More of those "different visitors"

What follows are 4 photos of the chartered aircraft that arrived yesterday, departing with their passengers.

The first is Cessna 404 Titan, ZK-NDY, registered to Ashburton Air Services. The second is an Air Chathams General Dynamics 440/580 Convair, registration ZK-CIF.

The last is an Airwork Boeing 737-219C, ZK-NQC. This aircraft has a fair amount of history in New Zealand, first arriving in 1982 registered to Air New Zealand [and without the hush-kit on the engines!]. In 2001 it was re-registered to Airwork Flight Operations, where it remains. I'm not sure how many cycles or hours it has, but it is rumoured to be one of the highest-time B737's in the world - not surprising considering it has at least 28 years of service. This aircraft is used for both passenger charters, as well as regular night-time freight runs [as can be seen by the Courier Post titles on the tail].

Some different visitors today

Arriving at the airport today I was greeted with the sight of several infrequent visitors on the aero club apron area. In addition, a Convair had pulled up, a Canadair CL600 Challenger arrived and an Airwork B737-200QC was offloading passengers on the other side of the airport. I'm not certain, but a Metroliner may have been here also.

It appears that a number of aircraft had been chartered by a single organisation to ferry people to Wellington [and other places during the preceding week].

Some of the pictures I got follow. Top to bottom are:

Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, ZK-VIP, registered to Air West Coast of Greymouth

Cessna 402C, ZK-VAD, registered to Ridge Air of Blenheim

Cessna 404 Titan, ZK-NDY, registered to Ashburton Air Services

Canadair CL600 Challenger, N604AU, registered to ANZA Aviation NA LLC of a USA address

General Dynamics Convair 440/580, ZK-CIF, registered to Air Chathams

Airline Twitter feeds added below...

For those who are interested, I have just added a few "random" links to airline Twitter feeds at the very bottom of this page!

These feeds will open in a new tab or window [depending on your settings] so you'll still be able to read this blog [because you know you want to!].

Enjoy, and as always, feedback is welcome - leave a message anytime :-)

Interesting weather and not so much flying

It has been an interesting weekend, weather wise. Listening to the media you would think that Wellington was going to be wiped off the map by a huge weather system lurking south of New Zealand. It was rough for much of the country, but in Wellington the only real change was a strong westerly component to the wind.

With a runway orientated roughly north/ south and hills on both sides, a westerly wind [gusting up around 40 knots cross winds at one brief stage], I was very very happy to be on the ground!

It was fun however watching the commercial aircraft approaching, getting bounced around, and, occasionally, going around and having another go :-)

Photos today are of a Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, ZK-MUS, followed by an Air New Zealand/ Air Nelson DHC-8, ZK-NET, Air NZ/ Mount Cook Airline ATR 72, ZK-MCA and Air NZ Boeing 737, ZK-NGH. The final photo is a Sounds Air Cessna 208 ZK-TZR.

BTW - the brown blur in front of the Mustang is because I was shooting through the security fence... somebody nicked the Club's picnic table [which I sometimes stood on... a little stink, I know...!]. If you happen to see a lost picnic table wandering aimlessly around Kilbernie, please send it back in our direction :-)

Bump bump bump

I had a quick trip to Napier/ Hastings yesterday and today in an Air Nelson/ Air New Zealand Dash 8. I flew out yesterday evening and back to Wellington today.

The approach in to Wellington was notable for the rough weather. The wind was only gusting around 40 knots, but the entire approach was lumpy. Throw in cloud and darkness and it was all a bit of fun :-)

Practice, practice, practice

I went for a short flight today in the Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT. Just a quick ride out to Mana Island following by a practice Forced Landing With Out Power [FLWOP], some turns and basic stalls. It was a bit of fun, and it's always good to practice this stuff.

The return to the airfield was via the Sinclair Sector which was not too bumpy considering the northerly breeze. There are no pictures from the flight [I was busy flying], just a couple of photos of Air New Zealand Airbus A320 ZK-OJH taking off later in the day. This aircraft is painted in the "Star Alliance" promotional scheme.

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #14: Various

In this final post from my Auckland visit, I pulled together a number of pictures from the Saturday and Sunday. Thanks for visiting and I hope that you've enjoyed the pictures I've bought you!

Top to bottom are:

Air Nelson [Air New Zealand] Bombardier DHC-8, Eagle Airways [Air New Zealand] Beech B1900D, NZ Post Fokker F27 Friendship, Bombardier BD-100-1A10, and an airport departure gate while I was waiting for my [delayed] flight home to Wellington.

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #13: Boeing 777

I have fond memories of the Boeing 777, having flown with Air New Zealand to Heathrow via Hongkong. It was a very comfortable, exciting and yet relaxing flight.

Here are a few of the B777's I saw over the two days, from Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines and Thai.

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #12: Boeing 767

These pictures are of some Boeing 767 aircraft. The first two are of Air New Zealand aircraft with the new blended winglets installed.

The third is of an ATI B767 model without the winglets installed. This aircraft was coverted from a passenger model - the window positions are still visible.

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #11: Boeing 747

I didn't see many Boeing 747's during my visit, but what did surprise me was to see this Atlas B747-400 freighter! This aircraft is operatedby Atlas on behalf of Qantas.

I don't get to see many freighters, and on this trip I have seen three Boeing-based freighters - this B747, the B727, and still to come, a B767.

The final photo is an Air Pacific B747-400.

Enjoy!

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #10: Boeing 737 - B

In this second Boeing 737 post, I'm putting up two Qantas B737-800's and an Air Pacific B737-800.

I especially like the special Qantas paint scheme on the first aircraft.

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #9: Boeing 737 - A

Boeing aircraft of various models are very common in New Zealand's skies, although this will be changing over the next couple of years. Air New Zealand are retiring/ selling their Boeing 737 fleet [they are acquiring more Airbus A320's to cover the domestic main trunk], and with Pacific Blue retreating from the domestic scene to concentrate on the trans-Tasman routes.

In this first of two B737 posts, we have a number of Air New Zealand [B737-300], Qantas [B737-400] and Pacific Blue [B737-800] Boeings.

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #8: Boeing 727

An aircraft that is becoming even more rare in New Zealand skies [especially since I understand that the Australians are becoming particularly tight on operations by noisier aircraft] is the Boeing B727.

The one pictured here is a DHL-operated freighter [I haven't seen an airline-operated passenger model since I flew on one from Hamilton to Brisbane with Kiwi International Airlines many years ago!] and is parked up. Shame about the big pole cutting off some of the tail...

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #7: Airbus A380

In the last of the Airbus pictures from Auckland, here are three pictures of an Emirates Airbus A380 on approach and landing.

This is one big aircraft, although that is not the reason I like these photos. Take a good look at the second and third pictures. These were taken 2 seconds apart. Apart from the fact that the spoilers have been deployed in the second photo, take a good look at the wings. In the second photo the wingtips are significantly lower, and the whole wing has quite a different shape.

As soon as those wings get "unloaded" they droop down noticeably - that might have been one incredible bit of engineering by itself. That is very impressive!

Anyway, enjoy the photos!

Auckland Quick Visit Sep 2010 #6: Airbus A340

Next up on the list of aircraft types seen at Auckland are some Airbus A340's. These aircraft are from Emirates, LAN, Aerolineas Argentinas, Cathay Pacific and Air Tahiti Nui. I particularly liked the Air Tahiti Nui pictures - I think that they have one of the best "regular" aircraft paint schemes - so I've put in two of those.

Enjoy!