Sunday, December 13, 2009

Windy Wellington

I love windy, stormy, days, except perhaps when I want to go flying :-)

This weekend has been a windy one. As you'll see in this series of photos of a Jetstar Airbus A320 landing at Wellington, there was a strong westerly component [it was a north-westerly "breeze"], which made it fun for those landing on an [almost] north-south orientated runway [runway 34 is in use].

What's the clue in these photos? Well, if you orientate yourself to the pilot's view, I am standing to the LEFT of the aircraft, but I can only see the RIGHT hand side in the initial photos. The second photo is the same as the first one, except that I've enlarged it to show the detail better. In the third image, the aircraft is still pointing at the aero club. As always, click on the images for a better look.

4 comments:

Hindsfeet said...

windy stormy days are lovely, I know what you mean : ) something wild and wonderful about them!

Thanks for letting me use your photo, Rodney, hope I did it justice : ) Oh and by the way, I have yet to read "Freedom Flight" (that's what it's called, right?) I had my bookstore order it for me and then procrastinated and never picked it up! So I think at this point I'll wait to see if I get a gift card to my bookstore for Christmas and pick it up with that...One of these days!! : )

Hope all's well on your side of the world and that Santa's good to ya for Christmas! : )

andrewm said...

Nice series of photos, Rodney. Cross winds are surprisingly rare at WN, as the (often considerable) wind usually obliges by lining up reasonably closely with the runway.

That's one serious crab the A320 has on.

Cheers

Rodney said...

Hi Andrew,

Yeah, you're right. I've come in with 45+ knots at 1500' almost right across the runway... 25 knots straight down the runway at ground level.

BTW - that's not as much fun as you might think :-)

As for the A320's crab angle, it was the same with everything else coming in yesterday :-)

Cheers,

Rodney

Rodney said...

Hi Hindsfeet,

You certainly did the picture justice.

I hope you have a good Christmas and a decent break from whatever it is you do.

Cheers!

Rodney