What is with flights into Melbourne tonight? All delayed

[Kefci2000]

Some one said something about runway works?

why the hell would you do this on a Friday night!

who are these idiots????

 

[Mwenenzi]

They will not be working in the rain. As some one who has planed & done engineering shutdowns sometimes you just have to shut down/restrict operations to get the job done in the time allowable. Shutdowns are planned for a long time. But no idea if there if one on at MEL. A lot of civil works on the go on Wednesday when I was there. IIRC Easter Friday is the busiest day in Aust for passenger numbers

 

[Kefci2000]

Ok now it is fog

 

[Mwenenzi]

Ok now it is fog

Not a hint of fog where I am 25km from MEL. And it has stopped raining

 

[Hvr]

Isn't JohnK flying in tonight?

 

[Mwenenzi]

Isn't JohnK flying in tonight?

You may be correct. The JohnK Friday night delay again

 

[Dmac6345]

We would all know about it if JohnK was delayed. Unless of course he is one of the ones doing circles in the air over Bendigo as we speak.
Seems like lots of holding patterns at the moment. Pretty bad weather all day here in Mel.

 

[Kefci2000]

John k is indeed flying and is delayed out of OOL

 

[Himeno]

Melbourne Airport network status | Airservices

 

[Edge]

was terrible last night. scheduled 5pm out of hobart, landed at close to 8pm on QF. the VA 6pm flight was much worse

 

[JohnK]

Isn't JohnK flying in tonight?

I was flying tonight?

My OOL-SYD flight was delayed by ~1hr at 1:17pm. I was going to arrive at OOL at ~4:30pm but when I saw that delay I thought I will arrive at ~5:00pm.

When I arrived at OOL at ~5:00pm my flight had been delayed by ~1hr30m but actually delayed by ~1hr45m. It means I cannot make the connection SYD-MEL even though I originally had 1hr30m. They tried to get me on the delayed 5:05pm to SYD but was a little bit too late as flight was closed. I could have got on the flight without bags. I could have arrived at airport at normal time had I not known about delay and all would have been OK.

There was a possibility I could have been bussed to BNE but the 8:55pm BNE-MEL is full and there have been other cancellations. There is also a 9:20pm OOL-MEL but that is also full but apparently that is also delayed by ~1hr and may not make the curfew at OOL. There are no hotel rooms offered in SYD as they are full. I was going to go home in SYD but wouldn't get there until ~11:00pm and then have to leave at ~5:30am again. Not good.

I was offered hotel room on Gold Coast and first flight in the morning. I finally took this option.

This is not a whinge but Virgin could have handled this better. I was sent sms and email about a 1hr flight delay to a 6:05pm OOL-SYD flight at 1:17pm but no mention was made of my connection to MEL.

I had to call Hertz and Ibis Glen Waverley that I will be late. I have lost a nights accommodation although that will be replaced with a nights accommodation on Gold Coast.

I am sure other people are worse off. I hope no one is severely inconvenienced. Mum says if you travel that often you should expect this regularly. I disagree. I have had more than my fair share of bad luck. I am trying to see a bright side but I cannot see it.

Apologies for the rant....

 

[serfty]

...

Apologies for the rant....

not really a rant ... Just just an open post relating what can happen.

With connecting flights on Friday evenings with such weather abounding problems are extremities likely.

To be honest if it were me, at 1:18pm I would have been on the 'phone in an endeavor to change flights. If unsuccessful I would be heading to the airport asap where they have seemingly more ability to fix things.

 

[A330 driver]

The are lots of delays into Melbourne when the weather is bad (as we all know). What most of you probably don't know is that Qantas is the only domestic airline in Australia that is certified to carry out autoland landings and Melbourne is (currently) the only airport setup to accept them. What this means is that in bad weather airlines will be diverting, but there is a high chance Qantas will be landing instead. The extra training and cost involved to have this is huge, so something to think about when looking at a difference of a few dollars on your next ticket.

