747 Farewell
 

Where are all the aerosexuals?

Certainly interesting watching the footage, and now i believe they're drawing a kangaroo FL190 over the pacific?

All very nice and stirring. But I can't help thinking that the fuel bill for that jaunt could go towards some out of work QF employees, unless of course it's got paying pax in the back?

Sad times.

You don't like fireworks on New Years either right?

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I’m far from an aerosexual, you’ll find me hiding away from anything Aviaton related in my downtime, but that was a little ‘sad’. Some very exciting times started with a trip on those aircraft. That’s the aircraft that’s taken many young Aussie's away for the trip of a lifetime for generations now.

Jet A1 is more than 40% cheaper than it was a year ago and the flight did carry some freight.
This was the end of a significant era in Australian aviation. Is it really that wrong to shine a little light on some very dark times?

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Nice. Anyone know how steep those turns were?

As I said, stirring and sad. QF 747s took me on my first trip alone overseas as a teenager, and my first overseas trip with my kids. I have sentiment for it too.

The roo is a nice gesture. As for the rights and wrongs, it's not me to make that call - which is why I didn't. I am not QF and still - thankfully - employed and flying. Best ask those in or formerly of QF facing mounting mortgage payments.

'MAGNIFICENT'- is all..., WOW, the history and journey!!!

Rgds all/ & be Well
S28- BE

Never again will an aircraft change the way the masses travelled, shrink the world, and make travel affordable like this magnificent and graceful bird.

To quote Section

MAGNIFICENT WOW the history and journey.

Some rough back of the envelope calculations:

The kangaroo took about 1.5 hours to fly. At say 12 tonnes per hour and 0.8 kg per litre that’s 1.5 x 12000 / 0.8 = 22,500 litres. Who knows what QF pays for it’s fuel, but when I used to pay for Jet A1 (on behalf of my employer) I noted that it was about the same price as petrol for my car. So let’s say it’s about $1.20 per litre. 22,500 x 1.20 = $27,000. Coincidently, there about 2,700 mainline pilots in Qantas. So that kangaroo cost about $10 per pilot. I don’t think any one of them is going to complain.

PS There about 30,000 QF employees, so it cost less than one dollar per employee.

You can’t help but feel a little sad today, a piece of Aviation history just left Australia........

I feel very fortunate to have flown the Queen......now I just wish I had more photos of the time......

THE FIRST------------------------------------------------------------THE LAST
B747-238B -------------------- Aircraft type ------------------- B747-438ER
S/N 20009-147 --------------- Serial No ------------------------ S/N 32914-1331
PW JT9D-7A ------------------ Engine -------------------------- GE CF6-80C2B5
June 10 1971------------------ Rolled Out (Paine) ------------ June 6 2003
July 8 1971---------------------First Flight --------------------- July 11 2003
July 30 1971 - VH-EBA --------Registered -------------------- May 16 2003 - VH-OEJ
City of Canberra -------------- Named ------------------------ Wunala Dreaming
May 6 1993 ------------------- Last Flight to US ------------- 22 July 2020



Apologies for all the 747s in between including you little SPs.
A glorious 49 years. Just like the 707s thanks for the memories.

i.dingbat,

I am reliably informed very steep turns required, hence F190 so F5 can be extended to reduce speed and hence turn radius. Flap limit is F200.

They got their own logo wrong! Big FU from the planners/pilots to the hot shot marketing gurus in Coward St.

Interesting that some can't appreciate the moment for what it is - end of an era and an aircraft that, arguably ,had the greatest impact on international air travel and was the QANTAS identity for so long.

Hate to see some of these individuals at a funeral: FFS celebrate the life, don't bitch about the death. ;)

Cheers

Absolutely brilliant. Well done!

OEJ still has paws.

Or a big FU from the planners/ pilots to the marketing gurus in Coward St? :ok:

Absolutely Keg. A giant finger to the people that caused the problems. The leg isn't quite right, but they did it as Brian of Nazereth would have done it, in letters 10' high:)

Geezus some of you blokes are hard to please there is no FU to anyone. This is purely what it is, an opportunity to do something cool and historic. There is no scandal, there is no negativity associated with this I assure you. And it’s news to me that the marketing gurus, gmc or anyone in QF (or aviation industry) caused COVID.
.

How many waypoints in the FMS for that?! Tap tap tap quicker, FO (Capt in RHS) Bloggs, the head's coming up!!!!! https://yoursmiles.org/msmile/compgame/m19014.gif

Just about as good as the Marree Man.

Never on the payroll at QF, but I did manage to score a few circuits in the 747 sim in 1980.
Thanks Reg

What is an aerosexual?

I'm green with envy...I think every pilot would love to fly a 747.

Good question...How is this route programmed into the FMS? Many individual coordinates and pseudo waypoints made manually by the flight crew? Or is made by the flight planning dept/ inserted on a nav database to be accessed or uplinked by the crew?

Your comments are noted on another forum and those you refer to with mounting personal costs to cover, think it's a brilliant gesture to send off an iconic aircraft for Qantas and aviation as a whole. Thankfully most of these Pilots can still smile and laugh despite the tough times they're living with.

The planning would have been done over some time and the route would have been 'built' as, say, SYDLAX747, then loaded pre-flight, probably in an alternate route so as not to be 'seen' by the inquisitive before being activated in-flight.

I don’t know a Pilot who doesn’t love the 747, shame to see it go.

out of curiosity how were the flight crew picked? Most senior so flying with all Captains of most senior in rank?

You are 100% correct,nobody that you have mentioned caused this & to start complaining about the events of the past few days is really pretty inappropriate considering the history of the 747 in qf livery & to all who have spent many years of their careers working in or on this icon.
I was also impressed with AJ & his ability to involve as many as possible.

I would like to express my personal thanks to the clever, caring people who engineered yesterday’s display of 21st century aerial art, even though we all knew that it was the aeroplane saying goodbye. The day promised to be one of sadness, and it was, but you soothed the sadness and replaced the tears of sadness with tears of pride. Thank you.

Reported on BBC World News this morning, complete with screen shots of Flight Tracker/Radar with the logo, with a global viewing audience of millions I assume it was a pretty good bang for an advertising buck.........

The route was planned out using the Jepp FD Pro app on an iPad and practised in the simulator before hand. Route up-linked to the FMC pre-flight.

Certainly a lot cheaper than the ads they made where the flew the children's choir all over the world.

Are you the bloke who criticised the woodwind section of the orchestra playing on the Titanic as she slipped beneath the waves?

Absolutely BLOODY BRILLIANT 'departure' msg................

CHEERS....

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Here are the waypoints 👍


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Damn someone has a lot of patience or too much time on their hands...or maybe it was set up by dispatch. I wonder what Clearance Delivery had to say. Nevertheless so cool!

Planning already underway for the A380...

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