Hanger visitors

Just over a week ago, Wellington Aero Club had a number of visitors undercover.

First up was a very nicely presented Cessna 177B Cardinal, ZK-TEC. The Cardinal is a very sleek aircraft and very low to the ground [as in I could see over the wing quite easily and the elevator is about shin height]. You would want to rotate too much on departure or flare too much on landing! It is really nicely presented though. ZK-TEC is registered to Matrinair and normally resident in Feilding. I think it was in the hanger for a single night.

Cessna 177B Cardinal, ZK-TEC, operated by Matrinair of Feilding

Next up was another Cessna, this time a C172S, ZK-JSD, which is registered to Air Hawkes Bay Ltd, of a Hastings address. This aircraft had flown in IFR and was just in for the night.

Cessna 172S, ZK-JSD, operated by Air Hawkes Bay Ltd of Hasting

Last up was perhaps the most interesting aircraft and one that will be here for a few weeks [although not online with the club]. It is a Cessna U206F, ZK-DWX, which has been purchased by a local person. I was particularly interested in the venturi tube on the left side of the fuselage [a venturi tube makes it interesting by itself!]. My understanding is that it will be flown privately and refurbed over time. The paint job looks really nice though as it is!

Cessna U206F, ZK-DWX

Bizjets at Wellington

Last Sunday I got my first glimpse of another Cessna 510 Citation Mustang out and about at Wellington. ZK-JAK is registered to Air Hawkes Bay Ltd and has been on the NZ register since last February. What i saw was a rather short flight - time to taxi out, takeoff and return what seemed like 15 or so minutes later.

Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, ZK-JAK, operated by Air Hawkes Bay Ltd

Another bizjet out and about was the locally based Cessna 650 Citation, N163JM which I saw arriving later on Sunday afternoon.

Cessna 650 Citation, N163JM,

Two Cessna's, a Boeing and another Cessna

There have been a number of interesting aircraft at Wellington over the last couple of days. Unfortunately I missed the QANTAS B737-300F which was parked in the Execujet hanger for the night, although MRC Aviation has a couple of good photos.

I did get to see a couple of Cessna private jets though.

First up is this beautiful Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, ZK-LCA, which is registered to Air Hawkes Bay. This was parked up for a few hours.

Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, ZK-LCA, operated by Air Hawkes Bay

Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, ZK-LCA, operated by Air Hawkes Bay

Next up is the Cessna 650 Citation III, N163JM. This is pictured departing for Masterton, then on to Feilding and back to Wellington. Initial rumour was it went to Feilding for maintenance, although it appears more likely it was a series of training flights.

Cessna 650 Citation III, N163JM

Cessna 650 Citation III, N163JM

Next up is one of the final two Boeing 737's in Air NZ service. ZK-NGI will be retired after the last flights in September.

Boeing 737-319, ZK-NGI, operated by Air NZ

Last up is a Cessna 421C, ZK-TAM, which is operated by Skywest Aviation of a New Plymouth address. This aircraft is operated as an air ambulance on behalf of the Taranaki Air Ambulance Trust.

Cessna 421C, ZK-TAM, operated by Skywest Aviation

It came Monday!

[yeah, sorry if the title makes little sense... but I'm not explaining :-)]

Today was the last of the Easter public holidays, and so being a nice day I spent most of it at the aero club. Speaking of a nice day, the weather has been better than forecast for most of the weekend - certainly the rain and southerly change has not as yet eventuated.

Anyway, I got another flight in today. Lance [passenger and honorary photographer] came along for the ride and in little over 45 minutes we had past over the entire Hutt Valley, across the Rimutaka ranges, down over Lakes Wairarapa and Onoke and back in to Wellington. Nice! Hopefully Lance has a few photos to share from the flight - if so I'll put some up in another post.

Meanwhile, here's the photo that relates to the title. ZK-DCM is a Piper PA34-200 Seneca, which is registered to Air Hawkes Bay Ltd [part of the Hawkes Bay & East Coast Aero Club]. The Seneca arrived today for a short stop before heading back to its Hastings base.

Light visitors today

Two light visitors at Wellington today were this Cessna 172S, ZK-JMR, registered to Air Hawkes Bay and Diamond DA40, ZK-MTD, of Massey University School of Aviation.

Enjoy!

A tale of two Cessnas

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a four thousand word essay for you :-)

The first 3 pictures are of a Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, ZK-LCA, registered to Air Hawkes Bay Ltd. The second is a Cessna 172R, ZK-NAA, registered to Nelson Aviation College.

