Auckland trip #2: Air NZ and Auckland Aero Club

For my recent weekend holiday, I flew up to Auckland in the back of an Air New Zealand B737-300. Being stuck in the back of a pressurised tin can at around 36,000 feet is not quite as much fun as it's cracked up to be, but hey, it was only for an hour or so [going to Europe later this year is not going to be much fun...!] :-)

After arriving and picking up a rental car [from Budget Rentals - a small car so ugly that no one would steal it if I left the keys in the ignition and a big sign saying "nick me" :-)] I drove to Auckland Aero Club [AAC] to catch up with a few people. The welcome was friendly [as always] and it was great to catch up with those that I knew when I was flying there!

Anyway, here are some of the photos I took. Except as noted, these aircraft are all operated by AAC. The first photo is of the club rooms [obviously]. Included in that photo is Cessna 172SP , ZK-JRA. I first flew this aircraft when it had about 30 hours on the clock! The Grumman AA1C, ZK-FVS was always my favourite Grumman and I flew many hours in formation in it.

Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk, ZK-WAG was a tidy looking example, albeit with an expired engine. Hopefully that is replaced and it gets back in the air soon. ZK-FLF [aka "Fluffy"] is a Cessna 152 Aerobat and received a complete refurbishment [inside and out] about 2.5 years ago.

The latest addition to the AAC fleet is ZK-SRL, a Cirrus SR20. I don't know much about this aircraft, except that it's fast, has flat panel displays and looks awesome :-)

Aircraft operated by other operators are as follows:

ZK-SMI is a Beech 76 Duchess, owned by a family trust in Takapuna [part of North Shore City which is itself part of the greater Auckland region]. The Vans RV-6A, ZK-RVJ, is registered to a Nelson address and looked really tidy.

That's enough for this post. Enjoy the pictures - there's more coming in the next posts including ex-military fixed wing and various other helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.