Sunday, August 25, 2013

Two "new" aircraft

Two more aircraft to photograph today. The first is a Gulfstream American GA-7 Cougar, ZK-CGR, which is newly resident in Wellington [previously the North Shore Aero Club]. I have photographed this aircraft a couple of times, but now I hope to get some decent photos when it is flying out and about.

The second is the newest addition to the Sounds Air fleet, a Cessna C208B Grand Caravan, ZK-SAY. This aircraft was previously registered ZK-MJL with Salt Air but was sold to Sounds Air earlier this year.



Saturday, August 24, 2013

Admin: Rodney's Aviation Ramblings updated to include Flightradar24.com data!

This post is to advise that Rodney's Aviation Ramblings has been updated to include a new "Flight Radar" page!

The "Flight Radar" page uses the Flightradar24.com service to display ADS-B equipped traffic in NZ airspace. Flightradar24.com is also available as a free app for Android and iOS, and is one of the few apps that I have found worthwhile enough to pay for the "pro" version.

You can link directly to the new page at http://flyinggeek.blogspot.co.nz/p/flight-radar.html.

A "vintage" Cessna 172E & night flying

Today's visitor is a Cessna 172E, ZK-OMR, registered to the Marlborough Aero Club [based at Omaka aerodrome]. The aircraft was first registered in New Zealand in December 2012 after being imported from the USA.

The aircraft looks to be a really good conditions and has a STOL kit, with drooping leading edge and wingtips, wing fences and goodness knows what else. What's really nice is that the wings and most of the tail and the lower fuselage are all polished aluminium - looks really nice!

In other news, the requirements for a night rating have been clarified, so I'm now just waiting for good weather before continuing with that. I have to do 10 hours total time, including 3 hours of cross country flying [not all in one flight!].

Anyway, here's the picture of the C172.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

The world's shortest commercial flight?

Quite possibly it is!

Watch this video from Matt Dearden's excellent Bush Flying Diaries, Indonesia blog, one of my favourite blogs, and well worth a view if you're into aviation, especially bush flying or the Pilatus PC6 Porter


World's shortest commercial flight? from Matt Dearden on Vimeo.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

A Cheyenne and a Diamond

Today was dull and gloomy and this afternoon it started raining... so no VFR [Visual Flight Rules] flying to speak of today.

There were two visitors of note - an Australian registered Piper PA42-1000 Cheyenne, VH-BUR and a Diamond DA42, ZK-CTL from CTC Aviation training of Hamilton. I'm guessing that the Cheyenne is here on an Airway calibration contract - can anyone confirm this?



Saturday, August 10, 2013

Updated: Mount Cook ATR72

Prior to today's flight, I took another photo of one of the new Mount Cook/ Air NZ ATR72-600's, ZK-MVA, in the awesome All Black livery.

If you want to see a number of stunning photos of the other ATR72-600's [ZK-MVB, MVC] and a number of other awesome aircraft and city photos, check out ZKARJ's Flickr photostream [click here].















Update: The image has been re-adjusted. Many thanks to ZKARJ for some hints on adjusting the image... still not perfect, but looking much better :-)

Another day detached from the ground :-)

I wasn't planning on it, but I got to go and get current flying the Club's PA28-161, ZK-MBG, today. I've had a couple of recent dual flights [one daytime, one night time flight] so this was a chance to go and do a few circuits. About 45 minutes later I had completed a number of flapless, partial flap and full flap landings plus some normal [for Wellington] circuits, some short approaches and a bit of holding just out of the circuit. All fun!

I'm still waiting to get some more night flying done - I'm hoping this happens this month. I guess it'll be fairly dependant on the weather, so we'll see.

No photos - I was too busy enjoying myself :-)

Saturday, August 03, 2013

RNZAF C130H Hercules

Today was a bit quiet, but I did see [initially hear!] This Royal New Zealand Air Force [RNZAF] Lockheed C130H Hercules, NZ7004. It was lightly loaded on departure [in so far as a full load of passengers got off in Wellington and nobody appeared to get on] and so got off the ground fairly quickly even in the light winds.

Anyway, here are the photos. A couple of the photos show the condensation trails off the prop tips quite nicely. Enjoy!