Airbus A380 due in Sydney tomorrow, 8:30-9:30am

[chris]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1505189.htm

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The largest passenger plane in the world is due in Sydney tomorrow morning around 8:30-9:30am. (expected 9:00am arrival).

I've got some information that you should expect to see it in Qantas colour scheme. But don't quote me on that. If it does appear in Qantas colours, it will surely be the first time it has appeared in any airline colour scheme.

Naturally I'll attempt to get some videos of this momentous occasion. Others wishing to see the plane should first check the weather reports and wind direction so you'll have some kind of idea of what runways will be in use.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the giant A380 is attracting interest as a private airliner, to be used in a similar way to most of todays corporate or business jets.

[chris]

http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/au/publicaffairs/details?ArticleID=2005/nov05/3351

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Qantas Airways Ltd has given details of the A380's schedule. It will overfly Sydney Harbour for aerial photography, which is another hint at the thing possibly being repainted in Qantas colours.

It coincides with the 85th birthday celebrations for Qantas Airways.

[chris]

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/957189/L/

There it is in Singapore crossing over the road. Would have been a spectacular sight for the people driving underneath something so huge.

[chris]

Okay, I've seen it for myself.

It's true, the A380-841 F-WWOW is indeed very quiet. It is much quieter than a 747 that landed on the same runway (the longest one coming in over the water), and it is even quieter than the Qantas DeHavilland Dash-8 which took off in front of us.

Of all the planes there, the A380 is unbelievably quiet, so quiet you have very little warning it is arriving. Sadly I didn't get a good video of the landing (wrong runway, wrong location).

But I can confirm it didn't have a full Qantas colour scheme, instead it just had QANTAS on the side of it in the most gigantic letters I've ever seen.

[VQ]

Yeah, I heard on ABC AM they said it had partial Quanta's colors as they didn't have enough time to do the tail.

[chris]

Here are a few little clips from what I could salvage:

"Australian" 767-338 and Qantas 737NG-838 /w winglets take off. (http://rpi.racerplanet.com/767_737.ASF)

I included a little bit of ATC communication in that one of the 737 before it took-off. Most of these Qantas 737's are not with typical Qantas interior specification, but rather American Airlines and various other interior specifications. The reason being is that Qantas needed urgent delivery of lots of smaller narrow-body planes, and since various US airlines were in financial difficulty, they had no worries about their delayed orders, thus Qantas getting planes intended for the likes of AA, although they were delivered with winglets providing extra range and fuel economy. That's important since Qantas routes are typically much longer than those of AA.

Qantas 747-438 - reverse thrust - noisy (http://rpi.racerplanet.com/QF747-438.ASF)

The 747 landed on the shorter runway going from east to west, something that doesn't usually happen these days. On both of these videos, Singapore Airlines Megatop 9V-SMZ is visible, but without her 50th anniversary paint-scheme these days. 9V-SMZ was being taken care of by Qantas catering services. Also spotted was Qantas' 747-438 "Wunala Dreaming", the first of the specially coloured Qantas planes, later joined by "Nalanji Dreaming" (747-338) and "Yananyi Dreaming" (737-838 VH-VXB).

The A380 itself doesn't look as big in person as you'd think it would, and to be honest it is very ordinary, only the size and lack of noise is very different. These things when they enter service will probably sneek in and out of airports without nearby residents really noticing them.

The A380 did have a Learjet (I think) following it. Qantas used that plane for plane to plane video filming.

[Wazza]

Fantastic shot on Airliners.net.

Really shows the relative size, against the infamous sky bridge. :eek:

[chris]

It quietly departed Sydney today, bound for Melbourne.

[Wazza]

Yeah, I had noticed that. A guy I know, Ian Knight already had a pic of it in Melbourne. Talk about quick uploads. The queue is typically 7-10 days. A long wait to get a rejected shot. ^_^

[Myshkin]

Heh it might not look big IRL, but every picture I have seen of the sucker makes it look like an NBA basketball player at a midget convention.

As much as I'd like to experience a flight in the A380 out of curiosity, sad fact is I doubt I will ever ride in one. Unless I either go somewhere in Asia for work or play, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards for the near future. I've only been on maybe 2 747's in my life... AA does not have the 747, biggest planes of theirs I have been on are the A300 and 767. Even the AA flight from Dallas to Anchorage, Alaska they use a 737 I think... they put me in "first class" but it was not a proper first class. I think the only time I have ever experienced a proper "first class" was on a United 747 trip (LA-Dulles-Amsterdam) that I received as a gift before I had the job I have now.

