NOTAR520AC
12-29-2004, 08:27 PM
This past June, I had the privelage of traveling to Australia and New Zealand as a delegate of an organization promoting peace and understanding throughout the world. I'm on winter break right now, so I figured I might as well post a series of trip reports covering the 16,518 statute miles and the 50-some hours I spent in the air during this month-long journey.
We begin in my hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. The morning of June 4th arrived faster than I thought it would. I had been waiting for this trip since last year, and was in a state of disbelief now that it had finally arrived. I made final preperations, ensured I had all my travel documents, and re-checked my luggage before we walked out the door around 1:45pm. My dad drove me to the airport, and after battling traffic down the Loop 101 South, we parked in Terminal 3's garage and headed to group checkin where I'd meet up with the rest of the delegation.
After final goodbye's, all 42 of us headed through security. We were able to get through in pretty good time, and headed to gate A4 where we'd catch our first leg of our endeavor.
:wiggle: America West #32
PHX_LAX
Boeing 737-300
ETD: 1624 ATD: 1640 *all times are local
ETA: 1744 ATA: ?
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040011.jpg>
Turned out our flight was a tad late, but no-big; we had a couple hours layover at LAX before we hopped QF26 LAX_AKL_BNE. This flight was on an old 733 (sorry, I'm real bad at not getting regs).
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040014.jpg>
Legroom was sufficient (I'm 6'4"), but something about HP's (America West) seats makes my back ache like no other. We took off on rwy26. T/o roll was a little longer than I expected for such a short flight, but our climbout towards the west was pretty quick.
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040029.jpg>
The flight was short and uneventful. No turbulence or air pockets. Service was good (I hate it when people complain about how the service wasn't perfect- I say you can go work for the airline yourself to improve service if you're going to whine about it) We began our descent over the mist-covered Sierra Nevadas.
[photoid=383228]
It was a foggy/soupy/hazy (whatever you wanna call it) day in Los Angeles, and the entire descent was like flying through pea soup- couldn't see anything.
We touched down westbound on the north runways and I was amazed (even though I was expecting it) at just how much rubber there was on the runways. :nod:
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040071.jpg>
As we backtracked to our gate we taxied by a bunch of Qantas 744's- our next aircraft- sitting on the tarmac.
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040074.jpg>
We deplaned and I managed to sneak a photo of the cockpit while the mechanics were fixing the radios or something on the rear of the pedestal.
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040096.jpg>
So that was leg #1. Because I flew 6 legs I'm going to split the legs up into different posts so I can put lots of pics in for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoyed Part One! :clap:
We begin in my hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. The morning of June 4th arrived faster than I thought it would. I had been waiting for this trip since last year, and was in a state of disbelief now that it had finally arrived. I made final preperations, ensured I had all my travel documents, and re-checked my luggage before we walked out the door around 1:45pm. My dad drove me to the airport, and after battling traffic down the Loop 101 South, we parked in Terminal 3's garage and headed to group checkin where I'd meet up with the rest of the delegation.
After final goodbye's, all 42 of us headed through security. We were able to get through in pretty good time, and headed to gate A4 where we'd catch our first leg of our endeavor.
:wiggle: America West #32
PHX_LAX
Boeing 737-300
ETD: 1624 ATD: 1640 *all times are local
ETA: 1744 ATA: ?
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040011.jpg>
Turned out our flight was a tad late, but no-big; we had a couple hours layover at LAX before we hopped QF26 LAX_AKL_BNE. This flight was on an old 733 (sorry, I'm real bad at not getting regs).
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040014.jpg>
Legroom was sufficient (I'm 6'4"), but something about HP's (America West) seats makes my back ache like no other. We took off on rwy26. T/o roll was a little longer than I expected for such a short flight, but our climbout towards the west was pretty quick.
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040029.jpg>
The flight was short and uneventful. No turbulence or air pockets. Service was good (I hate it when people complain about how the service wasn't perfect- I say you can go work for the airline yourself to improve service if you're going to whine about it) We began our descent over the mist-covered Sierra Nevadas.
[photoid=383228]
It was a foggy/soupy/hazy (whatever you wanna call it) day in Los Angeles, and the entire descent was like flying through pea soup- couldn't see anything.
We touched down westbound on the north runways and I was amazed (even though I was expecting it) at just how much rubber there was on the runways. :nod:
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040071.jpg>
As we backtracked to our gate we taxied by a bunch of Qantas 744's- our next aircraft- sitting on the tarmac.
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040074.jpg>
We deplaned and I managed to sneak a photo of the cockpit while the mechanics were fixing the radios or something on the rear of the pedestal.
<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/P6040096.jpg>
So that was leg #1. Because I flew 6 legs I'm going to split the legs up into different posts so I can put lots of pics in for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoyed Part One! :clap: