Before heading back to the airport for my midday flight home I wanted to have a look around Alice Springs and the best place to do this was Anzac Hill.
After a quick look around I headed back out to the airport which is only a 12 minute drive from the heart of the city. Unfortunately there was very little happening in the two hours I was there. The only movements I got was a helicopter, two Qantas jets (one of those was my ride home) a Police PC12 9(flying for the RFDS) and a high flyer.
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| ALICE SPRINGS HELICOPTERS BELL 206B VH-LXM (CN 2170) |
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QANTAS B737-838 VH-XZE (CN 39369) QF585 ARRIVING FROM ADELAIDE |
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ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR PILATUS PC12 VH-FMW (CN 123) ARRIVING FROM TENNANT CREEK |
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MALYASIA AIRLINES A330-323 9M-MTD (CN 1234) MH128 MELBOURNE TO KUALA LUMPUR |
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QANTAS B737-838 VH-XZC (CN 39361) QF981 ARRIVING FROM BRISBANE |
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So I took a few more photos of the APAS for the last time.
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| SINGAPORE A380-841 9V-SKK (CN 051) |
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| CATHAY DRAGON (DRAGONAIR) A320-232 B-HSL (CN 2229) |
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| NOKSCOOT B777-232 HS-XBB (CN 28522) |
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| SINGAPORE B777-212 9V-SVB (CN 28525) |
My flight, Qantas 982, was leaving at 12.15pm (Alice time) As we waited for boarding there was an announcement that a crew member, Kevin the cabin supervisor, was retiring after 30 yrs flying and that this was his last flight. Airline staff had little laminated quotes and asked the passengers if we wanted to hand these notes to him as we boarded the aircraft. There were also Hawaiian lei's as Hawaii was his favourite destination. We began boarding at 11.47am, Alice doesn't have an aerobridge so you walk out onto the tarmac and up the stairs. I noticed today's aircraft was VH-XZC (CN 39361). Once on board I greeted Kevin with my note and took my seat 5F. The flight back was seriously empty, about 40 passengers at a quick count.
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| SILK AIR B737-8 MAX 9V-MBE (CN 44242) |
We taxied out at 12.11 and had a very short taxi for the 12 threshold. Once we backtracked and turned we kept rolling getting airborne at 12.15pm. Once airborne we banked left for a about 10 seconds and then two minutes later we banked right and maintained that heading for 2 hours.
The captain came on and gave us the usual speal about our track, ride, weather in Brisbane etc, but then went on to congratulate Kevin.. after that the cabin erupted in applause and cheering.
Our track took us from Alice to just north of Birdsville then on to Roma and into Brisbane.
We began our descent at 2.33pm and landed on the new runway, 19R at 3.01pm 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
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