Flying competition - judges and other aircraft

In this final post from the regional comps, I have a number of "other" aircraft - visitors not directly associated with the comps, as well as pictures of two groups of some of the hardest working people in a competition - the judges. In this case, we have judges on the bombing grid and aeros judges.

Other aircraft are:

Diamond DA40, ZK-MTI, registered to Massey University
Raytheon/ Beech 1900D, ZK-EAC, registered to Eagle Airways departing on their scheduled flight
Jabiru J160, ZK-CCG, registered to a Palmerston North address
TL TL-2000 Sting, ZK-STG, registered to a Palmerston North address

Flying competition - various aircraft - 2

Some additional competition related aircraft. Top to bottom:

Pitts S-1E Special, ZK-PEG, registered to a Wanganui address
Cessna 150D, ZK-CHI, registered to a Wanganui address
Victa Airtourer 100, ZK-CHF, registered to a Wanganui address
Piper PA18A-150, ZK-BPM, registered to Air Hawkes Bay
Piper PA38-112, ZK-FTQ, registered to Air Hawkes Bay

Flying competition - various aircraft - 1

Here are some of the various competition-related aircraft at Wanganui for the regionals. Top to bottom are:

Cessna A152, ZK-ELC, registered to Helipro of Paraparaumu
Maule MXT-7-180, ZK-JQY, registered to a Wanganui address
Cessna A150M, ZK-EHP, registered to a Marton address
Piper PA38-112, ZK-FRS, registered to Wanganui Aero Club
Cessna 182T, ZK-TOT, registered to a Paraparaumu address
AESL Airtourer 115, ZK-CWA, registered to a Napier address
Piper PA22-108, ZK-MEJ, registered to a Palmerston North address

Flying competition - Working together and the results

I have just gotten back from the FlyingNZ Cook area regional competitions, hosted by the Wanganui Aero Club at Wanganui airport [NZWU]. We all had a great time, and it was well organised and run by FlyingNZ and Wanganui Aero Club.

First surprise was the chance to be driven over to Dannevirke aerodrome [NZDV] with some of the Hawkes Bay team to collect some aircraft they had left there due to the weather on Friday. I got to fly back a Piper PA38-112, ZK-FTP to Wanganui :-)

Lance [the other Wellington Aero Club competitor] and I then got to use the Hawkes Bay & East Coast aero club C172N, ZK-EKG in the low flying and liferaft drop competitions, and Lance got to use ZK-FTP for his bombing comp.

I nice bit of working together between competitors - thanks heaps to the team from Hawkes Bay & East Coast Aero Club!

As for the results, Lance and I got 3rd in the Liferaft drop [my fault, screwed up the first run in really badly] and I got 1st place in the PPL Low Flying comp! Awesome, so now I'm making planes to go to the Naionals in February next year!

Anyway, here are the photos. First up is Piper PA38-112, ZK-FTP, Cessna 172N, ZK-EKG and a quick picture from the evening dinner and prizegiving. The last photo is a picture of Lance and myself looking for stuff [clouds, team mates and aircraft - maybe you had to be there to understand this :-)]

Australian Light Aircraft Championships - Kiwi Domination

The ALACs were held ealrier this year, but I've only just seen the video.

I didn't realise that the Kiwi team had done so well in the comps [as well as bringing home the Wings trophy], so perhaps a bit more promotion next time someone? :-)

Anyway, here is the video:

Golden Bay Air Piper Archer

The wind has got up today, so no flying for me unfortunately. It's a real shame as a few of us were going to go on a sightseeing trip over to Motueka/ Karamea. Oh well. In my brief visit to the Club today, I did get my first picture of the Golden Bay Air Piper PA28-181 Archer, ZK-ZOG.

Young Eagles flights and a fish out of water?

Today I had the fun of taking our Young Eagles on a quick flight out to the Hutt Valley and back. Five Young Eagles, two flights and everyone enjoyed themselves. What was even better was that two of them had never been in a light aircraft before, so this was a completely new experience for them.

Apart from that, I snapped the following picture of a fish out of water - that is, a fixed wing instructor sitting in a helicopter... Click on the photo for a good look on his face :-) The helicopter is a Robinson R44 II, ZK-IDO.

Ooops - forgot one

In my haste to get the last post up, I forgot this aircraft, Piper PA28-151, ZK-TGF, registered to an Auckland address.

An awesome day of aviation

I had an awesome day of aviation today!

