What a lovely day for a flight!

A month after my last flight [and dual at that], today's weather was good enough for me to go for a solo flight to refresh my skills in the Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT. The recent winds died down, and the cloud was high enough to not only go for a flight, but to also carry out all the manoeuvres I wanted to - Stalls, turns, simulated forced landings, slow flight, followed by a few circuits back at Wellington. Total time was 1.5 hours of fun, and it's amazing how little power a C172 needs to keep flying with only one person in board!

In other excitement, two business jets arrived today. I'm not sure of the details of who and why, but I'm sure that will come out soon enough.

The first aircraft is Boeing 737-7JF BBJ, P4-LIG. It appears from internet searches that this aircraft may be owned/ operated by Petroff Air, a Russian operator which appears to register its aircraft in Aruba.

The second is an FAA registered Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global Express, N264A, and registered to a finance and leasing company. Interestingly, FAA records show that this aircraft is classified as Experimental and a category of Research and Development and an airworthiness date of 20/12/2002. Hmmm... any ideas?

Enjoy!

Philippines Airlines Airbus A330

Thanks to MRC Aviation blog and their heads up on this Philippines Airlines Airbus A330-301, RP-C3333, which arrived at Wellington today. MRC Aviation is well worth a visit, and it appears from that blog that the aircraft was carrying the Philippine President and others.

It's certainly nice to see something this big in Wellington once in a while! There's just one photo this evening - unfortunately I am unable to wait for the departure to get a better shot. If anyone does get a good photo, you're welcome to submit it :-)

Enjoy!

[on another note - thanks for all the comments and emails regarding the CAA Medical Unit situation. Click here for the post and keep them coming - I am very interested in your viewpoints, as are others!]

Another blustery day in Wellington...

... and unfortunately that meant no flying for me today.

Mind you, looking at the effort having to be put in by the airline operators, I'm quite happy to have been on the ground. Photographs don't really do justice to the amount of work that the pilots were putting in today, but what you will see at least is that it was a "dark cloud day", which, combined with the wind, usually makes for a bit more "fun".

Anyway, here are the photos. Top to bottom are:

Cessna 208, ZK-TZR, registered to Sounds Air
Piper PA31-350, ZK-MYS, registered to Air2there.com
Aerospatiale-Alenia ATR72-212A, ZK-MCA, registered to Mount Cook Airline [part of the Air NZ group]
2 x Boeing 737-838, ZK-ZQA, registered to Jetconnect [part of the Qantas group]. Note the graphic on the nose of the aircraft, designating this as the 75th Qantas Boeing 737 aircraft

A quick visit to Omaka

Today I was given the opportunity to go on a quick trip to Omaka aerodrome, to look at a Nanchang CJ6 that is in the process of being repainted. We went over in a Piper PA28R-201 Arrow, ZK-EIF, which was the first time I had been in an Arrow in a long time, and from memory, since ZK-EIF was given a big birthday, including the PFD and other enhancements.

The first two pictures of the Arrow, followed by the following:

Boeing Stearman A75N1, ZK-KJO, registered to Marlborough Aero Club
Classic Aircraft Nieuport N11, ZK-NII, registered to Classic Aircraft Sales of a Blenheim address
Cessna 180A, ZK-FDO, registered to a Blenheim address

... and then a number of pictures over Wellington City and lastly on right base for Wellington runway 16. Look carefully and you can see the Boeing 737 we were following in.

Enjoy!

Awesome bush flying video

Here's a video from another blog I follow. It's just under 5 minutes of bush flying in a Pilatus PC-6 Porter, and comes from the Bush Flying Diaries blog - well worth a visit! Anyway, I've taken the liberty of inserting the author's latest video below:

Exotic metal

Here's one final catch up from a couple of weekends ago, when I spent some time at Auckland airport watching what was coming and going. In this post, I've included only those airlines which I don't usually get to see, so no Air NZ, Pacific Blue, Qantas or [what is arguably the worst airline in New Zealand] Jetstar...

Instead, here are a few different airlines. Top to bottom we have:

Airbus A320-232, F-OJSB, registered to Aircalin
Airbus A340-313X, B-HXG, registered to Cathay Pacific
Boeing 777-2H6/ER, 9M-MRE, registered to Malaysian Airlines
Airbus A340-313X, CC-CQA, registered to LAN Airlines
Airbus A330-223, B-6547, registered to China Southern Airlines
Airbus A330-302, B-18310, registered to China Airlines

Freighters at Auckland

After the Mosquito launch airshow, I spent some time at Auckland Airport photographing the comings and goings. While there I got to meet Steve L of the 3rdlevelNZ blog [one of my favourites and well worth a visit!].

Three aircraft that particularly my attention were the following freighters arriving in the evening.

Top to bottom are:

Boeing 747-47UF, N492MC, operated by Atlas Air, on behalf of Qantas Airways
Another picture of the Boeing,opening its nose to allow extraction of the freight
Boeing 767-381F, VH-EFR, registered to Qantas Airways

and my personal favourite... a Mad Dog 11!

McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, N576FE, registered to Federal Express

Last post [well, maybe :-)] from the Mosquito launch airshow

OK, here are a number of photos of from the Mosquito launch airshow. Instead of my usual tactic of only detailing a few aircraft at time, I'm publishing a "random" assortment of aircraft from throughout the day. Some old, some newer, all interesting in their own right.

I hope you enjoy these, and yes, there are a few Mosquito pictures in here if you look hard :-)