nzom_pilot Posted December 8, 2009 Posted December 8, 2009 Introduction A friend was having a special graduation event thing in NZ and it was also the opportunity to sneak back over and surprise the family so I took it. 4 days - 5 airports - 3 aircraft types - 5 flights. General Flight Overview Airline: Virgin Blue (DJ) Flight Number: DJ954 Origin: Brisbane International Airport (BNE/YBBN) Destination: Sydney International Airport (SYD/YSSY) Distance: 752km Scheduled departure time: 1400 AEST Scheduled arrival time: 1630 AEDT Actual departure time: 1409 push back, 1419 take off Actual arrival time: 1632 touch down, 1639 on gate Seat: 8C Aircraft: Boeing 737-8FE Registration: VH-VUG (Pacific Blue c/s) Statistics: 3rd flight on type, 1st on VUG This was the 1st leg of my trip over to NZ, and being a domestic connecting flight I checked in at the domestic check-in. The Pacific Blue website doesn’t mention the fact that you have to check in at the international desk around the corner from the normal check-in desks, but the ground agent I had was trained on international bits so checked me the whole way thru, which was great. Being an international connection meant I had to check in early so after easily passing thru security I had plenty of time to wander around the BNE domestic terminal and take photos of the various aircraft on the gates. There was the usual selection of Virgin Blue, Jetstar and Qantas aircraft sitting there but nothing too spectacular. The inbound flight from SYD was a bit late and as a result so was our boarding and outbound flight. I was pleasantly surprised to see Pacific Blue liveried VH-VUG arrive onto our gate, as we were scheduled for a 73G not a 73H (737-700 not 737-800 for those of you who aren’t up with the codes). VH-VUG on gate 43 at BNE The flight itself wasn’t very spectacular. The cabin was 100% full, and I was stuck in a aisle seat, and hence there aren’t any photos from this leg. The cabin crew consisting of CSM Jason, Tara, Danielle and Michelle were solid, although the poor girl getting my water got sidetracked with something else at the cart and it took a good 4 mins or so before she remembered and apologised for forgetting about me. I didn’t bother to purchase live2air and just watched the flight display map. According to it we taxied down to runway 19 at 42km/h, although it took it forever to register the increase in speed during the take off roll. Despite it being after the so called closing time of 2pm at Acacia St (Loop Rd) there were a good number of people there spotting and taking photos. The map wasn’t all that accurate and it was hard to tell where we were when things were happening, but our Top of Decent point was at 1603AEDT, and we throttled right back, and glided down over NSW, passing along the coast before circling out into Botany bay for a touchdown on 34R. I found the seat to be uncomfortable and not all that flash an aircraft that is used on long international sectors such as SYD-DPS and ADL-NAN. I’m glad I was only on a 1.5hr sector, especially in a 100% full cabin. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 9.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0 Boarding: 7.0 Seat: 7.0 Entertainment System: 5.0 Crew: 8.0 Food and Beverages: 7.0 Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 8.0 On-time performance: 7.0 Total Score: 7.30 General Flight Overview Airline: Pacific Blue (DJ) Flight Number: DJ72 Origin: Sydney International Airport (SYD/YSSSY) Destination: Christchurch International Airport (CHC/NZCH) Distance: 2125km Scheduled departure time: 1905 AEDT Scheduled arrival time: 0010 NZDT Actual departure time: 1856 push back, 1908 take off Actual arrival time: 2352 touchdown, 2356 on gate Seat: 13D moved to 17F Aircraft: Boeing 737-8FE Registration: ZK-PBA Statistics: 4th flight on type, 1st on PBA After a bit of a wait I joined about 12 others on the transfer bus from domestic across the airport to the International terminal. I then spent very short time spotting at the international terminal sky deck, before passing thru security and then walking around the gates taking photos where possible of the parked up aircraft. A few highlights for me were Qantas A380 VH-OQA “Nancy-Bird Walton”, and a UPS MD-11. Boarding was called on time and was smooth and efficient. Once seated Bob one of the crew offered the option of shifting into the empty row 17 which I jumped at and secured the window seat, also had the whole row to myself. The CSM then came over the PA and said that we were “Deliciously” early and were just waiting on the tug to finish pushing back the other flight and