Yesterday and today

Yesterday

Yesterday's weather was pretty much awful for VFR [Visual Flight Rules] flying, so there was no flying from the Club. There were a couple of IFR visitors. The first was this Diamond DA42 Twinstar, ZK-CTH, from CTC in Hamilton.

The second was a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, ZK-MYH, registered to Air2There.com.

Both of these aircraft were parked up outside the aeroclub. The Twinstar was held up for a couple of hours until the weather was at IFR minima for the flight...



Today

Nothing much in the way of visitors, except for this Cessna 185C, ZK-JHS, registered to Stephenson's Pharmacy Ltd in Whitianga.

The big news for me though was a flight in the Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT. I had not flown a C172 since January 2007, so after a few circuits with a Club instructor I managed a few by myself. I'll probably take it up for an hour next weekend to consolidate some skills before my next big C172 adventure in the next couple of months [more on that in a later post :-)].

Last weekend's visitors

Here are a couple of visitors from last weekend. The first is General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580, ZK-CIE, registered to Air Chathams Ltd, of the Chathams Island. This aircraft was left at Wellington at the conclusion of a charter.

The second is the RNZAF Boeing B757, NZ7572 departing Wellington. This is the biggest aircraft to regularly visit Wellington.

Gulf Air Airbus A340 departing Wellington

Well, I missed the departure, but Silke [Thanks!] has kindly given me a video of the event, so here it is.

Another Gulf Air A340 picture

I popped out to the aero club today, and seeing the Gulf Air Airbus A340 parked on the "freight" apron, I popped over and grabbed some more pictures. Here is one of the better ones.

As I've said before, it's an awesome looking aircraft! Enjoy!

Gulf Air Airbus A340 landing at Wellington video

One of this blog's readers mentioned that there was a video of the Gulf Air Airbus a340 landing at Wellington [Thanks, Grayson]. I thought that some of you might be interested in this, so here it is:

Gulf Air Airbus A340 at Wellington!!!!

In what are probably a couple of firsts for Wellington International Airport, a Gulf Air Airbus A340-313X [registration A9C-LI] has landed with the Bahrain national football team on board in preparation for this weekend's clash against the New Zealand national team, the All Whites.

This will be the first time [someone correct me if I am wrong!] that a Gulf Air aircraft has landed at Wellington, and is likely also the first time that an Airbus A340 has visited.

The aircraft was parked at gate 25 [I think I have read that correctly] for some time before being pushed back to the freight apron for the next couple of days. The game is on Saturday, so I imagine that the aircraft will leave on Sunday some time.

The aircraft has a really nice paint job - notice in particular all of the advertising decals - F1 Grand Prix 2010 on the fuselage, and the Bahrain International Airshow on the engine cowls. Apologies for the image quality - these were taken as late as about 7:45pm, and so the light was fading. I'll see if I can get some better photos on the weekend!

Saturday's aircraft

Here are the pictures I took yesterday from the Aero Club of various regular and visiting aircraft to Wellington.

Of particular interest to me is a Piper PA31 ZK-VIP, registered to Air West Coast Ltd. I have seen this aircraft several times in the past, although last time it looked extremely tired. Amazing what a flash new paint job will do!

Top to bottom these aircraft are:

Piper PA31, ZK-VIP, Air West Coast Ltd
Cessna C172N, ZK-EFF, Motueka Aero Club
Partenavia P68C, ZK-MIR, Canterbury Aero Club
Diamond DA20-C1, ZK-SFI, CTC Aviation Training Ltd
Cessna C172S, ZK-WKT, CTC Aviation Training Ltd
Nanchang CJ6, ZK-MAO, Wellington Aero Club
Aerospatiale Alenia ATR72-212A, ZK-MCP, Mount Cook Airline Ltd

Getting high :-)

After yesterday's flight to Masterton, I thought I would do something a little different today. Today's flight was a reasonably short [1.5 hour] sightseeing flight to the southern part of the east coast of the North Island. I went as far north as Flat Point aerodrome [ICAO code: NZFT], but didn't really get close to it... because I was up at 13,000 feet for the first time :-)

I took my usual aircraft, a Piper PA28-181, ZK-TDJ, and if it wasn't for the limitation of 13,000' without oxygen, I reckon it would have easily gone higher. As you'll see from the picture, I was still doing about 90 knots indicated straight and level and prior to this it was still climbing at least 300 feet/min, with two people on board and we started with full fuel tanks.

The second picture is from later in the flight as we descended to about 4,300 feet approaching Palliser Bay in the southern Wairarapa area.

50 years of the "new" Wellington International Airport...

... and 80 odd years that the Wellington Aero Club has been operating here :-)

Wellington International Airport held it's 50th anniversary open day today. It's been 50 years since the "new" airport was opened, although as I noted above, Wellington Aero Club has been operating off this same site for much longer than that.

I didn't get over to the open day, although there appeared to have been plenty on, including Airport Fire displays, an Air New Zealand Airbus A320 available for people to walk through, a couple of other aircraft and a [very very] small air display with an RNZAF Historic Flight Harvard 3* performing a couple of quick aerobatic displays [sorry, missed the chance for photos of these].

Anyway, here are the pictures. Top to bottom:

RNZAF Historic Flight Harvard Mk III, NZ1015, refueling at Wellington Aero Club
RNZAF Bell UH1H Iroquois, NZ3805
Pacific Aerospace Cresco 08-600, ZK-PWT, registered to Griffen Ag Air of Palmerston North