The post I’ve seen says ZNG requiring the rudder change and has 12 December return to service in the same sentence. [emoji1744]

Another A380 is leaving the desert with VH-OQL about to depart VCV for LAX

Thanks for that update, Tristan. Just VH-OQI left to depart the desert, in one piece that is!

An article in Simple Flying about QANTAS reintroducing its sixth A380, specifically OQA, in mid December got me thinking.

https://simpleflying.com/qantas-rein...h-airbus-a380/

OQA only arrived in AUH on 18/11/22 for refurbishment and possibly other maintenance. It seems improbable that it will return to service after only a month, as refurbishment has taken at least two months and up to three months with aircraft done prior to COVID. Could it be OQG returning to service instead as it has been in AUH for over four months? I don't think it will be OQC as she seems to like the desert too much!

As with an in-service A380 - OQJ, replacing another in-service A380 - OQK with the wing spar inspections, I thought it possible that one of the remaining in-service A380s, OQB, OQD, OQH would be next after OQK. But that would only leave five A380s in service for the next 150 days (50 days per aircraft inspection) without other A380s returning.

So, if a sixth A380 is to return to service it would more likely be OQK, which completes its wing spar inspection in the next few days, and then bring an aircraft not currently in service for the next inspection.

I guess we will just have to wait and see how accurate this article is.

Source: Simple Flying 5 December, 2022

OQA was the frame that spurred the wing spar issues in the first place, it’s likely to have been cured of that issue unlike the rest of the fleet, so interior refit could be quite quick

So, what is happening with VH-OQC which has been in AUH since 21/6 21??

OQL is due to position to LHR on the 16th and then to AUH on the 17th.

In other news.. I went past the QF hangar at BNE today...
QPG is sitting outside the hangar, sans rudder.
EBD is also sitting outside the hangar, looking worse for wear - but with an engineer on a scissor lift on the far side (couldn't tell what they were doing)
Am guessing EBB was in the hangar (could see something, but unsure of rego)

Thanks for that update, Tristan. It looks as though AUH is going to get busier unless we see some QF A380 departures.

In other QF news, B789 ZNG is scheduled to depart LAX in a few minutes on its return from maintenance and is to operate QF94 to MEL.

With B789 VH-ZNG back in service, it will be interesting to see when ZNJ & ZNK head to Singapore for their 3yr Heavy Maintenance.

A380 VH-OQK returned to service after its wing spar inspections operating the delayed QF1D this evening.

A380 VH-OQG has just completed a 2 hour 42 minute test flight as QF6029 from AUH out over the Persian Gulf.

A380 VH-OQL is about to depart LAX for LHR and AUH as QF6023. Of the ten remaining QANTAS A380s, five are in service, four will be in AUH and one left in storage in VCV. OQG will probably leave AUH shortly and another will possibly commence having its wing spar inspection in SYD.

A380 VH-OQG is scheduled to depart AUH in just over 3 hours as QF6024 for SYD with an estimated arrival time of 8:40 tomorrow morning. She must have passed yesterday's test flight! ;)

A380 VH-OQJ is about to take off from SYD on a 40 minutes flight west of the city. This is probably a crew training flight with QANTAS conducting similar short flights on Saturday 10/12/22 (two) with OQB and Saturday 17/12/22 with OQD.

An interesting and informative article in Aviation Week about the A380 wing spar inspections and any resultant crack repairs. The paragraph on QANTAS A380s is shown hereunder:

Full article: https://aviationweek.com/air-transpo...return-service

Do we have any dates of when the remaining 3 x 787's will be delivered to Qantas given that they are all now in PAE & I presume getting close to being ready?

FWIW : based on flight data at Boeing Test Flights per Day and production data at 787 Tables, there are seven 789s that were returned to PAE from storage ahead of the three Qantas 789s, and as yet no sign of ZNN being fully painted.
These spreadsheets show that only five 789s have been delivered from Everett since 30 October.

Thanks Peter hopefully we get some movement shortly

QANTAS stated that the final three B789s would be delivered in FY23 and I recall May and June 2023 specified. This dovetails well with the commencement of New York flights which at three per week will require one additional B789, although as more A380s return to service the B789 fleet will not be so stretched.

There must be a lot of work required for each previously built B789.

According to Flightradar24.com VH-OQG due to operate QF11 today, delayed departure though.

Good to see the A380s coming back online more and more now.

A380 VH-OQG has returned to service operating QF11 SYD-LAX today. This means that QANTAS now has six A380s in service, but one may be needed for wing spar inspections and any crack repairs in the future, maybe after the Christmas/New Year peak. I do not know if OQG had its inspections done during its four and a half month maintenance period in AUH.

VH-OQG taxied out for departure, then returned to gate, now delayed.