then we would be on our way early. The load factor looked to be around the mid 70s%. The seats in the NZ Pacific Blue fleet were different to that in the Australian fleet (VUG) flown earlier and were much more comfortable and leather. I guess it also helped being able to stretch out over 3 seats as well. Sunset mid tasman The crew were very friendly and helpful and made two service runs through the cabin during the flight. I spent most of the flight reading a book and time seemed to race by, before we reached top of decent at 2315NZDT. We flew into CHC and landed on runway 02 nice and early to be greeted with the news that it was a sprightly 9 deg in CHC, which was met with an audible groan from the whole aircraft. We were off the aircraft in good time and I was thru customs, baggage claim and MAF screening and out into the airport in less than 10 minutes. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 9.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 8.0 Boarding: 8.0 Seat: 8.0 Entertainment System: n/a Crew: 8.0 Food and Beverages: 7.0 Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 8.0 On-time performance: 9.0 Total Score: 8.11 General Flight Overview Airline: Eagle Air - Air New Zealand Link (NZ) Flight Number: NZ2460 Origin: Blenheim, Woodbourne Airport (BHE/NZWB) Destination: Wellington International Airport (WLG/NZWN) Distance: 80km Scheduled departure time: 0920 NZDT Scheduled arrival time: 0945 NZDT Actual departure time: 0930 push back, 0933 take off Actual arrival time: 0944 touch down, 0946 on gate Seat: 8F Aircraft: Raytheon Beech 1900D Registration: ZK-EAB Statistics: 11th flight on type, 1st on EAB After a lovely weekend of indulging in good food and even better Marlborough wine, it was time to start the return trip, and the first flight was up to the usual standard of the short commuter flight from Blenheim to Wellington that Eagle Air operates multiple times daily. Check-in was smooth and simple and within 30 seconds of arriving at the counter she had my boarding passes printed and was tagging my bag, as I went off to talk to my friends running the rental car booths. The inbound flight was once again about 6 minutes late, and boarding began about 10 minutes late. Boarding was completed while the F/O was still pre-flighting the aircraft and the Captain welcomed us inside the aircraft and pointed out our seats, a rather easy job in a 19 seater. NZOM as seen shortly after take off from NZWB We were ready and the F/O did a rather half hearted walk thru, checking seat belts before we began the flight. We taxied out and turned to backtrack down runway 06, before swinging round at the end and launching almost immediately into the take off roll. We took off and tracked straight out before making a turn to the north and then heading across cook straight and then descending over the city for a left hand approach to land on runway 16. Our shadow on finals for R16 at WLG Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 9.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0 Boarding: 7.0 Seat: 7.0 Entertainment System: n/a Crew: 7.0 Food and Beverages: n/a Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 7.0 On-time performance: 7.0 Total Score: 7.38 General Flight Overview Airline: Air New Zealand Flight Number: NZ413 Origin: Wellington International Airport (WLG/NZWN) Destination: Christchurch International Airport (CHC/NZCH) Distance: 302km Scheduled departure time: 1030 NZDT Scheduled arrival time: 1115 NZDT Actual departure time: 1029 push back, 1037 takeoff Actual arrival time: 1109 touchdown, 1113 on gate Seat: 15A Aircraft: Boeing 737-33A Registration: ZK-NGR Statistics: 7th on type, 1st on NGR After exiting the 1900D and walking across the tarmac to the terminal I had already spotted the two Air New Zealand B733s on the ground ZK-NGR and ZK-NGK, and since NGK was about to push back I assumed that I would be on NGR. I was correct as NGR was parked at gate 17 which was the assigned gate for our flight to CHC. Entry to the gate area was restricted and passengers weren’t allowed thru security screening and into the gate area until about 10minutes before scheduled boarding time. A nice little gesture from Air New Zealand was the free DominonPost newspapers available at the gate for passengers. Boarding was announced and without much effort I was off thru the gate and down the aero bridge. As I approached the aircraft I caught sight of the cabin crew member at the door and thought she looked very familiar. After she had welcomed me on board and pointed me towards my seat, my suspicions were confirmed that she was indeed one of the Air New Zealand crew members from the “Nothing to Hide” advert series. Boarding was completed in reasonable time with once again a full aircraft. Once formalities were completed and push back had began the safety demonstration video began to play. Its amazing how many more passengers pay attention to something when its part of the “Nothing to hide” campaign, and even more so when they suddenly click that Nicola in the video is the same Nicola Simpson who just introduced herself and the other crew to us over the PA only minutes before. