TAA Matt

Yeah, i too would love to go back to Hawaii or America, or even Phuket, but ive been to Phuket 3 times now, its time to see different things. Mum graduates uni at the end of this year (Dentist), so im expecting a trip in December sometime.

No idea yet. I have New Zealand in mind to go in a sim. Mum is also looking at Vietnam, and might end up over in Beijing.

I knew that was coming. :lol:

Well….in 2006 I went on two overseas trips, and did promise a trip report. However all I ever got round to was posting a few pictures on Bangkok’s new airport. So…I thought I might just post a brief trip report of all my aviation happenings in 2006. Well ill start of nearly twelve months ago, in February when I jumped on a Qantas Boeing 747-300 for the first time to Honolulu. I flew on the “City of Wagga Waggaâ€, and let me tell you I was very disappointed with Qantas on this flight. From the moment I boarded I knew it was going to be a s*%tful flight, as the entire crew must have been ready to retire. We took off, climbed to our altitude and the meal service was served. I had a child’s meal as I always liked the look of my sister’s meal so I thought I might get one myself this time. And it was fantastic! I had spaghetti bolognaise and it was almost as good as my mums. However the thing I was disappointed with was that only two drink services were run throughout the entire 9 hour and 20 minute flight and no-one came around with water or juice in the middle of the night. Soon enough though I had landed in Honolulu International airport, and what can I say. What a stupid airport! You disembark the aircraft to enter a small room, everyone is now confused. The crew is still on the aircraft, we are in a small room with all the doors locked. However soon enough this bomby old shuttle car come and got us to take us to the main terminal. But once I got there I was flabergastered. It was amazing, you could plane spot from the terminal. All around the duty free was open, you could hear all the JAL aircraft starting their engines – it was a true airport for the aviation enthusiast. Anyway back to the serious part, I went to get my photograph and fingerprints taken, and then I was free to enter the island of Oahu, greeted by our limo driver, Melvin, and leis placed around our necks. During a beautiful week in Honolulu, driving around in our limo, soaking up the sun on Waikiki, and visiting the Alomoana shopping centre, we were handed a piece of paper with deals for only $350US to go to the ‘Big Island’ (Called Hawaii) for a day tour. This deal was too cheap for us to reject so we got up at 4:30AM and walked down to the bare street on Honolulu to meet our driver to take us to the airport. I at this stage still had no idea who we were flying. Once we got the airport, I soon found out we were flying on an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737. And I can just remember sitting in the boarding gate remembering that episode of Air Crash Investigation when the Aloha Airlines had a crack in the fuselage and the old flight attendant got sucked out at 30,000ft. However it was a good flight to Kona and back. I must say though I was most surprised when I arrived at Kona International Airport, it was a large version basically of Aeropelican (the airport, YPEC – not the airline). I remember on our return flight, my nan sitting in the row behind me and screaming “Oh Shit†as we landed – it was a pretty hard landing. It was the same crew and aircraft as we flew on earlier that day. And then….as always all good things have to come to an end, and I soon boarded my flight, QF4 bound for Sydney. The aircraft this time was the “City of Mildura†and I was happy on this leg to see young, enthusiastic flight attendants. It was a great flight, I absolutely love day time flights. I have now been home on holidays for not much longer than 3 months, and whilst my dad was in China on business, we went up the pub with the next door neighbors. And being drunk as my mum was, with the people next door they were talking about holidays and mum had said how nice Phuket was, and it wasn’t then long until dad got a phone call in china saying save your money we are going to Phuket again. So we went down to Lisa at Travelscene Swansea (whom we are the highest customers) and booked our flights on British Airways to Bangkok and then Thai onwards to Phuket. Waiting, waiting and waiting for September to come to go away, I spend my days on of course TAA and I was also browsing the YSSY Message Board when Natalie Bray of Seven’s The Great Outdoors research team posted a topic asking for plane spotters to come to YSSY to film a segment on plane spotting. Alright then, sign me up. Toddles and I were set to feature on the Great Outdoors. So on a very, very, very cold August morning I got up at 6AM to make the 2 hour car trip to Shep’s Mound. I go there, and for 15 minutes nothing – dad said are you sure you haven’t been set up Matt and I’ve said yes I’m sure. Anyway cut a long story short the Great Outdoors got lost. It turned out to be a good morning, although the weather being cold and overcast. But….my friend Toddles who I was set to meet never showed. He got a stomach bug lol. So September soon came around and I got onboard my British Airways / Qantas codeshare flight to Bangkok. My flight gay flight attendant, Brian, made the flight most funny. I was really disappointed with British Airways as their seats are more clustered together in cattle class, and hence had virtually no room. Also, unlike Qantas their control for the individual TV’s was not on the side of your armrest and detachable but securely attached to the top of your armrest. All through the night I was forever accidentally changing my volume, channel and even turning the TV off from just having my arm on the armrest. After arriving in Bangkok’s new airport after midnight, we checked into the Novotel Bangkok Airport Hotel. I had to be up bright and early the next morning to catch my flight to Phuket, onboard a Thai Boeing 747-400, very strange to me considering it was only a 1 hour and 20 minute flight. Phuket, as the previous two times I have been there was great, and remains one of my favorite destinations. My return flights were very similar to the flights over. My Thai flight to Bangkok was operated by an Airbus A300-600 aircraft, and the British Airways sector to Sydney seemed to go forever as I had an infected eye from swimming in the water in Phuket. Well….thats this year over for me. I am looking forward to more adventures this year. (I told you Glenn I would promise to get one out within 12 months :P)

