Airline: Singapore Airlines
Flight: SQ285 Singapore - Auckland
STD/ATA : 2045/2102 hours LT
STA /ATA: 1005/0948 hours LT
Flight Time (sched): 9 hours 20 mins
Aircraft: B747-412B 9V-SMH
Class: Economy
Seats : 61A & 61C

Firstly, I actually travelled on this flight sometime in Aug 2000. I actually bought an Air NZ ticket and had my flight number shown as NZ4285, but the flight is operated by SQ. Was travelling with my partner that night after out trip home to Singapore/Malaysia.

CHECK-IN:
Well, check-in was excellent. Got a friend (I got to know her as an ex-colleague when I was working with SATS years ago) who was working on the night we travelled, and she happened to be stationed at SQ's First Class check-in, so... Well, nothing much to comment here, of course, as it's my good friend who checked us in and gave us the special treatment. Anyway, must say SQ REALLY pampers their First Class paxs, dedicated check-in LOUNGE (read LOUNGE, not counter!) with special/separate entrance to immigration/departure).

SEATS:
Got what we've always wanted. First and foremost, a window seat. got it perfect, seats 61A/C - which is the 2 seaters at the back of the plane. Pitch of their B744 is about 34" (I think). Winged headrests on the seat-back make it comfortable too. Height of headrest can be adjusted too. As it's the first row of the "2 seaters" at the back, got plenty of room beside the window seat (61A) where we managed to put our hand luggage there as well. Only negative thing is the overhead reading light is faulty, but it didn't matter as we did not require them...

PRE-DEPARTURE:
"Usual" SQ pre-departure service offered, starting with a hot-towel to each and everyone and cleared off after that. Captain (sounded like an American/Canadian) spoke clearly (for once, I mean CLEARLY and LOUNDLY enough, and not just "mumbling" through!) and introduced himself and flight details, with a bit of humour - here's a quote of the intro by the Captain:- "Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain xxx speaking. Welcome aboard this Singapore Airlines flight 285 to Auckland and we're having with us here today some Air New Zealand passengers as well, as this is a joint-service flight. If this is not the flight you're taking and Auckland is not where you're headed, then you must be on the wrong plane, or else I am!!" Flight safety and evacuation video was shown, both on the big screen and KrisWorld PTV screens.

TAKEOFF / FLIGHT-PATH:
Smooth takeoff towards the southwest on runway 20R, passes through downtown Singapore and making a slight left-hand turn towards south. Flight path were to take us thru to Jakarta, entering the northern coast of Western Australia near Port Hedland, cut through central Australia and exiting near Sydney, across the Tasman and into Auckland. Expected to arrive into Auckland just before 9:50am Auckland local time. Flight level was initlally at 29,000 ft (FL290), and it stayed there for a while due to ATC restrictions and climbed up to abt 35,000 ft (FL350) somewhere across Aussie, before descending for landing about 100 miles out of Auckland.

IN-FLIGHT SERVICE/MEALS:
Excellent meals served. I always though that SQ have one of the best spreads around, or at least it suited our taste! However, what was most pleasing was the service rendered on this flight by the crew. There were a couple of trainee F/As, however, one senior, Ms Kassie Hoek, was exemplery, although the trainees did well too. I mentioned that our overhead reading light failed to work. We did not even noticed it and it was actually reported by the pax seated behind. Ms Hoek came along and tried numerous times to reset the switch - and I mean NUMEROUS (she kept trying, but just no luck, unfortunately). In the end, she offered to change our seats, but we declined as we won't be doing any reading and hence will not need the lights anyway. That was very nice/kind of her.

What was even better, was when dinner was served. My partner did not want to have a full meal, so she just asked for the tray with the apetisers and dessert on it without the main course. Ms Hoek again mentioned that they've got snacks and instant noodles on board, so if my partner ever got hungry later just give her a buzz. Now, that is thoughtful!.....

IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT:
Well, one of the key reasons why we've always chose to fly on SQ aircraft for our NZ-SIN vv flight is because of KriyWorld - SQ's in-flight entertainment system and their PTVs on every seat in every class. SQ always offer the latest blockbuster available, and have a wide selection of choices of channels. While AirNZ (the other airline that ply this sector) is an excellent airline (and I mean it! - read my comments below), SQ's always tipped our favour 'cos of KrisWorld (whereas NZ only has mainscreen cinema - what a shame really!)

LANDING / TOUCH-DOWN:
Upon arrival into Auckland, we passed thru Auckland downtown (can see the Sky Tower!) and made a right turn and headed south towards Manukau. Landed from the south-side towards north from Manukau (that'll be runway 23 I guess). Touched down approx 9:48am Auckland local time, with a smooth toughdown. Taxied to gate and docked at Gate 4, Auckland International Airport. There was a slight delay while taxiing (apron congestion, which is a bit unusual at AKL), and the Captain came on the mic again. This time he said :- "And that was an auto-land ladies and gentlemen. Just in case you're wondering, it was the aircraft landing itself and not me! Shows you how machines could do it nicely too!".

ARRIVAL:
Crew greeted us upon arrival and disembarking. Good to be on the ground finally, but hey, that WAS a GOOD/EXCELLENT flight and I really enjoyed it (although I've always usually enjoy all my flights - except one I took with QF from Sydney - Singapore was back in Dec'98 - due to the crew's manners more that anything else!)