The best part was going up for some dual practice at low flying, in preparation for the FlyingNZ regional competitions at Wanganui next weekend. A flight of 1.1 hours, most of which was in the low flying zone, practising coastal reversal turns, steep turns, constant radias turns and general low-flying handling was a lot of fun and a fair amount of work.

The second flight was as a passenger with another Club member. Both of these flights were in the Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT. The first couple of photos are from this second flight.

The remaining photos are of a Cessna 208B, ZK-MYH, registered to Air2There.com, a General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580, ZK-CIB, registered to Air Chathams and lastly 2 photos of New Zealand's only British Aerospace BAe146 Series 200 Whisper Jet, ZK-ECO, operated by Vincent Aviation.

BFR. Done.

Yippee! Completed by BFR this evening. The upper air work was done the other week, but we ran out of time for circuits, so I was able to do a a variety of circuits this evening.

As I was concentrating on the flight, I didn't take out my camera... a pity really since a really nice Cessna 680 Sovereign, ZK-JTH, was parked up outside the club. The only photo I got was on my [awful] phone camera. Apologies for the image quality! This aircraft is registered to Pacific Jets of Christchurch.

RAAF Boeing visitor

The following picture is of a Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] Boeing 737-7DF BBJ, A36-002, which landed about 2 hours ago. The aircraft is parked at the RNZAF Air Movements Apron at Wellington airport. As you can see, it is not a particularly nice evening, although I managed to time myself to get this between showers.

More photos from Sunday's special Qantas flights

Thanks to a reader, I now have some more photos from Sunday's special Qantas flights, including both Airbus A330 flights and a really good picture of the Boeing 767 landing. Many thanks to Rochelle L for offering up these great images!

Top to bottom are:

Airbus A330-303, VH-QPI
Airbus A330-303, VH-QPA
Boeing 767-338, VH-OGG

For more photos, the MRC Aviation blog has some more great photos.

Enjoy!

Special Qantas flights today

In conjunction with the various Rugby World Cup activities [ok, for their own convenience, but at the same time as the RWC], Qantas put on some special flights into Wellington today.

Unfortunately I missed the 2[?] Airbus A330 flights, but I did get to see this Boeing 767-338, VH-OGG, departing. For Wellington [being a poky little airport by most standards], this is a big aircraft and it is nice to see something a little different coming and going [much like the Air NZ B777 a few months ago].

Here are a bunch of photos, from push back to lift-off, The last one is an extra of a Sounds Air Cessna 208, ZK-TZR, of Sounds Air which landed as the Boeing was being pushed in behind the airport fire station.

[If anyone has some good pictures of the Airbus flights, please leave a comment with a link - many thanks, Rodney]

Danish Bombardier and more

Today's photos include a very unusual aircraft nationality, a Danish registered Bombardier BD700-1A10 Global Express, OY-MSI, which I understand is registered to Execujet Scandinavia. This has been parked outside the aero club for a couple of days, and heads of early next week.

Some really nice photos of its arrival yesterday are on the MRC Aviation blog.

Other aircraft included this Gulfstream American [prev Grumman American?] GA-7 Cougar, ZK-CGR, which arrived from North Shore aerodrome [NZNE], and a Cessna 172S, ZK-NAB, from Nelson Aviation College.

Wacky airline advertising

Seen in a mall entrance in Prague on my recent trip was this upside-down vehicle advertising Czech Airlines. A little weird perhaps?

The translation of the message on the top explains it a little:

"Fly from Prague to the other side of the globe"

and here was me thinking it might have been :

"free aeros included on every flight from Prague with Czech Airlines" :-)

Today's aircraft

There was no flying for me today, but I did see some interesting aircraft come through. The first of these brought people to Wellington for today's All Blacks vs Canada Rugby World Cup game. These aircraft are Cessna C510 Citation Mustang, ZK-PGA, registered to Pacific Jets Ltd of Christchurch, followed by Piper PA34-200T Seneca, ZK-SFC, registered to Air Gisborne Ltd. Lastly we have Cessna 402C, ZK-VAD, registered to Ridge Air of Richmond.

Also happening today was a display by the RNZAF Red Checkers display team, supporting the Navy's 70th anniversary celebrations in Wellington. One of the Checkers team landed in Wellington so here are some photos of Pacific Aerospace Corp CT4/E Airtrainer, NZ1991.

Enjoy!