This next photo is a little blurry but it captures an airline I had never heard of before. Network Aviation is the name of the company. A Google search confirms their primary operations are centred on mining charter flights. They have a couple of Fokker F100s, including one still in US Airways colour-scheme which can be seen in this pic. They also have a growing fleet of Embraer 120 Brasilias. Wikipedia also mentions that they are now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas, and plan to expand their fleet further to cater for the future needs of the mining industry. Definitely a “watch this space” type of airline.
Network Aviation hangers with some other random helicopters. One helicopter looks a bit like a SeaKing, but it’s a bit hard to tell from this distance.
Skippers Aviation brimming with life
My flight was scheduled to board at 1310 Perth local time, but boarding actually began 2 minutes early. However, boarding took a while due to the full load of passengers.
A last parting shot with VH-VXB before I board VH-EBN.
What the hell, I might as well snap a quickie of the domestic terminal as well.
Beech B200 King Air VH-MQZ. Apparently this one is privately owned and not used for RFDS operations. Nice paintwork though.
Just before I board VH-EBN, I quick snap of the last of the fuel being loaded. I would later find out that the plane actually carried extra fuel since it was scheduled for an extremely tight turn-around at Sydney before heading to Melbourne. Hence, refuelling here would save time in Sydney.
Wing of VH-EBN as seen from seat 50A. I think I would have died had I not got the last window seat left.
Network Aviation Fokker F100 VH-NHP taxis for departure behind a Skywest Fokker F50
After pushing back from Gate 13 one minute late, Captain David Collier introduced First Officer Dave whateverhislastnamewas, who would be flying the plane right from pushback until parking at the gate in Sydney. It was to be a north-easterly departure with a fairly strong easterly crosswind, and moderate turbulence was to be expected in the less of the Perth hills.
It was a long taxi via Delta1, crossing RWY03/21, November, a tight turn onto Charlie2, then on to Papa, Juliet2, a tight turn onto RWY06/24, and incredibly, an impossible 180° u-turn at the end of RWY24 in order to line-up and depart from RWY06. Prior to this, I thought an A330 was incapable of executing such a manoeuvre, but FO Dave whateverhislastnamewas enlightened me.
View of Air Asia (Indonesia) A320-216 PK-AXK taxis to the international terminal after landing RWY06 as we taxi on taxiway C2. An educated guess tells me it came in from Bali (Denspasar).
South African Airways Airbus A340-??? (P.S. I’m not very good at picking the Airbus type variants)
Video of the take-off and climb out on RWY06. Amazing 180 u-turn followed by a very bumpy takeoff roll. I tried my best to keep the camera steady, ramming it against the window and using my elbows to brace myself. My apologies for the shaking. However, on the Brightside I suppose my commentary is kind of improving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1rE17bCXnM
We reached cruising altitude not long after, and the in-flight entertainment bonanza began. I watched the Social Network before watching a TV documentary about how Rolls Royce manufactures the Trent 900 engines used on the A380. I also enjoyed the chat feature which enabled me to chat with my mum who was seated a few rows away. Every passenger on the A330 has their own individual touch-screen mounted into the back of the seat in front. However, being no tech head myself, it was quite the struggle initially to get the screen to feel me touching it.
An hour into the flight, dinner or lunch, whatever you want to call it, was served. There was the choice of either chicken stir fry or braised beef. Once again, I chose the latter of the two options, and once again, I have no idea what my mum’s vegetarian meal was since she was seated a number of rows away.
Braised beef, boiled/steamed potatoes and snake beans, the standard bread roll, cheese and biscuit snack thingy, Toblerone (took all my will-power to save till the end of the rest of the meal), water, lemonade, and later on, tea/coffee (sadly no hot chocolate this time round...I was really looking for an extra kick as well).
Food was delicious as always, although not quite the standard of say Singapore Airlines and the like. But nevertheless, worthy of praise considering it was just an average domestic flight.