Could this be better than SXM?

The problem is you are not allowed to take photographs of the airport side, there are plenty of signs to warn you. There is a mound which allows a less obstructed view of taxiing aircraft, but it has a “no photography without permission” sign on it – it cannot be missed. I nearly got caught on the mound, luckily I had moved off it by the time the airport police arrived, unfortunately there was a Swiss guy still up there blatantly taking photos – not sure what happened next as the police were out of their car by that point.
So it is an ideal location if you have the permission – suspect it will not be easy to get that permission and going by the Thai culture, I’m sure a donation would be required. 😉

06/03/09
Qantas QF791
ASP (Alice Springs) – SYD (Sydney)
B737-800NG VH-VXU Delivered 11/12/03 Gate 7
Seat 29A
Scheduled departure 1225 GMT+9½ / Actual departure 1229 GMT+9½ / Take off 1233 GMT+9½
Scheduled Arrival 1645 GMT+11 / Actual Arrival 1620 GMT+11

Back on the hotel courtesy bus to Alice Springs Airport, which got me there with less than 1 hour before departure with a long queue at check in and the airport has no self check-in machines.

Alice Springs Airport

Went through security, which was extremely quick to find some passengers doing an Aborigine or Maori dance for the other passengers – I have a movie of it and I’ll upload it to flickr at some point.

The flight was very full, mostly with back packers. Lunch was served pretty quickly, which was only a choice of sandwiches. I went for the Chicken and Sundried Tomato Pesto sandwich, which was quite nice although I don’t why the previous flight with Qantas of the same length has a full lunch tray rather than just one item on this flight. Again, soft drinks for free and a charge of $6 for alcoholic beverages.

This aircraft did have IFE via drop down screens, but the seats were quite uncomfortable and hurt my back a bit. Looking out the window during the flight just showed featureless…nothing – until we got nearer Sydney and went past the Blue Mountains, and then I got a great view of the centre of Sydney.

Outback again

After quite a bumpy touchdown and working out which time zone I was in, I hung about T3 waiting for my next flight in 3 hours. The terminal has great views of one of the runways and the international terminal, but unfortunately I was facing the sun so photography was near impossible. I saw both a Singapore A380 and a Qantas A380 take off.

06/03/09
Qantas QF791
SYD (Sydney) – BNE (Brisbane)
B767-300ER VH-OGQ Delivered 14/08/96 Gate 3
Seat 53D
Scheduled departure 2005 GMT +11 / Actual departure 2005 GMT+11 / Take off 2023 GMT+11
Scheduled Arrival 2035 GMT+10 / Actual Arrival 2025 GMT+10

This flight was full and I never bothered taking any pics as it was such a short flight – 62 mins to go the 487 miles from Sydney to Brisbane. There were 30 business seats and 224 economy in 2-3-2 config.

The IFE was drop down LCDs with projectors at the bulkheads which showed news stories of the day then an episode of Top Gear.

They have a fast turnaround for this Qantas CityFlyer service and it was still getting hoovered at back when I went to take my seat.

For some reason on this flight you could have an alcoholic drink for free, whereas my previous 2 flights you had to pay for them. I had a VB to go along with my Australian olives, feta cheese and crackers.

So that was flight 7 of 12 and no more for a few days.