I've been curious about something since last December. Having stumbled on this site while searching for info on V Australia, I'm thinking that perhaps someone here can shed some light on it.
Last December or January, I was on my way back from Mackay to Sydney, and ended up on an E-170 for the first time for the segment to BNE. The pilot spent some time after we all got on board to tell us about the new plane, had us hit the call buttons and such so that we'd know how they work, etc. He was clearly pretty pleased to have a new toy. On my previous trips to Mackay, DJ had always used 737's. I don't know how long the E-170's had been in use on this route.
All was well, until landing in BNE, which was "interesting" for two reasons.
1. As we were landing, a rather short time after hitting the runway, the plane's speedbrakes went on *hard*, twice. I've never been jerked to a stop quite that abruptly before, in probably 200+ flight segments over the years, in everything from prop planes to 747's. And by the time we turned, I could see that there was precious little surface other than grass, left in front of us. IE, from what I could see, we barely avoided running over the end of the runway.
2. As we taxied to the gate, the pilot announced that "for those of you used to flying into BNE, things might have looked a little different, and that's because we came in on the other runway."
#2 was all well and good to me, until I got to the gate agent to check on my next flight and mentioned "we came in on the other runway, and that was interesting." Her reply was a puzzled: "There's only one runway."
So my question to those who might know: What happened? Does Brisbane have a general aviation runway, and did our flight have a pilot who decided he was up for a challenge with his new toy? Is it standard procedure for the E-170's to land on the general aviation runway at BNE?
That aside, I had a quite eventful trip to Australia over Christmas and New Year's last year (I'm from the USA). If it wasn't landing on an unheard-of runway, it was a bird strike on takeoff causing an engine problem and shutdown that resulted in an immediate turnaround and emergency landing complete with firetrucks and deboarding "sufficiently far away from" the terminal onto the tarmac via steps. If it wasn't an emergency landing, it was a flight cancellation. If it wasn't a flight cancellation, it was waiting 3 hours (in exciting BNE) due to a mechanical issue that required our plane be replaced. (During which I spent almost all 3 hours trying to get wifi to work, which I subscribed to, pre-paid, in the airport... and finally gave up and paid my $2 or whatever to use one of the kiosks.) And if it wasn't that, it was a plane with no air con.
And amazingly, after all of that, I'd still rather fly Virgin Blue than Qantas, with its laughable carry-on allowance and preponderance of prop planes.
DJ should give me honorary membership in the Velocity club after that, especially considering that three of those events happened on my birthday. I'm not an Aussie or NZ resident, so I cannot join Velocity, even though I probably fly more miles per year on DJ than on any US domestic airline, and definitely spend more time in airports waiting for DJ departures than for any other airline.
As it is, it was all I could do to beg for a comp'd red wine once I was finally safely in the air for the last flight of my day on my birthday, having spent nearly the entire day getting from Mackay to Sydney. The FA found my story of DJ hell that day quite remarkable ("wow, you earned your wine"). When I mentioned the bird strike, she exclaimed, "You were on THAT flight?" and promptly handed me my bag of savory snacks for no charge as well. ;-)
Last December or January, I was on my way back from Mackay to Sydney, and ended up on an E-170 for the first time for the segment to BNE. The pilot spent some time after we all got on board to tell us about the new plane, had us hit the call buttons and such so that we'd know how they work, etc. He was clearly pretty pleased to have a new toy. On my previous trips to Mackay, DJ had always used 737's. I don't know how long the E-170's had been in use on this route.
All was well, until landing in BNE, which was "interesting" for two reasons.
1. As we were landing, a rather short time after hitting the runway, the plane's speedbrakes went on *hard*, twice. I've never been jerked to a stop quite that abruptly before, in probably 200+ flight segments over the years, in everything from prop planes to 747's. And by the time we turned, I could see that there was precious little surface other than grass, left in front of us. IE, from what I could see, we barely avoided running over the end of the runway.
2. As we taxied to the gate, the pilot announced that "for those of you used to flying into BNE, things might have looked a little different, and that's because we came in on the other runway."
#2 was all well and good to me, until I got to the gate agent to check on my next flight and mentioned "we came in on the other runway, and that was interesting." Her reply was a puzzled: "There's only one runway."
So my question to those who might know: What happened? Does Brisbane have a general aviation runway, and did our flight have a pilot who decided he was up for a challenge with his new toy? Is it standard procedure for the E-170's to land on the general aviation runway at BNE?
That aside, I had a quite eventful trip to Australia over Christmas and New Year's last year (I'm from the USA). If it wasn't landing on an unheard-of runway, it was a bird strike on takeoff causing an engine problem and shutdown that resulted in an immediate turnaround and emergency landing complete with firetrucks and deboarding "sufficiently far away from" the terminal onto the tarmac via steps. If it wasn't an emergency landing, it was a flight cancellation. If it wasn't a flight cancellation, it was waiting 3 hours (in exciting BNE) due to a mechanical issue that required our plane be replaced. (During which I spent almost all 3 hours trying to get wifi to work, which I subscribed to, pre-paid, in the airport... and finally gave up and paid my $2 or whatever to use one of the kiosks.) And if it wasn't that, it was a plane with no air con.
And amazingly, after all of that, I'd still rather fly Virgin Blue than Qantas, with its laughable carry-on allowance and preponderance of prop planes.
DJ should give me honorary membership in the Velocity club after that, especially considering that three of those events happened on my birthday. I'm not an Aussie or NZ resident, so I cannot join Velocity, even though I probably fly more miles per year on DJ than on any US domestic airline, and definitely spend more time in airports waiting for DJ departures than for any other airline.
As it is, it was all I could do to beg for a comp'd red wine once I was finally safely in the air for the last flight of my day on my birthday, having spent nearly the entire day getting from Mackay to Sydney. The FA found my story of DJ hell that day quite remarkable ("wow, you earned your wine"). When I mentioned the bird strike, she exclaimed, "You were on THAT flight?" and promptly handed me my bag of savory snacks for no charge as well. ;-)
shock
(in some cases).
I said approximately... 
I don't have any charts for BNE, was going off Google Earth - and measuring from stripes to stripes....
