Another Antonov

There was an unusual visitor at Adelaide Airport today.  This Ukrainian Antonov AN-12 delivered it's cargo to RAAF Edinburgh before making the short hop to Adelaide for fuel and a crew rest stop.

This four engined turbo prop cargo plane is 47 years old.

Chasing planes

I spent Sunday chasing planes at Adelaide Airport.

I was after planes big and small.

On the big side were the Air New Zealand Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Qatar Boeing 777 which is temporarily replacing our usual Airbus A350

The small ones were an Alice Springs based Royal Flying Doctors Pilatus PC-12 and a soon to be RAAF Pilatus PC-21 on delivery.

In the middle were both Qantas' "Retro Roo"s, Boeing 737's painted in the livery of the 70's and 50's respectively.

Qantas Boeing 747

I made a quick visit to Adelaide Airport this evening to see the last Rolls Royce powered Qantas Boeing 747 bringing troops back from exercises in Queensland.  Qantas is in the process of retiring it's Boeing 747s and they will all be gone by the end of next year.

There will be at least one more opportunity to see a 747 in Adelaide as Qantas is operating an Antarctic sightseeing trip out of Adelaide in November.

While I was waiting, a Qatar Airbus 350 arrived on it's daily service from Doha and a Cobham RJ100 landed bringing mine workers home from Prominent Hill Mine near Coober Pedy

The number of plane spotters steadily increased as the arrival time got closer, and then the aptly nicknamed "Queen of the Skies" appeared over the trees and whooshed past.

Antonov

So I finally got round to processing the photos I took of the Antonov 124 that is visiting Adelaide at the moment.  It arrived last Sunday, in wet and windy conditions, from Albuquerque, New Mexico flying via Honolulu and Brisbane.

It was due to fly out to Kuala Lumpur earlier this week, but the flight was postponed. So this morning I went back to the airport to take some photos of it on the ground (in much nicer conditions). Seeing it close up you really get to appreciate the size of this aircraft.

Next weekend we will be getting a visit from another big aeroplane  A Qantas Boeing 747 bringing troops home from the war games currently going on in Queensland. 

Supper time

The Aloes in our garden are flowering at the moment,and the New Holland Honeyeaters are making the most of them.  Enjoying supper before the sun goes down.

Adelaide Airport

I headed down to Adelaide Airport this morning as there was going to be an unusual plane visiting for a few days  While I was waiting a few of the regulars showed up. A dapper Qantas B737 in the new Qantas livery, A Tigerair Airbus A320 followed by another from Jetstar, showing off a new white nose.

A couple of regular international flights also arrived with the Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 quickly followed by a China Southern Airbus A330.

By this time there was a growing group of 'spotters there, and the star of the show soon arrived in its somewhat plain colours.  An Icelandair charter plane doing a round the world trip for an exclusive German cruise company.

A nice surprise for me was the Air New Zealand flight which was operated by their all Black Boeing 777 and is the first time I have seen it.

Orions and the South Australian Aviation Museum

This week was a very busy one for the P-3C Orions and the Aircraft Development and Research Unit (ARDU) both based at the local RAAF air base at Edinburgh. The RAAF celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Orion entering service and the 25th anniversary of ARDU.

To commemorate these anniversaries, a formation of three Orions flew low over several local landmarks.  I watched them as they flew low over Adelaide.

The South Australian Aviation Museum celebrated with an open day to mark the official handing over of a retired RAAF Orion for display there.   The museum holds in interesting collection of aircraft including a couple of ex-ARDU aircraft in their distinctive Orange and White colour scheme.

Here are some of the aircraft currently on display:
General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark

Fokker F-27 Friendship

 Douglas C-47 Dakota

 Supermarine Spitfire MkVc

 Mirage III

 Macchi MB-326

 Lockheed P-3C Orion

 De Haviland Vampire

 De Haviland Sea Venom

This is an excellent little museum, and is well worth a visit.

A "BIG" weekend

I just had a very big weekend.

On Saturday I was at Adelaide Airport to watch the departing Antonov An-124 Ruslan leave after bringing in some military vehicles for a trade show here.  The An-124 is one of the largest production cargo aircraft in the world and can carry 150 Tonnes over 3000 Kilometres

Then on Sunday we headed down to Basham Beach on the Fleurieu to watch the Southern Right Whales that chose to winter in South Australian Waters.  We saw three adult whales loafing in the water about 300 metres offshore.