Rainy weather in Sydney

[Robert Zweck]

Pity you couldn't send some of the rain over here to Adelaide...


A QF FF reported that heavy rain in Sydney early last night caused them to have to sit in the holding point queue for almost 25 minutes.

The pax was on VH-VZA QF 743 SYD-ADL with an elapsed block time of 2 hrs 25 minutes, normally its about 1 hour 55.

Also on Friday night on QF 785 SYD-ADL , a well known Adelaide identity reported that they also spent about 25 minutes in the queue.

They arrived Adelaide just before curfew and a possible diversion and overnight in Canberra was avoided ( the pax raised the subject with an FA whilst waiting at SYD ).

It sounded as though the flight was given preferential take-off priority to avoid busting ADL curfew....can ATC do that?

[Steve Jones]

Just out of curiousity, if a SYD-ADL flight doesn't meet the ADL curfew, why would it divert to CBR to overnight and not MEL? It has already happened once before and I never quite understood why. MEL surely is both closer and has more parking space and hotel rooms!

[Jayden Laing]

The clouds at Sydney airport last night were dark, low & thick. A Virgin Blue plane conducted a go around from about where the Stamford is. One my way home, I was talking to a passenger on a Jetstar flight from Melbourne & he said that the plane was shaking all over the place when on approach into Sydney after being in a holding pattern somewhere for about 20mins.

[Adam P.]

Not just SYD - current Merimbula TAF:

MERIMBULA (YMER)
TAF AMD YMER 150221Z 1502/1512
15018G30KT 4000 LIGHT RAIN SCT008 BKN015
FM150400 15018G30KT 9999 LIGHT RAIN SCT012 BKN020
TEMPO 1502/1504 2000 RAIN BKN005 TEMPO 1504/1512 3000 RAIN BKN010
PROB30 INTER 1502/1512 VRB30G45KT 2000 THUNDERSTORMS WITH RAIN BKN005
SCT040CB
RMK FM150200 MOD TURB BLW 5000FT
T 20 20 19 19 Q 1012 1012 1014 1016
SPECI YMER 150330Z AUTO 18013KT 2400NDV // BKN011 OVC017 19/19 Q1008
RMK RF02.8/062.4

In fact overnight the runway down there was closed because it was just too wet and had gone soft...

[Phil M]

It sounded as though the flight was given preferential take-off priority to avoid busting ADL curfew....can ATC do that?

Word (allegedly) came from the Airservices National Operations Centre in Canberra that the Adelaide jets had to jump the queue. No idea who actually made that decision, but there were a few upset pilots, especially considering others in the queue were departing for Brisbane or Melbourne and had to come back to beat the Sydney curfew anyway!