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.
