USAF C-17 at RAAF Edinburgh

 An interesting visitor to RAAF Edinburgh this afternoon was US Airforce C-17 07-7187 of the Air Mobility Command at Charleston.

This week, Batik Air from Malaysia recommenced flights to and from Kuala Lumpur after stopping during COVID.  They are using Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. 

 

The only other regular Boeing 737 Max service is the Fiji Airways service to/from Nadi

Other nice visitors over the last week include one of Qantas "Retro Roo" planes.  This was a Boeing 737 painted in the 1960s/70s livery, a common sight on Qantas Boeing 707s and 747s when I was plane spotting as a kid at London Heathrow. 

We also had a visit from the striking looking Malaysia Airlines "Harimau Malaya" Airbus A330.

London Heathrow

I recently had to make a quick trip back to the UK for a family funeral, and on my way back I had a few hours to kill, so I watched the planes arriving at Heathrow.  As a kid I used to spend almost every weekend at Heathrow watching the planes so it a real trip down memory lane.  Following 9/11. security has increased so much that there are hardly any places  you can stop near the airport and I ended watching from a small residential street close to the end of Runway 27L. 

Heathrow is the main base for British Airways, and their planes made up the majority of arrivals.  They included planes of all sizes, from the small Airbus A319, through the A320, Boeing 777, Boeing 787 to the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.

 

There are planes from all over the world arriving at Heathrow's 5 terminals. European airlines included Lufthansa, flying their newest addition the Airbus A320 Neo, Swiss using a Bombardier CS100, and Finnair flying an Airbus A350.

South African Airways Airbus A330 and Ethiopian Airlines Airbus A350 represented Africa.

Qatar and Air India with an Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 respectively from Asia,

and  Delta airlines with their Boeing 767, American Airlines Boeing 777 and Air Canada with a Boeing 737 Max representing the Americas.

Adelaide Airport

We popped down to Adelaide Airport the other day to watch the planes in the windy conditions.

This Tigerair Airbus was actually landing to my left!

There was the usual mix of Virgin, Qantas and Jetstar flights arriving.