I heard a jet taking off the other day, and it was unusually loud. I saw red on the tail and thought it was a Qantas plane, but the winglets proved it to be an A330. I checked on Flightradar and it was a Nepal Airlines flight bringing Australian citizens back from Nepal.

Glad I have a view of the airport! Alas, no time for a photo.

Hi Rob.

I was driving down Tapleys Hill Road past the end of the runway at Adelaide airport at about midday on Thursday and an RAAF jet took off straight over the top of me. I tried to get a good look at it and also keep one eye on the road. At first I thought it was a P-8 but after looking at some photos online it was definitely an Airbus KC-30A Tanker.

There's also about 10 Virgin Australia and about 4 QANTAS parked around the place too...

Cool! I guess the airlines had to park the planes somewhere - none in Canberra, so I guess the airport was charging too much. That's unusual for a KC30 to land in Adelaide. They must have been ferrying people somewhere, because usually they'd land at Edinburgh and avoid the fees.

We've had some Wedgetails doing aborted approaches, but not much else other than the usual VIP jets which have seen a lot more use with so few commercial flights.

As I posted a while back, I managed to photograph a KC30 on final approach to R23 back in October last year so it appears they call into ADL from time to time.

Thanks! I should have remembered that. I just also remembered that one was being fitted out as a VIP jet. I'm not sure if it has been delivered yet. So it may be that a KC30 is being used to transport Federal ministers in the absence of enough commercial flights. I don't know if the Federal ministers have an exemption for the Covid19 restrictions though.

Nice to see Qantas wings in the sky again.


About to land by RobGeraghty, on Flickr

This flight landed after another unusual visitor; a Hawk trainer made two aborted approaches before returning to Williamtown.