Trip Report: Syd-Per-Syd with lots of pics and videos

[Russell D]

Flight: QF565
Date: 08/11/2011
Aircraft type: Boeing 767-336ER “Bourke”
Aircraft Registration: VH-ZXB
Sector/Route: Sydney (YSSY) to Perth (YPPH)
Seat: 47K
Passenger Load: 20-25% Full
ETD (gate Sydney local time): 0610
ATD (gate Sydney local time): 0616

After an incredibly early start (3AM wakeup) following just 4 hours sleep the night before, I made it to Sydney Domestic Airport around 5AM-ish. It was still dark outside, and the usual crowds were probably still tucked up in bed.

I proceeded to check-in for my first time using the new electronic check-in and baggage drop technology system. Gone were all the check-in desks, replaced by slender ultra-modern kiosks that looked like stand-alone ATM machines. I must say I was very impressed by how much space is now available inside the terminal. Whilst booking my tickets online, Qantas had informed me by email that Sydney and Perth airports were the first to implement the self-serve check-in, with Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane to follow soon.

I’m not much the tech savvy type who has to always get the latest iPhone, so I asked for a little help just to get familiar with the intricate workings of the new system of check-in. Qantas had about 5 friendly check-in customer service staff on hand assisting passengers to check in, one of which kindly showed me how to go through the process of checking in. I had already checked-in and selected my seats online the day before, so I only really needed to scan my already printed boarding pass and drop of my baggage.

Since my trip was only for three nights, I was travelling light, and the process was very efficient thanks to the helpful Qantas staff-member.

Once I had dropped off my bags, I then proceeded to through security to try and see if I could get a little spotting done before heading for my gate. Unfortunately as I had mentioned earlier, it was still dark outside, and my digital camera wasn’t having too much fun compensating for the poor light. So instead, I waited outside my gate and resolved myself to watching the ground-crews attend my plane.

Boarding was scheduled to commence at 0550 local time, and sure enough on the dot, the initial call for boarding came, and wasting no time, I made a direct bee-line to the QF boarding staff and then made my way down the aerobridge.

Boarding was very quick since the passenger load was very light. However we were 6 minutes late to push back due to bags still being loaded and the morning QF flight to Melbourne pushing back before us.

While in my seat, I noticed the sky was getting brighter, so I whipped out my camera and tried to make do with a few shots before push back and during taxi...

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VH-VYB parked next to my plane, with VH-TJY behind it ready to push.

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VH-TJY ready to depart for Melbourne with a Qantas 744 (couldn’t get the rego) parked at the overnight stand.

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A Qantas A330 inbound from Perth on the red-eye flight seen landing on RWY16R with VH-VYB parked next to my plane as we just begin to push.

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Although I couldn’t quite tell, I believe this was the Captain of VH-VYB conducting his pre-flight checks.

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VH-ZXA departing for Brisbane as we commence push-back.

We taxied via C to the 16R threshold, and after a brief wait for a VB 737 to depart, we were rolling. I had endeavoured to video the entire takeoff, but my camera sadly went into standby mode just as we lined up and commenced the take-off roll. As a result, I only got the second half of the take-off just after rotation. My apologies to all those spotters who love to hear the engines spool up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yC6c1nI16c
RWY16R take-off onboard VH-ZXB bound for Perth. P.S. I really need to work on my commentary. So instead, I added some annotations and captions before uploading onto youtube.

There were some interesting cloud formations, which looked a little ominous to the south of Sydney. Soon we punched through the clouds just passed Kurnell, and were greeted with a beautiful sunrise which made the early 3AM wake-up all worth it.

Some more pics of the sunrise...

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I think these might be the Lithgow power stations chimney stacks, but I’m not 100% sure since there was no in-flight flight progress map of our track.

Around an hour into the flight, the cabin crew came round with breakfast. There was a choice of the Continental breakfast (cereal) or the more appealing Egg, Sausage, and Bacon. I unsurprisingly chose the latter, and as far as I could tell, so did all the other passengers. Vegetarians like my mum in the seat behind me got some other oriental rice meal, but I was too busy eating myself to bother to turn around and snap any pics.

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Sausage, egg, hash-brown underneath, spinach, baked beans, and bacon chunks along with complimentary orange juice, apricot embedded bread roll, and yoghurt.

