More from Ardmore...

OK, more pictures from my last visit the Auckland/Ardmore... Top to bottom are:

Cessna C182R ZK-SAR parked near Auckland Aero Club
Cessna C172M ZK-DXM outside Eagle Flight Training
Eagle 150B at Dennis Thompson International [aircraft sales]
Robinson R22 Alpha
Cessna A150L aerobat ZK-DNO in which I had a night training flight [awesome!]

Auckland Aero Club

Here's a few pictures from Auckland Aero Club [AAC]. This is where I spent the past few years flying [prior to moving to Wellington]. As you can see, the weather was perfect! I was also the Club Captain at AAC for 3 years from Dec 2002 - Dec 2005.

Top to bottom, the photos are:

Auckland Aero Club clubhouse and apron
C172N ZK-JAZ in which I did most of my flying on my last visit
Grumman AA1C basic trainers - the core of the AAC fleet
PA28-140 Warrior ZK-CNI
PA28-200R Arrow II ZK-EBE [135kt cruise, retractable gear and CSU]

More warbirds and stuff!

Here's a few more aircraft from Ardmore. These pictures were all taken on the south eastern apron, which houses [amongst others] the NZ Warbirds Association, a range of private single and twin aircraft and maintenance facilities. In order:

View of much of the apron
Catalina
Cessna Birddog
CT4/B
And finally, a bright red Beaver :-)

Harvards at Ardmore

During my recent visit to Auckland, I was able to get pictures of a variety of warbird and vintage aircraft, including these Harvards. 53 and 57 had recently arrived back from a formation sortie, the others are [obviously] undergoing maintenance.

Back to Ardmore...

After I had finished with Auckland City [refer previous post, below] I rejoined at Ardmore on the non-traffic side. It was not very busy at Ardmore [from memory, only 6 or 7 other aircraft in the circuit...!]. Here are a few pictures from the rejoin and subsequent circuits. Some of the pictures are faded because they were shot through grotty aircraft perspex :-). Anyway, the pictures in order are:

- on the "non traffic" side for runway 21
- turning crosswind on the "non traffic" side
- final approach for runway 21
- still final approach
- very short final

A trip to Auckland!

I've just come back from a trip to Auckland. I had a few days off and so decided to visit a few old friends up there. Obviously, I popped back to the Auckland Aero Club [actually I seemed to spend most of the weekend there!] and did a bit of flying.

Here are some pictures from a sortie from Ardmore airfield over Auckland City. These were taken by a passenger [thanks Gavin!]. What ever people think of Auckland as a place to live, it is a beautiful place to fly over!

Top to bottom, the pictures are:

- Clevedon river mouth tracking to Maraetai/Beachlands
- Musik Point tracking to the city centre
- Orbiting the Sky Tower
- Manukau Heads [essentially west of Auckland International Airport]
- Abeam One Tree Hill looking towards Auckland International Airport [centre of image next to the water]

Air Chathams General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580

Just as a squall arrived at Wellington [hard to believe that the weather could be bad at Wellington, I know :-) ], I saw this Air Chathams General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580 taxiing for takeoff.

Vincent Beech 1900D video at Wellington

After my earlier post on the Vincent Beech 1900C, here's a video of the Vincent Beech 1900D landing at Wellington. Nothing too exciting, but still!

Air Manawatu Air Ambulance

This is a picture of an Air Manawatu Air Ambulance Cessna 421C at Wellington. It's not a particularly good picture, but it's the best one I got...

Vincent Beech 1900C at Wellington

This is a picture of a Vincent Aviation Beech 1900C at Wellington. Biggest obvious [external] difference between the C and D models is the fuselage - the 1900D has much more headroom.

Islander In Disguise...

The following pictures are of a recent arrival into New Zealand. Contrary to it's markings, this Britten-Norman BN2B-26 "Islander" is registered to Sounds Air. It is still carrying the markings of it's previous [Australian] owner [with the exception of the NZ registration marks].

These pictures are taken from within the Wellington Aero Club just after the aircraft had landed. Presumably it will be repainted in the Sounds Air colours in due course.

Another video

Here's another video, this time of a Dash-8 getting airborne at Wellington Airport.

Enjoy!

RNZAF B757 at Wellington

Here are a couple of pictures of a Royal New Zealand Air Force B757 taxying for departure.

Cessna Caravan

This is one of the Cessna Caravan's that frequent Wellington airport, in this case operated by Sounds Air. Sounds Air is one of two 3rd-tier airlines that have regular, scheduled sectors into Wellington [the other being Air2There].

Now with VIDEO!

I came across a Blogspot Blog yesterday, and it had video on it. A bit of poking around and I worked out how to do it for myself. I'm using my Olympus Digital Camera, so it's VERY basic quality.

My first video [below] is pretty basic. Just a Dash-8 landing at Wellington Airport. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing hard [hard to believe for Wellington!!! ha ha ha] and I had no tripod, so it's pretty shaky. We'll see how they improve in the next few weeks.

Enjoy!