Views from a Window Seat

[yflyer]

The ground below moved quickly past. Surely we were over it by now...I scanned the view in all directions.

There! At 7 o'clock, far below...



All I had with me was my iPhone, but it managed to take fairly decent pictures.

I had almost missed it. We were almost directly above it, at 37,500 feet, and passed it just to the north east, so that it was just visible out the left side windows.



What an incredible sight. It looked very much like that half-imagined picture in my head from all those years back, so maybe I had seen it back then as well, on that Qantas flight more than a decade ago.

There was another pax standing behind me. I had not noticed him until now.

"Did you see it?" he asked.

"Yes I did! Over there!" I pointed to the window, and he peered out.

Sadly we had already passed it by and it was no longer visible.

But he had visited Uluru on the ground, and had seen it up close.

"You should see it from ground level. It has presence!", he said.



"There are the other rock formations up ahead" he continued, pointing to another rock formation up ahead.



I later learned that those were The Olgas, or Kata Tjuta, another unique rock formation about 40km away from Uluru.

I returned to my seat a happy man. A short while later, I headed to the galley to ask for a G&T.

Several cabin crew members were there. I told them what I had seen.

One of the cabin crew was also looking out the window trying to spot Uluru, but on the right side, and didn't see anything.

He had asked the pilot which side of the plane Uluru was on, but somehow he ended up looking on the right side instead.

"Did you take pictures?" he asked me.

"Yes I did!"

I showed him the pictures, and airdropped one of them to his iPhone.



"You fly this route often, so you will have many chances to see it!", I told him, "I have been trying to take a picture of Uluru from the air for the last 15 years!"



When I shared these pics on social media with my friends, several said that I should visit Uluru and the area on ground -- there was a lot to see and do in that area. What a great idea -- it is something I have added to my bucket list.

What a lovely addition to the other window seat pics in this SQTalk thread!

[yflyer]

Just flew BA16 SYD-SIN yesterday. Whenever I fly from Sydney or Melbourne back to Singapore, I try to take a close look at the inflight map to see what the routing is over Australia.

Quite regularly, the routing will take the aircraft almost directly over Uluru.

Many years ago, on a Qantas flight, the pilot announced over the PA that we were flying over Ayers Rock. Half asleep, I glanced out the window and saw an amazing circular red land mass, which stood out clearly against the brown/orange ground around it. We passed over it quickly, and as I was half asleep, I was never 100% sure if I had actually seen what I saw, or if it was a figment of my imagination.

Since that time, I have flown many trips from SYD or MEL to SIN, and have never been able to spot Uluru, let alone take a picture of it.

Many things had to go right: the aircraft had to file the right flight plan that passed over Uluru (obviously dependent on winds and weather conditions etc). Some flights flew close to Uluru, others didn't.

The sky had to be clear. On at least one previous flight, we might have flown fairly close to Uluru, but there was total cloud cover and nothing was visible.

And of course you had to be looking out windows on the correct side of the plane.

On my flight BA16 yesterday, I was quite hopeful. After we took off from Sydney, the skies looked to be very clear, and the flight path of the plane looked to be heading straight towards Uluru.



I was seated in an aisle seat in the rear of the plane. Not a window seat, but in this case, an aisle seat would work in my favour. At the right time, I could just step out of my seat and head to either the left or right emergency door and take pics out that door.

Way before we reached Uluru, I had a good feeling about the day's flight. The sky was cooperating -- not a cloud in sight, and visibility was excellent right out into the distance, and the plane seemed to be heading right for it.



Thank goodness for the 3D airshow map, which was pretty much updated in real time. I zoomed progressively into the map, watching the aircraft move closer and closer towards Uluru, and at some point I realized that we were getting awfully close. I jumped out of my seat and headed to the left rear door's narrow window, and peered out.

At first nothing.

Where was it? I scanned the horizon, looking up and down...

[yflyer]

Midway through my Air Canada flight from Montreal to Vancouver earlier this week, I saw this airport out the window, while at cruising altitude...



I looked at the inflight map and was slightly stunned to see that this was close to Gimli.



Was this the airport used by the "Gimli Glider", the AC 767 that made a successful emergency landing in 1983, when it ran out of fuel midflight?

A quick Google search confirmed that the airport was indeed Gimli Industrial Park Airport (YGM), where the incident took place.

More on the Gimli Glider incident here.

As additional trivia, take a look at the pic of the AC 767 in the article above, and you will see the words "Singapore '85" on the tail. Apparently this was painted on the tails of some of AC's aircraft back in 1985 when they introduced the YYZ-LHR-BOM-SIN route (Although the route itself was operated by Lockheed L-1011 Tristars). It looks like the Gimli glider was also painted with that slogan on the tail at some point after it was repaired and returned to service after the 1983 incident.

[yflyer]

Prior to landing at JFK on SQ24, I snapped this pic of Manhattan Island at dusk, with Midtown and Central Park clearly visible, as well as a few pixels worth of the Statue of Liberty...



A few other pics in a Trip Report here!

[CarbonMan]

Mount Fuji taken from SQ631 last Monday shortly after take off from Haneda. Zoomed up view.




Without zooming up.

Well done, SQKevin!

[SQ218]

Beautiful SQKevin

[SQKevin]

Mount Fuji taken from SQ631 last Monday shortly after take off from Haneda. Zoomed up view.




Without zooming up.

[Wan1dap]

lol

Thank you for “getting it”. I was beginning to wonder...

[Wan1dap]

Refer to my post on the SFO, that was an SQ flight

Wow humour not a strong point on this board...

[Pinkfloyd]

Correct, Emirates is the only airline permitted to provide views of the bridge.

lol

[Bytor]

There are often great views out of the right side windows on final approach to London Heathrow.

Here are pictures from SQ318 from July 2016 (TR here).

Tower Bridge and The Shard...



London Eye, Westminster and Big Ben...

Great pics. I worked in the City for a few years and lunchtimes in the summer it was compulsory to go to the Horniman at Hayes Galleria, have a pint or 3 and watch the planes coming in. Big kid really!

[ninervictor]

Correct, Emirates is the only airline permitted to provide views of the bridge.

Refer to my post on the SFO, that was an SQ flight

[shikhargpt]

Correct, Emirates is the only airline permitted to provide views of the bridge.

Are you sure? I am 100% sure that Lufthansa does have views off at least the starboard side on departure.

[Wan1dap]

These are amazing pics!! I recall twice when I flew Emirates, you can see the view of the Golden Gate Bridge upon leaving or arriving back from SFO, which I haven't when flying TransPac.

Correct, Emirates is the only airline permitted to provide views of the bridge.

[SQfanatic]

These are amazing pics!! I recall twice when I flew Emirates, you can see the view of the Golden Gate Bridge upon leaving or arriving back from SFO, which I haven't when flying TransPac.