The meal was absolutely delicious and very well presented. The crew soon came round with tea/coffee, but were also happy to offer hot chocolate to anyone who wanted it. Being a hot chocolate geek, I naturally took up the offer and was treated to one of the best hot chocolates I’ve had in a long time. It was very strong, just the way I liked it, and it didn’t take long for the sugar to go straight to my head. Bingo, I was wide awake at last.

The in flight entertainment system was unable to play the daily morning Channel 9 News, so instead, they immediately went straight to the movies. First up they featured Morning Glory, followed by Unstoppable.

During the interval between the two, I asked introduced myself to one of the flight attendants in the back galley and asked whether it was possible to visit the flight-deck. You see, an ex-QF flight attendant at my uni recently told me that if you present you ASIC and your pilot licence, they may let you in even during cruise. I had my doubts from the beginning but thought it was worth a shot. Unfortunately, the flight attendant explained this was not possible, however, she suggested I try after landing.

Around 1030 Sydney time, we reached our top of descent, and I snapped a couple of pics of the last moments of our flight in cruise.

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Endless fields as we descend towards Perth inbound from the East. Plenty to choose from if I ever had an engine failure in my Cessna or Warrior.

We entered an extended right base for RWY03 at Perth, and I managed to video the whole landing right up to taxiing for parking. P.S. horrendous commentary again...still needs a LOT of work. Oh and also ignore my callouts of altitude during final approach; I was trying to judge distance only using the video display on my camera. I later dubbed a bit of commentary over the top of the original audio, so while watching, ignore what I say during the original audio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dUH1jK55Yo
Landing at Perth RWY03. Note all the little micro vortex generators on the leading edge of the flaps (I was excited to see them after my aerodynamics PPL theory study)

[Russell D]

Our ETA at the gate local time in Perth was 0800. However, we were about 2 minutes early despite having to wait briefly for another Qantas 767 to finish pushing back from our gate.

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Waiting for the sister 767 to finish pushing back from our gate.

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We pull in next to VH-VXD at Perth domestic.

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Captain boarding VH-VXD

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First Officer boarding VH-VXD

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The baggage handler gave me a wave and a thumbs up after seeing me peering out the window as he began to unload our plane. So I only thought it fair to take a snap of the gentleman.

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Captain returns after his pre-flight walk-around.

I enquired about a visit to the flight deck, but unfortunately, the aeroplane had a tight turn-around time, and the pilots were a little eager to have their morning coffee. The cabin crew were all scheduled to fly later that night on the red-eye flight back to Sydney, so they too were eager to get some sleep at the hotel.

Nevertheless a big thanks to Captain Middleton and the rest of the crew for a lovely flight.

Flight: QF582
Date: 11/11/2011
Aircraft type: Airbus A330-202 “Clare Valley”
Aircraft Registration: VH-EBN
Sector/Route: Perth (YPPH) to Sydney (YSSY)
Seat: 50A
Passenger Load: 90-95% Full
ETD (gate Sydney local time): 1330
ATD (gate Sydney local time): 1334

After arriving at Perth Domestic terminal, I had to check-in and drop of my bags. Perth has much the same self-serve check-in system as Sydney, although Virgin Blue, Jetstar, Alliance, Cobham, Skywest, Skippers, and Strategic all use check-in desks still.

Since I had no internet connection in Perth, I was unable to check-in online and choose my seat online, which meant I had to do it at the airport itself. This time I was well acquainted with the check-in system, although I did request the help of the QF staff to help me find a window seat. To my shock, the flight was going almost full, and I managed to snap up the last window seat available on the entire flight. Seems like using the online check in 24 hours prior to departure to choose your seat is absolutely essential if you care about where you sit.

After dropping our bags, my family and I waited for a while in the departure lounge prior to going through security since we had another 2 and a half hours before our flight was scheduled to board. While waiting, we had a good view of the bag pick-up carrousels, and couldn’t help but notice the number of flights arriving full of miners from Karratha, Port Hedland, Geralton, etc. It was the first we had seen of the mining boom first-hand, and the number of miners arriving on their way home to their families for the weekend was amazing to watch.

After an hour, I insisted we all move through to the departure lounge so that I could do some proper spotting. Once through security, I went absolutely crazy, walking the entire length of the terminal multiple times snapping pics as I went, much to the amusement of waiting passengers who didn’t seem to realise what all the fuss was about.

