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Old 11th December 2011, 12:52 PM
Jakef Jakef is offline
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Default Attempt at a Trip Report: BNE-TSV-BNE

Thought I would make an attempt at a trip report for the first time! I must apologise in advance for the lack of photos though as I wasn't planning on making one and I didn't have my DSLR with me!

Anyway, I had to be in Townsville for an interview and so I first needed a way to get there. I decided that the easiest way to go would be to drive to Brisbane, park at Budget Airport Parking and then flying from Brisbane. Much easier than flying to Sydney, then Brisbane, then Townsville.

I decided to book with Virgin Australia, with purchasing checked baggage they were only marginally cheaper than Qantas but I do like flying with Virgin.

Flight 1:
BNE - TSV (Brisbane to Townsville)
DJ375
Boeing 737-800, VH-VOX
Departed 1420, Arrived 1620



I attempted to web check in on my phone for this flight, but I soon discovered you then couldn't access your boarding pass on another computer to print. So I managed to check in but still needed a boarding pass, which was sorted within about a minute by heading to the check in counter at the airport.
I was somewhat surprised when I saw this while standing around waiting for the inbound aircraft. I was expecting it to go straight to the international terminal but turns out despite the Pacific Blue markings it is operating domestically.
Boarding was on time, and I made my way to my window seat (24A) and was happy to find that the middle seat was vacant, made for a much more comfortable flight. VOX is certainly showing signs of age with the condition of the seats and interior, but it was still pretty comfortable even for me and I am rather tall. Plenty of legroom!
We held for a Qantas 737 to land then took off on runway 19, turning to the right then out over the coast, before finally turning to head north to Townsville.
After cruise we began our decent into Townsville for a landing on 01. The approach was somewhat bumpy and led to a few involuntary expletives by some other passengers, although I didn't find it that bad. We landed with a bit of a bounce and some extremely heavy braking.
Flight was pretty much 2 hours exactly from Pushback to shutdown, and I stepped out into the 34 degree Townsville heat (Which I am certainly not used to!)

Flight 2:
TSV - BNE (Townsville to Brisbane)
DJ386
Embraer E190, VH-ZPO
Departed 1935, Arrived 2115



Decided to check in using the kiosk for this one. Couldn't change seats though but I still got my oh so necessary window!

This was the first night flight I have taken since around 2004 when I went to Fiji (And I was 8 or so then...), so it was a bit of a different experience. Boarding was a bit drawn out due to the fact that only the forward aerobridge was used, and we pushed back around 5 minutes late. We taxied out for a takeoff on 01 and waited for something to land (Didn't see what) and then took off, with a series of right hand turns over Magnetic island and a good view of the lights of Townsville from my seat (19F).

About 15 minutes after takeoff I no longer could see anything on the ground, no lights at all. This would continue until about 10 minutes before landing. Now I am certainly not a nervous flyer, but I didn't really enjoy this flight. Yes ZPO was in a much better condition than VOX and was more comfortable, but I don't like not having a visual reference to something stationary. For this whole flight I basically saw nothing but the flash of the wingtip lights, sometimes I couldn't even see the flashes that well due to cloud and sometimes the flashes revealed pouring rain.

At one point for about 5 minutes I could see one star which made for a reference to tell me that yes we are still flying level. About 30 minutes in and after the food and drink service the captain came on and said that there was a high altitude jetstream which would lead to many bumps on the way back down. About 40 minutes in he came on again and turned the seatbelt sign on, saying it would remain on till landing.

So the whole flight was a bit bumpy, with the aircraft dropping and rolling frequently, all the while with nothing to see outside to tell me what was going on. Seeing as I am used to being a VFR pilot this was unpleasant..

10 or 15 minutes before landing , after going through a very bumpy layer of cloud I managed to see a light on the ground, soon after Brisbane came into view and I felt a lot better about the whole thing We approached to the west of the airport, before making some steep left turns to line up and land on runway 01. Taxi to the gate was quick and we disembarked on time by the forward door with stairs (The gate didn't have an aerobridge)


In conclusion, another flawless performance by Virgin Australia, I always try to fly with them. In fact I have only ever flown with two Airlines domestically, Virgin and Qantaslink (Never with QF mainline) Those points and status credits are building up in my Velocity account, only need 200 more by next September to get silver...
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Old 19th April 2012, 12:39 AM
Martin Beauchemin Martin Beauchemin is offline
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Good report! I'm surprised nobody has replied! I rather enjoyed it! Keep it up
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Old 19th April 2012, 10:55 PM
Joe Frampton Joe Frampton is offline
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Location: Brisbane, QLD
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Default Good Report

I could really relate to your experience on the TSV-BNE sector... a cloudy/bumpy night flight can be quite hairy. I had one of those from Dublin to Pisa with Ryanair, weaving to dodge thunderstorms over France... never has it been such a relief to see the lights coming in to land. That's why I prefer widebody flights to/from Asia... not nice tackling bumpy tropical night skies in a 737 or A320 (or smaller!)...
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Next Trips:
Feb BNE-CBR-BNE, QF
18May BNE-DPS-KUL-PEN-SIN-BNE, VA/AirAsia/QF
05Oct BNE-YVR-PDX-YVR-BNE, AC
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Old 21st April 2012, 11:20 AM
Jakef Jakef is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2011
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Thanks for the replies!
I can't imagine how popular an airline would be if they included a digital display of some basic flight instruments as part of the airshow feature on PTV screens. It would make them very popular for anyone with a slight interest in aviation.

And yes I certainly don't appreciate having no visual reference... the night part as well as the bumps don't phase me too much after I've had some shocking bumps in an LSA (Read: Momentarily vacating the seat...). Strangely enough after that flight back to Brisbane I have had a major urge to do some IFR flying lessons, maybe I will get a chance sometime.
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