Introduction:
On Saturday May 5th and Sunday May 6th I went out to Longreach to see the Qantas Founders Outback Museum. It was a fantastic trip! Back in January my friend Josh told me that QantasLink had a sale on flights to Longreach, usually $180 or more one-way it was just $99. We had both always wanted to go out to Longreach so we took the opportunity and booked, we would just be staying the one night as we thought that would be long enough. The flights were $200 all up and the hotel would be $66 each so it ended up being very cheap.
We also booked our tour at the Qantas museum; we would be doing the ‘Ultimate tour’ which includes museum entry, B707 tour, B747 tour and B747 wing walk. And while on the internet one day I thought I would search the net to see if there were any scenic flights out of Longreach. I saw that ‘Queensland Helicopters’ offers scenic flights out of Longreach. They offer a 10 minute flight for $50 which I thought was pretty good for a helicopter flight. They offered longer flights too but I thought this one would be long enough and I didn’t want to spend too much.
We were booked on QF2532 on Saturday May 5 from Brisbane (depart 0835) to Longreach (arrive 1120) with a quick stopover in Barcaldine. The flight back was on the following day, QF2535 from Longreach (depart 1610) nonstop to Brisbane (arrive 1805). Both flights on Dash 8-Q400s. About two weeks before the trip we both received an email from Qantas saying our flight to Longreach had changed. We would have no stopover in Barcaldine; QantasLink had put on an extra flight which would fly BNE-BCI-LRE-BNE. So we would be lucky and see two QantasLink in the one day.
And also we received an email from the QFOM saying that they were no longer offering tours of the B747 because the soil under the nose gear isn’t as stable as they thought, the concrete slab for the nose gear had sunk about a foot or two into the ground. Luckily they began to offer B707 wing walks so we would do that instead but it was a shame that we couldn’t go inside the B747.
Woke up at about 6am, I had packed the night before so just did a quick check in the morning. Left at 6:30am and got to the airport at 7am. Used the check in machines to get my boarding pass (was given Seat 9D) and bag tag for my checked luggage. Put the tag on my bag then went to the manual bag drop off. Took me a while to do because I hadn’t done it before but now that I know, it is pretty simple. Josh arrived at 7:30am and did the same, he was given Seat 5D. Huge line for security screening but we got though fairly quickly.
Brisbane Airport:
Firstly we went up to the main gates to have a look around. Was just the normal stuff, went down to the common user satellite to see QantasLink Boeing 717 VH-NXQ which was off to Alice Springs for an aircraft swap over, VH-NXN would be returning to operate the BNE services.
VH-NXQ nearly ready to go
Qantas tails
We then went down to the QantasLink gates; it was quite busy down there with a flight departing every 10 mins while we were there. We had about a 20 minute wait and then boarding was called for the flight through Gate 1.
May 5, 2012
QantasLink
QF2532
BNE-LRE
VH-QOS DH8D
Seat 9D
I guessed the day before that we would get VH-QOS and we did.
On the bus out to VH-QOS
On-board in Seat 9D, I only saw one available seat on the flight. There was a group of people from the RFDS so they took up nearly a quarter of the plane.
Lining up on RWY19
I didn’t take any more photos during the flight because I was facing the sun the whole time and my window was quite dirty. After the seat belt sign was switched off breakfast was served which was a scone with jam and butter and yogurt with muesli. I just watched a couple of episodes of two and a half men on my iPod and listened to some music. And before I knew it we were descending into Longreach. We flew over the small town of Ilfracombe on descent and over the Landsborough Highway. We landed on RWY22 and taxied to the small terminal, was surprised to see a Gulfstream GIV there (N810LP).
Longreach Airport:
At the gate
Walked off QOS and entered the small terminal. The bag pickup area is just outside the terminal after collecting our bags we walked over to the stunning VH-EBQ.
Qantas Boeing 747-200 VH-EBQ, been in LRE for nearly 10 years now
Quick turn around and VH-QOS was back off to BNE, had the rest of the day off
Weird looking ultra-light taxiing out to RWY04
About 30 minutes after QOS departed, SBI arrived from Brisbane via Barcaldine.
Turning into the gate
After SBI arrived we went a few hundred metres down the road to the Jumbuck Motel and checked in. We dropped our bags off and then went back to the airport to grab some lunch. After lunch we had a look around VH-EBQ and the Boeing 707 VH-XBA.
QFOM
Newest addition to the museum, Catalina VH-EAX
