Beech C90

This Air Wanganui C90 King Air is just getting airborne at Wellington. Quite an ugly aircraft - short and stubby, especially up front :-) Still, it is the first time that I've got a reasonable photo of it.

Square Trust Rescue Helicopter

This is the Square Trust Rescue helicopter that visited Wellington earlier today. I believe that it is based in Palmerston North [can someone confirm this?]. It is an Aerospatiale AS 350B2.

Visit from the "Armee de L'Air"

Here's a picture of a French Airforce "Armee de L'Air" Transall C-160 departing from Wellington recently. Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transall_C-160] has a reasonable description of the aircraft. These are not great photos [evening/fading light], but they do show the aircraft off "reasonably well".

Air National BAE Jetstream 32

Here are 3 pictures of an Air National [charter airline] BAE Jetstream 32 landing at Wellington recently.

Cessna Citation Jet

Here's a picture of a Cessna Citation Jet 3 [registration ZK-TBM] taxying for takeoff at Wellington. An awesome looking plane - almost as good as the IAI 1124a Westwind in the previous post!

IAI 1124A Westwind

These are pictures of an IAI 1124A Westwind [registration ZK-RML] on the western apron at Wellington earlier today. Designed and built in Israel, these aircraft apparently have good performance, as well as looking great!

Perhaps one of the most noticeable features is how low to the ground the fuselage appears to be [probably partly a consequence of the mid-mounted wings].

Air2There Cessna Caravan

This is a picture of a Cessna 208B [Caravan] from local airline Air2There. This was taken as it lifted off from Wellington.

Air2There is based at Paraparaumu Airport [about 15 minutes flight north of Wellington Airport] and does a circuit that includes Blenheim and Nelson [the top of the South Island], Wellington and Paraparaumu.

Piper Seneca II

These pictures are of a PA34-200T [Piper Seneca] taxying for takeoff at Wellington. Piper do tend to make some nice looking aeroplanes [maybe with the exception of the PA38-112 Tomahawk????] and the Seneca is no exception!

Another picture of the B737-219C

Here is another picture of the Airwork Boeing departing from Wellington. This picture gives a good view of those older engines. The B737 has spent the past couple of days coming and going from Wellington.

Airwork Boeing

Here's a picture of the Airwork B737-219C taking off at Wellington. This appears to be one of [if not the] last of type on the NZ register, and is an ex-Air New Zealand model [from some years back]. Note the hush-kit on the engines which were introduced many years ago to reduce the noise foot-print.

A rare visitor to Wellington - 2nd attempt!!!

This is a C17 Globemaster that I spotted, parked on the RNZAF Air Movements Base apron at Wellington recently. Even from this distance, its size is impressive!

Unfortunately, I missed the landing and will likely miss the takeoff... bummer!

[Many thanks to a visitor, 'Matt', who corrected the last version of this post when I said it was a C5 Galaxy... I was wondering just the other day when I would make such an obvious mistake!!]

Another cool blog

Check out this blog I found - another Kiwi who flys. This chap is based at Waikato Aero Club an seems to have some good stuff to say:

http://flyinkiwi.blogspot.com/

Redbull. Perth. 2006. Need I say more???!

WOW!!!!! That might be appropriate :-)

Unfortunately I was not there to see this spectacular event first hand, but through a friend ["hello Mother Goose"!], someone who was there has allowed me to post these pictures from the event ["thanks, Cosmo"!]. There are a lot of them, but well worth it!

The first three are of aircraft on the ground and of the temporary airfield at Langley Park [Perth, Australia]. The rest are the aerial shots. These pilots are amazing! Fantastic!

Hmmmm, not quite the welcome we were wanting...

Ooops! These pictures are of a B737 idle on the taxiway at Wellington. Appears that as it left the runway, it left it's nosewheel hydraulic fluid behind... which resulted in quite a little welcoming committee.

Again the photos had to be shot into sun and through a grubby window, so the are not great. The final shot is one of the aircraft about to be towed off to the terminal.

Huey in Wellington

Here's an Airforce Huey visiting Wellington. The pictures aren't great [had to shoot towards the sun, through grubby windows], but still nice :-)

The first is on arrival, the second on departure a few minutes later.

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.

Odds and sods from Wellington

Here are a few odds and sods from Wellington International.

The first two are of a General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580 of Pionair ZK-PAL after landing at Wellington. Following that are two ex-Origin Pacific Airlines Jetstream J41's, then a closeup of a beautiful Grumman American AA-5 ZK-DLH. Lastly, a picture of an Air National Jetstream J31/32.