Here are some of the treasures I found...

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My first shot ever of VH-VXB “Yananyi Dreaming”. What a way to get the spotting ball rolling...

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Our plane VH-EBN “Clare Valley” being loaded up and prepped for my arrival onboard.

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VH-OGH arrives from somewhere with the international terminal and visible in the background. A QF A330 and 767 along with a Malaysian 777 can be seen.

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VH-OGH “City of Parramatta” on taxi towards the gate next to my plane. She would later depart for Melbourne a few minutes before my plane departed for Sydney.

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VH-VXL “Charleville” being readied for departure. P.S. this one’s for you Floody

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Skywest Fokker F100 VH-FNC while Virgin Blue Boeing 737-8FE(WL) VH-VUV taxis behind for departure to somewhere.

I was particularly intrigued by all the airlines that are booming in WA due to the mining boom, particularly Skywest, Skippers, and Cobham. So pardon me for getting a little overly excited since we don’t see the carriers in Sydney.

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Skywest Fokker F100 VH-FNC again.

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Virgin Blue Embraer E190 VH-ZPI, Skywest A320-231 VH-FNP, Virgin Blue 738 VH-VUV on taxi, an Alliance Fokker F100, and another Virgin Blue Embraer E190.

[Russell D]

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Virgin Blue E190 VH-ZPI again. The first time I’ve ever noticed how thin the vertical stabiliser on the E190 is, despite the rudder being fully deflected.

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Skywest A320-231 VH-FNP with the Alliance Fokker F100 and VB E190 behind.

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Back to Skywest Fokker F100 VH-FNC again with the international terminal clearly visible.

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And again as sistership VH-FSW arrives behind after landing RWY06

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VH-FSW arrives, park brake on, engines to idle cut-off. The ground crewman is applying the nose-wheel chocks

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I was walking back to the other end of the terminal when I caught a glimpse of this dude taxiing pretty fast. I had to run back to the other end to snap this pick, since I thought it might have been a RFDS B200 King Air. And for all my effort, it is part of the Western Operations section of the RFDS based at Jandakot airport, Perth. However, I’m not sure why it isn’t sporting the RFDS tailfin flash.

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VH-OGH “City of Parramatta” again now finished unloading and being prepped for the next flight.

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Looking towards the General Aviation aprons, it is a sea of Qantaslink, Skippers Aviation, Alliance, Cobham, National Jet Systems, and Skywest aircraft. Hmmm, you can literally smell the iron ore amongst the JetA1.

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A Qantaslink Boeing 717-231 VH-NXQ, a Qantas 737, a couple of Alliance Fokker F100s, a Skywest Fokker F100, and a whole bunch of GA aircraft.

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Qantaslink Boeing 717-231 VH-NXO taxis for departure

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VH-VXB again...I just couldn’t resist.

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A Qantas A330 departs. This plane can be seen in my earlier pics pushing back and then taxiing from the international terminal. No idea where is bound for though.

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Skippers Aviation Embraer 120 Brasilia VH-XUF taxiing for departure on a mining charter flight.

[Russell D]

This next photo is a little blurry but it captures an airline I had never heard of before. Network Aviation is the name of the company. A Google search confirms their primary operations are centred on mining charter flights. They have a couple of Fokker F100s, including one still in US Airways colour-scheme which can be seen in this pic. They also have a growing fleet of Embraer 120 Brasilias. Wikipedia also mentions that they are now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas, and plan to expand their fleet further to cater for the future needs of the mining industry. Definitely a “watch this space” type of airline.

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Network Aviation hangers with some other random helicopters. One helicopter looks a bit like a SeaKing, but it’s a bit hard to tell from this distance.

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Skippers Aviation brimming with life

My flight was scheduled to board at 1310 Perth local time, but boarding actually began 2 minutes early. However, boarding took a while due to the full load of passengers.

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A last parting shot with VH-VXB before I board VH-EBN.

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What the hell, I might as well snap a quickie of the domestic terminal as well.

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Beech B200 King Air VH-MQZ. Apparently this one is privately owned and not used for RFDS operations. Nice paintwork though.

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Just before I board VH-EBN, I quick snap of the last of the fuel being loaded. I would later find out that the plane actually carried extra fuel since it was scheduled for an extremely tight turn-around at Sydney before heading to Melbourne. Hence, refuelling here would save time in Sydney.

