March 2016 Noteworthy Movements - Discussion & Photos

[Patrick Malseed]

Great photos as always Grahame.
Interesting to note that this A340 airframe is owned and operated by Meraj Airlines on behalf of the government of Iran.
Aircraft has a varied history with 5 previous operators and is 17 year old.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Thanks Patrick.

With the exception of the ADF Charters and Philippines, Airbus A340s had pretty much vanished from Sydney skies, that was until yesterday when we
had the Islamic Republic Of Iran A340-313 EP-AJA, and a evening arrival for Qatar Amiri Flight A340-313 A7-AAH. The Qatar aircraft was parked on
DOM6 Bay 98 this morning.

[Kent Broadhead]

Thanks for both Graham. Is that A7-AAH's second visit this year?

[Grahame Hutchison]

Kent, My ADS-B logs show it was here (or in our airspace) in SEP13, APR-MAY15, and DEC15/JAN16.

View ADS-B Logs

[Kent Broadhead]

Cheers Graham.

[Grahame Hutchison]

MASkargo have swapped out their B744F aircraft, and are now using an Airbus A332F.

After MH6204 touched down on Runway 34L this afternoon, they vacated at the Alpha 2 Rapid, then continued along Alpha to International 1 Bay 6. Today's
service was operated by A330-223F 9M-MUA (1136), a 2011 build airframe. Nice to see the A332F return to Sydney, with its unmistakable nose gear bulge.
The bulge under the A330-200F nose houses the lowered nose undercarriage leg, correcting the inherent nose-down attitude of passenger versions. When
the front cargo door opened, there were no containers visible, so either a part load, or smaller heavy load today. The first container seemed to be causing a
fair bit of trouble, not wanting to align properly for the Cargo High Loader.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Either side of the MASkargo A330-223F 9M-MUA arrival was an Emirates Sky Cargo (A6-EFF UAE9824) departure, and an Atlas Air (N493MC QFA7550) arrival.