Well, that was it. I din't want to rate individually all parts as some parts I had help with frends etc. but, overall rating of flight - 90%!... Only slight downside is the faulty overhead lights - but it ddin't matter much... The thing is, we flew back from AKL-SIN just over a week ago, on the SAME plane (9V-SMH) and SAME SEAT and the lights were working!... Marcelduchamp (as posted in another discussion AirNZ Anyone? were right to mention that SQ's 6 oldest B744s does not have a SkySuites - and they're bearing registration 9V-SMA - SMH (SMB and SMD have been leased to AN as VH-ANB and VH-ANA respectively) - so we often see 9V-SMH plying this route).....Hmmm... Will DEFINITELY be flying SQ in future...

Now, the note I mentioned abt AirNz earlier... I have always had high regards for NZ and very good impressions. you see, the first EVER flight I took in my life was on board AirNZ B767-219ER ZK-NBA "Aotearoa" from Singapore to Auckland. And what an appripriate thing too - My first ever flight, to the Land of the Long White Cloud (NZ), was on board Aotearoa - the Land of The Long White Cloud too!... That was an excellent aircraft, excellent flight and excellent service. I have since always loved the B767s and think we're one of the best aircraft to fly in, altho I must admit I've since grown in size and may find the 767s a bit of a tight squeeze now... Mind you, that remained the one and only B767 I've ever flown in, but they'll always be close to my heart.

Okie dokie people... So much so for my report. Sorry if I digressed a bit, but then I hope you'll have as much fun reading it as I had writing it! Chao!

Singapore Airlines ... Now more than EVER, a GREAT WAY to fly (but I may add - perhaps the GREATEST Way to Fly) - I may be biased but that's how I feel!

Cheers!

Chuck

I flew 9V-SMH recently as well! I shall be posting my trip report for that flight soon. Yours has been a pleasure to read. I have to admit that I have a weakness for SQ as well...

I recently flew Singapore-Jakarta on SQ 162 (A340-300) 9V-SJD (If I remember what the steward said correctly).

I fly once every couple of months and so I generally ignore most aspects of the flight. This time however, I noticed that our departure was quite fast. Although you have very little indication of your speed from within the cabin, the personal TV came on just before 3,000m and we were going at a fairly healthy clip. Now, my understanding of standard flight procedure is to stay below 250kts when below 10,000'. However, we were way above that speed and before we had hit 10,000'. The only explanantion I can think of was that because it was over sea (we had a RW20 departure which puts us directly over water after TO) and thus the noise restriction did not apply.

Also the descent was fast. The flight path on the personal TV showed that when we were only 100 km out of Jakarta we were still at 10,700m and doing 900+ kph. Having just got into flight planning and the like I thought this was rather unusual. Sure enough, when we did start to descend it was with spoilers - so rapid drop in altitude and rapid drop in airspeed.

Hi Andrew:

Well, just to clarify your point about your flight and the speed limit of 250kts below 10,000ft (FL100) - well, the speed mentioned is actually what they call Indicated Air Speed (IAS) - which is basically the speed of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air speeds. Now, don't ask me the physics of how to arrive at that calculation (sorry but I can't remember), but generally IAS is actually A LOT SLOWER that the speed you see on KrisWorld's flight path/plan. In any case,. 250kts is in KNOTS, but the flight path displays is km/h, so ther's a difference. Another thing is the speed shows (if I'm not mistaken) Ground Speed - which is the measure of the speed of aircraft assuming it's it's travelling on ground at sea level - or in aviation temrs called true airspeed (TAS)... Hence, 900+ kph would measure about probably be about 480+ knots, but again that's TAS - if converted to IAS, it would probably be just below 250 anyway... In any case, during cruise, we usually see speeds of 1000+ km/h on the KrisWorld flight path, but in IAS I guess the plane may be travelling about 350+ kts IAS... As far as I know, this speed restriction do apply anywhere regardless of where you are - but I may be wrong.

Note that I'm not a pilot and do not hold a pilot license ofanykind - but I'm keen on getting one... I'm jusat a very keen aviation enthusiast and read a fair bit about books of plane's etc. When I was back in Singapore (before moving to Wellnigton), I visited Changi Airport almost every week! Sometimes even almost every day - just to look at planes!! However, I do play about quite a bit with Microsoft Flight Simulator (hence my nickname fltsimmer!) and learn some tips from some real pilots who also play about with MSFS. The good thing about MSFS is you can "toggle" the speed display between kts IAS, kts TAS or even km/h... It's really quite authentic (the experience - at least good enought for me!) and I've even attempted a flight from SIn-LHR (sort of triyng to "duplicate" SQ322) and I "flew" for a good 14 hours on my computer! - And yes I t4ried SQ285 SIN-AKL too and it really lasted my abt 9+-10 hrs...

To Marcelducham : Hmmmm... so it seemed that 9V-SMH is a regular to AKL then... Well, I guess you were right in your other post (Air NZ anyone?) that perhaps it's bacause there's not much competition on SIN-NZ vv route (if fact no competition at all now that Air NZ and SQ are partners) hence SQ don't fly their B744 with Skysuites to AKL...I'm not too wirried anyway as I only fly economy - can't afford FCL (yet)!

Regards
Chuck