CBR-SYD, SYD-OOL, BNE-SYD-CBR

[Todd M]

Here is my trip report from a recent trip to Brisbane.

 

Canberra to Sydney

 

Date: 16/10/2006

 

Flight No: QF1466

 

Reg: VH-QOE

 

Type: Dash8-Q400

 

Name: Unknown

 

Seat: 18D

 

Seq. Number: 1

 

STD: 08:55

 

STA: 09:45

 

Gate: Unknown

 

Dep Rwy: 17

 

Arr Rwy: 16R

 

Checked in online for this flight, first time using QF online check in and went without a hitch. Plenty of seats to choose from and decided on the second last row for my first flight on the Q400. Strutted up to the QF Bag drop counter, no ID required I found. Just stated my name, and flight and gave them my printed boarding pass and no probs. Was a beautiful day in Canberra, Same cannot be said for the weather awaiting me in Sydney, and perfect conditions to sit by the tinted glass and watch the 737-400?s come in and out, and even one Captain and First Officer gave a big waves out of the window which thrilled these two little kids waving at them from the terminal glass! The highlight was watching the ?City Of Port Maqaurie?, oops, I mean ?City of Port Macquarie? (Don?t know what I mean? Read Australian Aviation, page 112) landing in Canberra with a loud roar and a puff of smoke. The flight was called for boarding, where I was greeted and had the option to choose the famous Canberra Times to read for free. Walking down the stairs to the tarmac, I was greeted with the sight of Port Macquarie sitting there in all her glory (She did not have an aerobridge) and stared with awe at every little bit of aircraft I could lay my eyes on. It put the Q400 to shame which was parked next to it, I found it fantastic to be able to walk past an aircraft that size at Canberra (Imagine what I would be like with a 747 at Canberra!). We were piped aboard by the sounds of boybands and pop groups where I took my seat on this full flight to Sydney. My first impression was the size of such a regional craft. I could stand up fully without leaving a bump on my head. It sure seemed like a nice little aircraft to be flying in from the moment I stepped onboard. I placed my bag under the seat, it would not fit overhead, and squished it under as far as it would go (I think much to the displeasure of my fellow passenger in 18C). The safety announcement was a pre recorded tape, where they did all the motions before taking their seats. We took off over Jerra (Hopefully making some noise to wake up the small amount of residents who complain about the airport?s growth) and before we know it, the seatbelt sign is off and trolley service has commenced. Now here is the fun part of the food critiquing, We had some weird pumpkin and other flavour muffin bar which had the name Temptations. Yeah, first thing wrong with it is the name! Not very tempting at all, and didn?t leave me hanging out for another. And second, who puts pumpkin into a muffin bar with a fruit flavour? But cannot complain much, the flight on the returns bar was worse! I feel the water was the best part of it, even the coconut muffin I had on QF a few times which left me feeling queasy was a tad better than this. The flight was nice and smooth throughout, only going into the clouds just outside of Sydney did it get bumpy for a few minutes before we got out of the cloud and it was smooth again. Landing was great, got to see a few freighters at the terminal (Although my view was slightly obscured by the engine), and we taxied past Sheps? mound. My bags came out with all the Qantas Priority luggage (The QF Club tag must?ve helped from a previous flight when I was traveling with a member) so I got out rather quickly. All in all, I rather enjoyed my flight on the Q400. Smooth, Quiet and very roomy for a small plane. And then so awaited me a day of spotting in Sydney!

 

 

Engine view of VH-QOE

 

Here are some photos of my spotting expidition.

 

 

DQ-FJK Taxiing out to 34L

 

TF-FIS 757-200 at its parking bay

 

Sydney to Coolangatta

 

Date: 17/10/2006

 

Flight No: JQ182

 

Reg: VH-VQX (I believe, I forgot to write down the rego off my hand)

 

Type: A320-232

 

Seat: 6A

 

Seq. Number: 46

 

Boarding Group: Silver

 

STD: 08:30

 

STA: 09:50

 

Gate: 49

 

Dep Rwy: 16L

 

Arr Rwy: The one to the north

 

