Yakovlev Yak-18T and C152

A new type for me was the visit of the Yakovlev Yak-18T to Wellington. ZK-SSR is registered to a Nelson address.

Another visitor was this Cessna 152, ZK-FOF, registered to a Motueka address.

A new Airbus already????!

Hot on the heels of the first engine runs of the new Boeing 787, and with the Airbus A380 bedded in to airline service, it appears that Airbus have been very busy designing the latest addition to their fleet. How they managed to do this without the usual plethora of press releases and insider leaks, I'm not quite sure.

Anyway, Airbus have released these official photos of the new Airbus A390, almost complete, in their main build hanger. The aircraft itself is designed for ultra long-range [Sydney - Heathrow direct!], and ultra comfortable travel, and surprisingly, will work with any A380-ready airport.



Clearly, Airbus are betting on the continued need for very large aircraft. Either that, or it has been a boring weekend with atrocious weather entirely unsuitable for flying light aircraft - leaving way too much time for my imagination to run wild. Your pick. :-)

Thanks for the photos Liz!

Not much flying today...

... with the winds gusting up around 60 knots at times. Most of the traffic at Wellington today consisted of various B737's and some A320's. I did see a couple of other types departing, but that was about it.

This weather is supposed to last for a couple more days... as long as the roof doesn't lift off my house tonight :-)

A few circuits

I wasn't planning on flying today, but was offered an opportunity to jump in as a passenger for a few circuits... which obviously I took up [Thanks, John].

Here are a few pictures of the flight. Firstly, two just after takeoff, looking across Lyall Bay, then across to Island Bay with the South Island in the background. The third picture is from the mid downwind position looking back to the airfield. Lastly, short final approach to runway 16.

Nanchang CJ-6 now based at Wellington

As from a few days ago, a Nanchang CJ6, ZK-JNA, is now based at Wellington, owned by a syndicate. It will be based in the Wellington Aero Club hanger. As I understand it, it will initially be available to syndicate members only, with perhaps some wider availability some time after that.

The aircraft went on a couple of flights today - here's a picture of it preparing for a flight.

USAF C17 Globemaster

Here are a couple of pictures of a USAF C17 Globemaster that is being parked up at Wellington for the past few days. From newspaper reports [if they can be believed...] the aircraft is here for a few days with some USAF personnel on a "study tour" of some sort.

A nice practice flight

I went up for a dual flight yesterday which was a chance to practice those bits and pieces that I really need to practice... FLWOP*, EFATO**, stalls, low flying, turns and circuits. It all went well, with the only "different" consideration being the start of duck hunting season, so we avoided part of the low flying zone... just in case some duck shooter had really bad eyesight :-(

No pictures this time around, too busy flying the plane :-)

* FLWOP - Forced Landing With Out Power
** EFATO - Engine Failure After Take Off - almost the same as FLWOP except you are much lower and slower to start with, so less time to deal with the problem