The Funeral of Graeme Acton Brings Various Bizjets and Light GA Aircraft to Rockhampton Airport Monday

The funeral of local cattle identity Graeme Acton on Monday 19 May has brought numerous bizjet and light General Aviation (GA) Aircraft to Rockhampton Airport.

William Rollo / http://www.abc.net.au/

Local plane spotters Kayanne H and Trevor H were on hand - and braved the inclement weather - to capture some images of the various interesting aircraft to visit.

Probably the nicest visitor was Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Boeing B737-7DT(BBJ) A36-001 which brought Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to Rocky.  It was heard to be using the radio callsign of "Envoy 97".

Interestingly, as A36-001 departed Rockhampton later in the afternoon, sister-ship A36-002 in fact overflew Rocky heading North!

On the Southern end the Rockhampton Airport apron was the Queensland Government (State of Queensland) Raytheon Hawker 850XP bizjet VH-SGY which arrived from and later departed to Brisbane carrying Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and other Ministers.

One other bizjet called in to Rocky on Monday in the form of Yulgibar Pastoral Company (of Montmorency, Victoria) Cessna 550 Citation II VH-FGK which arrived from and later departed to Lismore.

VH-FGK was parked on the Northern end of the Rockhampton Airport apron, where it was joined by three of the several turbo-prop aircraft to call into Rocky, including Gold Coast-based Hawker Beechcraft B300 Super King Air VH-OXF.

Parked nearby was Vanderfield Pilatus PC-12/47 VH-WPH, along with Gulf Aircraft Raytheon B300 VH-PYN which arrived from and later departed to Archerfield.

Around on the GA Apron, Brisbane-based Pilatus PC-12/47E VH-VTF was parked after arriving on Sunday 18 May from Julia Creek and Mount Isa.

Completing a quartet of PC-12s were A & A Company Pilatus PC-12/47E which arrived from and later departed back to the Sunshine Coast, along with Cloncurry-based Pilatus PC-12/47E VH-MDH which arrived from and later departed back to Devencourt Station (Cloncurry).

Also present was Cessna 208 VH-DJG which arrived from Natal Downs.

Along with Hopair Cessna 337E Skymaster VH-OIQ which arrived from and later departed back to its Cairns base.

A couple of other visitors to Rockhampton on Monday 19 May included Mackay-based Cessna 206 VH-SMT, Blackall-based Cessna 210 VH-CRL and Brisbane-based Cessna 310 VH-KXG.  Finally, the Queensland Police Service (Airwing) Raytheon B1900D VH-PSK was also noted visiting Rocky twice on Monday too!

Big thanks to Kayanne and Trevor for braving the rain and capturing some great photos of a great day's plane spotting at Rockhampton Airport.

Stay tuned to the CQ Plane Spotting Blog for more images from Rocky in the coming days!

Photos taken by Kayanne Hardsman and Trevor Hardsman  ©