Business jets at Wellington

Following on from yesterday's post, once the weather had cleared and I had my flight, I went and grabbed a couple of pictures of the business jets parked up on the Western Apron at Wellington, outside the Execujet hanger.

I'm late to the party on this, but and with the closure of the small "extension" on Coutts St, it's a bit harder to get the photos I would have preferred. Such is life.

Anyway, here are three of the aircraft that were parked up. These are all Gulfstream aircraft - one G650ER and two G550's.

Gulfstream G650ER, N109CH

Gulfstream G550, N319FS

Gulfstream G550, N97FT

Rainy day, time to fly

I was booked in to fly today, but It was a bit wet this morning and early afternoon. It cleared up in time though, so I ended up having a quick flight in the club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE. Just a enough time to depart to the north, do a simulated FLWOP around Mana Island, then back in to land.

It was also a chance to use my new OzRunways subscription in flight for the first time. I was looking for an easy flight so it would not be a distraction. It worked fine, but I want to use it some more before doing any sort of review.

In other news, I have a new camera. I'm sure much to the horror of some people, I have downgraded to a point-and-shoot - a Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ95. It's basic, seems to work well, and has a few pros and cons compared to my Canon EOS 700 I had been using. The major benefit is that I can stick it in my pocket. The major downsides so far is that the lens is not fantastic [but quite acceptable] and the autofocus is a bit slow. Still, I'm happy so far.

While waiting for the weather to clear, I took some photos. They turned out better than I expected. I have also adjusted the settings on the old watermarking tool I am using, so hopefully the JPEG compression artefacts are not quite as annoying. Photo sizes are quite a bit larger though.

First up are two photos of a Pilatus PC12/45, which is operated by Sounds Air. The second was taken through grubby glass, so not too bad I suppose.

Pilatus PC12/45, operated by Sounds Air

Pilatus PC12/45, operated by Sounds Air

Next up is Life Flight's British Aerospace Jetstream J32, ZK-LFW. This is operated by Air Freight NZ Ltd on behalf of Life Flight. The rain is quite obvious...

British Aerospace Jetstream J32, ZK-LFW, operated by Air Freight Ltd

Last up is this Bombardier CL-600-2B16, ZK-JCJ. This is operated by GCH Jet Operations. Again, it was raining a little at the time and this show up nicely in the photo.

Bombardier CL-600-2B16, ZK-JCJ, operated by GCH Jet Operations

Bombardier CL-600-2B16, ZK-JCJ, operated by GCH Jet Operations

This weekend in Masterton

This past weekend was spent in Masterton at the Flying New Zealand Cook Strait Regional Competitions.

Good times with a lot of good flying, fun social times and another opportunity to assist with some of the ground judging.

It was looking a bit shaky at one time though, with the weather on Friday evening consisting on low clouds and rain. Saturday [competition day] was much nicer, although with the constant threat of the thunder and lightning that was striking other parts of the lower North Island. We did have to shut down competitions for about 30-45 minutes in the middle of the day due to the weather, but it all worked out.

The first three photos are from arrival day on Friday, including a panorama of the 20+ aircraft from Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Kapiti and Whanganui that came for the competitions (Hawera also arrived on Saturday).

The final two photos are from Saturday. There are some very dark and wet places under that cloud! There were plenty more of those coming and going during the day.

Somebody call me when this is ready to purchase...

Can somebody call me when this is ready to purchase?

Lost the plot or right on the money?

It looks as though Air NZ may have lost the plot, with the airline apparently banning the carriage of electronic bag tags, such as the Apple Tag, in checked on bags (references here Air New Zealand, NZ Herald, Stuff). It also looks like an airline decision, rather that being driven by the regulator.

This comes a few weeks after Lufthansa upset a lot of people with a similar ban, but one which was overturned about one week later (NZ Herald).

With all the fuss (reasonable or otherwise) about lost baggage, it would be a real shame if airlines started clamping down on these trackers which, at the least, provide some hope when checked in bags are lost.

May be we'll see a similar backtrack from Air New Zealand soon.