Melbourne airport

[king oath]

Can any Melbourne Airport users or Atco's let us know how the first day of the Single Runway Sh*tfight is going.

I shudder to think.

[CaptainMidnight]

I don't know about today, but it might get interesting later in the week when 30 deg temps are forecast (= northerley wind) :hmm:

[VH-Cheer Up]

Around 18:00 local today inbounds were speed limited throughout much of the descent, if that is any indication.

[PureRisk]

Why Is this A big Issue? This Is called progress....... Doesn't matter if it is now or in the future. At some some stage all Airports will have to upgrade to accomodate bigger aircraft. Thats Life...... Thats Progress!!!! IN 20 or 30 Years they and every airport will have to do it again most likely. I think Melbourne should be congratulated for making sure they are well ahead of the time frame specifed. A little Inconvenience for inbound aircraft for a few weeks/months......O wow a big scandal !!!!!!!!!

[18-Wheeler]

A little Inconvenience for inbound aircraft for a few weeks/months......O wow a big scandal !!!!!!!!!

A little ??

It's April 5th, not April 1st ....

[SilverSleuth]

Must agree with Purerisk on this one. Happens to most airpots all around the world at some stage when upgrades occur. A bit of a pain in the ass due delays yes! the odd diversion most likely... yes (but again here, will probably be a lot less than most would expect), in the end though ..... thats life, thats progress.

[EngineOut]

At least you can still go into ML after 2300L. Try SY for the last few months on Saturday nights, entire aerodrome is closed due works on 16R/34L (except for MED and EMERG), even though 16L/34R is not being worked on. A lot of Sundays have max of about 1400m available (out of 4km), and half the runway is closed the rest of the week. Gotta love the genii in Canberra (poli's that is). Wouldn't be such an issue if BK wasn't so damn short and had an ILS.

[Howard Hughes]

Just a thought, Melbourne regularly experiences days with 35-55 knots, on these days it is effectively a single runway airport.

What happens on these days normally? Aircraft get slowed down, some hold and we all arrive a little late. Not a big deal really.

What will be interesting is, when/if the wind is 35 knots plus and aircraft start diverting. If there had been a 45 knot northerly in Melbourne yesterday, it sure would have been a quiet place!!

Cheers, HH.

:ok:

[Ron & Edna Johns]

I think the strong northerly winds are less likely at this time of year - tends to be a summer thing. Probably why they are doing the work now, not 3 months ago.

Of interest, where would you consider diverting to in that event? CBR, SYD, or maybe....... AVV.....? When you think about it, AVV would probably keep the City Liar busy class pax happier then the other possibilties.

Just a lazy Wednesday morning thought.

[apacau]

I believe at least one Qantas aircraft has aborted its landing due runway congestion

[18-Wheeler]

You guys are missing a major point - It's going to restrict max takeoff weights quite a lot for many international flights. Perhaps not so much the passenger-only ones, but certainly the freighters.
We usually need a good 3300 - 3500 metres of runway to get off at mad weight, and the only runway usable in MEL right now is about 2286m (that right?) long.
That's a huge restriction.

[orangepeel]

Its inly for a short time ....

Yes it may hurt a few operators....

At least a few punters are going to experience a G/A or two in the few week....
Headaches for operations....
Good Xwind landing practice....
Good practice at backtracking and speed control...
What more could you ask for ....



All in the name of progress :ok:

[RaTa]

orangepeel
Unless taxiway "E" is out there should be no backtracking required.

I agree with 18-Wheeler, it is a huge resriction so lucky it is only around for a few weeks. QF and CX to HKG will be effected, as will QF to LAX and NRT. Thai to BKK and all others to SIN will probably have to tech stop.

R & E
For myself ADL, SYD, CBR are fine alternates although CBR can get over crowded if there are a number of diversions. Hobart is fine but a bit like CBR and I'd only go to AVV if I didn't have one of the others.

Now back to the housework before the Mrs gets home! :mad:

[Ron & Edna Johns]

Ah, housework, what is that? :\

No, my point was that AVV is virtually, dare I say it, a second airport for Melbourne, so given they've dug a dirty great hole in 16/34 at Tulla, why not use AVV in the interim? If 27 is unusable due X/W, why not lob into AVV? The bloody wind might stick around all day.

