The purpose of going to Melbourne was to see the penguin parade and to visit the Twelve Apostles. A few shots of views along the Victorian south coast are seen below. When we finally got to the apostles, I took a helicopter ride on VH-ZVX for a quick trip around. Some pics can been seen below.
The Twelve Apostles.
London Bridge.
Zulu victor x-ray is the aircraft I went on.
Overview of the heliport.
DJ861
Date: 24th March 2011.
Aircraft: Boeing 737-82R
Registration: VH-VOV
Aircraft Name: Alluring Alice
Seat: 26A
So on Thursday we were to head back to Sydney on DJ881, leaving the whole day for me to go spotting! But because, Melbourne being Melbourne, it rained the whole day so no chances for me to spot. We arrived at the airport several hours early in the hope that the rain would pass so I could go spotting, but when this seemed increasingly unlikely we opted to check-in very early. The Virgin Blue check-in girl offered us an earlier flight at first, but I declined and asked if I could come back later. I literally sprinted around the airport looking for internet, when I found some I looked everywhere for signs that a special scheme aircraft would op a MEL-SYD flight, even posting a thread on this forum itself but when I was 100% sure that nothing was coming our way, I choose DJ861 (which ended up being VH-VOV). As we waited we got some lunch and I used my ipod touch to check to see what gate we would use, I found out that our flight was delayed for 30 minutes. We went to our gate and saw that our inbound flight from Maroochydore was delayed at least 20 minutes (ended up being 40). When she finally arrived we hurried to board the plane and within 20 minutes of her arrival, “Alluring Alice” was ready for the flight up to SYD.
Our plane had to wait about 15 minutes to push-back, waiting for VH-VUX and VH-VBC to pushback behind us, and finally we were on our way to runway 16. As we got there, not 9, not 10, not 11 but 12 aircraft were waiting for us to depart! The captain announced that the wait for our turn to depart would be 25-28 minutes (stupid 27/09 runway works!).
So half an hour later we were on our way up to SYD, bumpily climbing through the overcast Melbourne weather and a short time later, cruising. In my seat I was facing the sun so photo opportunities were limited however I got a few.
Starting our descent.
I settled with watching my free Live’2’air (I watched the Cricket world cup quarter finals) and before I knew it we were descending into the Sydney area, tracking direct to a runway 34L base. The sun was just setting as we were on a very windy final approach so any photos I got were blurry.
Sunset on finals.
Strong crosswinds.
We took the rapid exit and wouldn’t you know it, VH-OEJ was parked at a bay, tucked away by another aircraft so no photo there As we taxied to gate 39, I snapped a couple of pics, including VH-VUY.
On the way past the Jetstar terminal.
VH-VUY
Once outside the aircraft I took a couple of pictures of planes at several gates including VH-ZPQ .
VH-ZPQ
DJ737-700 with a certain person chilling on the back!
After these, I collected my bag, and jumped in a taxi home, concluding my trip down to Melbourne
Thanks for reading if you made it this far and any feedback would be great! this was my first trip report so be kind!