QF439 Unusual Track Today

[Grahame Hutchison]

I have been looking at the tracks in and out of YSSY for some time now on www.16Right.com (http://www.16Right.com) ACARS Google Maps, and have not seen a track like this before. It looks like it would cross the coast south of Ulladulla. With the last plot 143km south of YSSY at 37500ft, it would be at cruise altitude and still well off the coast. At 30000ft they had 100kts from 277 degrees, maybe they forgot to allow for the crosswind ? :D

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/QF0439.jpg

[Nigel C]

Without knowing what time the event occurred...

There were thunderstorms down south today...perhaps this explains it?

[Steve Crook]

A band of pretty fierce looking clouds over north Sydney today also caused some interesting flight paths. United flight UA870 to SFO banked right just after flying over Sydenham from 34L. I caught it later on webtrack and it was a low flyer over Surry Hills and passed over the coast at North Bondi at less than 1000m. Not long after that QF11 to LAX gave plenty of people in the eastern suburbs an opportunity to see an A380 at close quarters. It also banked right soon after taking off from 34L and passed the coast over Bronte significantly lower than the United flight had been at the coastline....600 and something metres altitude at the coast seems to ring a bell in my mind.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Time as below Nigel.

VH-ZXB QF0439 07/01/2009 14:14 Qantas B767-336 Sydney-Melbourne

[Nigel C]

Ah ok. I can confirm there were some large storms moving around the Wollongong area at that time.

[Andrew McLaughlin]

A band of pretty fierce looking clouds over north Sydney today also caused some interesting flight paths. United flight UA870 to SFO banked right just after flying over Sydenham from 34L. I caught it later on webtrack and it was a low flyer over Surry Hills and passed over the coast at North Bondi at less than 1000m. Not long after that QF11 to LAX gave plenty of people in the eastern suburbs an opportunity to see an A380 at close quarters. It also banked right soon after taking off from 34L and passed the coast over Bronte significantly lower than the United flight had been at the coastline....600 and something metres altitude at the coast seems to ring a bell in my mind.

I heard it while watching the cricket on Ch 9. I thought at the time that it was way too loud for an A320 or 737, and sounded like a heavy!

[NickN]

It also banked right soon after taking off from 34L and passed the coast over Bronte significantly lower than the United flight had been at the coastline....600 and something metres altitude at the coast seems to ring a bell in my mind.


Seems to tie in with page 3 of this thread: http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=2204&page=3

Seems as if the A380 may indeed fly slightly lower than a 747. I understand that it crossed the coast a little further south than the UA 747 but not too far.

[Radi K]

Talking about storms affecting flight paths, here is a few interesting flight paths into BNE due to storms over the past month!

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-9/1082187/DJ277-1.gif
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-9/1082187/0927Z.gif

[Scott L.]

I was slurping on a Banana PaddlePop at Kioloa (about 30k south of Ulladulla) when I heard a jet aircraft wondering what it was (could not see it), thinking it could have been military (C17 or something) out of Nowra but now turns out to be the aircraft subject of the thread. Great stuff Grahame.