Travel: Sydney to Dubai

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Monday 21^st May 2012 –







Left Canberra yesterday afternoon – seems like days ago! Caught a 5:00 pm flight to Sydney, then boarded the Emirates A380-800 with hundreds of others all going to Dubai.



After leaving Sydney, we flew south of Broken Hill, to just south of Whyalla (across the top of Spencer Gulf) before starting to track a more northerly course after overflying Ceduna. By 23:35 Eastern Standard Time, we were 1,053 km from Sydney, travelling at 916 kph (Mach 0.84). We travelled east of Meekathara, south of Uluru, south of Port Headland. At 07:10 Eastern Standard Time, we were flying over Colombo.



At 11:10 Eastern Standard time on Monday 21/5/2012, we arrived in Dubai, after flying 5,542 miles (about 9,000 km).





The flight was very long and tiring. As I write this, I haven’t slept since 07:00 on Sunday Morning. It’s now 20:32 Aust Eastern Standard Time Monday evening. It’s actually 14:30 Monday afternoon in Dubai.



The technology on the aircraft is amazing. Even the simple things made the trip that little more endurable. The in-flight entertainment system was over the top – dozens of movies, TV series, sport, news (updated as we travelled), etc. For a fee, there was internet and telephone connectivity. A real-time map showed our route, and technical data on speed, direction, etc. A camera mounted high on the tail fin of the aircraft gave some amazing shots once daylight appeared just out of Dubai. Another camera was mounted directly under the fuselage, and a third in the nose landing gear. There was a power point for PCs or whatever. There was a USB port that could be utilised for phones, iPads etc. The aircrew were fabulous – nothing too much trouble for them.

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