Weather Delays at Sydney

[munitalP]

Our weather – you gotta love it!

Yesterday I had a dramatic day which will forever be etched in my memory – well at least till tonight anyway - I got caught by Sydney’s bad weather yesterday not once but twice and today I’m feeling fine and dandy about it! I can’t say I was last night though, mind you, a certain person at the Sydney QC kept feeding me Crown Lagers (thanks Graham) so my long night didn’t turn out too bad I guess…

I left Dubbo on the 1735 to Sydney and for the first 15 minutes of the flight everything was good – then it was announced that ATC had “slowed” us down due to a weather front in Sydney and they had closed the airport.
I got to see a lot of country NSW yesterday – doing circles in the sky – boy racers in their worked nissans eat yer hearts out! J

We pulled into the terminal with 3 minutes to spare for my 1945 boarding time for QF552 to BNE. That goes on record as the longest it has ever taken me to get from Dubbo to Sydney – the DASH8 must have been flying on fumes by the time we landed because they hadn’t topped the tanks off in Dubbo…

I meandered across to the QC in the other terminal knowing only too well that there was no way known that I was going to make 552 (assuming it was on time) and joined the line at the service counter along with about 25 others. I got to the counter finally and offered my boarding pass (already issued in Dubbo) to the gentleman behind the counter. He tapped away at his keyboard for a couple of minutes and changed my flight to QF 548 – he said that there was a huge probability that 548 would leave before 552 which still hadn’t landed.

I wandered over to the runway end bar and ordered the first of what was to become many, crown lager. A few minutes later, it was announced over the PA that the airport had been closed again due to another weather front converging on the airport.

I turned on my laptop and surfed AFF for new posts, looked at BOM – I think a lot of people were on BOM last night – the usually very quick site was very slow – enjoyed a few more beers – got talking to the bloke sitting next to me (also on 548) and generally passed the time getting drunk!

Ahhhhh…. 11PM (approx – my Tag Heuer had developed more numbers and about 4 fuzzy hands - every time I looked at it – it got worse and the beer didn’t help… or did it?) – an announcement that our plane has landed and to ensure curfew is met, it wouldn’t be cleaned or catered.

Ahhh – finally on our way – 1A, my mate from the QC 1J and the CSM managed to find a couple more Crown Lagers for each of us…
Rydges Southbank check in at just after 130AM – Sleep, Sleep, Sleep…

 

[serfty]

Cheers, 548 last night was operated by my old nemesis ZXE; showing as departed SYD 2322 (247minutes late) and arriving into BNE at 23:59, some 255 minutes late.

FWIW, 552 did not make it to takeoff ...

 

[thegurio]

And here I am complaining about my 45 minute late exit from HBA due to said weather in SYD!

Just goes to prove that someone is always worse off than you!

 

[Expon]

Spare a thought for those on the Jetstar flight from Hobart that was diverted to Melbourne because they missed the curfew!

 

[littl_flier]

Wow, an interesting evening.

Just for some trivial info, from a crewing perspective, the crew that was scheduled to operate QF552 came off a CBR-SYD flight (QF806) which landed at 9:37pm and were initially told when they landed that the flight had been cancelled and they would have to dead head back to Brisbane. 5 minutes later, some of them were rushed onto a OOL flight to get that out in time.

From reports I've heard, there were quite a few drunk individuals on that flight as well. I think the QP bill might have been a tad higher that night.

 

[NYCguy]

From reports I've heard, there were quite a few drunk individuals on that flight as well.

Wow... Lucky crew...

 

[straitman]

I think the QP bill might have been a tad higher that night.

Probably not as high as BNE on the 23rd Feb :!:

Oops, that included me. :shock:

 

[littl_flier]

Wow... Lucky crew...

Yeah, one pax decided he was sick of waiting and stood up to order the crew to take off from the taxiway when they were third from the active runway. :shock:

Fun and games. I think they earnt their cash that night.

At least I just become a tad happy and then fall asleep.

 

[Expon]

Yeah, one pax decided he was sick of waiting and stood up to order the crew to take off from the taxiway when they were third from the active runway. :shock:

Although it is frustrating I think in those conditions the safest place is on the ground

 

[Tooner]

Aah! Memories. My first flight for some months was on Tues 26th, feeling a bit concerned as littlest Tooner was in hospital with an infection, when the 7pm to MEL is delayed! We board around 7:30pm, push back and learn on the way out to the far south of the airport that runway ops have closed again.

We were 7th in line for take-off, with 3 landing for every one taking off, so took off around 9 pm, into MEL at around 10:15, in Crown at 10:50pm.

I was due to return on 28th, but resolved to return the next night given littles Tooner would be out of hospital on Thursday. One of the worst weather affected flights I've ever had.:shock:

I have toa say, SYD QP did not bear up to well minus a fair bit of space at the south end!

 

[NM]

Although it is frustrating I think in those conditions the safest place is on the ground

As a pilot once said, "I would rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air, than in the air wishing I was on the ground."