Skip to main content

Qantas 747 Sydney Farewell



It is confirmed. After almost fifty years, Qantas will farewell its Boeing 747 jumbo jet from service. Before the last 747, VH-OEJ, flies off to the boneyard in the United States on July 22, Qantas announced it would operate three farewell flights with passengers in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra.

I was unsuccessful in booking seats on the Sydney and Canberra flights, getting as far as selecting seats before the system failed to proceed and was bitterly disappointed, along with so many others.

Burdened by work and indecision, I was too slow to drive to a vantage point to watch the Sydney overflight. So I grabbed my binoculars and good camera and stood at the top of the driveway.

The view for passengers must have been amazing as it twisted and turned at low altitude over the city, up to the Central Coast, then close overhead along the Georges River and out west. Finally, I watched it sink past the city skyline before it disappeared as it landed back at Sydney Airport.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Down the Oito Line

Riding the length of the Oito Line from Itoigawa to Shinjuku (well, Matsumoto, really, but you might as well go the whole way) has long been a dream of mine. It suddenly gained urgency when I read that the last length of it between Itoigawa to Minami-Otari would be closed once the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa and Toyama opens by next year. Now, as mentioned last time, B and Alex are among those that would much rather catch the very fast Shinkansen, but in the end she decided to follow me, despite the very early morning. We rode the Hokuetsu Express from Toyama to Itoigawa, completing a little more of that West Coast for me. Though the coastal stretch was short there were some nice views at times. I should like to see more of Itoigawa one day, explore its geology. But now we had to quickly cross over the platform bridge to catch our train to Minami-Otari. To my great delight it was a KiHa 120 railcar, my favourite. I felt a degree of sadness standing up at the front...