A Busy Wednesday Morning at Gladstone Airport

It was a very busy morning at Gladstone Airport on Wednesday 10 October, and Shane T was on hand to capture some of the action!

The star arrival during the morning was Pel-Air Avaition SAAB 340A Freighter VH-KDK, which arrived from Brisbane, via a missed approach at the Sunshine Coast Airport.

The purpose of the aircraft's visit is unclear, although there are suggestions that it was a crew training flight.

The SAAB joined plenty of other commercial aircraft on the Gladstone Airport apron, including a QantasLink (Cobham Aviation) Boeing B717-200 which had broken down from Tuesday 9 October.

VH-NXD - pictured above parked on the lower apron - had several engineers around its main landing gear.  VH-NXD departed Gladstone later in the day, and seems to be operating normally again.

As it was being worked on, VH-NXD was joined by sistership VH-NXN, which was operating a scheduled QantasLink service from and back to Brisbane.

It's interesting to note that both of these aircraft wear the additional titles highlighting that QantasLink was awarded Air Transport World magazine's Regional Airline of the Year 2012.

As a fill-in for the out-of-action Boeing B717-200, QantasLink was noted operating additional Dash-8-Q400 services into Gladstone and Rockhampton on Wednesday 12 October with VH-LQF - this aircraft also wears the Regional Airline of the Year titles!

Meanwhile, Shane T spotted another pair of QantasLink Dash-8-Q400s at Gladstone Airport, with VH-QOW spotted departing as QLK2335 to Brisbane, and VH-QOS operating as QLK2301, arriving from Rockhampton and later departing to Brisbane.

Virgin Australia (Skywest Airlines) ATR 72-500 VH-FVX was also spotted operating into Gladstone Airport, arriving from and departing back to Brisbane.

On the General Aviation side of things, Shane spotted Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Raytheon B200 King Air VH-FDW which is pictured departing to Brisbane.  It had earlier arrived from Mackay.

Another King Air - this time Hawker Beechcraft B300 Super King Air - VH-WJW of Wagner's Development Company was noted parked for the day on the lower apron at Gladstone Airport.

Also arriving but parking on the upper apron at Gladstone Airport was the Queensland Police Service (Airwing) ever-hard-working Raytheon B1900D VH-PSK.  It arrived from Townsville, and later departed to Maryborough.

Another interesting visitor was Brisbane-based Partenavia P.68B VH-IXC of Flight One Air Training.  It arrived from and then departed back to its Archerfield base.

General Aviation Maintenance (GAM) AeroCommander 500-S VH-UJM was photographed as it rested during the day before departing to Rockhampton and Thangool in the evening.

Thangool-based Cessna 172 VH-SXG is pictured arriving, and then later departing.

Another local Cessna - this time a Cessna 182 - VH-SHY is pictured taxiing for departure

Lastly, local aviator, Hugh, took his Rutan Long-Ez VH-LEX out for a local flight.

Shane T has had the privilege of flying with Hugh in VH-LEX, and his latest trip report - featuring some spectacular air-to-air photography of Mooney M20F VH-WBH - can be found HERE.

What a great morning!  Thanks heaps Shane!