Trip to Auckland - 56K warning!

[victor_alpha_charlie]

My family and I went up to Auckland this weekend for my cousin's wedding. We went on QF up, and ANZ back to compare the two.

Unfortunately I couldn't get any pics onboard ANZ on the way back because I was in 2E, the woman in 2F hardly looked out the window

Got lots on -JTQ though! We were in row 5 which is the first row after Business.

ANZ was better in every way, Qantas was a joke. We arrived at the airport at 10am for an 11am flight, and we finally boarded just before 1pm. Luckily Dad is a Qantas Club and Koru Club member so we had lounges both ways. For a business class lounge, QF's Wellington one was pretty average. The 734 we went on, -JTQ was in pretty average condition, and the crew weren't all that interested in being friendly. ANZ's lounge was fantastic. They had everything you would want/need, I would happily spend hours in there, but our flight boarded on time so we didn't have long in the lounge. We departed about 20 mins late to Wellington because we had to wait for some passengers off a cancelled QF flight , but the flight down was good.

Here are the pics:

A Pac Blue 738 which departed to AKL before us, even though we boarded long before them. "Paperwork delays".



An ANZ 733 which I would've rather been on


Finally we left the gate, and our flight began. We cruised low at FL 290 because of Jetstreams higher up.







New Plymouth down there






Airwork's new 733F


EVA A330- great looking plane



And in the Koru Club lounge this morning:






Our Ride for the way back:


Hope you enjoyed

Moral of the story? Avoid Jetconnect!

[Ian Warren]

Jeepers Tom , ya make us all envious ....Looking at Welly in that weather .. the facts , 73's .. late 60's to 2000 , and still the best , ..... wonder why ..OOOooh Dont go there nice set

[Airtrainer]

Yes definitly avoid JetConnect! I like the 5th picture which gives a nice aerial shot of some of the new airside road markings.

[Mattnz]

Nice pics, Tom!

[Charl]

Nice shots Tom

QUOTE

Moral of the story? Avoid Jetconnect![/quote]
Exactly, after school I will post some stuff about them.

[Charl]

ALways interesting to see airside, thanks VAC - now, in #3 you can see the lines are painted staggered.
Any ideas why? it seems twice as hard, and I'm not sure it's twice as visible?

[towerguy]

if you look closely you will see that there is a red stripe along side the white so it is actually an alternating red and white pattern that stands out a lot more. Used by vehicles around the apron.

we have the same here in Auckland and you will hear vehicles refering to "the red and white road".

[Charl]

QUOTE

[/quote]

Talking about this one, don't see any red in here...and it's really difficult to paint this, so there has to be a reason better than, it's "more visible".
If you want more visible, paint it twice as wide, or a triple line, as elsewhere. Just a passing WTH...

Last edited by Charl on Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

[LMerraine]

The way they paint these wouldn't be that hard actually, it would be two nozzles on a truck side by side that alternate. Going wider could cause problems like being slippery in the wet etc.

Personally I think they look kinda cool.

[A185F]

I dont think there is red on there just yet. Maybe waiting for that coat. They pretty new, all to do with this new ground movments plan thinga effective start of next month

[AlisterC]

Another stunning day in Auckland
Cool shots. I'm an Air NZ airpoints member so rarely fly Qantas, but my last trip with them was pretty good. Shame to hear you didn't enjoy it

[victor_alpha_charlie]

QUOTE (Albatross @ Jul 28 2008, 07:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Shame to hear you didn't enjoy it

Certainly not the first time I've had an experience like that with Qantas either.

In fact even if I had no fingers, I could count the number of times I have had a good trip with Jetconnect on one hand.

[Airtrainer]

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 28 2008, 08:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ALways interesting to see airside, thanks VAC - now, in #3 you can see the lines are painted staggered.
Any ideas why? it seems twice as hard, and I'm not sure it's twice as visible?

They are all part of the new airside road system. Those particular lines are refered to as the 'zipper lines' and inform the driver that they are crossing an active taxiway or that they don't have the required wingtip clearance of a taxiway. The new apron roads are painted with a single white line on each side now with a double white line marking out controlled apron areas where you require permission from the tower to enter. There are also four different drivers licence classes instead of the previous two.

QUOTE (towerguy @ Jul 28 2008, 08:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

if you look closely you will see that there is a red stripe along side the white so it is actually an alternating red and white pattern that stands out a lot more. Used by vehicles around the apron.

we have the same here in Auckland and you will hear vehicles refering to "the red and white road".

Yeah we used to have them, but WIAL has since changed the roading system.

[Charl]

QUOTE (Airtrainer @ Jul 29 2008, 09:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They are all part of the new airside road system. Those particular lines are refered to as the 'zipper lines'...There are also four different drivers licence classes instead of the previous two.

Aah...all becomes clearer, thanks.
Matter of insight, what are the 4 licenses?

[Anthony]

Well thanks for posting your pics Tom.
Sorry it wasnt a better flight for you.

[pacblue]

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 28 2008, 08:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Talking about this one, don't see any red in here...and it's really difficult to paint this, so there has to be a reason better than, it's "more visible".
If you want more visible, paint it twice as wide, or a triple line, as elsewhere. Just a passing WTH...

Hey guys they are new lines and USED to be red and white alternating but have now changed.. the white and white alternating is live taxiways for aircraft to taxi to the gate so we have to be EXTRA carefull, the double solid white line is to say we cant go over that (because then we would be on the Zulu taxiway) and the solid single white line is just to show the road were we are aloud to drive.

[Airtrainer]

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 29 2008, 01:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aah...all becomes clearer, thanks.
Matter of insight, what are the 4 licenses?

Category 1-4

Cat 1: Westeron Apron Only
Cat 2: Uncontrolled Areas on the Eastern Apron & Western Apron
Cat 3: All Eastern & Western Apron Areas
Cat 4: All Airside Areas

Then there is a push-back endorsement for the Cat 2 and a runway crossing endorsement for the Cat 3.

[chopper_nut]

Jeeze the licensing system has changed a lot since I had one.

[Airtrainer]

Goes live tomorrow (31st July)

[CDTDAN]

I looked at photo ... um... 18! and i thought the reflection was a massive bridge in the background in the fog!