Have not flown on JetStar since they have become all A320, have flown on them before on their 717?s and the service was good, just the legroom was crap. But this was a great flight overall. It started off by booking the flight and choosing a seat. I chose 6A, the closest window seat I could get to the front. And when I got to check-in, I asked the guy behind the counter what seat I had (As they said the seats may change on the website), he replied with 6 Alpha, so all was going good so far (Except the Silver Boarding group tag, as I checked in 1.5 hours to departure, that may be a sign the 30min cutoff works!). No trouble through security, beauty. Then I get downstairs and T2 has changed so much! The maccas is no longer to the left, Krispy Kremes to the right. I found out they had constructed a food court closer to the JetStar side. So I went and got myself 2 bacon and egg McFatty muffins and a Nudie Juice (To compensate for the muffins) and dragged myself over to gate49 where I sat down watching Japanese Anime (Digimon ?) on a show on channel 10. I remember watching Pokemon on Cheeze TV in the mornings. Now it is Digimon and a new program that I cannot remember its name. The flight seemed rather full, about 80-90% loading from the look of it. The plane arrived and within no time we were boarding the plane. I was seated next to an older lady and a man (The latter taking the opportunity at seatbelts off to move to the empty row infront) who were kind and friendly, and even had a chat to me. I prefer the A320?s interior over the 737. Brighter, spacey, just better all round (Even to the row and seat lights which are found in a panel above the head). Take off was the same old same old, with the safety briefing where I had Little Miss corportate behind me talking loud enough through the briefing for half the plane not to hear about her business plans with Wrigleys. Big Whoop, who cares about wrigleys, if anything happened she would be the first one panicking and asking ?what the hell do I do??! We climbed up, up and away into the clouds where we came out to a beautiful blue sky and the sun pouring into the aircraft. Lunch today was a pack of Pringles and a lemonade while listening to the cool sounds of evermore on my iPod. While jamming away in my seat like a bloke in a iPod commercial, I found out we were coming into a descent into Coolangatta. I packed up all my gear and had a chat to the nice lady next to me, about plans and ambitions. With her telling me she had a daughter in Wannaissa, the suburb next to me in Canberra. Meaningless piece of info there for you all! We came in past Tweed Heads and make a couple of sharp turns (With the runway in sight) onto the runway at Coolangatta. Smooth landing, and only a short hop to the terminal with a bit of backtracking involved. I waited to be one of the last people on the flight, asking the F/A if I could take a look at the cockpit. She replied with ?Sure thing, just take a seat and we will wait till everyone else is off the aircraft?. The cockpit on the A320 is fantastic, I love it. It is actually my favorite plane due to all its technology. I was asking the F/O about how long it takes to get used to the Joystick, he was telling me not long, but you often get the feeling of wanting to put your arms out to a control column. He said that was where the fold down table comes in handy, so you can feel like something is there. I thanked him for the tour (The captain was doing his checks) and went to grab my bags which were only just coming out. I asked a security guard how to get to the bus stop for Surfside so I could get a bus then train to Brisbane.

 

 

VQZ Wing view

 

Brisbane to Sydney

 

Date: 26/10/2006

 

Flight No: QF525

 

Reg: VH-OGD

 

Type: 767-338/ER

 

Name: Mailtland

 

Seat: 39A

 

Seq. Number: 71

 

STD: 12:15

 

STA: 13:45

 

Gate: 23

 

Dep Rwy: 01

 

Arr Rwy: 07

 

I checked in the day before at my cousins house via online check in, all went well until I went to download the boarding passes and the modem just cut out. No matter how hard I tried the modem would just not dial out anymore, even though there was a dial tone. One quick call to 13 13 13 where the lovely Kelly worked out what I could do. She said she could make a phone call to another department and they can revert it to make it seem like I never checked in at all, or I could just go to the Bag Drop counter and pick up my boarding passes there. The latter was the easiest, so I just went with that. It was good to actually get an Aussie call centre! So I rocked up to the airport the next morning, and all went without a hitch. They printed me out some boarding passes, and for the first time going through security at Brisbane they did not ask me to open my bag and inspect my can of deodorant like they always do. I went up to the gate, and bought an overpriced Pizza from Eagle Boys and a sprite, and also got myself a brand new Skymarks A380 House Colours model for my collection. It is a big bugger with moving wheels and turbines, and as soon as I layed eyes on it I could not manage leaving it sitting in the shop collecting dust. So now she sits loud and proud next to my Qantas A380 model which seems rather small compared. The inbound was ontime, but the flight was delayed out due to a large number of special assistance passengers who needed pre-boarding. Finally getting onboard, I felt a rather refreshing change from the 737 and also a change from my last 767 flight, which was a -336. The large screens and projection screens were a welcome change, telling us our current altitude and speed (0km/h at boarding :P) and all that fancy jazz. The flight loading would have been around the 95-100% mark (Did not see who was in Business), mostly consisting of a mixed Asian tour group. Was a quick taxi to the runway (After the F/A fast forwarded through a little bit of the Safety tape by accident) and we were up in the air, with me not familiar with the loud whirrs and banging of a 767 (Have only been on 2 before, an AN762 and a QF 767-336) was intrigued at what was happening. The inflight entertainment consisted of National Nine News (One I never watch) Qantas edition and then on:Q Music after it. The inflight meal was a falafel with salad and a choice of beverage. I am not a real falafel fan, but I ate it all the same and washed it down with a nice tall glass of Sprite. I spent half the time before trying to get an F/A to attend to me and grab me an inflight magazine, as I wanted to know what channel Billboard was on. I pressed the button in the seat and the light was on, but no usual noise came to alert the F/A that I needed attention! So I had to get the guy pushing the food trolley to grab me one out of another passengers seat, which was nice of him to do that. I tuned into billboard until Casey Chambers came on, then I searched for something else and eventually tuned into the IFE on the screens, being a nice calm song, before then James Blunt came on and I decided Casey Chambers was more bearable. We were placed into a holding pattern, as traffic was banked up at Sydney, so we did a few turns out to the west before looping back around and onto approach for 07 and emerging out of the clouds to a dull, grey Sydney. We got bumped around abit, but the landing was fine and we all walked away from it! I realized I only had about 30 seconds before my connecting flight was due to board, when we were at the gate, so unlike my usual wait until everybody had gone routine, I was one of the first up and off. Excluding the part where this rude woman just pushed me out and walked infront of me before I called her some choice names and told her to wise up in a few more words which I will not place here. Gave my thanks to the F/A?s and ran via the male dunny to my flight which was in the process of being filled up due to a cancelled Canberra flight. I was fine (I had no idea what was going on!), they just had a few empty seats on mine so they put the Full fare passengers and any remaining on my flight to fill up the seats. But that is another story!

