DFW: QANTAS 747-400ER "Wunala Dreaming"

[Sentinel Chicken]

Uber thanks and a round of Shiner to Phil Hyde from HoustonSpotters.net who emailed me Friday night to let me know that QANTAS' regular SYD-DFW flight would be operated Saturday by none other than one of my favorite special one-off liveries, "Wunala Dreaming". It's also Mrs. Chicken's favorite, so we made a family day of spotting at Founders' Plaza this afternoon. I've got other shots from that day, but thought that "Wunala Dreaming" deserved it's own thread:



Even from far away the red color is unmistakable.



Ohhhhh yes, baby, that's the stuff....


 
You know how I like it, baby, more like that......


 
Notice the right outboard thrust reverser cowling is white. Replacement, perhaps. Maybe I should peruse a thousand A.net shots of QANTAS 744s to see if this is common. Or not. Beer me.


 

 
This shot is my new computer desktop Note the Omni Air International DC-10 at the gate. I'm sure that pleases our very own "Bobert"/V1UHOH.


 
Just seconds from touchdown......



Yeah, baby, plant those mains.......


 
Spoilers out!




Rolling out on 18R while an American Ubiquitous-80 rockets off 18L. Note the thrust reversers are now engaged.

I've been trying to get shots of the arrival of QFA7 since service between Sydney and DFW was inaugurated just recently, but either weather or timing hasn't been on my side. They're using a 747-400ER on the route and flying it light to let it go the 14.5 hours to reach Texas and if I'm not mistaken, QANTAS is the only airline in the world to use the passenger -400ER, everyone else that has gotten the -400ER is using the -400ERF variant. So it's a unique aircraft to catch even it were to come in standard fleet colors.

Saturday was the first time to catch QFA7's arrival, and I get the big-donkey avgeek score by it being "Wunala Dreaming".

Enjoy!

[Sentinel Chicken]

I took this with my iPhone and posted it to Instagram, it's the growing crowd of spotters that showed up at Founders' Plaza Saturday afternoon to see Wunala Dreaming arrive:



The guy in the white shirt is Joe Statz, he posts occasionally on Airliners.net as "towerjoe" and he's a Founders' Plaza regular.

There's an older guy who always shows up with a big monstrous whale cock of a lens that he has on a three-axis gimbal (you can see his rig near the picnic table) that other spotters either envy or laugh at.

This was only a fifth of the crowd that eventually showed up at Founders' Plaza Airport Observation Park. Lots of families, too. All sorts of cameras, even video cameras, point and shoots, and smartphone cameras. Nice to see that level of interest!

[Jschmus]

These are prettier than the ones you posted on Facebook!  Very nice.  Thanks for continuing to share.

[Steel Penguin]

wow. thanks for the shots there wonderful.

[Army of One]

The pics are great....I thought the commentary was great......hope you had plenty of tissues,it seemed emotional 

[PR19_Kit]

Fanastic shots of a fantastice aeroplane! 

AFAIK at one time all of Qantas 747-400s had white reverser sections, but it seems to be getting less common as time goes on. Perhaps it's a maintenance issue?

[Sentinel Chicken]

Sadly this aircraft has been repainted in the standard fleet colors of QANTAS. That sucks, this is one of the most distinctive theme-livery aircraft out there.

To answer PR19_Kit's question, this is a 747-400ER, it has different engines than the rest of the regular -400s in QANTAS' fleet which use Rolls-Royce RB211 engines with a full length cowl. I believe the QANTAS -400ERs use GE CF6-80C2 engines as the Rolls option isn't available. The cowls should be all gray, I think that's a Boeing driven deal as the 787s are delivered with gray cowls.