QF 747 at Reykjavik

[Taildragger67]

Hi all,

Today's SMH Column 8 mentions a 'fully operational' QF 747 seen at Reykjavik recently.

Anyone got any idea how/why??!!

The item doesn't mention whether it was a -200, -300 or -400 so the possibility crossed my mind that it might have been a recently-retired -200 maybe gone to Air Atlantic (the charter operator up there - or is it Air Atlantis?) or maybe a -400 doing one of those charter trips they've been doing in recent years.

Just curious.

Cheers
TD67

[reggiespotter]

I reckon it must be a case of mistaken identity. Even QF would not have the luxury of having aeroplanes sit around at one of the more colder spots of Europe for a couple of days. Assume it would not have been a charter, unless it caught cold and was grounded. They are supposed to operate from London and return in the one day and serve summer cruise ships.

It may have been an old -238 acquired by AIR ATLANTA but aren't their operational HQ somewhere in Britain? In any event, if it the 747 was on-sold after a stint in the desrts, wouldn't it have neen white-tailed and previous signs of ownership deleted?

[Taildragger67]

Thanks for the name correction.

I'll check airliners.net to see if anyone got some snaps.

I think that Atlanta have been leasing a -200 to Virgin so maybe the Column 8 correspondent saw that aircraft (possibly back at its 'home').

Or, possibly it was a QF servicing a cruise ship, but agree it'd be an unusual time of year!!

[Woomera]

Hmmm QF B747 servicing a crew ship I'd like to see that.

[Buster Hyman]

People. "QF" and "service" are not suppoesed to appear in the same sentence!!!

(PS. I like the new smilies!):/

[abra]

And a 747 at Reykjavik..?(shurely shome mishtake..Ed)

[Taildragger67]

Abra...

Yes it might be a bit tight & the locals may get ticked at the noise. The little hill with the water-tower-looking thing near the Flugfelag offices might have been a worry for approaches from the land-side, also.

I think we may assume that any 747 would've been at Keflavik.

Nice shot of a FI 752 doing a beat-up of the city airport:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/060077/M/

Mystery solved. From the SMH website Thursday:

Why was a Qantas 747 parked at Keflavik Airport, Iceland (Column 8, Wednesday)? Qantas explains: It's one of the new Boeing 747-400ERs - Qantas already has three and will have another three - and is in the final stages of testing by Boeing. A performance that must be tested before delivery is the ability to take off and land with a 15-knot tail wind. Iceland was the only airport with suitable winds forecast during that particular testing program.

Maybe they should try to beat VH-OJA's record with a delivery of one of the ERs from KEF??

[leftfrontside]

Taildragger67 seems to me like the Boeing boys only wanted to get amongst the blue eyed blondes as if they were serious about T/W testing just take it to Oz.
When was the last time you did a TO that didn't have a T/W component courtesy of our "gods" in the tower?

[Taildragger67]

Bad things about Reykjavik:
* Keflavik's a fair old drive from town
* It gets dark very early at this time of year
* everything's expensive, especially the booze

Good things about Reykjavik:
* more females than males
* you can charge expenses to the client...

[Aftcofg]

Not one 747 has landed in Reykjavik - at least I never spotted one in the 4yrs outside my old window at the airport. Runway to short I think! Had to be Keflavik:

[18-Wheeler]

Yep, it must be Keflavik - Reykjavik is too small and I think 737's are the biggest thing that go in there.
I work for Air Atlanta Icelandic and have been to Keflavic a few times - A bit too cold & windy for me!

I can totally agree with Taildragger's comments though.
AFAIK we don't have any ex- QF 747's with us, our latest aquisitions are from BA and a few other people. We have three 747-236's from BA that are fitted with Honeywell FMS's and are used as freighters.
(See pics on my home page - http://www.billzilla.org

[BUSTACLOUD]

Hi ALL!

To confirm i was there the day the new 747 ER was there at Keflavik.

Keflavik has two very large crossed runways and ILS on each. Fantastic facilities nice long runways. We parked two gates down from the Qantas 747 and had a chat with the two pilots. They were American pilots (boeing test piots) who were finishing the cross-wind limit certification for the aircraft. Funny we were taxiing out the following night with 25 knots headwind at the same time as the Qantas 747 they were using the cross runway.

Aircraft is spanking new,looks great.

hope that answers your questions.

Cheers

[baze]

Hi.
This is right about QS they were in Keflavik, they had to stay here in Iceland for few days because the wind didnīt get strong enough (dont know if it finally did). Also about Reykjavik, Icelandair 757īs landed there at least twice last year.