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#1
1st December 2013, 11:02 AM
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Trip Report: QF/VA BNE-MEL/OOL-MEL-SYD/NTL-BNE (Photos)
Introduction:
Well on October 9, Jetstar announced their first Boeing 787 routes and put them on sale. I immediately booked the inaugural flight (JQ432 MEL-OOL 13/11/13). I have already posted a report for this flight which can be found here… http://www.jetspotter.com/forum/phpB...p?f=11&t=13996 So all I had to do was figure out how to get down to Melbourne! I decided to fly down to Melbourne the day before (12/11/13). Luckily for me all the major airlines were doing a Melbourne sale at the time. Qantas and Virgin were a similar price and I went with Qantas. I would fly on the Dreamliner to the Gold Coast and I decided to go back to Melbourne that afternoon on Virgin Australia. I would fly to Sydney the following day (14/11/13) on Qantas and stay there for 4 days for spotting! On Monday 18/11/13 I would return to Brisbane. I was originally planning on going Virgin direct but I then thought about going via Newcastle and trying out Brindabella Airlines. I then checked flights from NTL-BNE on that day and saw that the midday Virgin flight was to be operated by a Boeing 737-700, and that sealed the deal! The only downside is the price for the Brindabella flight………$150!!! But I wanted to give them a go so I booked the morning flight. It worked out really well and I couldn’t wait for the trip! Tuesday, 12 November Brisbane Airport: I got to the airport at about 7:30am, my flight wasn’t due to depart til 11am but the night before I saw that China Southern A332 B-6528 in Skyteam colours would be in BNE. I have been chasing her for a while so I went early to see her. My dad dropped me off and I then walked up to the top of the multi-storey carpark, I got there just as China Southern was on finals! Finally got you! That Skyteam livery is great!  VH-OEH rotating nice and early for the quick hop down to Sydney as QF8  After that I walked down to the terminal and dropped my bag off before heading up to the boarding gates. I grabbed some breakfast and found a good spot to watch the morning movements. Busy morning!   It was just the usual stuff at BNE. At about 10:20, a Qantaslink Boeing 717 did a go-around due to a Virgin Australia Embraer 190 still being on the runway. He must have needed a little extra time to get ready for take-off. It was a pretty cool sight; those 717 sure do get up quickly! I then walked down to the Qantas end to capture my plane arriving. VH-VXG would be taking me down to Melbourne. Unfortunately she no longer has the Bring it on titles!  Due to the late arrival of VXG into Brisbane, my flight down to Melbourne was delayed (originally a 11am departure). Boarding started at about 11:20am. November 12, 2013 Qantas QF617 BNE-MEL VH-VXG B738 Seat 21A On-board in Seat 21A!  We taxied out to RWY01 for take-off, and it was very good timing! We waited for a Cathay A333, Air NZ B77W and Qantaslink 717 to take-off and a couple of domestic departures. We took off and made the 180 degree turn to the south. On the flight they showed the morning news followed by Gruen Planet and then a doco on Casey Stoner. Complementary lunch was offered on today’s flight. It wasn’t much though; just a chicken pie (which was quite nice) and I took a can of coke. Climbing up to 38000ft  Cruising down to MEL  Lunch time!  Soon we were descending into a very wet and rainy Melbourne. We landed on RWY16 and taxied over to the Qantas terminal passing the international which I could barely make out through the rain. Taxiing into the gate  Well after another enjoyable Qantas flight I went and collected my bag before running through the rain to my hotel. It continued to bucket down for the rest of the day so I couldn’t get out and do any spotting! Wednesday, 13 November Ok so now I will pick up where I left off on my 787 trip report. Which can be found here… http://www.jetspotter.com/forum/phpB...p?f=11&t=13996 Gold Coast Airport: Brock had dropped me off at the terminal. I had already checked in online so I could go straight through security. Unfortunately it was the late afternoon rush and the line for security was massive. I finally made it through security and I was surprised to find that boarding had almost finished for my flight! So it was straight on-board! November 13, 2013 Virgin Australia VA744 OOL-MEL VH-YFF B738 Seat 16A VH-YFF would be taking me down to Melbourne!  Boarding via the rear stairs  On-board in Seat 16A  We taxied out to RWY32 and with nothing to wait for we took off straight away. We made the usual right turn at 500ft and continued around to track for Melbourne. We climbed up to 36000ft for this flight. I decided to get something to eat; I got a Chicken, Tomato, Lettuce and Mustard sandwich and a can of coke. Cruising along  YFF unfortunately isn’t fitted with the new wireless IFE which was a shame as I had downloaded the app and was hoping to give it a go! Oh well! The flight passed quite quickly and before I knew it we were landing on RWY27. Hopped off the plane and walked back to my hotel. Look who I saw on my walk to the hotel! VKA after her first day in passenger service. 