Also, at airport where there isn't a lot of ground infrastructure there are RNP approaches. Qantas is lightyears ahead of Virgin with this, and it is a regular occurance in bad weather where a virgin aircraft and a qantas aircraft will depart Perth for the same airport, at the same time, and only Qantas will land whilst Virgin diverts. Qantas and Alaska airlines are considered to be amongst the most advanced airlines with respect to their RNP capabilities.

 

[JohnK]

To be honest if it were me, at 1:18pm I would have been on the 'phone in an endeavor to change flights. If unsuccessful I would be heading to the airport asap where they have seemingly more ability to fix things.

I had no time to call as I was just leaving the office. Hindsight says I should have left same time and got to airport early but when I looked at Flightstats my flight was the only delayed.

And why do service staff have to lie? I was told there would be a bus to take people back to airport in morning. Hotel says have to make your own way back to airport.

This reminds me of the CX service handling delays. Not good....

 

[love_the_life]

I thought you were remarkably restrained JohnK, not a whinge/rant at all! Have a good night's sleep at least.

 

[Kefci2000]

So much for qantas using technology! QF pilots can land with the windshield covered, so why not make use if it in bad weather or fog?

Sorry I see A330 already commented on this, a mate is an air traffic controller and he told me the same thing

 

[serfty]

... What most of you probably don't know is that Qantas is the only domestic airline in Australia that is certified to carry out autoland landings and Melbourne is (currently) the only airport setup to accept them. ...

Have things changed? I have been in the jump seat on a QF 767 doing an auto land at SYD - this was back in the 90's on a mid morning flight from MEL.

 

[markis10]

Have things changed? I have been in the jump seat on a QF 767 doing an auto land at SYD - this was back in the 90's on a mid morning flight from MEL.

There were certainly no auto lands in Australia back then, what you saw was a simulated auto land but in reality a visual approach.

 

[A330 driver]

Have things changed? I have been in the jump seat on a QF 767 doing an auto land at SYD - this was back in the 90's on a mid morning flight from MEL.

I should clarify...Qantas is the only domestic airline in Australia that is certified and allowed to conduct autoland operations when the weather is poor enough to actually warrant its use. (Reminds me of a 2 day period about 12 months ago where it was Qantas and most international carriers who were the only ones landing in Melbourne). Provided the aircraft is capable of doing an autoland, a pilot can elect to carry out an autoland on essentially any runway with an ILS, however; it has to be done during the day when the visibility and weather is good enough to not actually need it. Sydney is currently installing a CAT 2 ILS system but it's not currently in use, so in the meantime we are allowed to autoland on the runways but not when the weather is bad. All pilots have to be recent on autolands and you'll find that pilots will elect to do one from time to time when the weather is good just for practice (in addition to doing them in the simulator).

Out of interest I have only ever done 1 for real, and that was going into Auckland. To be technical, it was to CAT IIIb minima, no DA and the vis was only slightly above minima (46m from memory). What this means in real life is....we didn't actually see the runway until after the main wheels and nose wheel had touched down, the was no minima (because the approach was so precise, we don't have a minimum altitude to fly down to as we fly down to the runway), and we could see about 46m in front of the aircraft at any time. It tooks us about 25 minutes to taxi to the gate as we had to go really slow due to the reduced visibility.

 

[markis10]

Out of interest I have only ever done 1 for real, and that was going into Auckland. To be technical, it was to CAT IIIb minima, no DA and the vis was only slightly above minima (46m from memory). What this means in real life is....we didn't actually see the runway until after the main wheels and nose wheel had touched down, the was no minima (because the approach was so precise, we don't have a minimum altitude to fly down to as we fly down to the runway), and we could see about 46m in front of the aircraft at any time. It tooks us about 25 minutes to taxi to the gate as we had to go really slow due to the reduced visibility.

Qantas's LVO exemption from CASA is 75m for CatIIIb under EX115/12, is it lower under NZ regs? (Not that there is much difference in reality between the two).