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diytGIKwC6U] [/ame] She is the blond at the start of the video. We pushed back from gate 17 all the way back to gat 25 at the international/swing gate side of the terminal. We then taxied via B-main taxiway-1 onto the runway. Turning onto R16 at WLG The flight went reasonably smoothly with the café style snack menu offered, a choice of a Kiwi Lolly bag, an Air New Zealand biscuit or a bag of vege kasava chips, along with water. Before long we hit top of decent at 1054 NZDT and descended in with a left hand turn for the southerly approach and landing on runway 02. We were offered the opportunity to disembark using both the aerobridge or rear air-stairs and this sped up the emptying of the aircraft. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 8.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0 Boarding: 7.0 Seat: 7.0 Entertainment System: n/a Crew: 8.0 Food and Beverages: 6.0 Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 7.0 On-time performance:7.0 Total Score:8.0 General Flight Overview Airline: Pacific Blue (DJ) Flight Number: DJ83 Origin: Christchurch International Airport (CHC/NZCH) Destination: Brisbane International Airport (BNE/YBBN) Distance: 2295km Scheduled departure time: 1635 NZDT Scheduled arrival time: 1725 AEST Actual departure time: 1625 push back, 1636 takeoff Actual arrival time: 1705 touchdown, 1713 on gate Seat: 23F Aircraft: Boeing 737-8FE Registration: ZK-PBA Statistics: 5th flight on type, 2nd on PBA What a piece of luck, for the second time in only 4 days I got ZK-PBA again for the tasman leg. Christchurch which had been very overcast and yucky when I left Blenheim, had cleared to a fine but cool day. Of course I had forgotten just how bad the hole in the ozone layer over New Zealand is and an hour on the rooftop observation deck at CHC had left me a red as anything! Q300 ZK-NEW at CHC Lifeflight Trust Metro III ZK-LFT at CHC Pacific Blue B738 ZK-PBB at CHC Singapore Airlines B772 9V-SVK at CHC Boarding was announced and once again an almost full flight load of passengers made an orderly line and boarded quickly and efficiently and we were once again ready ahead of schedule. Push back occurred and left us sitting very near USAF LC130 73-3300. We taxied out via A-A7 to the runway and also turned onto the runway and straight into our take off roll. Southern Alps Last view of NZ Once again a flight spent reading a book, and occasionally looking out the window. The crew once again completed 2 service runs during the flight. The CSM was an interesting one and made everything into a joke, guess she thought she was funny and for most she would’ve been, but it was the same old tired airline cliché jokes, that I’ve heard a thousand times and she grated on me. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 7.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0 Boarding: 7.0 Seat: 8.0 Entertainment System: n/a Crew: 7.5 Food and Beverages: n/a Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 7.0 On-time performance: 7.0 Total Score: 7.31
Mattie Cribb Posted December 8, 2009 Posted December 8, 2009 Craig, Again another great Report ! Sounds like you had fun and did alot of flying, but good find on the A320 bear essentials i have only seen the 737 one haha but yeah and the Live2air in Virgin blue the last time i flew them in VH-VOK 737-800 i got a message "Live2Air is unaviable due to normal aircraft movments" well somthing along the line im sure thats what it said i was gonna take a pic becase i thought it was funny what it said but yeah it just displayed that the whole flight and i didnt get to see aircraft on the moving gps thing and the past Virgin Blue flights i have been on i havent heard the Capt or F/O go over the pa lol but again great report Mattie
Zac M Posted December 9, 2009 Posted December 9, 2009 VH-VOK has Live 2 Air issues, lol. It wouldn't work when I flew on it until they refunded everyones money and put it on free mode. nice trip report btw.
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