Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Air Chathams Convair 440/580

A very special visitor today was this General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580, ZK-CIE, registered to Air Chathams. This aircraft is on a charter tour of New Zealand and is parked outside of the aero club for a day or so. It is really good to see some of these older aircraft still earning their keep on a daily basis.

As an aside - the weather is [temporarily] back to being great :-)




1 comment:

Lenny said...

I heard this plane on approach over Crofton Downs today, and thought - "That's a Convair 580" - sure 'nuff it was! This is an awesome turboprop. They nickname them "Old Smokey", due to the smoke trail behind those grunty Alison Turboprops.
I was lucky to get to ride in the jump seat of ZK-CIB a year ago on a trip back from the Chathams. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgU6xiQ61-4&list=UUZFi95AIrFaq9DuHF2yq-nw&index=7&feature=plcp