Qantas A321XLR Arrival. (Image: SYDSQUAD)

When Everything Old is New Again.

As the new Qantas Airbus A321XLR taxied in at Sydney Airport in the thrashing rain, my eye was caught by one of the less obvious details – its registration – VH-OGA. The markings, “VH-OGA” once graced the flanks of a Qantas Boeing 767 that my wife flew and had served the airline proudly, retiring in 2005. It was then converted to a freighter and after today is operated by Astral Aviation in Kenya. In aviation, as in life, nothing stays the same forever.

Only recently, I was wandering around Bathurst Airport and came across a nicely painted Piper Navajo, registration VH-MNT. Again, the markings were familiar but the paint scheme had changed. This time it was the same aircraft that I had flown more than three decades earlier. It had obviously had a touch up, inside and out, to the aircraft that I recalled but it was ‘MNT’. The airwaves too are full of such recycling as I often here the familiar “Charlie Zulu” callsigns of Ansett 737s, although they are now carried by Cessna 172s, Cirrus SR22s and the like.

Loiter long enough in this industry and you will see aircraft come and go – some even end up in museums! By the time that retirement beckons it is the memories that these machines delivered that truly stand out – the sunrises, sunsets and lonely instrument approaches into remote townships on dark, wet nights. They are simply three letters that once marked an aircraft and are now faded ink upon the log book’s page but they can instantaneously evoke remembrance and even emotion on occasions. They can also bring to mind young faces that were lost on some distant hill. Still, those memories, good and bad, inevitably make up the tapestry of a life in aviation. Equally, there was laughter at a whim and lessons that were hard earned.

They say nothing lasts forever and in the physical world that may be true. However, time may fade and distort memories somewhat but for those recollections that we truly treasure, time is merely a hurdle to our recall. Once we have retrieved that moment in time, we can relive it and cherish it once more. That is not to say that we stop making new memories – the past should actually inspire us to keep moving forward and making the most of every moment. Like the aircraft we have flown, our memories can breathe new life when everything old is new again.