QF11 VH-OQG eventually pushed back at 14:51

QF1 is currently on the ground in GYD (Baku) after squawking 7700 and diverting there.
According to FR24 it is due to leave about now, so presumably the diversion was medical.

Edit: now reported as a technical issue: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapo...-in-azerbaijan

“Our flight from Singapore to London has made an unscheduled landing at Baku Airport in Azerbaijan after pilots received an intermittent fault indicator in the cockpit,” said a Qantas spokesman in response to The Straits Times’ queries.
“Engineers will inspect the aircraft prior to it continuing its journey.”

That A380 is VH-OQH and it hasn't left as yet.

QF online flight status shows departure from Baku at 2230 local time on Saturday.

QANTAS has an A380, VH-OQD scheduled to depart SYD for GYD (Baku) at 10:30 SYD time. I guess that it will pick up the stranded passengers, continue to LHR and also take engineering staff to examine and fix OQH.

This is an article on the A380 diversion to Baku by Simple Flying:

https://simpleflying.com/qantas-airb...smoke-warning/

A380 VH-OQD has just departed GYD as QF1D completing the leg to LHR of approximately five and a half hours.

A380 VH-OQH has departed GYD overnight as QF6026 for SYD and is scheduled to arrive at 18:39 this evening.

OQH just landed at SYD at 8.08pm local time.

A380 VH-OQH has returned to service operating QF11 SYD-LAX this morning.

Interesting flight path, heading north up the coastline (at points, over land) before hanging a right just before the Gold Coast.. I wonder if that was precautionary?

Quiet an interesting flight path, Tristan with the planned great circle route up and over and going well north of Hawaii and then south-sou-east into LAX. I would say that the flight path is weather related with possibly forecasted higher head winds further south. The other SYD-LAX flights are travelling along the more usual southerly route but up to 50 mph slower.

I have seen US west coast flights from MEL take the MEL-OOL route well west of SYD but it is more prevalent with flights coming from the west coast to SYD, particularly with Air Canada often and others sometimes crossing the coast well up the NSW coast.

I don't think that it is precautionary, as if the aircraft is fit to fly, it is fit to fly its usual routes and needs all systems in full working order to fly ETOPS flights. With OQD not having flown since Monday night and OQG doing a couple of one and a half hour training flights around SYD today QANTAS could have easily have used one of these A380s to fly across the Pacific instead.

According to Flightaware both QF11 and UA842 are due to arrive in LAX at 6:19 so we'll be able to see which was the quicker route. UA842 departed SYD at 12:02 and QF11 at 12:26 so OQH was 24 minutes after United.

UA842 took 14 hours 3 minutes (7722 miles) to fly SYD-LAX while QF11 took 14:15 (8199 miles) and arrived 28 minutes after United. QF11's speed for the last 40% of the flight was above 600 mph and as high as 697mph. UA842 was rarely above 550mph and below 500 mph for a large portion of the later part of the flight.

It'll be interesting to see what routes are flown today across the Pacific.

VH-OQI lit up on flightradar24 from the desert this morning. Looks like it's getting ready to hop to LAX in the coming weeks. This one I think still has the old livery from memory?

QANTAS Fleet and Operations
 

Reported on 7 News and confirmed by Qantas and FR24, QF1 (depart SYD Monday 2 January 2023) diverted to Athens for a medical emergency.

Aircraft operating is VH-OQJ, which remains in ATH at this time. QF flight status page indicates a continuation to LHR early afternoon Wednesday 4 January local time (I assume, being medical rather than technical, that this will be OQJ).

Tuesday’s QF2 is scheduled to depart LHR mid-morning on Wednesday local time, which presumably will operate with VH-OQD which left SYD as QF1 on Tuesday 3 January.

Edit to add link:

https://7news.com.au/news/in-flight-...-c-9341816.amp

Do we have any updates on EBB & QPG as to when they will be back in service? Its been reported that QPG is waiting for a rudder before returning but surely it doesn't take months to get a new one!!

EBD is still there as well.

There was talk that EBB and EBD had corrosion but I’m a tad skeptical.

Add to this EBL has been in BNE since the start of the month, so safe to assume she’s in for a heavy check.

Believe EBE is being withdrawn this month for P2F conversion.

Whilst VA’s mainline fleet is flourishing, QF’s is dwindling. Never understood why you’d have 3 A330’s sitting in BNE over the Xmas/New Year period.

Nothing replaced EBF which was withdrawn for P2F conversion back in Nov 22 either.

There’s some very recent pics of EBD on a well-known photo sharing site and she looks very sad, robbed for a winglet and dirty.

The remaining active domestic A332’s are all regularly visiting AKL, CGK, DPS and SIN so they are getting around.