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  #11  
Old 18th February 2011, 05:15 PM
Russell D Russell D is offline
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Ahh. Thanks for that Brendan. Are you the one on the right (closest to camera) or the one on the left?

So VH-CWO is not longer in service for the RFDS. That would explain why the RFDS tail-markings are gone.

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  #12  
Old 19th February 2011, 12:23 AM
D Chan D Chan is offline
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Excellent trip report, though I have two comments:

1. Not sure about you but even on a good day landing in Perth seems to be so rough, the wind is really amazing if not scary. On my flight to Perth the crew were fighting the wind all the way down to the runway.

2. Regarding the food - I think comparing food served on domestic flight vs international flights is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Food on international flights are usually more refined from what I've seen and experienced. Though in general from the shots they looked quite ok - at least based on the looks I am more inclined to eat it as opposed to food served on other airlines!
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  #13  
Old 19th February 2011, 07:51 AM
Sarah C Sarah C is offline
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Great report The Perth run is always a good flight, even better if you are on an A332. Perth Airport always has some interesting aircraft.
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  #14  
Old 19th February 2011, 05:56 PM
Russell D Russell D is offline
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Quote:
D Chan wrote:

Excellent trip report, though I have two comments:

1. Not sure about you but even on a good day landing in Perth seems to be so rough, the wind is really amazing if not scary. On my flight to Perth the crew were fighting the wind all the way down to the runway.

2. Regarding the food - I think comparing food served on domestic flight vs international flights is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Food on international flights are usually more refined from what I've seen and experienced. Though in general from the shots they looked quite ok - at least based on the looks I am more inclined to eat it as opposed to food served on other airlines!
First of all thanks to both you and Sarah. It took a great deal of time sorting out all the photos (I only included about half of all the photos I took on here, selecting only the best).

The landing was at Perth was actually fairly calm. There was a slight crosswind, but not very much (I'd estimate about 7-10kts at most). But then again, it was very early in the morning before much of the thermals and turbulence as a result of the ground heating up could take effect. However, the takeoff from Perth was particularly rough, although I won't hold anything against the first officer since he was such a top bloke

True, international food is always to a higher standard than domestic, but I was merely pointing out that the quality of the food was actually high all-round, even for a domestic flight. But true, in future I'll try not to compare domestic and international food with each other

And Sarah, Perth is really booming at the moment. I imagine there might be a lot of members on this board, especially recently trained pilots, who might be considering or have already headed west to take advantage of the good times over there. Of course, all the mining charters are going great right across WA, and I'd be interested to know whether Darwin is seeing an upsurge in activity as well.

Slightly off-topic, but I find it surprising that there is no RFDS base at Darwin though...
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  #15  
Old 19th February 2011, 07:07 PM
Owen H Owen H is offline
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Quote:
But then again, it was very early in the morning before much of the thermals and turbulence as a result of the ground heating up could take effect.
While this is certainly a factor, at this time of year the worst turbulence on approach is usually associated with strong easterly winds in the early mornings, which settle down by mid morning. Tomorrow's forecast is a good example of that. It is also not unusual to have winds at a few hundred feet that are quite different from the surface wind, and quite variable too.

Its quite an interesting phenomenon, and Perth's winds always keep any pilot on their toes.
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  #16  
Old 20th February 2011, 08:56 AM
Russell D Russell D is offline
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Well for our arrival into Perth, the Captain said the winds were "light" from the NNE. So I guess we just got lucky.

The mid-afternoon take-off from Perth, we had winds that were "quite strong" coming from the NE, hence the rwy 06 departure, along with the captain telling us there was quite a bit of "moderate" turbulence to expect right from take-off until we got we over the top of the lower level clouds.

However, I am going to go out on a bit of a limb here and say that I don't personally believe all the bumps (as evident in my Perth takeoff video) were due to merely wind and turb. It just seemed to me that rwy06 at Perth probably isn't the smoothest of runways either, unless most of the bumps were as a result of hitting all the runway surface lights?

Anyways, that's just my thinking, and I'm probably going to be proven wrong anyway.

Cheers
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  #17  
Old 20th February 2011, 09:59 AM
Mick F Mick F is offline
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Quote:
Slightly off-topic, but I find it surprising that there is no RFDS base at Darwin though...
The Top End is covered by the NTAMS (Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service). Has been for a number of years (as in since about the 1940's). For some reason RFDS can't seem to crack into it.

And RFDS Western Ops have gone to an all PC-12 fleet, so there's still a few ex-RFDS B200's getting around that've come from Western Ops.

Mick
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  #18  
Old 20th February 2011, 10:14 AM
Trent Hopkinson Trent Hopkinson is offline
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Although it was dark outside, I still tried to video and commentate the landing. It was a Cat I ILS for RWY34L with an arrival from the south over Wollongong (I’m not too well rehearsed with IFR flying yet so I couldn’t tell if it was a Marlin1 or Deena4 arrival).
DEENA4 and overhead wollongong is only departures of 16R. MARLN1 is an arrival but from the direction of Fiji/USA.

My prediction would be the RIVET9 arrival with vectors onto the ILS from NASHO (As per this chart)
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  #19  
Old 20th February 2011, 06:41 PM
Russell D Russell D is offline
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Thanks for the info Floody. That makes sense now. Never heard of the NTAMS prior to your post, so I'm glad to learn that there are even more aeromedical organisations in addition to the RFDS, Careflight, Westpac rescue, and the state air ambulance a/c.

Although I suppose the Tennant Creek (Central Division) and Derby (Western Division) a/c can always be used if required to help out in the top end if the NTAMS a/c are all tied up.

So if both Western ops and Central ops are using the PC-12s, is this possibly a sign that the RFDS plans to eventually move to an all PC-12 fleet in the near future?

Trent, thanks for the info. I'm completely lost when it comes to SIDs and instrument arrivals. To be honest, the only thing I do understand on the instrument side of flying is the basic ILS (just following the needle and the glideslope).

I think you could be right about the RIVET9 arrival, although we were flying parrallel with the Wollongong coast (I could see the lights of Wollongong and spotted Port Kembla out the left side of the plane) for quite a while. So perhaps if there's some arrival that brings you in from further south than RIVET9 prior to ATC providing vectors to finals, then that could be a more likely candidate.

But I'm a bit interested now about these instrument arrivals. Might check out some of the charts at ASA for arrivals into Sydney

Cheers
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  #20  
Old 20th February 2011, 08:02 PM
Mick F Mick F is offline
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Quote:
Although I suppose the Tennant Creek (Central Division) and Derby (Western Division) a/c can always be used if required to help out in the top end if the NTAMS a/c are all tied up
No RFDS base in Tennant Creek. There is however, the Barkly Aeromedical Service there, run by the local hospital and Chartair using a Cessna 402. The only Central Section bases are Adelaide, Port Augusta and Alice Springs.

NTAMS have bases in Gove, Katherine and Darwin, so normally plenty of aircraft up there.

Quote:
So if both Western ops and Central ops are using the PC-12s, is this possibly a sign that the RFDS plans to eventually move to an all PC-12 fleet in the near future?
No

Cheers

Mick
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