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Wing of VH-EBN as seen from seat 50A. I think I would have died had I not got the last window seat left.

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Network Aviation Fokker F100 VH-NHP taxis for departure behind a Skywest Fokker F50

After pushing back from Gate 13 one minute late, Captain David Collier introduced First Officer Dave whateverhislastnamewas, who would be flying the plane right from pushback until parking at the gate in Sydney. It was to be a north-easterly departure with a fairly strong easterly crosswind, and moderate turbulence was to be expected in the less of the Perth hills.

It was a long taxi via Delta1, crossing RWY03/21, November, a tight turn onto Charlie2, then on to Papa, Juliet2, a tight turn onto RWY06/24, and incredibly, an impossible 180° u-turn at the end of RWY24 in order to line-up and depart from RWY06. Prior to this, I thought an A330 was incapable of executing such a manoeuvre, but FO Dave whateverhislastnamewas enlightened me.

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View of Air Asia (Indonesia) A320-216 PK-AXK taxis to the international terminal after landing RWY06 as we taxi on taxiway C2. An educated guess tells me it came in from Bali (Denspasar).

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South African Airways Airbus A340-??? (P.S. I’m not very good at picking the Airbus type variants)

Video of the take-off and climb out on RWY06. Amazing 180 u-turn followed by a very bumpy takeoff roll. I tried my best to keep the camera steady, ramming it against the window and using my elbows to brace myself. My apologies for the shaking. However, on the Brightside I suppose my commentary is kind of improving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1rE17bCXnM

We reached cruising altitude not long after, and the in-flight entertainment bonanza began. I watched the Social Network before watching a TV documentary about how Rolls Royce manufactures the Trent 900 engines used on the A380. I also enjoyed the chat feature which enabled me to chat with my mum who was seated a few rows away. Every passenger on the A330 has their own individual touch-screen mounted into the back of the seat in front. However, being no tech head myself, it was quite the struggle initially to get the screen to feel me touching it.

An hour into the flight, dinner or lunch, whatever you want to call it, was served. There was the choice of either chicken stir fry or braised beef. Once again, I chose the latter of the two options, and once again, I have no idea what my mum’s vegetarian meal was since she was seated a number of rows away.

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Braised beef, boiled/steamed potatoes and snake beans, the standard bread roll, cheese and biscuit snack thingy, Toblerone (took all my will-power to save till the end of the rest of the meal), water, lemonade, and later on, tea/coffee (sadly no hot chocolate this time round...I was really looking for an extra kick as well).

Food was delicious as always, although not quite the standard of say Singapore Airlines and the like. But nevertheless, worthy of praise considering it was just an average domestic flight.

[Russell D]

An hour out from Sydney, and I finally located the in-flight information progress map.

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I was a little surprised to find that we were cruising at FL410. The bloke sitting next to me was quite impressed with my rapid maths calculation of metres to feet. I later told him I was a student pilot, which he must have found a little puzzling, considering it took me a few minutes earlier on to get my touch-screen working.

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Our flight path and progress with just under an hour to go.

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). Once established on the ILS, it was then independent visual approaches when visual. Like the takeoff, the landing was a touch rough, and we seemed to apply virtually full reverse thrust and most likely full autobraking as well. However, it appears the poor lighting got the better of me, and you can barely see anything apart from some of the runway and taxiway lighting. So sorry for not uploading the video.

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Arriving at the gate 9.

Once everyone disembarked, I took the opportunity to visit the flight deck and have a quick chat with the pilots. Both were very friendly and not in any great hurry even though they and the rest of the crew would be flying the plane back to its Melbourne base at Tullamarine in an hour’s time (hence the extra fuelling at Perth). It was nice to get some feedback on how to go about my training as well as some tips to improve my flying.

It was particularly interesting for me to find out that the FO Dave whateverhislastnamewas had initially studied medicine in university before realising his real passion was for flying and switching careers mid-way through his medical degree. As a medical student myself, it is nice to know that it is possible to change careers and still be successful.

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A very blurry pic of the instruments. The low light meant my camera automatically kept extending the exposure time, which meant even the slightest shake of my camera and the result was as seen above.