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#2
1st December 2013, 11:03 AM
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Thursday, 14 November
It was now time to head up to Sydney for 4 days of spotting. I got up early and checked out as I wanted to get some more shots of VH-VKA before her first passenger flight up to Cairns at 6am. My flight was due out at 0730. I checked in and dropped off my bag without any dramas and went through security and over to Gate 21. Looking good! VKA being prepared for her flight up to Cairns.  “City of Corowa”, she had an exciting day ahead of her! MEL-SYD and back three times! haha  Wish I was heading up to Cairns on this beauty!  I noticed that passengers on this flight were given the same goodie bags as those on the MEL-OOL flight the day before. Jetstar Australia and New Zealand CEO David Hall was there. There appeared to be some aviation enthusiasts on this flight. Pushback! Love the slow beacons on the 787!  What a gorgeous aircraft!  I then went up to the food court and grabbed some breakfast. I noticed VH-VFT being prepared for a flight up to Hamilton Island. Thought it might have been her first revenue service but turns out she entered service the day before! The very new VFT looking good!  I then walked over to my gate to see VH-EBM, who I had been expecting   Boarding commenced at about ten past seven… November 14, 2013 Qantas QF412 MEL-SYD VH-EBM A332 Seat 47A On-board in Seat 47A  We pushed back right on time and took off on RWY27. We rotated quite quickly and had a pretty steep climb out which was awesome! Climbing above the clouds  Nice right turn towards Sydney  On our way up to 41000ft  We were served breakfast on this flight which consisted of Muesli, a muffin and orange juice.  Flight time was just a tad over an hour but I tried to have a look through the IFE. The range of movies, TV shows and music was astounding! I would happily do an international flight on one of these A332s! I watched an episode of Two and a Half men and for the rest of the flight I just watched the flight map and enjoyed the view! On descent into Sydney  Flight map  Soon we were descending over Botany Bay and were treated to some beautiful views. Why did I put my camera away!?!? We landed on RWY34L.
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#3
1st December 2013, 11:05 AM
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Crossing RWY07/25 after landing
 Perfect weather in Sydney today!  We came into the gate, I hopped off and collected my bag. Bernie Proctor then picked me up and took me straight to the mound for some spotting! Sydney Airport: The first of many special liveries I saw on my four days Sydney spotting trip! Malaysian A333 9M-MTE in Oneworld livery.  Air India Boeing 787-8 VT-ANK off to Delhi  China Southern Airbus A380 B-6140 off to Guangzhou  SODROPS in progress!  Aerolineas Argentinas arriving two hours late which is pretty good for them!  BA getting up nice and early!  VH-OGJ making a nice early bank  Face-to-face with the awesome Fed ex MD-11F  QF1 bound for London via Dubai  Here are the rest of my shots from the day. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandon...57637889611636 Friday, 15 November Day 2 of spotting in Sydney. I went down to the front of the Formule 1 motel (where I was staying in Sydney) at 6am. Stefan Perkas soon walked over, who arrived the day before for a weekend spotting trip. Soon Bernie drove over with Matthew Ayto and took us to Qantas drive for some morning spotting. Perfect morning light!  Air India Boeing 787-8 VT-ANJ arriving from Delhi  United looking good in the morning light. I’m going to miss there 747s!  China Southern Airbus A380 B-6136 making her first visit to Sydney 
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#4
1st December 2013, 11:07 AM
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China Eastern Airbus A330-200 B-5908 in the awesome Skyteam livery
