JHB to YSSY routing question??
 

Operated out of JHB a bit back and noticed the QF flight to Sydney. Out of curiosity how far south would such flights normally route to YSSY or wherever else in Australia??Couldnt seem to find any info through the search function...thanks

Give those of us that have only been in this game a short while a bit of a clue.....

Where or what is JHB?????:confused:

Johannesburg. ICAO Code is JNB I think. I only went to Jo'burg twice in my combined four years on the 744- the second time as part of my F/O conversion. I seem to recall being at 50 south on the way across from SYD but not quite that far south on the way home. It may have actually been further south than that. You probably go further south on the flight to South America.

A semi-regular PPRUNEr by the handle of noip I think is still on the 744. They would have more up to date info if you care to PM them.

Westbound, you go 64 S, maybe further (often see Heard Is at 58S) and often over the icepack. Out of Sydney, the direct track goes over Melbourne and clips Tasmania ..

Eastbound .. well depends where the jetstream is.

Here's the great circle track JNB-SYD .. you can see it goes just South of Heard Is.

Great Circle Mapper

N

ps .. the great circle track from jhb to syd ... :p

Great Circle Mapper

JHB is commonly used in Johannesburg to refer to the airport, whilst JNB is the IATA code.

Routing wise, you tend to go a lot further south going SYD - JNB than the return. From Sydney, you track down towards Melbourne, then either over Melbourne, Portland, Launceston or Hobart depending how south you are going, and just keep on going.

64 degrees south is the furthest I've been, and yes we could see the ice. You stay down there for a long time, then track up towards Durban.

Usually coming back its far further north, coming into Australia from the south around Melbourne or Portland.

Edit - Noip beat me to it!

Can get as far south as 65S which is the start of the Antarctic National Park. Depends on the winds because in winter with the strong westerlies Mauritius has to stay in the DPD calculations. GPS and Satcom have to be working because the HF doesn't work that good so far south depending on atmospheric conditions. I believe the South American flights go to about 75S.

Apologies if this is thread drift, but I seem to recall in the old days that there was a limit on how far South an RPT flight could operate. (Antarctic sightseeing flights, being charters, were OK)

Memory says the RPT limit was based on a requirement for heavy and expensive survival gear.

Anyone old or bold enough to comment?

It all depends on the jetstreams. Flying westbound I've been down to 65 deg south trying to get out of the headwinds, but have heard of others going as far as 68.

You see some very large chunks of ice down there!

Wod there are no requirements for extra survival equipment for that route.

Wod,

Fuel temperature is the limiting factor for planning - certainly for the South American operations QF does.

N

I've been in VHF contact with QF65 (IIRC) whilst I've been tootling around the icebergs at 69.5S 76E.

Going over the north pole, we had 1 survival suit and fuel temp was to be monitered, but the route was still flown everyday. Lots more enroute alturnates than the south, but still up to 3 hours from anywhere.

yes my apologies JNB as in FAJS.....I was just curious in terms of the fuel temps and planning..thanks for the info folks

I have had SYD based passengers actually fly directly over DPO on QF63 SYD JNB.

A good mate was on one of them that crossed the coast of Tas over the DPO beacon, tracked via SRN beacon and out into the Southern Ocean.

It's not often you see the four contrails tracking over DPO, particularly on a South Westerly heading, but nice to see on a clear day.

We (the attendees of the Longview Crescent Sunday school) even spotted an A380 with giant rat resplendant on track for HBA on what was obviously a training flight one sunny Sunday at about 1130 about 8 weeks ago.

Nice to know you guys and girls find us of use down here.:ok:

Best all

EWL

By golly that's a long way from anywhere down there!

A long way from home if something went wrong and very cold in the water!

It sure is a long way from anywhere on the SYD-EZE (Buenos Aires) track too. Eastbound @ lat 68S and west @ lat 72S. At the worst point you are over 3h40 from the nearest suitable airport - Punta Arenas or Christchurch.
The slip in EZE makes it all worthwhile, though. :ok: