Trip Report SYD-MCY-SYD 6-9 November- Alot of photos

[Matt_L]

Hi guys, took a holiday up to Noosa last week-
here is the trip report.

Flight: DJ471 YSSY- YBMC

Date: 06/11/2008

Departure: 855 scheduled, departed just after 9

Arrival: just after 930 am local time

Aircraft: 737-800 VH-VOM

Seat: 5F

Gate:34

Woke up around 7am, for the 730 taxi to take us to T2. All was going well, taxi turned up on time- infact 5 minutes early (surprise surprise). Bags quickly loaded and off we were for the 20 minute drive to T2 from my house or so I thought. Taxis battery was flat as he could not start the motor and the taxi being half in the middle of road and half in driveway my car was too far away to jumpstart it. Luckily as we waited and tried to call another taxi a good Samaritan passed by, pulling up right next to the taxi and jumpstarting it- Thanks Ann.

So 25 minute delay but we were finally on our way to T2 as heavy traffic piled up on General Holmes drive. Luckily, we beat the worst of it making it to the terminal at around 820 and as we arrived and printed off our tickets at the bag drop area a flight closing call for our flight was over the PA. Rushed over to the flight closing counter to see a woman crying and screaming (simultaneously- pretty amazing!) who couldn’t get on her Port Macquarie Embraer flight who had arrived late for check in. Virgin staff remained cool but couldn’t help but look around for camera crews as this would have been a perfect scene for the filming of an airline/airport episode.

Down past security and into the terminal and practically 5-10 mins later our flight was boarding. Flight was pretty full although no premium economy seats occupied, what I still don’t understand about Virgin is how they can charge for food/drinks in Premium economy. Anyways with that beyond me, I started to snap some pictures and must commend the crew who were very accommodating and never asked me to turn off my camera!








After pushback, gave way to the arriving virgin 737 VH-VOD and then taxied past runway 25/07, down C, L and then T taxiways to the T6 holding point 34R. Jetstar a330, thai 772 and the Korean Samsung business jet all visible on our taxi as well as the Aeropelican Jetstream which had just arrived from Williamtown.
At end of runway 25/ beginning runway 07 works in progress for the safety zone can be seen.

[Matt_L]

Finally reached 34R after a long taxi and took off on what seemed like the ENTRA2 departure. Airborne and we made a slight turn to the right as I noted Bondi Junction below just near my house.




After this we headed north over the ocean, leaving behind some of Sydney’s and Australia’s best beaches!





We continued northbound via the coast overflying Newcastle, Ballina/Byron airport and eventually onto Maroochydore/Sunshine Coast. Cruising level was fl370 as I remember and ground speed remained constant at about 900 km/h at cruise as per the live2air monitors.

As Maroochydore is a smaller RPT airport with what is known as a procedural tower. There are no Standard information departures (SIDS) or Arrivals (STARS) that IFR aircraft use but rather dme/ndb/gps approaches into either runway 18 or 36. We entered the gps arrival for runway 36 which was put simply an extended base leg out from the ocean followed by a sharp turn onto finals.

Crossing the coast:



Turning short finals it is amazing to see the development that has occurred surrounding MCY airport. If you check out Wal Nelowkin’s photo of MCY on jetphotos.net from 1983 to my overview on my return flight later in this post, you will clearly see this urban sprawl I am referring to.


As we turned onto finals a little low indicated by the PAPI, these modern housing estates were evident.


We backtracked on runway 18/36 allowing me to take this shot of the runway as we headed down to the RPT apron.


Also as we came into the bay, the mountain to the north of airport was visible as well as the cross strip at YBMC.

[Matt_L]

Off the aircraft into the heat and towards the terminal which I must say has a really nice layout at MCY. Over to baggage collection where our bags came out relatively quickly and we headed to Europcar to hire our Ford. After getting the keys walked to the car park which is relatively large for a small airport like MCY but a lot of tourists flock to places like Noosa and that is why the car hire is popular.



Maroochydore tower visible above with one controller seen inside.

