Longreach Qantas Founders Museum trip with pics (not 56k friendly!!!)

[Romulus]

I had the opportunity to take another trip to Longreach after a two day workshop in Sydney. The beauty of being on the east coast is the ease of travel and the relatively low expense compared to coming over from the West.

I left Sydney Friday evening and caught the early flight up to Brisbane. I departed Sydney at 650pm and arrived in Brisbane 710pm. Short 20 minute flight : Not really, Qld doesn't have DLS so I arrived in at a reasonable time. The taxi ride to my overnight accomodation was wild - I wish all taxi drivers drove this way

Got up early to catch QF2532, the 655am flight to Longreach. Aircraft was a Dash 8 Q400. Short trip, direct to Longreach. Flight took just under 2 hours


Got to Longreach, picked up a hire car and checked in. The accommodation was only 500m from the airport, but with temps around 38-43 degrees forecast bugger walking. The taxi service probably isn't as frequent as it would be in the city either, so a hire car was in order.

Took the hire car for a quick run to Ilfracombe to see just how well the new FG XR6's are. I came away very impressed with it's performance and comfort


Quick turn around and back to Longreach, watching out for the flying Kangaroo


A little further down the road, looking through the 38 degree heat haze


A nice contrast of a quality Ford product and Boeing product




VH-EBQ and VH-XBA side by side


No photographs are allowed to be taken of the cabin of VH-XBA, although the video of VH-XBA shows the current cabin layout. It is very luxurious, although the trim does show it's age. Glass tube tv's and big globes could easily be done away with and replaced with LED/LCD screens and LED lighting to save some weight. I was able to take some pics of the flight deck, or cockpit as better known




A short walk down the stairs and up a small set of stairs to stand in the engine cowling of a Rolls Royce RB211. This one's a baby, only makes around 29000hp. The current General Electric GE90-115B makes approximately 111,500hp! Kind of puts things in perspective when looking at aircraft engines compared to automotive engines. So are the prices too, USD$24m for a GE90 vs. ~$20k for a blown Boss.


Aboard the cabin, looking towards the rear


Door 3L with it's skin removed showing the green protective coating, and the slide/raft

Down in the avionics bay


Me in the captain's seat, slight grin on my face as I was explaining to the tour guide....

....if I flick the STANDBY IGNITION switch from NORM to ON, and swith the ENGINE IGNITION switches to FLT Start .....

....and set the throttles to rich.......

....we should be able to kick her in the guts again. The look on the tour guide's face was priceless, especially considering the story she told us of a prank they played on a couple of tourists a few weeks back. For a moment she thought I'd be able to get EBQ started :

Quick walk on the wing


In the museum, where a RR211 is on display


Intake


Specs sheet for the RR211 on display


For an aviation enthusiast like me the trip to Longreach is well worthwhile. The tour guide told us that "Connie" was expected to arrive within the next few weeks, adding another aircraft to the collection. There is talk of perhaps XBA and Connie becoming flying exhibitions - although it is mere speculation. The cost to keep these aircraft in airworthiness condition is large, thus would require serious funding or ticket sales to make it possible. We shall see what happens.

The flight back on Sunday afternoon from Longreach to Brisbane was short, a tad under 2 hours, on another Dash 8 Q400. The flight from Brisbane to Perth was also quick, taking only 4 hours 20 minutes. Good flying conditions had us tracking more inland towards the centre of Oz rather than heading over the GAB. My previous trip from BNE to PER in early October took 5 hours 30 minutes.

Something I wasn't 100% comfortable with was the humming of the engines on the 767. I just don't like the low level vibration and spooling up and down these engines have during cruise. Never mind, the flight was quick, seats comfortable and the service was once again great.

Looking forward to going again soon.