Ovation of the Sea calls into Brisbane

While my husband was interstate on business I decided to go and see the forth largest passenger ship in the world, The Ovation of the Sea which arrived in Brisbane early this morning, giving the some 5000 passengers a chance to see our beautiful city. It was due to leave at 5pm tonight. The ship is operated by Royal Caribbean International.

The vessel, which measures 347 metres in length and 168,666 tonnes. It features movie theatres, dodgem cars, a gym, water theme park, rock climbing wall, skating rink and even a simulated sky-diving arena.

The 18 story high mega-ship also boasts a robotic bartender and simulated surf wave. 

Its high-end dining serves about 30,000 meals a day, including 18 restaurants.

As well as the Ovation of the Sea arriving in Brisbane the Arcadia  arrived just after the massive
ship. The Arcadia is part of the P&O cruise fleet. It is 84,000 tonnes and is the fourth largest of eight ships in service for P&O. it is 290 metres in length.

The Ovation of the Sea

The Arcadia

While I was in the area I decide to call into the airport and get the midday departures.

Eva A330-203 B-16310 (cn 678)

China Eastern A330-243 B-5920 (cn 1375)

Air Canada 787-9 C-FNOI (cn 35268)

Chine Airlines A330-302 B-18358 (cn 1346)

Qantas A330-202 VH-EBV (cn 1365)

Sydney spotting with a heavy heart

After a long busy day here in Sydney I decided to make my way out to the airport for some late afternoon spotting. Losing my patience with the major traffic delays I couldn't help but think about the aircraft accident in Melbourne this morning where 5 people (4 American Golfers and the pilot) lost their lives, and it made my impatience trivial. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said it was a “desperately sad day” and the “worst civil aviation accident that our state has seen for 30 years”.
Those thoughts continued as I sat and watched aircraft come and go. As mentioned in my prevoius post my thoughts and prayes go out to everyone involved.

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE B737-7DT A36-001 (CN 30829)

SINGAPORE B777-312 9V-SWS (CN 34584)

EMIRATES A380-861 A6-EDZ (CN 107)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBJ (CN 940)

JETSTAR B787-8 VH-VKD (CN 36229)

REX (Regional EXpress) SAAB 340 VH-ZXF (CN 340B-416)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBE (CN 842)

AIR NIUGINI B737-7L9 P2-PXD (CN 28007)

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

QATAR A380-861 A7-APC (CN 145)

Hi FLY A340-313 CS-TQZ (CN 202)

ETIHAD A380-861 A6-APH (CN 199)

FEDEX MD 11-F N613FE (CN 48749)

AIR NEW ZEALAND B767-319 ZK-NCG (CN 26912)

Plane crashes into shopping centre - Melbourne

                                   BREAKING NEWS

A light plane carrying five people has crashed into the DFO Shopping Centre near Essendon Airport killing all five people on board.
A long plume of black smoke is billowing out of the crash scene. Eight fire crews are responding, according to a Metropolitan Fire Brigade spokesman.
The plane, a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air VH-ZCR (CN BB-1544) was chartered for King Island and was being operated by Corporate and Leisure Travel, who had hired it from MyJet in Bendigo.
Minister for Police Lisa Neville said debris from the crash was also covering the freeway.
"It appears that a light plane which was a charter flight has impacted the DFO out at Essendon Fields. There is also debris that has been left on the Freeway. It is too early yet to know whether there have been any injuries or fatalities."
Images on social media appear to show the plane hit the roof of the Essendon DFO shopping centre, which sits on the boundary of Essendon Airport.
Footage from the scene shows firefighters pouring water on a large hole in the centre's roof. Other parts of the roof appear to be on fire.
The plane crashed just before 9am, a police spokesman said. At this stage there was no information on injuries.

The Tullamarine Freeway is closed in both directions between English Street and Bell Street, and the Calder Freeway is closed in both directions between McNamara Avenue and Bell Street.
Ambulance Victoria confirmed the plane was not an air ambulance, as had earlier been reported on social media.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the immediate families and friends and everyone involved in this horrible accident. 

                                               GOD BLESS

Brisbane to Sydney Flight

It was time to head south again to Sydney for a few days but this time my trip extends on to Melbourne on Wednesday night.

My flight was at 5.20am and boarding will be at 5am, so I got to the airport at 4.30am.

I made my way through security and once again got pulled up for the bomb detection swab.

After that I headed for the Qantas Club for breakfast, where I had my birch muesli, toast and coffee.

At 4.55am I headed to gate 23 where my Qantas flight 503 was waiting and was really annoyed to find the plane had already boarded and I was the last few to board. I took my seat which was 24A; I was given 9A but I remembered that seat doesn't have a window at all, so I opted for a seat way back away from the wing. I also chose A so I can see the international aircraft on the ground when we land in Sydney. The aircraft for this trip was the usual 737-838 and VH-VXR (CN 33724) was the aircraft. The cabin doors were closed at 5.17 and we pushed back at 5.20. We taxied  out for runway 19 at 5.24am. After a short hold we lined up and began rolling getting airborne at 5.31am. Our climb out was the normal left and right turns before setting course for Sydney. Our cruising altitude was 360 and the flight was extremly smooth.  Our track took us down over Beaudesert and east of Armidale before tracking for Sydney, our arrival took us over the city of Sydney and south of the airport. The view coming in was amazing.

 

We began our descent at 6.18am and landed on runway 34R at 6.45am, due to daylight savings we added an hour making our official arrival time 7.45am

THAI B747-4D7 HS-TGW (CN 27724)

ETIHAD B777-3FX A6-ETL (CN 39687)

Yesterday an Emirates 777 freighter with a Rose painted on the side of it came into Sydney and I found out last night it was still on the ground. I was hoping like crazy it would still be there this morning and not only was it there, But theY moved it while we were taxiing in to a place where I could get a really good shot of it.

EMIRATES B777-F1H A6-EFL (CN 42230)

"ROSIE" SKY CARGO WITH LOVE