Rego Request: DJ479 SYD to MCY today

[Steve S... 2]

G'day...

Does anybody know the rego of the aircraft that operated DJ479 at 9.00am this morning please?

Thanks,

Steve S

[Steve S... 2]

I am pretty sure it was VH-VBO.

I worked it out today by tracking via acars for MEL, SYD and ADL and also the Adelaide Airport website.

It overnighted in ADL last night after a MEL-ADL flight, then today did ADL-SYD-MCY-SYD-BNK-SYD-PER.

[Jayden Laing]

Steve,
You are correct, VH-VBO did operate DJ479 to MCY

[Dave Parer]

Hi Steve,

VH-VBO has operated DJ383 this evening into Townsville from Brissy. VBO will operate DJ362 TSV to BNE at 0600 tomorrow morning.

Just a question if I may? You say that you tracked VBO via acars. Only Virgin E-Jets send acars messages, the Boeing 737's do not. Can you enlighten me? I am curious.

Cheers,
Dave.

[Steve S... 2]

Hi Dave,

It was very complicated - the way I worked out what aircraft it was.

I did not need any acars details apart from to see regos and times.

I firstly looked up the www.sydneyairport.com.au site. I looked at the gate the SYD-MCY flight was to depart from. So then to find where the aircraft came from - I looked up the arrivals into that gate in SYD - and the aircraft came in from ADL.

So I went to the www.aal.com.au website, and looked up the gate it in ADL. It was a 6am departure from ADL gate 15. It had overnighted so I then looked up the available acars report for the arrivals into ADL the evening before to see what flight arrived into gate 15 to overnight. The aircraft came from MEL at 7.30pm.

So I went to both ADL and MEL acars for that day, and checked the DJ rego's to see what aircraft was both in MEL and ADL around the relevant times. I narrowed it down to VBJ and VBO. So to rule out VBJ... it went into a different gate at ADL, and I believe it went MEL-CBR-ADL.

It is possible to track any aircraft. By a process of elimination... it is a real brain teaser usually, but I have fun doing it.

Yes, I am an Accountant LOL!!

[Dave Parer]

Thanks Steve. Oh, don't worry about being an accountant mate. I am no accountant but do the same as you when I want to track a certain aircraft around the country for various reasons.

Qantas and Jetstar are easier to track because they use Acars. Virgin is always the main challenge, but like you, I enjoy it even though the wife says that I am "very odd".

Like you, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide Airports arrival and departure information are great because they give you gate numbers. Brisbane and Perth are a little more tricky.

With Brisbane, the Virgin Blue website is the best. It gives you gate numbers in their arrivals and departures section of their website when you do a flight search. Also, Ian Garton's website is also very useful for tracking aircraft.

At least I now know that I am not the only one who sit's down with nothing better to do from time to time and spend an hour or two tracking the daily flight sectors of certain aircraft.