Easter Monday Surprise

Going to bed last night I had already made up my mind I was going out to the airport in the morning for a few hours, as earlier that evening I noticed two non regular international arrivals. A Lear 45 N751LJ (CN 503) and a Boeing 737BBJ (33102). I left home at 6.15am and as I was driving to the airport I had my scanner on in the car when I heard "Qantas 8 when ready descend to 210" I knew straight off we were getting a diversion. When I arrived at the viewing spot there were already 5-6 people there and they pointed out a Qantas A380 that landed earlier. When I looked it up it was Qantas 12; Los Angeles - Sydney but diverted here because of fog. Qantas 12 landed at 5.50am on runway 19. An hour later the first of two United 777's arrived, the first one was United 863, San Francisco - Sydney, landed at 6.51am on runway 19. A few minutes after that the second Qantas, Qantas 8, Dallas - Sydney landed here also on runway 19 at 6.58am. The last of the diversions for today was the second United 777, United 839, Los Angeles - Sydney and it landed at 7.16 also on runway 19. United 839 (N793UA) pushed back from the bay at 8.37, taxied all the way up to the runway 19 holding point, discovered the crew were going to run out of hours so they taxied back to the international terminal. I was seriously in two minds on whether to stay or go home but after 3 1/2 hours the home option won. As I was leaving I noticed two Nauru Airlines 737 parked together at the Qantas hanger, after stopping to get them I headed to our old international terminal where I knew I would find the Boeing 737 BBJ. Then I noticed Dassault Falcon 900 in the back ground.
Below are the images of the diversions plus other photos I took today.

Qantas 8 (VH-OQD) departed Brisbane from runway 01 at 11.02 am and headed for Sydney.    United 862 (N782UA) departed for Sydney at 4pm and at the time of writing this at 5.30pm the other United 777 was still on the ground here in Brisbane.

QANTAS 12 AIRBUS A380-842 VH-OQL (CN 074)

UNITED 862 BOEING 777-222ER N782UA (CN 26948)

QANTAS 8 AIRBUS A380-842 VH-OQD (CN 026)

QANTAS 12 AND QANTAS 8

UNITED 839 BOEING 777-222ER N793UA (CN 26946)

UNITED 777's N782UA and N793UA

AIRBUS A380 TRIPLE PLAY (RARE EVENT HERE)

QANTAS 12 DEPARTING FOR SYDNEY

UNITED 839 TAXIING OUT FOR RUNWAY 19

UNITED 839 RETURNING TO THE BAY FOR THE
SECOND TIME

QANTAS BOEING 747-438ER VH-OEI (CN 32913)

QANTAS SPORTING THE LOGO ''100 YEARS OF ANZAC''
LEST WE FORGET

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA BOEING 777-323 VH-VPH (CN 37943)

CHINA SOUTHERN AIRBUS A330-223 B-6528 (CN 1202)
SPORTING THE "SKYTEAM"LIVERY

EMIRATES AIRBUS A380-861 A6-EEO (CN 136)

EMIRATES 434 DEPARTING FOR AUCKLAND NZ

JETSTAR BOEINFG 787-800 VH-VKA (CN 36227)

 

NAURU AIRLINES BOEING 737-3U3 VH-ONU (CN 28732)

 

NAURU AIRLINES BOEING 737-346SF VH-VLI (CN 27125)

NAURU AIRLINES BOEING 737-319 VH-YNU (25607)
THEIR LATEST AIRCRAFT JUST ARRIVED

BOEING 737-7BC N108MS (CN 33102)

BOEING 737-7BC N108MS (CN 33102)





DASSAULT FALCON 900EX N146EX (CN 146)



Good Friday Flights

What do you do when you have an extra l-o-n-g weekend, sleep in I hear you say.... NOPE, you get up and go out to the airport. I woke around 5.30am to the sound of drizzle and I thought "awesome, this will make for some good photography".  I woke my 12yr old daughter Selina (nicknamed my little co-pilot) and after a quick bite to eat we headed off to the airport. The regular 6.30am Emirates A380 due in from Dubai was 2 hours late today and touched down at 8.27am, just when it should have been departing for Auckland.  It departed at 10.40 am for Auckland. The 9.50am arrival of Etihad was also delayed and was not expected to arrive until 11.30. The misty cool weather made for some excellent contrails on approach as seen below.
Below are some of the photos my little co-pilot and I took today, and the images with the captions marked in yellow were taken by my little co-pilot. Very proud of her efforts.



