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Well, the series continues as we near the end of my Australia trip. This flight is the second of three legs back to my hometown of PHX. If you haven't read parts 1-5 make sure you check 'em out! Happy reading.
Qantas #25
June 25, 2004
AKL-LAX
ETD: 1755 local
ETA: 1055 local
Boeing 747-438 Longreach
Yay! We're almost home- well, not really. We now have a 12 hour ride ahead of us, but hey- 747's the way to go! I was seated in middle seat in the central column on the left side, in front of the #5 doors. Not my favorite lol. By now everyone is pretty cranky and wanting to get home.
(Sorry- picked the worst gate for photos-haha)
After an hour layover from our QF119 flight from CHC, boarding finally began. It was a full flight...
The boarding area had become a complete zoo, and for the first time in our entire trip we didn't receive group priority boarding, which wasn't fun. It took everyone a good 20-30 minutes to get in their seats, with lots of time spent waiting in the aisles. But this was understandable, as we had 432 people onboard. 
Our aircraft was VH-OJJ "City of Winton," as I later found out from looking at the placard in the aft galley.
Sorry for quality- uploaded from my video function in my camera...
To be honest, I don't remember much from this flight, as I had stopped writing in my journal the last few days of the trip. But I'll do my best. Takeoff was a normal pushed-back-in-your-seat 744 takeoff, the distinctive roar of the RR engines filling the cabin. Overall the flight was pretty smooth, with no noticable turbulence or air pockets.
Q entertainment was on, so I kept myself busy watching movies and playing on my laptop. I actually don't remember what they gave us to eat except we got chocolate-covered ice cream bars!
Those were good! (Lot smaller than they look in the picture on QF's website though. 
)
Didn't get much sleep (never do on planes), but managed to catch maybe two hours of light shut-eye. It was hard to get up out of my seat since I was sandwiched inbetween a bunch of people & I don't want to be annoying and ask them to get up. Being 6'4" this was a little difficult for me, but I would stand up in my seat and stretch every so often, and make sure I was doing the inflight excercises.
[photoid=326937]
Our cabin crew on this flight was very good- if you felt like you needed something they'd get it for you, and were very hospitable. I also took advantage of the inflight shopping on this trip, and bought my very own Riki Koala!
Before I knew it we were beginning our daylight descent into LAX. We landed on the south runways (sorry, I'm not familiar w/ LAX rwys), with what would be my last 747 landing of the trip. Landing was pretty smooth- I was impressed- kind of hard to land such a beast! But the characteristic throttle idleing followed by the THUD of the gear hitting the tarmac was a wonderful welcome back to the states after a month overseas. The wings flexed downward, and we braked hard to make our taxiway. Pulling up alongside a Korean 744, our 12 hour journey came to an end.
I had my friend take these on video since she had a window seat.
You REALLY don't want to see what I look like after a 12 hour flight & being awake for around 30 hours.
Deplaning.
One last look...
That's about it! Comments and suggestions for future trip reports are greatly appreciated. Hope you all liked it- watch for Part 6: The Final Chapter, coming soon!
Qantas #25June 25, 2004
AKL-LAX
ETD: 1755 local
ETA: 1055 local
Boeing 747-438 Longreach
Yay! We're almost home- well, not really. We now have a 12 hour ride ahead of us, but hey- 747's the way to go! I was seated in middle seat in the central column on the left side, in front of the #5 doors. Not my favorite lol. By now everyone is pretty cranky and wanting to get home.
(Sorry- picked the worst gate for photos-haha)
After an hour layover from our QF119 flight from CHC, boarding finally began. It was a full flight...
The boarding area had become a complete zoo, and for the first time in our entire trip we didn't receive group priority boarding, which wasn't fun. It took everyone a good 20-30 minutes to get in their seats, with lots of time spent waiting in the aisles. But this was understandable, as we had 432 people onboard. Our aircraft was VH-OJJ "City of Winton," as I later found out from looking at the placard in the aft galley.Sorry for quality- uploaded from my video function in my camera...
To be honest, I don't remember much from this flight, as I had stopped writing in my journal the last few days of the trip. But I'll do my best. Takeoff was a normal pushed-back-in-your-seat 744 takeoff, the distinctive roar of the RR engines filling the cabin. Overall the flight was pretty smooth, with no noticable turbulence or air pockets.
Q entertainment was on, so I kept myself busy watching movies and playing on my laptop. I actually don't remember what they gave us to eat except we got chocolate-covered ice cream bars!
Those were good! (Lot smaller than they look in the picture on QF's website though. )Didn't get much sleep (never do on planes), but managed to catch maybe two hours of light shut-eye. It was hard to get up out of my seat since I was sandwiched inbetween a bunch of people & I don't want to be annoying and ask them to get up. Being 6'4" this was a little difficult for me, but I would stand up in my seat and stretch every so often, and make sure I was doing the inflight excercises.
[photoid=326937]
Our cabin crew on this flight was very good- if you felt like you needed something they'd get it for you, and were very hospitable. I also took advantage of the inflight shopping on this trip, and bought my very own Riki Koala!
Before I knew it we were beginning our daylight descent into LAX. We landed on the south runways (sorry, I'm not familiar w/ LAX rwys), with what would be my last 747 landing of the trip. Landing was pretty smooth- I was impressed- kind of hard to land such a beast! But the characteristic throttle idleing followed by the THUD of the gear hitting the tarmac was a wonderful welcome back to the states after a month overseas. The wings flexed downward, and we braked hard to make our taxiway. Pulling up alongside a Korean 744, our 12 hour journey came to an end.
I had my friend take these on video since she had a window seat.
You REALLY don't want to see what I look like after a 12 hour flight & being awake for around 30 hours.
Deplaning.
One last look...
That's about it! Comments and suggestions for future trip reports are greatly appreciated. Hope you all liked it- watch for Part 6: The Final Chapter, coming soon!
![[http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=3669]](http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/JP banner 12.7.05.jpg)
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