Some Great Plane Spotting Photos from This Weekend at Gladstone Airport

A very productive our or so of plane spotting was had by Michael F at Gladstone Airport on Saturday 3 May.  He arrived just as Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Hawker Beechcraft B200 King Air VH-FDA departed Gladstone for Maryborough as "FlyDoc 401".

Another King Air - Beech B200 VH-LKR of Formula Aircraft / Altitude Flight Operations in Perth, West Australia - was also visiting Gladstone Airport on Saturday.

Interestingly, VH-LKR is an ex-Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) aircraft (ex NZ1883) and was delivered to it's currently operator in 2012.

Shortly after, VH-LKR was loaded - quite spectacularly with four rented Four-Wheel-Drives driving onto the tarmac.

As VH-LKR prepared for departure, Michael also captured QantasLink Dash-8-Q400 VH-QOS as it touched down at Gladstone as QLK2338.

VH-LKR eventually departed for parts unknown.

VH-QOS eventually returned to Brisbane as QLK2339.

Finally, on a crowded General Aviation (GA) apron, Michael captured a pair of Bayswater Road / Australian Aerial Mapping (AAM) Cessna 402B aircraft - VH-MAX and VH-SVQ.

Information suggests that both of these aircraft are fairly recent acquisitions for the aerial survey operator, with both aircraft previously operated out of Archerfield Airport by Qasco.

Also on the busy GA Apron was a few ultralight aircraft - mostly Jabiru aircraft as shown below.  Some of these aircraft are utilised by local flight training organisation Gladstone Flying Training and Air Charter.

It's also worth mentioning that the Gladstone Airport GA Apron also usually plays host to the Evektor Sportstar which Pro-Sky Flight Training of Maryborough - in conjunction with the Gladstone Aero Club - also use for flight training in the Gladstone region.

The locally-based CareFlight Queensland Bell 412EP VH-XCY departed Gladstone Airport for parts unknown.

Finally, after popping into Rockhampton and Mackay on Saturday 3 May (see Blog Post below), Skytrans Dash-8-100 VH-QQF arrived into Gladstone Airport early on Sunday 4 May from Townsville and Cairns.

File photo taken by Kayanne Hardsman  ©

At the time of writing, VH-QQF is expected to depart Gladstone late on head to Mackay.

Sincere thanks to Michael for sending through these great photos!  Certainly a great hour of so of plane spotting!

Photos taken by Michael Fleetwood  ©