Didn't make the landing, but decided to go to LAX this evening for the departure. Mr. Chchkiwi and I managed to get a parking space in a private lot just off Imperial, right behind where the A380 was parked. We arrived at around 5:55 p.m., in plenty of time for the scheduled 7:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. departure time. At around 6:10 p.m. we noticed the A380 was moving so scrambled across Imperial and up the hill. Lo and behold, the plane took off at 6:15 p.m., so I would imagine there would be a lot of disappointed folks who missed the take off.
Take off was amazingly quiet and it didn't seem to use up much of the runway. Out over the Pacific then turned right, apparently heading back to France. As reported previously, the plane was very tall, but didn't appear as big as we thought it would.