The Beechcraft Room @ Wellington Aero Club

It was a quiet day today at the club with windy conditions that would have been too difficult for most pilots, so flying was all but cancelled for the day. However with the upcoming 2010 open day coming up on Saturday 27 March, it was a start to a general tidy up around the club with weeds pulled and a bit of rubbish cleared away.

During the cleanup we found an old sign "Beechcraft Room" which is now located above the pilot lounge. Nico - we were thinking of you, when we put this up! Now for some sponsorship! Maybe you could add some skippers to the fleet???

A couple of Cessna's

Here are a couple of random Cessna 172's parked up at the aero club yesterday.

The first is ZK-WFS, a Cessna 172M registered to Nelson Aero Leasing Ltd. The second is ZK-DXQ, another C172M and registered to the RNZAF Base Auckland Aviation Sports Club.

Announcement: Wellington Aero Club Open Day 2010!

This is a brief announcement that Wellington Aero Club will be having an open day on Saturday 27 March 2010 at the club rooms, Wellington International Airport, Coutts St, Wellington!

Planning indicates that we will have an even bigger range of private, commercial and special interest [such as warbird] aircraft on display than in previous years, so mark this date in your calendar today!

More details will be posted as we get closer to the date, but for a taste of things to come, here are links to previous open days that I have covered:

WAC Open Day 2006
WAC Open Day 2008
WAC Open Day 2009

I hope to see you there!

United Arab Emirates Boeing BBJ visits Wellington

A very unusual visitor to Wellington today is this United Arab Emirates Boeing 737-8EX BBJ2, A6-AUH, pictured here on the RNZAF Air Movements Base apron. Taking a good look at it, there are a lot of extra bumps and lumps on it, including [if you look close] what appears to be an counter-missile system at the rear.

Thanks to Raynesh for the heads up on this one.

Another great day today, circuits at Wharekauhau.

After yesterday's great weather day, today was another beauty! The best thing I did today was go and do some strip flying in a club Cessna C172, ZK-ETK, at Wharekauhau airstrip with the CFI. Awesome fun and not too hard if a bit of care is taken :-)

I didn't get any pictures of the flying [I really need to take someone along just to take photos!], but I did have great fun!

Just a couple of photos today. The first is Mount Cook/ Air New Zealand Aerospatiale ATR72, ZK-MCA. The second is a Royal New Zealand Air Force [RNZAF] Bell UH-1H Iroquois, NZ3802. The helicopter was taking some cheerleaders/ dancers to the Wellington Rugby Sevens tournament.

Awesome weather, and planes!

What is it with the Wellington weather? After a miserable start to the year, the sunshine has been out for the past few days, and it has been good!

Yesterday evening I was out and about with some friends... and just happened to be overlooking the airfield for much of this time. :-)

Here are a few photos from that evening. The first is a view of the airport itself. The second is an Air Nelson/ Air New Zealand de Havilland Canada DHC-8, ZK-NEG just after takeoff. Likewise for the third shot, Air New Zealand Boeing 737, ZK-SJE.

The final picture is of a Mount Cook/ Air New Zealand Aerospatiale ATR72 [registration unknown] silhouetted against the sky.