Instead, I switched to video mode which yielded better results. I had deliberately turned off the sound in order to have a proper conversation with the pilots about the industry and training. P.S. The labels of all the instruments are mainly intended for some of my non-aviation friends, so it was really to help them understand what they were looking at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na24hKupILs
Once again enormous thanks to all the crew on a great flight and for letting me visit the best office in the world. Hope you enjoyed reading, and yes, I will definitely work on my commentary for next time.

I know it was a very long report, but I hope you enjoyed the reading.

Cheers

[Dan Collins]

Great read and thanks for sharing! I've done the SYD-PER-SYD flight a couple times before (when the 743's were in service) and it's a decent flight :)

Awesome you got to visit the office on returning to Sydney. Is hanging around after everyone's off the plane the general way of getting a look in the cockpit? Do you ask beforehand? I'd love to give it a go some day!

Cheers,

Dan

[Russell D]

First of all, I just added the last video of the flight deck to my last post, since the link I used previously clearly didn't work. So it should be up now and working.

Dan,

Not a problem at all. Always happy to share, especially those sunrise pics.

All you need to do is ask the flight attendants if you could have a quick visit to the cockpit. It also helps if you have an ASIC, but even that is not necessary in most cases. What is necessary is that you show enthusiasm for wanting to learn about the flight instruments etc. (My advice is to say you are either thinking about becoming a pilot or you already have a pilots licence).

Also, just ask if you can take pics/video, cause sometimes, the crews can be a little worried if it might come back to bite them later on. So it's always best to play on the safe side and ask first, but I've never had any trouble over the years.

What I can suggest is that you ask the flight attendants during the flight itself, so that it gives them time to send the message up to the flight crew. You see, that way the flight crew are expecting you and generally make more effort to finish the paperwork in the air as much as possible so that you can get more time in the flight-deck with them.

Unfortunately it seems the days of visiting the flight deck while the aeroplane is in-flight are long gone thanks to 9/11, which is a real shame. I remember spending almost 40 mins in the F/O seat on a QF 763 in 1998/9 coming back from India. On that occasion, the captain told me to take the control wheel and gently turn it to the right (i.e bank the aeroplane right). I did as he told me, and as I did, he quietly changed the heading bug on the autopilot, although I didn't notice him do it at the time. So with the plane actually turning, I really thought I was turning the plane. It was moments like those that really ignited my love of aviation.

Cheers

[Zac M]

Nice report, although it seems to have happened in the future...

I got the same meal on a BNE-SYD flight a few weeks ago, it is not bad for airline food!

[Russell D]

Great spotting Zac. I was so paranoid about everything else being perfect that it looks like I completely missed a simple error...twice!

Unfortunately I can't seem to be able to re-edit any of my posts (the usual edit tab/button seems to be missing for some-reason). Not sure if it's just be that can't get the edit button anymore, or if it's everyone.

Anyways, both flights were in February (this month). The day of month and year thankfully are correct in my posts.

If I can re-locate the edit button, I will see that the appropriate corrections are made.

Cheers

[Brenden S]

I am one of the two engineers departing the B717.
The RFDS king air, that is no longer ops by the RFDS and owned by Formula aviation, and used for FIFO.

The helicopters are the Firebombing helicopters over here which is located next to National Jet/Cobham. The VIH is a S61N with 4000lt of water. The other helicopters are AS350's

VH-MQZ is the WA Government's Kingair ops by Maroomba

[Russell D]

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.

Cheers

[D Chan]

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!

[Sarah C]

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.

[Russell D]

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 :D

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...

[Owen H]

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.

[Russell D]

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

[Mick F]

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

[Trent Hopkinson]

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) (http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/publications/current/dap/SSYSR05-117.pdf)

[Russell D]

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

[Mick F]

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.

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

[Russell D]

Mick F wrote:
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.


Ahh thanks for spotting my error Mick. Just re-visited the RFDS website and realised the Central ops Tennant Creek and Maree facilities are only primary health care facilities, not actual "aeromedical facilities".

Cheers

[Brenden S]

Russ, I am the one on the right.
The RFDS I am sure took delivery of some brand new king airs over east somewhere I think? Floody can you confirm?

The runway and taxyways here in Perth are very bumpy, I can assure you that. The turbulence is what is called mechanical turbulence which is due to the location of the airport in relation to the Perth hills (where I live)

There is plenty of opportunity over in Perth at the moment, but due to the nature of the mining companies there are pretty high expectations for not a real great deal of cash. So plenty of work, not a great deal of money, but great job security for the near term.