Sunday, May 27, 2007

RNZAF C130H Hercules in a low pass

Here's a short movie I took at the Wings Over Wairarapa Airshow earlier this year... for some reason I had forgotten to upload this to YouTube until today, and so here it is!

There is no sound [sorry] and a little shacky at the end, but still an impressive pass. Enjoy!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Two more aircraft

First up is the bright yellow Cessna 185 ZK-SME at Wellington. This aircraft is usually based at Masterton aerodrome. The second is a Cessna A152 Aerobat ZK-ETS. This was visiting Wellington, along with another C152 ZK-UVW, from Motueka. In the background is the Vincent Aviation Dash-8 .

Cessna 185Cessna A152

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Dasault Falcon 900 EASy

I was out at the airport today and noticed this German registered Dassault Falcon 900 EASy [yes, the "EASy" bit is what is on the German register] sitting on the western apron.

From my very quick and superficial look at the Dassault website [www.dassault.com] and another related site [http://www.dassaultfalcon.com/index_flash.jsp], it would appear that the "EASy" bit refers to the really nice glass cockpit design.

One of the features that struck me most was that even for a low wing aircraft, the wings of this aircraft appear very low to the ground. It looks as though the wings have is a bit of anhedral which may add to the effect. In any case, it is one of the better looking aircraft around, and as they say: If it looks right, it'll fly right.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Over the ditch and back again

I got to go flying again today, and even better, it was free! OK, so I wasn't flying, but a passenger in a PA38 [Tomahawk]. "Captain Nirav" earned his PPL a few weeks ago, and was planning on going to Nelson. I turned up at the right time, and got to go with him. Awesome!

Unfortunately the weather was not great. We got over the ditch [Cooks Strait], passed Tory Channel and over Queen Charlotte Sound. At that point it become obvious that we were not going to get much further with cloud over all of the hills. Rather than push on we came back to Wellington - still a good trip!

The first of the photos was taken at about 900' abeam Long Island looking towards the north western "spike" on Arapawa Island. The rest are coming back to Wellington - Right-hand downwind in the airport holding pattern, right base and short final approach for runway 16.

Long Island
Airport from the holding patternRight base for runway 16Short final approach for runway 16

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Here's something a little different!

These are not my pictures [unfortunately!], and I know that they have been around for a while, but they still look amazing!

This is the airport at the French Savoy ski resort of Courchevel. The slope is 18.5% [!!!] at the steepest part of the 535 meter long runway. That's incredible! The first shot is during summer, and the remainder are rather more chilly. Thanks Mother Goose for sending these to me. Enjoy!



Thursday, May 03, 2007

The Cessna and the Duchess

Here are two photos. The first is of a Sounds Air Cessna U206G. Nothing particularly unusual in that except note the handle and step, presumably for skydiving operations.

The second is of a BE76 Duchess visiting from Ardmore Flying School in Auckland. The Duchess is good as a twin engine and IFR trainer, but not particularly fast or with great load carrying capabilities [not that I'm rated on it or anything].

Both of these photos were taken at Wellington Airport.

Sounds Air Cessna U206G
BE76 Duchess

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Really Jolly Good!

Here are a couple of pictures of ZK-RJG, a Cessna R172K that is owned and run by the Bulls Flying Doctor Service. Dr Dave Baldwin [the flying doctor] is a NZ aviation medical examiner grade 1, and also has a commercial pilot licence. He has a number of offices around the country that he flys in to on a regular basis.

Check out Dr Dave's website for all the details: http://www.flyingdoctor.co.nz/

Apart from the sponsor's decals [probably the wrong time/place for jokes about how his plane gets up], note the "L plate" in the rear window!!!!!

Bulls Flying Doctor Service
Bulls Flying Doctor Service