Post # 100! All the way from Christchurch

Yes, this is post #100... OK, I'm over it!

I flew to Christchurch this afternoon for a quick visit [I was rushed for time, so only spent about 45 minutes there - all at the Canterbury Aero Club]. The flight itself was a load of fun [2.1 hours each way], although I was by myself so no pictures from the flight itself. That's a real shame, because the scenary is AMAZING!!

I managed to get to Christchurch Airport and land without too many issues. After a quick look around, a refuel [guess who left his fuel card behind in Wellington!] and a few photos I came home.

Flight back was uneventful, just some moderate turbulance coming back into Wellington, and a mad rush to get in before the B737 a few seconds after me... Anyway, here are some photos from Christchurch Airport. I'll have to go for a few days next time...

Top to bottom are:

A small number of the Canterbury Aero Club fleet looking towards the main terminals
A Jetstar A320 [Qantas budget airline offshoot] taxying for takeoff
Two C130's from the US Antarctic Programme

Good bye South Africa

Here is a "first of type" for me: A South African registered aircraft. ZS-GJB is a Bombardier BD700 and was operating with callsign "South African 2" on departure. The weather was rubbish [these photos were taken shortly after the RNZAF B757 departed - refer previous post], but that is usual :-)

Ahhhh..... the joys of a week off work!

Here three pictures of an RNZAF B757 visiting Wellington. The first two are just after it had landed [note the sunshine]. The last is just after takeoff [note the lack of sunshine] a couple of hours later.

Another to note [especially for those who know Wellington airport well], this B757 must have used next to NO runway for the takeoff roll!!!! I saw other types [such as Saab 340A's] take a lot more runway during takeoff... must have been very lightly loaded! Awesome!

Star Alliance Paint Job

Here are two shots of an Air New Zealand A320 after landing at Wellington, painted in the Star Alliance paint scheme.

Awesome ATR video

Here is an awesome video of a Mount Cook Airlines ATR landing at Christchurch. It's not my own video (check out the details on YouTube for "timkiwi's" other videos). Contrary to how it looks, the ATR was not deadsticking it onto the runway...

Two videos

Here are two basic videos of aircraft short finals for Wellington International, runway 16. Apologies for the quality, Youtube does not really like me uploading .MOV files - conversion does something terrible to the quality :-(

Short finals for 16

Here are three pictures I shot of aircraft very short finals for runway 16. Top to bottom they are:

Air New Zealand B737
Eagle Air B1900D
Wellington Aero Club Piper tomahawk

In case you are wondering, they are only a few hundred metres out from touchdown... :-)

Metroliner SA227

Earlier today, I snapped this picture of a Fairchild SA227-CC Metroliner.

Short finals...

Here are a couple of shots of GA (general aviation) light commercial aircraft on short finals for Wellington. In this case, they are approaching the airfield from the south. As is usual it's windy in Wellington, but still a very nice day.

The first is a Gippsland Aviation GA8 in Sounds Air colours, and the second a Cessna/Reims F406 operated by Vincent Aviation.

Cessna 180

Here's a picture of a Cessna 180H at Wellington. The picture was taken from within the Wellington Aero Club's clubrooms. ZK-DBX had just landed and dropped off a passenger before leaving.