 

 

VH-OGD 'Maitland' at the gate.

 

 

Inbetween two layers of cloud, love it!

 

Another wing view, but at a different altitude. Closer to the sun, stars moons and the rest of the wonderous universe

 

Sydney to Canberra

 

Date: 26/10/2006

 

Flight No: QF1485

 

Reg: VH-QOE

 

Type: Dash8-Q400

 

Name: Unknown

 

Seat: 19D

 

Seq. Number: 4

 

STD: 14:35

 

STA: 15:25

 

Gate: Canberra Cityflyer Gate

 

Dep Rwy: 16R

 

Arr Rwy: 35

 

Got through the gate lounge and walked onto the bus, damn I hate it when they use the bus for a 30 or 40m walk at the most to the Aircraft, love walking to it with the smell of AvGas and the roaring of 747?s taking off. Was suprised to see so many empty seats on the plane, I was one of the last ones on the first busload on. The second busload was full of the people from the cancelled flight, which made the plane 100% full. One of the women infront of me had come out of an operation the day before flying, and had a whinge when she was told to put the armrest down and said stuff about how she had just had an operation. The F/A Spoke to the purser who spoke to her and said ?we can re-organise you on a later flight if you are in too much pain, cause once we are up there, there is no turning back?. She refused, but she went well for the flight. No unsightly sickness and no screams of pain. We held at 16R for about 5 mins max, due to landing and taking off aircraft ahead of us. It was a very smooth flight out, and we went through the clouds and tracked further out of the way than normal to allow for other southbound aircraft to pass before heading inland to Canberra. Today?s meal was another Temptation bar, this time Date and Walnut. No thanks! I just had the water, floated my boat abit better than date and Walnut. I sat and listened to my iPod before the announcement of descent where I switched off my happy tunes and went back to working out where the hell I was, I saw a familiar sight, the train line into Bungendore. Then saw the town and could work out where I was going from there. The runway came into sight where we flew right past it, over Royalla, then did a u turn and then a sharp left to come on line with the runway. Abit of careful corrections and the plane landed without any problems and with a small thud. VH-QOF was sitting next to us at the terminal, and to my surprise I turned around to see a Brindabella Airlines metro, but not TAG or TAO. It was VH-SEF from Sunshine Express, nice and shiny in its new Maroon and silver colours.

 

All in all they were good flights, I had fun. The only downer was the muffin bars on Qantaslink. Probably one of the only CityFlyer routes to get snacks onboard, and I just have to live on it!

 

And here comes to a close my trip report for my 35-38th flights I have flown on.

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

Great report Todd and very well written.

 

 

[Uncle Chop Chop]

Great to read this trip Report Todd. Chainey E-Mailed me and told me all of the great things that you did.

 

 

[Guest VH-TJT]

Nice report Todd, you really are a serious enthusiast which is good to see.

 

Is it just me or does the pic "Engine view of VH-QOE" look like there's negative flap?

 

TJT