018.

Below are the cities and dates.

SYDNEY
Saturday 25th November 2017
Check in at  6:45am
Depart Sydney 7:30am
Return Sydney 8:30pm

MELBOURNE
Sunday 31st December 2017
Check in at  4:45pm
Depart Melbourne 5:30pm
Return Melbourne 6:00am (Next Day)

Sunday 11th February 2018
Check in at  7:15am
Depart Melbourne 8:00am
Return Melbourne 8:30pm

BRISBANE
Sunday 18th February 2018
Check-in 6:45am
Depart 7:30am
Return 9:00pm

HOBART
Sunday 25th November 2018
Check-in 7:15am
Depart 8:00am
Return 8:00pm

PERTH
Saturday 26th January 2019
Check-in 7:15am
Depart 8:00am
Return 8:30pm

Well today was "suppose" to be Hobarts turn to shine and despite flightradar24 showing the flight as Melbourne to Hobart, they "didn't" get a Jumbo landing at the airport this morning, which by the way would have been an extremely rare event. It seems the Qantas 747-438 over flew them at 290.

Qantas flight 2902 departed Melbourne's runway 16 at 9.34am and headed south over Bass Strait and onto Tasmania over flying abeam Hobart at 10.28am at flight level 290. Listening to Hobart Airport (under Cambridge Airport) on LiveATC, at 23.35 UTC (10.35 Hobart Time) I heard ATC tell Qantas your identification was now terminated and they were to continue on data link and HF Freq 8867 primary 13261 as secondary was a back up. 

As the day went on I discovered the Jumbo would be landing in Hobart tonight on its return. Thinking about this, this makes sense as it would have been to heavy for Hobarts 2750mtr runway. Landing tonight they would have been a lot lighter.

Qantas 2902 landed in Hobart on runway 12 at 8.38pm Hobart time (10.38 Zulu it is rumoured to be overnighting there and heading to Sydney in the morning.
This is the first time that I know of that a Boeing 747 has landed in Hobart since September 1990.
There has only been three times that I am aware of.

The very first one was a Boeing 747-200 VH-EBN landing on the 22nd September 1989.

QANTAS B747-238 VH-EBN (CN 21353) 

The second time was a Boeing 747SP VH-EAA landing on 22nd February 1990

QANTAS B747SP VH-EAA (CN 22495)

The third time was a Boeing 747-400 landing on the 20th September 1990.

QANTAS B747-438 VH-OJG (CN 24779)