SIA A380 16 Feb 2014 Melbourne

[Philip Argy]

As we came in to land at Tullamarine yesterday an SIA A380 was at the far northern end of the airfield with front wheel almost onto the grass in what looked like a too-wide turn. It was surrounded by at least four fire tenders and a number of people gathered around the undercarriage.

Does anyone here know what was going on?

[Grahame Hutchison]

They were probably trying to do a "Hook Turn" Philip.

[Philip Argy]

Good suggestion, Graeme, but as there are no tram lines at Tullamarine another explanation is required!

[Paul F]

Parking of aircraft at MEL at the moment is at a premium due to all the works going on, so aircraft are parked at the northern end of RY 34 at the run up bay when 34 is in use and at other end when 16 is in use. The fire trucks more likely would have been doing a exercise as the aircraft is on the ground for most of the day.

[Philip Argy]

16 was in use for both takeoffs and landings. The A380 was parked seemingly mid-turn north of the northernmost taxiway, so perhaps it was in a runup bay, but it seems an awfully long way from the terminal to park an a/c!

[JamesL]

The A388 is parked around half way in the either run up bay due to size. There is a special clearance line for A388s in those run up bays. There is currently 5 stand off bays that are available for widebody aircraft in MEL...

[Philip Argy]

How long does it take to tow it back to the terminal?

[JamesL]

Not long, for me to tow an A320 from BaE Hangers or an F100 from JHAS to The terminal is about 10-15 minutes.

The only problem with parking to the north of R27 is that you require an escort to cross R27.

[Philip Argy]

So 20 minutes for an A380 with escort from that run up bay north of the R16 threshold?

[JamesL]

That would be a good estimate

[Paul F]

One was parked at the RW34 run up bay today.

[Ian Gains]

There can be a ridiculous length of time waiting for a parking bay some days. On Saturday 15/02, the VA 77W from LAX had to wait around 50 mins for a bay. The SQ A380 is here for around 9 hours, so on the busier mornings it is moved well out of the way as early as possible.

[JamesL]

Ian, The VA flight was caused by VA4153 delayed due to VOLASH and was uncertain about departure. There are only 3 gates that VA can use for the B77W which are D5/10/14A.

[Daniel M]

In any case, whoever planned the upgrade at MEL's international terminal royally screwed it up. They spent years and millions on it, and they are back in the same position, not having enough bays to cater for current and future capacity increases.

Most days we have aircraft unloading on the freight apron or the new stand off bays F25/F26 and bussing pax to/from terminal. Pretty poor really.

[Paul F]

the new stand off bays F25/F26 and bussing pax to/from terminal. Pretty poor really.That wont be happening from March 4th as REX move over to those bays.

[Daniel M]

That wont be happening from March 4th as REX move over to those bays.

Mayhem is going to ensue, particularly as more and more of freight apron is closed for the Southern Apron Expansion

[Paul F]

Mayhem is going to ensue, particularly as more and more of freight apron is closed for the Southern Apron ExpansionTiger are moving over to the old REX bays.

[Ian Gains]

Thanks for the explanation James. Bloody glad that I hadn't just spent 14 hours flying home from LAX on it !