If Qantas uses an A380 for the LA-Sydney route, I should use some miles and take a Qantas flight to Oz, no way I am going to give up 145,000 for first class though. But who knows, by then I may no longer be in a traveling job.

I recall we had the conversation before about which airports in the US were going to be able to handle the A380... weren't there only a handful, at least in the next 5-10 years? I think LA was one of them.

Edit: "At Los Angeles International airport, where more than $53 million will be spent to prepare for the A380, officials expect Qantas to arrive with the new plane in November 2006..." Looks like it won't be too long then.

[chris]

I was looking at a big article on airports which are ready for the A380. Pretty much all the major international airports are ready, very close to ready, or working on it.

One of the big issues is simply engines overhanging the runway by a long way, and foreign object damage. The solution is one of two things, widen the runway, or install stabilised turf and netting over the top of it.

In Sydney, the plane could have landed on any of the runways, but obviously for maximum PR value they wanted to land on runways coming in over the water to give everyone best photographic/video opportunities. But the wind kept changing so nobody really knew which runway it would arrive on until too late.

Now on the question of flying on A380, A380-001 which arrived here did have a small section fitted out as a passenger cabin and to be honest, it really wasn't much different to what you'd expect on business class or better on any other plane. The main differences seem to be it will carry a little more people, a little bit faster at Mach 0.86.

Qantas will have its planes fitted out to carry about 480 passengers, nowhere near the 800-840 limit, and somewhat less than the 747SR's used in Japan on short-distance routes (all economy class seating for about 500).

[Myshkin]

Ahhh but you see I fly a lot on S80's and 737's, and one thing I have noticed is that those two are rough and noisy (and I won't even mention the little ERJ prop planes). I have some Shure E2C earphones that do a decent job at blocking the noise, but I seem to remember that the 747 and A300 were less noisy inside and smoother. Could be the quality of the pilots as well. All I know is that when an S80 lands, it feels like a controlled crash, and sometimes is quite a hard jolt.

I'd like to fly in the A380 too see how it rides, how quiet the interior is, how nicely they can set it up, check out Qantas as an airline (service, seats), and I'd like to visit Australia, of course. One thing I hate about AA is their seats... I guess they use the lowest quality they can find. I often wish I wasn't limited to AA or Continental (which I hate as I have explained before) flying from Texas. I won't fly Southwest again, and America West just merged with US Airways so they might be a realistic option in the future.

I would also like to check out JetBlue here in the States, but unfortunately their routes are very limited.

Anyway back to the point: Since I'd like to visit y'all anyway and I don't have any particular plan, it seems like a good idea to wait at least until the A380's are running. I would NOT fly all the way down there just to ride the plane. Coach class for me and the wife to Oz would set me back 150,000 miles, which is 6 tickets to the wife's hometown in Mexico. Not to mention the money to cover the taxes and such, plus vacation expenses.

If only I were rich... then I would not have to worry about budgeting miles and money. But as it is, I take a major vacation once every few years so I have to make the best of it. I think I won't go on another major (2+ weeks) vacation at least until 2007.

Edit: FYI Chris I deleted your double post. Want to make sure you weren't coming back to delete it which would make you delete the only remaining one. The board is a bit laggy today, eh? I almost lost my first post above...

[chris]

A double post eh? :confused: News to me. :)

I also wonder what it will be like flying on something so big. Traditionally one way to have smoother flights is to go higher, up above FL500 (50,000ft). Obviously no current flying airliners can go that high anymore (excepting TU-144 of which 2 examples, 77114 and 77115 may be flying again very soon for some sort of research and development purposes).

We did have here a TV news report where they did measure the noise of the A380-841 F-WWOW on landing approach, and multiple 747-400's also on landing, and it's true, the numbers support what I thought, the A380 is quieter, though only by about 3-4db. I suppose the rest of the difference is simply the different (and perhaps less noticeable) sound of those huge Rolls-Royce engines fitted to it. But whatever, the difference is noticeable to the ear. It seems most marked whenever the engines are well powered up, like under reverse thrust for instance, and probably also on take-off and departures when heavily loaded.

As far as airlines go, I do like British Airways. :) Qantas is usually better than average. JAL is okay too.