 Nice looking Chinese G550 at the GA  VH-VZO looks very serious!  Love these shots! VH-OJA on short finals for RWY16R with Sydney in the background.  VH-VXA in the new Ashes livery! Qantas have done some pretty cool special liveries lately!  VH-VNC now sporting the new Tigerair livery  Emirates arriving in some nice light!  One of my better panning shots. VH-VYJ touching down on RWY16R.  Here are the rest of my shots from the day. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandon...57637891915313 Once Etihad and Hawaiian arrived we grabbed some dinner before heading over to the mound to try out some night shots. Mother nature had other ideas though with a massive storm closing down the airport! So at about 9:30pm with the weather just getting worse and worse we called it a day. Saturday, 16 November Bernie couldn’t make it out to the airport so Stefan and myself met up at the observation deck and spent the day there. I got there at roughly 0630. I noticed on the departure board that quite a few of the internationals from last night didn’t manage to depart due to the massive storm. A6-EDY was parked at the freight area because she couldn’t get out last night operating EK413 to DXB. A6-EDZ passed EDY on her way to RWY16R as EK415. I took some shots of the two of them as I thought it was pretty cool to get two EK A380s in the one shot! EDZ held short and I could see it was holding for another A380 on finals. As the aircraft got closer I could see that it was a third EK A380 (A6-EEF – EK412)!!! I was pretty happy with this shot!!! Three EK A380s at Sydney in the one frame! A6-EDY (EK413D), A6-EDZ (EK415) and A6-EEF (EK412).  China Southern Airbus A380 B-6139 arriving  Vietnam Airlines Airbus A330-200 VN-A371 in Skyteam livery  DHL Boeing 767-300F N643GT departing  Air India Boeing 787-8 VT-ANK arriving, check out that wing flex!  Air Canada Boeing 777-300ER C-FIUR making a rare visit to Sydney  Air Asia X Airbus A330-300 9M-XXF, was very happy to see this beautiful livery! 
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#5
1st December 2013, 11:08 AM
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I was very happy with this shot! Skyteam, Star Alliance and Oneworld liveries in the one frame!
 Qantas Boeing 747-400ER VH-OEE got up pretty quick! She was heading down to Avalon for heavy maintenance.  Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-200ER 9V-SVC  Here are the rest of my photos from the day. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandon...57637903608213 Sunday, 17 November Bernie picked Stefan and me up at about 6am and we went straight to Qantas Drive for the morning arrivals. British Airways newest Boeing 777-300ER G-STBH  Underneath one of the United Boeing 747-400s  Emirates Airbus A380 A6-EEH  Highlight of the trip! Finally caught this beauty!  VH-QOH rotating with some nice vortices coming off the props  VH-OGM lands after a heavy downpour  MasKargo rotating  VH-OGG landing after another downpour  VH-VXA arriving  VH-OJU back in service after heavy maintenance in Avalon  Bernie then drove us out to Bankstown to have a look at some aircraft over there. Skyforce BAe-146 VH-SIF  A couple of Erickson Air-Cranes 
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#6
1st December 2013, 11:09 AM
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 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
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#8
3rd December 2013, 04:41 PM
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Great Report Brandon,
Always look forward to reading your reports, Quick Question 1.What type of Camera & Lenses do you use -(For Cabin Photography, Terminal, & Normal Pane Spotting Shots , I'm in the market for both.) Cheers Jacob
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Next Flight - 19/3 - VA262 - CBR-MEL Last edited by Jacob L; 3rd December 2013 at 05:54 PM.
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#9
3rd December 2013, 05:02 PM
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Thanks Guys.
Jacob, all my photos are taken with my trusty Canon 7D. Pretty much all my spotting photos were with my 50-500mm. The wingview and cabin shots were with my 18-55mm. Shots from the terminal in Brisbane and Melbourne were also with the 18-55mm and the ones of VBZ from the terminal at NTL were with my 55-250mm I think. Also those two shots underneath the UA B744 and EK A380 and also the BAe-146 at Bankstown were with Bernie's 10-20mm. Hope this helps!
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