Early flight from Emerald and surprised to use the newly opened departure/waiting area. This area is a little bigger than the old terminal (now a pile of rubble!) and will soon feature security screening (so hopefully Virgin Blue can start flying to Emerald!!). Nice views out the windows over the apron saw QantasLinks oldest Dash-8-Q400 arrive to take me to Brisbane (photo below). We boarded and lifted off about 10 mins late.
As mentioned in a previous report, I reckon that these aircraft are quite roomy. I have included a photo below of me sitting in my seat – an aisle seat and there is plenty of legroom – I’m over 180cm tall and I’m not cramped up. I will concede that the seat is narrow, but not uncomfortable.
A light refreshment consisting of foul tasting yogurt and a sesame seed bar was served along with drinks. Pretty ordinary selection – I didn’t each much!!
We managed to make up a bit of time in the air, but a landing on Runway 14 and subsequent long taxi at Brisbane saw us pull up pretty much on time.
Brisbane to Emerald – Wednesday 18 August 2010 – QF2404 – VH-QOP
Easy check-in and waiting downstairs at Brisbane – was advised of a 20 minute delay due to the late arrival of the aircraft. Once it did arrive there were no less than 4 wheelchair passengers (plus partners) who had to be taken off the plane, so that delayed our flight even more. Ended up boarding and departing Runway 01 about 45 minutes late.
The usual departure path off Runway 01 is a series of right turns that take us back over Brisbane Airport before heading west. Today however, we received a nice shortcut from ATC, and headed west via a left turn straight after departure. We were treated to fantastic views of Redcliffe, including Redcliffe Airport – both shown below.
About 10 minutes after take off, our ‘light refreshment’ came out and as shown below – a nice pull apart and some apple pieces – much better selection on this flight!! Drinks followed and then we settled back for cruise.
Coming into Emerald it was a normal descent, however we seemed to orbit around Emerald Airport at least once, before completing the approach and landing. This was a bit bumpy with some steep turns – unsure why we did this – possibly a bit high. Unfortunately, some passengers were reaching for the sick bags. We eventually landed about 50 minutes after the scheduled ETA.
Baggage came out pretty quickly and was collected from the new temporary outside area adjacent to the new Emerald terminal – shown below. In all, apart from the delays, another pretty good flight with QantasLink.
