Another day at the office

[cowpatz]

An external view of my office. This is ZK-OKQ (Black beauty).
To give an indication of engine size the refuel truck is parked just behind the engine. The diameter of the cowl is the same size as that of a 737 fuselage. A big bugger with quite an interesting fan blade shape on these GEs.

YMML gate D10.

[Charl]

Great to see some airside... I seem to remember that engine has the highest thrust rating you can buy!

Could it have been the very aircraft I rode to the Avalon Airshow, I wonder?
I am a big fan of the Air NZ herringbone seat layout, and Melbourne is just long enough a trip to make it worthwhile.

[NZ255]

All in favor of more of these posts (with more images) say

I mean AYE!

[cowpatz]

All in favor of more of these posts (with more images) say

I mean AYE!

Yeah it was a pretty pathetic effort I must admit. I took a few more but they had too many service vehicles blocking the view so I deleted them. It was my "walkaround" so I just took a couple on the spur of the moment. The black one is quite unique. Originally we had issues with the gate nose in guidance systems as the sensors couldn't detect the nose cone due to it being black and the type of paint used. The black aircraft have since had the nose painted with a different paint and it seems to work....although having said that we got marshalled in on this occasion at Melbourne. Maybe they haven't been told yet

[NZ255]

Ah interteresring. What gives a better parking job? The marshaller or the safedock thing

[Ian Warren]

I really could do with an office job like that right now

[cowpatz]

Ah interteresring. What gives a better parking job? The marshaller or the safedock thing

The safedock generally. The marshaller has to judge the momentum when giving the stop command. some are good at it and others not so.
Flew the same route in the same aircraft again today. Couldn't get any good shots as it was pissing down in Auckland on departure (my walkaround - I didn't give much thought about the weather when I gave the FO the leg over). Plus I didn't get outside at Melbourne.

[toprob]

Yeah, but the safedock doesn't do the little dance....

[NZ255]

Yeah, but the safedock doesn't do the little dance....

[SA227]

I would really enjoy that office if there was a maximum of 90 minutes between take off and landing. I could stretch to 2 hours provided the coffee machine and oven were both serviceable

[Splitpin]

CP ... Realy appreciate the time you took , great shots.
Always nice to see stuff from the real world.

[Lindstrim]

I was flying the smaller Black one the other day. Only just saw this otherwise would have taken a couple of shots too

[cowpatz]

I have flown the same aircraft the last 3 times at work....very unusual. I took a panorama of the beast at BNE but it cut the bloody nose off

As for the departure out of Brisbane....well.......only the Aussie's could come up with a departure like this. When heading off Rwy 19 to the East you turn right and loop around the airfield......and they made us fly all the way around even though there was no traffic

[Ian Warren]

Thanks Steve... I'll hook into this later

[Lindstrim]

Steve, Isn't that just like the SYD arrival that takes you overhead the field then into a downwind position on the opposite side of the field from which you arrived from?

[NZ255]

Nuts. What was the weather like? Do they do visual departures?

[cowpatz]

Nuts. What was the weather like? Do they do visual departures?

Weather was ok. Unfortunately no major airport does visual departures anymore.

[cowpatz]

Steve, Isn't that just like the SYD arrival that takes you overhead the field then into a downwind position on the opposite side of the field from which you arrived from?

Yes that would be the MARLN 2 RNAV arrival. However I can understand that as SYD has 2 North/South runways. If coming from the East for 16L or 34R then you just turn downwind as per normal. If 16R or 34L then you go over the top and then downwind....like a big overhead rejoin. This keeps you clear of the adjacent traffic inbound for 16L/34R.