It was then back to YSSY...
Etihad A346 A6-EHJ heading back to AUH
Thai, Tiger and Tower!
It was around this time that I received a message from Brindabella Airlines saying that my flight to Newcastle tomorrow had been cancelled! I called them up; they said I had been put on the 3pm flight. But that didn't help me seeing as my Virgin flight from NTL-BNE would depart at midday. I had no choice but to take the refund. I went through all my options and decided just to catch the train to Newcastle and then the bus to Newcastle Airport! More on that later!
We stayed for the two MD-11Fs and then drove around to the Virgin terminal to drop Stefan off for his flight back to Adelaide. Bernie then dropped me off at my hotel. Can’t thank these two enough for making it an awesome spotting trip!
Monday, 18 November
Woke up nice and early, checked out and walked to the domestic airport station. Caught the train to Central and then hopped on a train to Newcastle. The train from Sydney to Newcastle takes about 3 hours. I just rested because I was exhausted from all the 5am starts and going to sleep at midnight over the last week! It was bucketing down all the way up the central coast. Once I arrived at Newcastle train station I hopped off and got on a bus to the airport which is another 30 minutes. All up the journey cost me about $25. Would’ve been about $12 if I hadn’t of used the airport station. Pretty good price considering I paid $150 for the Brindabella flight!!! Just a much longer trip!
I got to NTL at about 10am. My flight was due out at 12:35pm but due to the weather this had been pushed back to 2pm. Check-in wasn’t open for another hour so I just took a seat, got the laptop out and did some editing! Once check in opened I checked in and dropped my bag off before going through security and doing some more editing! I was scheduled to fly on a B737-700 so I was hoping for VH-VBY! She was scheduled to operate my flight up until about 3 hours before departure and then it was changed to VH-VBZ! Oh well! At least I’m still on a -700!!!
VH-VBZ finally arrives! Roughly 2 hours late.
Taxing past
It was all happening at Newcastle! All of a sudden another four commercial flights landed; a VA B738 from MEL, two JQ A320s one from BNE and one from MEL and a REX S340 from SYD. Also four RAAF F/A-18s took off! Finally at about 2:10pm boarding commenced.
November 18, 2013
Virgin Australia
VA1105
NTL-BNE
VH-VBZ B737
Seat 17F
On-board in Seat 17A on a busy ramp at NTL
We took off on RWY30 two hours behind schedule. We made a right turn to the north to track for Brisbane. We cruised at 37000ft, flight time was just 58 minutes. I didn’t buy anything to eat I just watched some sport on the live-2-air and looked at the flight map from time to time.
Much nicer weather up here!
Flight map
Cruising
Starting our descent
Passing the Gold Coast
We landed on RWY01, I got a nice view of the Gateway bridges on final approach. We then taxied to the terminal, I waited for everyone else to get off so I could take some interior shots.
Row 17
Nice looking interior!
VBZ then went straight back down to Newcastle as VA1106. The return flight (VA1109) was cancelled! I’m guessing the aircraft went tech as she return the following night using the flight number VA9903.
After that I picked up my bag and caught two trains and a bus home because my parents were still at work! It was a pretty tiring day haha!
Conclusion:
Another fantastic trip! The flights on Qantas and Virgin Australia were very good! Four days of spotting in Sydney was fantastic. Thanks again to Bernie and Stefan!
Next trip is just a daytrip to Sydney in January on QF8 again and back on a Qantas B738.
Thanks for reading!
Brandon