Royal Brunei airlines [Sultan's Flight] brings the Sultan of Brunei to Wellington

Day-in and day-out, nothing much interesting seems to happen at Wellington airport, so when something really unusual turns up, it's worthy of an early morning start to make sure I get some pictures.

Yesterday I heard that the Sultan of Brunei was to visit Wellington - the only question being which of his aircraft would be bringing him... So, it was an earlier than usual start to get out to the airport - not so early that it was dark, but hopefully not to late to see the arrival.

I wasn't disappointed! Around 8am the Sultan's Boeing 767-27G/ER, V8-MHB, appeared and landed, taxiing to park between the RNZAF's apron and the Wellington Aero Club hanger.

I can't imagine that I'll ever get to see the inside and equally I doubt very much that it has anything much in common with a normal B767's interior! Anyway, here are the pictures.

A C172 and here comes Easter...

Today's solitary photo is of a Cessna 172S, ZK-JMG, registered to CTC Aviation Training of Hamilton. The [rather tenuous] link to Easter is that next weekend I head up to Hamilton [then on to Cambridge] for the weekend. Hopefully I'll get a couple of photos to compete with a chap called 'Valmai' who posted some rather good ones from his recent flight, including, apparently, one of his mother standing on the top of Mt Ngauruhoe [yeah, ok, you sort of 'had to be there' to get the joke]!

Air Safari 2013 kickoff

I drove to Masterton aerodrome today to catch up with one of the organisers of the Air Safari 2013. While there I took the opportunity to photograph some of the aircraft that will be participating. The flying component of the event kicks off on Tuesday, but today was for all the preliminaries, such as registration and scrutineering.

Anyway, here are a few of the photos. Top to bottom are:

Cessna 182Q, ZK-JOY, registered to Skytrack Aviation in Tauranga

Piper PA28R-200, ZK-RTE, registered to Carter's Aviation, also of Tauranga

Maule M-5-235C, ZK-JQI, registered to a Rangiora address

Zenith Zodiac 601 UL, ZK-ZOD, regiSkstered to a Taradale/ Napier address

Cessna 177RG, ZK-DPD, registered to a Tauranga address

Lastly, a picture of most of the aircraft

Wellington airliners

After my trip to Omaka today, I had time to take a few photos of the airliners operating through Wellington. Top to bottom are:

Boeing 737-838, ZK-ZQF, registered to Jetconnect Ltd
Boeing 737-838, ZK-ZQG, registered to Jetconnect Ltd
Boeing 737-8FE, ZK-PBK, registered to Virgin Australia Airlines (NZ) Ltd. Note the old Pacific Blue livery - soon to be 'extinct' I would suspect.
Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJI, registered to Air New Zealand
Airbus A320-232, VH-VGT, registered to Jetstar Airways

A flight to Omaka and back

Late yesterday I booked a flight in the Wellington Aero Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT. Today I arrived at the Club and was asked if I would fly over to Omaka [NZOM] with another pilot so he could pick up Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO out of maintenance. This involved a change of plane to Piper PA28-161, ZK-MBG.

I was current [just], and with Derek and a Club instructor doing the flying over to Omaka off we headed. It was an uneventful flight over, and soon enough we were on the ground. A quick stop and a preflight later and  I headed off to do a couple of circuits before heading back to Wellington.

The circuit at Omaka was very quiet... just me and one other aircraft... it was a beauty though - the Avro 652A Anson Mk1, ZK-RRA! No pictures unfortunately, but being only just current on type, it was better that I concentrated on the task at hand... After two touch-and-goes I headed back to Wellington. Apart from a bit of rust, everything went well and it was a fun time.

Anyway, here are some pictures. There is only one from Omaka and a couple back in Wellington. Top to bottom are:

Downwind for Omaka Aerodrome [NZOM], runway 30. Note the difference between the irrigated and very dry areas.
Grumman American AA-5A, ZK-DLL, registered to a Wellington address
Kawasaki BK117 B2, ZK-HLF, Westpac rescue helicopter based at Wellington

A brand new Cessna 206 at Wellington

As reporting on the NZCivAir blog two days ago, there's a brand new Cessna T206H, ZK-JWH, on the register. Apparently this aircraft comes with all the mod-cons and it will be based in Wellington.