It was an interesting time leading up to curfew last night with all the holding, the flow on effect and whether aircraft, particularly international would be ready for push back prior to 11:00 pm.
The most interesting was EK413 from Auckland which didn't hang around in a holding pattern for very long before diverting to Melbourne. You can see it on the bottom of both radar displays that Robert has posted. It had already crossed into Victoria by 8:38 pm.
The A380 refuelled and then returned to Sydney. EK413 was obviously given dispensation to land on 34L by 11:20 pm because the tower commented after touchdown that he had landed with 30 seconds to spare. To achieve his touch down time he was given some pretty mean direct tracking to one of the waypoints 10 - 15 miles south of Sydney. Without this tracking or opposite direction traffic he wouldn't have made it.
Also affected were CI52 and QF25 who were both waiting for take off on runway 16R (10 knots down wind) and had to wait for Emirates to land before they could depart. They both departed by 11:25 pm with the tower assuring them that they were able to depart without dispensaton as they had requested push back clearance prior to 11:00 pm. QF25 was delayed by Cathay pushing back behind him.
The fun didn't stop there as I fell asleep at the computer and missed what happened to the departing EK413. It had been given a latest departure time of 12 midnight and I think was to be operated by the arriving EK414 on turnaround which had landed around 10:30pm. Looking at the radar displays EZ413 is now off the WA coast and has left from Melbourne, so it looks as though it departed Sydney by midnight and flew to Melbourne to refuel and maybe finish cleaning the aircraft. I wonder if transferring baggage made it onto the flight.
All in all an intriguing couple of hours to watch and listen. Thank you Graham for your 16R radar and airport displays, with added ATC, which enabled me to see all this unfolding. I find it funny when I hear an instruction on my scanner that is broadcast about 5 seconds later on the ATC on your site. What happens to the broadcast technically? Is it recorded and repeated or done some other way? Possibly like the delay in broadcasting talk back radio.
|