Outrunning the storm

Another trip to Canberra! Well it is over 6 months since my last flight down there for work and again it was work that called me back. My original intention was to get a lift by car and catch the train back, but a change in meeting times scotched that plan. So last Tuesday it was another day trip by plane.

This time I caught the QantasLink Dash8 Q400 turboprop to Canberra and the 737-400 jet on the way back. The flight to Canberra was wonderfully smooth and scenic. I spotted our house, the Alfords Point bridge duplication, ANSTO site and much more below. I had been told that Lake George held water again, but all I saw was a rather large puddle.

The flight back was much more dramatic. The Bureau of Meteorology had predicted an afternoon storm for Canberra and they were spot on. I watched it approach the city as I was returning to the airport, hoping that I would escape before it struck. Unfortunately, my plane took off directly towards the storm (against the wind, as is normal) and we flew right through the front as we curved our way back towards Sydney.

I was clinging on to my seat willing myself to cope with the bumps and drops. Thankfully I had booked a seat over the wing and I think I did pretty well, especially considering that last flight back from Malaysia. Eventually we escaped the storm and settled back for a far more gentle flight back into Sydney Airport.

I've written up a much more detailed account at airliners.net. Photos are also available.

Comments

My first overseas trip: Singapore and Malaysia

I've always loved to travel. My first memory is of sitting in a an aircraft, aged 18 months or so. Yet I never believed that I could travel overseas. To me, it seemed like something you did when you retired, or if you were rich. That all changed when I met B. She had not only travelled overseas, she was from overseas . B was born in Malaysia and arrived in Australia, with her family, in 1988. She still had relatives and friends in Malaysia and Singapore and she, along with the remainder of her family, planned to return for a visit during the Australian summer of 1995. At the time I was staying in B's mother's house while we were studying at university. After B's father passed away the year before I was the nominal "man" of the house and its high maintenance garden; her brother Michael was studying up in Queensland. B and I were quite inseparable and her mother kindly offered to pay for me to join them on their vacation. So it was that I obtained my very firs

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One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site . I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch. The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It'

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