Another SQ21 route of flight question
 

Last night I was on UA932 IAD-FRA listening to channel 9 which is the audio channel that allows one to hear live ATC transmissions.

Shortly after passing New York, I heard SQ21 on our frequency.

In fact, it was with us over Gander through centers in Ireland, London and Maastricht.

I know our flight arrived FRA almost an hour early due to tail winds well over 100 mph for the entire flight.

Is this why SQ21 went over the Atlantic or is this normal?

Routing depends on winds. It quite often flies EWR-SIN via Atlantic and Europe. Note that SIN-EWR is always via Pacific.

Generally the EWR-SIN is over the north pole.. close to the pole.
Its not surprising that it was over Gander.

while the SIN-EWR is over the north-north pacific.

This is based on my recent experience this month.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but due to stronger winds in the winter, it is more likely that SQ21 tends to fly east during this season.

Also, it's a neat little thing to know that you did an unofficial RTW that way.

Starting Northern Winter 2006/2007, SQ21 will operate on the Antarctic route, via SYD.

Hard to believe? Look here! :D

Here is a link to the first couple hours of the flight!

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SIA21

Does anyone know where I can get info on the entire flight?

What makes it an "unofficial" RTW? It sounds like a true circumnavigation to me.

That's exactly the point. You do circle the planet, but it's not on a RTW ticket. ;)

I am taking my first SQ21 flight next week. I just assumed that it went west, and now I find that it might go North, or now, even maybe South. Does anyone know the actual route of SQ21 on November 13?

It does not go south.. until it crosses over the north pole (or close to it)
going over the south pole was a joke.

This is in reference to an article posted in the Sydney Morning Herald that had a picture of an A345, even though the article was talking about a bolt falling away from a B744. Just some good-natured humor on our part. :p

And to answer your question, it's more likely that you'll be flying eastbound over the Arctic, past Siberia and down through South Asia, since the strong winter winds will help get you to SIN faster.

Lastly, SIN-EWR always goes over the Pacific due to the prevailing winds.

Too bad, I liked the look of all those miles. But it does cross over close to the North Pole?

IIRC you only get within a few degrees of the (celestial) North Pole, since the the jet stream doesn't really help move the plane along up there.

Depends on the weather etc. When I flew it was pretty close to North Pole - on the flight path the aircraft symbol was spinning for a couple of minutes!

That's so cool! Too bad it's the middle of the night and you can't see anything!