I'd also briefly considered the possibility of the long-haul international stuff working out of there, but too many people, customs+immigration issues etc..... would probably make that too hard. But what about the freighter boys? It's only for a few weeks and would save a tech stop somewhere. Cheaper to drive the goods to/from AVV than lob into SYD for gas, yes? Customs issues still, I guess?

Now, gotta make some lunch!

[RaTa]

R & E

It has been years since I was last at AVV, what is the terminal like, could it handle the extra domestic traffic if MEL was not available? ( I know that J* is in a new terminal).
Also what about ATC at AVV with all the extra movements?

[wirgin blew]

Thurs morning 7th Apr looks like being the first test of the one runway.
MEL weather will no doubt see one day in the 8 weeks causing havoc.
I hope the contractors dont have any probs with the unions whilst this is going on, I would hate to see 8 weeks drag on for 12 weeks taking us into June.

[18-Wheeler]

Thurs morning 7th Apr looks like being the first test of the one runway.


No, I took a 747 frieghter in there last Tuesday, onto RWY27 as 34/16 was very definitely blocked off with large plastic barriers.

[OhForSure]

RE: AVV Terminal. HA! It's more like a shack. Just a tempo-building with concrete flooring and those plasticy park bench type seats. LOVELY for our international guests. Cargo guys on the other hand... makes perfect sense.

I saw an EK 773 in SYD on Sunday evening.... anyone know if that was a MEL diversion or a sched stop? Are they making tech stops in SYD or SIN???

[18-Wheeler]

Checked out the takeoff performance book for the 747-200 today.
Got these numbers.

Can do max takeoff weight on -
RWY 34 up to 31degC
RWY 16 up to 33degC

With RWY 09, at 20degC MTOW is now only 327.3 tonnes. At 25degC it's 324.9 tonnes.
RWY 27 at 20degC is 329.0 tonnes and at 25degC it's 326.6 tonnes.

Max TOW is normally 377.8 tonnes so that's a big hit.

[Orville]

Does anyone know exactly how long its going tp take, the re have been a few here that have said aroung 3 months the local paper says upto 12 months ?????????

If the later is the case then you will experience all weather conditions over 12 months.

[Howard Hughes]

Does anyone know exactly how long its going tp take, the re have been a few here that have said aroung 3 months the local paper says upto 12 months ?????????

Runway will be completely closed for 4 weeks, partial closure for a further 3 weeks I believe. I think you will find the total works program is in excess of 12 months. Apron works have already been going on for around 6 months now.

Cheers, HH.

:ok:

[woftam]

Tonight (APR 09) and tomorrow morning could be interesting. 0606 TAF has 360/22G35 and from 1900Z 36028G42!
:eek:

[OZBUSDRIVER]

And further to woftam and ref to 18wheeler
T 31 28 26 24

Its gonna be hot ol'night tonite:)

Would be interesting to see how ops off 09 go.

[Bluebottle]

Orville...we're talking ML here..all wx conditions will be experienced in the space of 12 hrs. :p

[king oath]

All those positive, no worries, posts on page one.

Take a look at the thread about dodgy landings on 27/09. The 747 with the brake fires was just the start. But hey. No wucking furries.

At least they won't have to mow the undershoot area for 09.

All this was predictable 3 months ago.

[kumul1]

OhForSure, that EK 773 you saw in Syd is from Bkk, EK's latest service to Aust that started end of march which flies in daily to Syd via Bkk.

The works in Mel have forced EK to reroute the direct Dxb-Mel-Dxb A345 via Sin as mentioned.

[rammel]

As far as I know most carriers are only affected with payload restrictions. QF to LAX has been routed for the period of works via SYD for a tech stop and I think the NRT service is also via SYD. The HKG service which is normally an A330 has not had many problems with payload, but this may change due to MEL Wx. The SINLHR service also has payload restrictions but apart from these it is almost business as usual.

TG has a large restriction on the MD11 but B744 seems to be OK. SQ have changed their night service to a B772 from a B773 due to payload restrictions and nothing seems to affect MH.

Overall not too many hassles once the crew have worked out fuel load and RTOW everything happens as normal.

[Hobo]

Rammel,

Do you know why QF route via to NRT via SYD and not CNS?

According to http://gc.kls2.com


MEL-SYD-NRT is 4592nm

MEL-CNS-NRT is 4406nm

Which is only 9nm more than MEL-NRT (4397)

CNS is also subject to less delays than SYD in my experience, so is it for crewing reasons?