A380 Information (Adelaide 27th September 2008)

As most of you will know by now, the A380 will make it's first visit to Adelaide at 1215hrs on Saturday the 27th of September 2008. We have some information that you may find interesting as enthusiasts or just for general interest.

1. Wake Turbulence times have to be extended between aircraft with the A380 to 4/3/3 minutes from 3/2/3. This means that light aircraft land 4 minutes behind an A380 compared to the usual 3. Other aircraft can land 3 minutes behind and A380. Departures may differ and in many cases an extra minute is required after the A380 moves.
   
2. During visits the A380 will usually be parked on F6 (Near Tapley's Hill Rd Public Observation Area).
   
3. Visits will be around 25-30 minutes to allow brakes to cool, crew change and of course photos.
   
4. Initially, there will be a 5 minute delay between runway movements after each take-off or landing of the A380 to allow AAL to inspect the runway. This is possibly due to any debris that may be introduced to the runway surface from the jet wash or wake turbulence of the A380.
   
5. If other large aircaft need to use the full runway length whilst the A380 is parked, it will have to be shuffled as there is a size limit as to which aircraft can do 180 turns on runway end nodes.

5DME will be compiling a page on the A380 to be displayed on the site in the future. For the moment we will add our photographs and video to the galleries for your interest.