Flying

Left Chicago on schedule at 18:40 and arrived at Dallas half an hour early and had to wait on the tarmac until the plane occupying our gate left. This is the first time I have flown on a MD-80 aircraft. It is a about the size of the A319 but has one very unusual feature.

There is one extra escape slide deployed from the tail of the aircraft. The cone at the rear of the aircraft can be removed. Only used on land otherwise it would flood the aircraft.


Dallas Fort Worth is a great airport (Thanks Tim). Has a train running between all of the terminals inside of the security perimeter. The train arrived at the gate from which my flight was due to leave and they had a staff member waiting to direct people to the Qantas flight.

My seat on the 747-400 was on the upper deck.The only problem with these was that when I stood up too fast I hit my head on the overhead lockers. Other than that they are the same seats as the A380, so you can lay flat and get some sleep.

As usual in Business Class they feed you too well. We had a meal after departure and they let us get some sleep and then gave us breakfast about 2:00am Brisbane time.

The best gadget I took with me was the Casio G-Shock watch. You just change the city you are in and it knows the timezone so I just changed to Chicago and it reset itself.

A flight of nearly 16 hours and 13,500 km's in one hit is long but being able to get some sleep helped.

Discovered that this flight actually goes to Sydney as well as Brisbane. But I don't think it would have been any quicker as they get all the passengers off at Brisbane and back through security before waiting an hour to re-board the same plane to Sydney.

Not many people got off at Brisbane because there was no queue for Customs and only about 10 people waiting to collect luggage. Got my luggage and re-checked it through to Hobart.

Although I had to wait about an hour for my flight to Melbourne it would have been about the same.

Waiting in the Melbourne Qantas Lounge for my next flight (14:55) to Hobart.

I am still feeling a little bit sleepy but I don't think the jet-lag is going to be too bad on this leg. Looking forward to getting home.

My flight arrives at 16:10 today.