QANTAS (JET CONNECT) B737-838 ZK-ZQG (CN 34190)

QANTAS SMOKIN' IT UP ON TOUCH DOWN AND WITH A CON TRAIL

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-8FE VH-YFH (CN 40996)

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

QANTAS B747-4RR VH-OJT (CN 25565) NOTE THE TRAILS
COMING OFF THE WINGS AND ENGINES.

EMIRATES A380-861 A6-EEK (CN 132)

EMIRATES SPORTING THE ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP
WHICH AUSTRALIA WON BEATING NEW ZEALAND

QANTAS AIRBUS A330-202 VH-EBR (CN 1251) WAITING FOR
IT'S LITTLE BROTHER TO LAND

SINGAPORE AIRBUS A 330-343 9V-STG (CN 1012)

CHINA AIRLINES AIRBUS A330-303 B-18359 (CN 1367)

ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE BEECHCRAFT B200
VH-FDT (CN BB-1990)

AIR TRACTOR AT-802F VH-FFB (CN 802A-0356)

AIR TRACTOR AT-802F VH-FZX (CN 802A-0491)



NOTICE THE SPRAY JETS UNDERNEATH

ALLIANCE FOKKER F 28 VH-JFB (CN 11521)

JETGO EMBRAER 135LR VH-JTG (CN 145687)

QANTAS LINK BOMBARDIER Q 400 VH-LQQ (CN 4461)

OUR AIRLINE (NOW KNOWN AS AIR NAURU)
BOEING 737-300 VH-NLK (CN 23635)

AIR NIUGINI BOEING 737-NG P2-PXC (CN 30290)

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VFL (CN 5489) WITH THE LIVERY
HELPING LITTLE ATHS REACH FOR THE STARS

TIGER AIR AIRBUS A320-232 VH-VNC (CN 3275)

CARE FLIGHT LEARJET 45 VH-VVI (CN 262)

JETSTAR AIRBUS A321-231 VH-VWY (CN 1408)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA BOEING 737-8FE VH-YID (CN 38709)
AIRCRAFT SPORTING THE VIRGIN SOMOA LIVERY
 

QANTAS LINK BOEING 717-200 VH-YQW (CN 55194)

QANTAS LINK SPORTING THE "DISCOVER TASMANIA"LIVERY

AIR NEW ZEALAND BOEING 777-319ER ZK-OKQ (CN 40689)

PAINTED IN THE "ALL BLACKS'' COLOUR SCHEME
 

RFDS Pilots; one dead; one injured.

It was heart breaking to hear on the news tonight about an RFDS pilot shot dead and one wounded in the arm.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service has confirmed all three men who were involved in the target shooting incident, that left two men shot in a murder-suicide, were part of the RFDS.
Rockhampton based senior pilot Greg McNaughton was shot by his son Tim, who is also an apprentice engineer currently on leave from the RFDS Alice Springs base. Rockhampton senior base pilot Captain Lindsay Hart, is currently in a stable condition recovering in hospital. Rockhampton police are treating the shooting death of two men who were recreationally target shooting on a property near The Caves, just north of Rockhampton, as a murder-suicide. Three men were involved, with two killed and one injured. The injured man aged 54, is currently in the Rockhampton Base Hospital in a stable condition, and is not a suspect, said a police spokeswomen. In a statement from the RFDS, its chief executive officer, Nino Di Marco, confirmed two employees had been involved. “All of us at the RFDS (Queensland Section) are deeply saddened and shocked to hear the news of this terrible tragedy in Rockhampton,” Mr Marco said.
I have had the pleasure of touring both the Cairns base and the Townsville base of the RFDS whilst in these area's on business and the pilots and staff I met were amazing, helpful people.

