Today's other visitors

Another half-day of being at the aero club meant a few more aircraft and people to photograph. Top to bottom are:

Cessna 150H, ZK-DTQ, registered to a Wellington address

Cessna 510 Mustang, ZK-MUS, registered to Acernus Aero also of a Wellington address

Cessna 680 Sovereign, ZK-JTH, registered to Pacific Jets of Christchurch

and lastly, a picture of the aero club hanger being packed up for the night.

Fokker F27 Friendship engine run

Following on from my previous post, it seems that Fokker F27 Friendship, ZK-PAX, had an engine problem a couple of nights ago, hence the maintenance.

After a day or so in the Vincent hanger, it was towed out this evening for an initial engine run. I had forgotten how noisy and smelly [in other words, awesome!] these old Rolls Royce engines are, but it didn't take long to remember :-)

Apologies for the image quality - it was starting to get dark when I took these. Note that it is only the left engine being tested. Enjoy!

A Fokker and a Cessna

Just a quick visit to the club today before heading out to pretend to be a computer geek for a couple of hours...

The most interesting sighting was this Fokker F27-500 Friendship, ZK-PAX. This is registered to Airwork Flight Operations and is commonly used to carry the mail around New Zealand overnight. In this case, it is being towed into a Vincent Aviation maintenance hanger [I'm not sure what the reason is]. I vaguely recall flying on one of these from Wanganui to Taupo and Auckland many, many years ago.

The second aircraft is an Air2There Cessna 208 Caravan, ZK-MYH. This was parked up outside the aero club for a while.

More Cessnas and a Beechcraft

There was no flying for me today [I still need to pay for the last lot!], but there were a number of visitors to be seen as I was hanging around the club.

The first is a Cessna 182S, ZK-LKM, registered to a Wanganui address. I understand that this aircraft has been doing a bit of touring around. The second and third aircraft are Cessna 172's, ZK-RWC [a C172B registered to a Mahia address] and ZK-EFF [a C172N registered to Motueka Aero Club].

The final Cessna is a C510 Mustang, ZK-PGA. This is registered to NZ Jet Charters Ltd/ Pacific Jets at a North Shore City address.

The last aircraft in today's line-up is Beechcraft BE76 Duchess, ZK-JED, registered to Ardmore Flying School.

Kerosene-powered Spitfire??!? Almost!

Ok, you'll need a bit of an imagination for this one, but I found a kerosene-powered Spitfire last week! Pictures below :-)

Another 2.7 hours flying - the aircraft: 2 of 2

Ok, here are the final aircraft I got photos of, from Masterton aerodrome earlier today.

When I arrived, the Tecnam was conducting circuit training [dual then solo]. The Tomahawk is one of Wellington Aero Club's leased aircraft which is being parked at Masterton.

Enjoy!

Top to bottom are:

Tecnam P2002 Sierra, ZK-MVT, registered to Wairarapa & Ruahine Aero Club

Piper PA38-112, ZK-FML, registered to Wellington Aero Club

Cessna 180H, ZK-DBX, registered to Dairy Air Ltd

Piper PA18, ZK-BKV, registered to Ace Aviation Ltd

Another 2.7 hours flying - the aircraft: 1 of 2

In this second-last post from today's flying, I thought I would show some of the other aircraft I saw at Masterton [unfortunately there was no time hang around other aerodromes to see what was about].

Top to bottom are:

Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT, registered to Wellington Aero Club [this is the aircraft I flew today]

NZ Aerospace FU24-950 Fletcher, ZK-DZM, registered to Super Air Ltd

NZ Aerospace FU24-950 Fletcher, ZK-EFM, registered to Super Air Ltd

De Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmonk Series 22, N861WP

Cessna 172N, ZK-JCI with the cowls off, registered to an Australian address

Cessna R172K, ZK-LES, registered to a Masterton address

[The next post will have the remaining aircraft]

Another 2.7 hours flying - the scenery

During today's "epic mission" Jason [passenger on the last leg] and I managed to get a few pictures of the local scenery.

All of these pictures are within [roughly] 1 hour flight time, which shows just how much the terrain can change in a short time. Top to bottom, the images are:

Just south of Pukerua Bay [northern Wellington area]

Paekakariki township

Lake Horowhenua [Levin township in the background]

Coastline looking south

Kapiti Island

"Central" Wairarapa area, looking east

"Central" Wairarapa area, looking south-west

Lake Wairarapa looking south to Palliser Bay

Another 2.7 hours flying!

After several weeks of rubbish weather, this past week has been fantastic! After flights on Monday and Wednesday in Piper PA38-112 Tomahawks, this time it was the club's Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT.

The flights was planned to be Wellington [NZWN] - Wanganui [NZWU] - overhead Foxton [NZFP] - Masterton [NZMS] - Wellington. I had to get to Masterton to pick up another club member [Hello Jason!] who was ferrying a PA38 to Masterton. Because of this and some slightly complicated weather [cloud between me and Masterton], I cut Wanganui out of the flight, did a touch and go at Foxpine and headed the long way to Masterton.

Along the way I spotted a number of aerodromes including two unregistered strips. The pictures follow. Top to bottom they are:

Paraparaumu [ICAO: NZPP] which is about 25 nm north of Wellington.

Foxpine [ICAO: NZFP] north-west of NZPP [aerodrome is the strip in the very centre of the image]

Unknown - an unregistered strip just north of Pukerua Bay

Unregistered strip at Kaitoke, north end of the Hutt Valley

Masterton [NZMS] runway 24

Wellington [NZWN] runway 16 [note the B737 taking off just ahead of us]

3 Cessnas

Wellington weather is getting back to what we wanted, with another day that was just perfect for flying. Long may it last!

After two PA38 flights this week, I stayed on the ground, but it's looking good for a bit of a Cessna mission tomorrow - more on that tomorrow if the weather holds up :-)

Today's notable visitors were 3 Cessnas.

The first is a C172M, ZK-DWO, registered to a Takapau address. I have to say that this is one of the dirtiest aircraft I've ever seen, with the empennage and tail covered in bird droppings... must be parked up somewhere convenient for a lot of birds...

The second is a C172K, ZK-DEP, registered to a Martinborough address. I didn't get up close to this one [it arrived later in the evening], but looked quite nice from across the apron. Lastly is R182 [retractable], ZK-EKL, registered to Kapiti Districts Aero Club of Paraparaumu. This has had a recent paint job and looked really tidy.

Enjoy the pictures and hopefully a few more tomorrow evening!