:roll: :roll: :roll:

Air China....not sure what its meant to mean, can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks David for the photos, Its good to be able to see photos of the same flight deck that took me to Honolulu.

David, You have to upload the photo to the internet, i use http://www.imageshack.us Once uploaded it will give you a long line of code for forums and you just copy and paste it into your post.

Great Pics!

Great to hear it Chainy, would of been a great sight to see. If only i was avaliable to go :cry: Look forward to seeing the pictures.

Thanks Todd :lol: I can always remember Wunala, but i always get Nalanji and Yananyi's names mixed up.

QF192 landed at YSSY at 0801 this morning.

That is one thing i did not get to do and go up in the flight deck of EBT

Would be good if it was EBT (City of Waga Waga) for me becuase i would be able to go to the Longreach museum to see it. However i think it is worth all the money getting the Aboriginal scheme 743 (sorry i dont know how to spell its name) restored and put into the Longreach museum.

Oh WOW :shock: David, sorry for my ignorence before i did not realise but VH-EBT (City of Waga Waga) is the aircraft i flew to Hawaii on in Janurary of this year on QF3. Here's a picture i took of her shortly after disembarking the aircraft in Honolulu.

Great report David! Geez, how time flys, its been nearly 12 months since ive flown on the Qantas B747-300's between Sydney and Honolulu on QF3 & QF4

YAY another Matt on here. Welcome mate! Hope you enjoy your time here.

Got a phone call off Dad last night, he was due to fly out on QF192 last night and arrive here at about lunch time today. Beijing Capital International Airport has been closed due to heavy smog and all flights have been delayed, until about 3:00PM Beijing time (6:00PM Sydney Time), when QF192 (Dad's flight) will take-off. All business class passengers have been taken to a posh hotel, and I am lead to believe that all economy passengers are still in the airport. I can't confirm this as Dad said they took him and the rest of the business class passengers away first and he did not see what they did to the economy passengers. Dad said that the smog was thicker than normal in Beijing yesterday(could not see more than a block in front of you), but it very fastly got worse as he arrived at the airport and he said its that thick his throat and eyes burn and he feels like he is sufficating. He is not due back into Sydney until 6:00AM tomorrow morning - and thats if all things going well. If the smog does not clear it could be longer.

I was both pleased and dissapointed with Suvarnabhumi Airport. Pleased, due to it is far better than Bangkoks old International Airport, Don Muang, but dissapointed at several things; * For a new airport there could of been alot more improvements, i.e. there should not be the need to use remote stands. On both my international flights with British Airways i went on an aerobidge but on both domestic flights with Thai i had to get on a bus to get to/from the aircraft, despite being ample amount of aerobridges free. * The lack of signage, to get through customs it was just a matter of following the crowd. Also little signage to get to the Novotel Airport Hotel, and finding the mini bus to get onto becuase the underground walkway is not yet complete. *The lack of things done on opening. And the finnish, there were alot of bare concete walls, and i think they are going to stay like this and they dont look good. But, overall its better than Don Muang, and a good airport to experience, the design and engineering feats involved are phenomenal.

Yes Chainy, i can see it now :lol:

Well in a few years Toddles may be booking flights with Captain Hoggy as the captain, now thats a scary thought :P

If that happened to me on a flight, you would still be able to hear me yell from 35, 000 feet.

Good to hear it mate, maybe we will all be booking through Toddle's Travel Agencies soon :P

Good pick up. And that mission with the 737 is a good one too lol.

Yeah, Cant remember too much of the conversation, but coming back home on QF4 from Hawaii the flight attendants were talking about it to a passenger just a bit in front of me.