Drove the 20-30 minute drive to Noosa from MCY which is a really scenic one past the coast. Arrived at our apartment on Hastings Street which is on the beach and this is the main road in Noosa where there are excellent restaurants, shops and cafes.

Here’s a view from the apartment onto Noosa’s main beach:






Enjoyed 3 days of a well earned rest, beach and having a few golf rounds and tennis at Noosa Springs which I must say is a brilliant venue for those who love golf and tennis- immaculately presented golf course and tennis courts with an excellent bar/club.

It was time to head back to Sydney from paradise- not that Sydney isn’t, just that Noosa is a very nice spot!

Flight: DJ472 YBMC-YSSY

Date: 09/11/2008

Departure: approximately 1010 am

Arrival: just after 1230 pm local time

Aircraft: 737-800 VH-VOG (same aircraft I got for SYD-MEL in my last trip report:P)

Seat: 8a

Gate: stand 6 if I remember correctly at MCY

Arrived back at MCY with about 45 minutes to spare till flight was boarding, so I decided rather than going into security and the enclosed terminal that I would take a quick walk around Maroochydore airport to Singapore Flying College which is located about 500m-1km from passenger terminal.

Singapore Flying College trains a lot of the Singapore International Airlines cadets and when I arrived in MCY their learjet 45 was on the tarmac.
Unfortunately but as it was a Sunday the building was shut so instead I just wondered over to gate 8a and watched a Tiger airways a320 depart to Melbourne and a Jetstar a320 land from Sydney.

Back to the terminal and we had our boarding passes- so just headed straight through security which was crowded by now as passengers for the Jetstar flight to Sydney and our Virgin flight were converging on the terminal area. This configuration of MCY airport is somewhat odd in that once you clear security you cannot exit the glass enclosed terminal/observation area which leads onto the tarmac as there is only entry points.

Boarded just before 10 am and headed to my window seat. Took this shot out of window of passengers boarding at air stairs at rear of plane.



Power out of the bay as no pushback tugs at MCY and we backtracked on runway 18/36 towards runway 18 threshold as the taxiway is only for aircraft 7000kg or below.

Backtracking

[Matt_L]

Started the take off roll and used most of runway with a heavy load, almost all premium economy seats were filled for the short sector down to Sydney.

Quick left turn after departure and contact Brisbane Centre as we headed out over ocean and were afforded a brilliant view of MCY and coastline. What a beautiful part of Australia the Sunshine Coast is!







Overview of MCY to show you the development of buildings that I mentioned before:



Route was much same as that up to MCY, down with Brisbane to our right and past Gold Coast although dense cloud made visibility of landmarks/cities low.

Climbing up to Cruise level at approximately FL380:


A little after start of descent into Sydney:



I was delighted when I saw the harbour to the left as we approached 16L







General Holmes Drive seconds before touchdown: (sorry for glare off engine cowling)

[Matt_L]

Exited runway and taxied to terminal which we made just a few minutes after our scheduled arrival time of 1230 pm.

Here’s one last shot of me trying to be artistic somewhat with QFA107 to LAX taking off VH-OEB and winglet of our 737-800 VH-VOG:



All in all a great holiday/experience and I highly recommend Noosa and the Sunshine coast to anyone considering it as a holiday destination.
Virgin blue were great to travel on and I now amend my travel advice re Virgin Blue as per my last trip report- (lost in the aether of the old yssy forum which was a bad flight due to a disgruntled F/A).

Virgin offer a great service, I love the live2air albeit that few people buy it (on my sectors I’ve been on anyway) and the Chicken wrap I had on SYD-MCY was decent- probably worth the money.

Hope you enjoyed the trip report and until my next flight,
Happy Landings!

Regards,
Matt

[Robert Zweck]

Very interesting....I spent a week in Maroochy and Noosa 2 years ago and it isn't hard to see why people go there to retire.

For those still at work, hard to see how they get any serious work done, in the holiday atmosphere.

[Anthony T]

Great trip report and great photo's

Virgin staff remained cool but couldn’t help but look around for camera crews as this would have been a perfect scene for the filming of an airline/airport episode.

Are you sure there wasn't a camera crew around.