Sunday, March 13, 2016

USAF C17 at Wellington!

It has been an unusually "busy" week or so for military and four-engined aircraft at Wellington.

The latest is a Boeing C17A Globemaster III, registered 09-9212 and operated by the US Air Force which arrived this evening!

Unfortunately it was getting quite gloomy around 7:30pm when it turned up, but some of the photos worked out ok, so here are some of the better ones. The first two are as it landed, the last two as it taxied onto the RNZAF Air Movements Base apron.

Boeing C17A Globemaster III, 09-9212, operated by the USAF

Boeing C17A Globemaster III, 09-9212, operated by the USAF

Boeing C17A Globemaster III, 09-9212, operated by the USAF

Boeing C17A Globemaster III, 09-9212, operated by the USAF

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW, you must be well informed, how do you know when these aircraft are arriving? The POTUS must be visiting NZ this year me thinks, May when NZ hold US talks? Beware Big Brother could be watching.
as the C17 may have a DV on board?
May I remind you that flight plans are confidential and between the operator and ATC in this case Airways NZ.

Rodney said...

Hello Anonymous...

If you follow this blog regularly, you'll notice I spend a lot of time at the airport. Last evening I was in the right place at the right time. Spend enough time at an airport and you get to see some interesting stuff.

Cheers,

Rodney

Anonymous said...

Hello Anonymous, what do you mean by a DV on board?

As for a Presidential visitor this year - that is old news. It has been widely speculated in the media for months now that a visit was pending. What's the big deal? I hope he gets to play golf and enjoy New Zealand's hospitality.

Anonymous said...

As posted above, a visit by POTUS has been widely speculated in the media for many a month now. The first anon reply above sounds like someone from overseas fishing for details with that broken English. Big Brother is always watching, even here in AKLD.. Watch the security cameras around the place follow you if you hang around "sensitive" areas long enough.. Not just at airports, even at Britomart. It is the world we live in now. Look forward to more pics Rodney.

Andrew M said...

Two Globemasters in one week; some sort of record, presumably. It's been quite an interesting few days for planespotters at WN. I saw the Iranian 340 yesterday; it looks rather attractive.

Thanks for the pics and the record of interesting goings-on.

Cheers,
Andrew

Rodney said...

Thanks Anonymous 2 and 3 and Andrew!

It will be interesting to see if Obama does end up coming to visit - I imagine that would involve a number of interesting movements to share!

Anonymous said...

Rt Hon John Key confirmed to press head of US intelligence Jim Clapper visit coinciding with Mr Zarif talks.
I observed a Gulfstream V exit the Execujet hangar, backtrack the active runway and depart early Monday morning heading in the direction of Australia. Impressive T/O performance ~5000 fpm climb and headed out over Tasman at FL430. Left a very thick black cloud as it shot out over Evans Bay!

Pontus said...

Saw this beast from Kio bay taking off this morning, quite a roar from behind! I was mighty surprised, especially since I knew I missed the A340 on Monday night :(
There seemed to be another Gulfstream V (or similar) this morning too?

Anonymous said...

Hope you catch the B787 inbound to WLG now, Rodney.

Anonymous said...

Just flew past our living room. Callsign AUH4. Ex Canberra, Sydney, Abu Dhabi.
Possibly A6-PFC Registered to Abu Dhabi Amiri Flight, UAE Government air transport service.
A lot of interest from the Midddle East right now...

Rodney said...

Hello Anon. yep, I did see this one. I watched it on Flightaware and Flightradar24 until it appeared on the approach at Wellington. Just amazing how busy with "biz jets" (I use the term loosely!) Wellington has been recently :-)