                 The RFDS began as the dream of the Rev John Flynn, a minister with the Presbyterian Church.  He witnessed the daily struggle of pioneers living in remote areas where just two doctors provided the only medical care for an area of almost 2 million square kilometres. Flynn’s vision was to provide a ‘mantle of safety’ for these people and on 15 May 1928, his dream had become a reality with the opening of the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service (later renamed the Royal Flying Doctor Service) in Cloncurry, Queensland. 
Over the next few years, the RFDS began to expand across the country
By the 1950s, the RFDS was acknowledged by former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies as perhaps the single greatest contribution to the effective settlement of the far distant country that we have witnessed in our time.
Until the 1960s, the Service rarely owned their own aircraft. They used contractors to provide aircraft, pilots and servicing. They progressively began to purchase their own aircraft and employ their own pilots and engineers.
Today, they own a fleet of 64 fully instrumented aircraft with the very latest in navigation technology. They operate 21 bases across Australia. Their pilots annually fly the equivalent of 25 round trips to the moon and their doctors and flight nurses are responsible for the care of over 270,000 patients!
A not for profit organisation, the RFDS is an emergency service that relies on the generosity of the Australian public to keep the Flying Doctor flying.            If you would like to donate please go to http://supportus.flyingdoctor.org.au/donate/ or telephone 1800 467 435 (for nationwide donations)

My thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and colleagues of the RFDS.

Australia tightens cockpit safety laws.

From today it will be mandatory for two people to be in the cockpit at all times on all international and domestic flights, the Federal Government says. Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the new policy would apply to aircraft with 50 or more passengers.
This will mean that one of the flight attendants would come and sit in the cockpit if one of the pilots needed to leave the flight deck for any reason.
Mr Truss said the Government had been in discussion with the airlines over the past couple of days and there had been an agreement airlines in Australia would move immediately to adjust their flight operation procedures. Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Airlines have confirmed they will comply with the change of procedure immediately and Tiger Air has implemented the policy which will come into effect on March 31. Several airlines round the world, including Norwegian Air Shuttle, Lufthansa, Air Berlin, Easyjet, Monarch Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook, were also changing their operating procedures to require two people to be in the cockpit at all times.

Virgin Australia adds Alice Springs to Network

On the 26th March a Virgin Australia Boeing 737-8FE; VH-YFP (CN 41011) operated a special Darwin - Alice Springs rotation as VA 9000 / VA9001 prior to the commencement of regular services on that route from 30th March. Today Alice Springs formed part of the Virgin Australia network as it started its Darwin to Adelaide via Alice Springs service.
The inaugural flight operated by VH-YFH (CN 40996) a Boeing 737-8FE with a call sign of VA 1576 departed Darwin on time at 7.30am local and became airborne at 7.37am from runway 11 before heading south for Alice Springs; landing on runway 12 in Alice at 9.27 local time.

VH-YFH GETTING A WATER CANNON WELCOME

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA VH-YFH (CN 40996)
PARKED UP AT BAY 3 ALICE SPRINGS

With a departure time of 10.05am local, flight VA1740 YFH departed for Adelaide just after 10.23 and landed on runway 23 in Adelaide at 1.05pm Adelaide time. Parked up at gate 16 in Adelaide VA 1741 pushed back and taxied out for a runway 23 departure, getting airborne at 1.55pm Local, arriving into Alice Springs for the 2nd time today at 2.47pm. It wasn't on the ground long before taking to the sky's again with a flight number of 1585 at 3.42 pm and landed in Darwin on runway 29 at 5.40 Darwin time.
Sincere thanks goes to Simon Hatfield for sending me these images....