Flying NZ National championships: Introduction

If you thought the blog was a little quiet last weekend, you'd be right. The past week [Tuesday to Sunday], I was up at the Flying NZ National Championships and Wings Trans Tasman Trophy competitions.

The competitions were held at North Shore aerodrome [NZNE] and I was entered into the Airwork Cup - PPL Low Flying event. Unfortunately I didn't fly particularly well but still managed a 3rd-equal result.

The weather was very interesting... at times a little windy, often cloudy and raining although with some nice weather at times.

Anyway, this and the following posts will have some photos from the time I was there. I won't try and bore you with all 371 photos though :-), just a selection of the ones I think are more interesting, or informative.

Top to bottom are:

Cessna 172N, ZK-EKG, registered to Air Hawkes Bay. This was the aircraft I used in the Low Flying comp

Piper PA38-112, ZK-FTP, also registered to Air Hawkes Bay

Piper PA28-140, ZK-DOQ, registered to North Shore Aero Club

Robin R2120U, ZK-TZG, also registered to North Shore Aero Club

Cessna 150M, ZK-LRD, registered to a Waitakere address

Flying competition - various aircraft - 2

Some additional competition related aircraft. Top to bottom:

Pitts S-1E Special, ZK-PEG, registered to a Wanganui address
Cessna 150D, ZK-CHI, registered to a Wanganui address
Victa Airtourer 100, ZK-CHF, registered to a Wanganui address
Piper PA18A-150, ZK-BPM, registered to Air Hawkes Bay
Piper PA38-112, ZK-FTQ, registered to Air Hawkes Bay

Flying NZ "Cook area" regional comps: Post 6 - More visiting aircraft

Here are the final pictures of various aircraft from the competitions. The first is part of the flight line [there are two more in behind there somewhere].

The remaining pictures are are follows:

Gippsland GA8 Airvan, ZK-TZT, registered to Izard Pacific Aviation at Taupo

Grumman Aviation AA-5A, ZK-DLL, registered to a Wellington address

Maule MXT-7-180, ZK-JQY, registered to Wanganui Sea and Air Charters

... and lastly Cessna 172N, ZK-EKG, registered to Air Hawkes Bay of Hastings, in a nice evening shot.

Flying NZ "Cook area" regional comps: Post 3 - more grid photos

Given that the grid is such an important part of competition day, I thought I would include a few more pictures from the grid. Unfortunately I didn't get photos of every aircraft as I was running back and forth between the grid and the aero club buildings with people, results and the like.

You'll see in the photos that it was a lovely [hot] day - thank goodness for lots of sunscreen and some shelter!

Anyway, here are a few that I did get. Top to bottom are:

Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk, ZK-FJS, registered to Air Hawkes Bay

Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk, ZK-FRS, registered to Wanganui Aero Club going around

Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk, ZK-FML, registered to Wellington Aero Club

and... lastly... a local Pacific Aerospace Cresco 08-600, ZK-WAT, registered to Wanganui Aero Work [and not flying in the comps!]

Oh yeah - there were a large percentage of Tomahawks at the comps, 9 out of around 25 aircraft.

Citation Mustang and a Saratoga

It was windy again today and just two aircraft that are worth mentioning.

The first is Cessna 510 Citation Mustang, ZK-LCA. This aircraft is registered to Air Hawkes Bay of a Hastings address. By my count, this is the 4th Citation Mustang currently on the New Zealand register [not sure however if any have arrived and left in the past couple of years].

The second aircraft is a repainted Piper PA32R-301 Saratoga, ZK-ZIG, which is registered to Golden Bay Air [formerly Capital Air] of a Takaka address. I've featured this aircraft several times in the past [check out the label cloud of aircraft regos on the right], but this is the first photo of it in the current paint scheme.

Enjoy!

More visitors then I'm back to work

Today is my last day of the Christmas holiday break; tomorrow I head back to work, and back to the [more or less] weekly updates for the blog.

Today's visitors included a couple of PA28's and an Australian registered Convair.

ZK-LJE is a Piper PA28-181 Archer registered to Canterbury Aero Club in Christchurch. ZK-FTR is a Piper PA28-161 Warrior registered to Air Hawkes Bay [I think this was on an IFR training/practice flight...?].

The Australian visitor is a Pionair Convair 340, registration VH-PDW. Interestingly, while the CASA website says Convair 340, Pionair's website says Convair 580. Not sure what or why there is this difference.

Enjoy the pictures... now I'm off to earn some dollars to pay for this flying gig! :-)

What a FANTASTIC day!

Wow! What a day it was today!

The weather was exactly as forecast, with very little cloud and light winds - a perfect day to go flying... twice. The first flight was included two workmates plus the son of one of them. For those that know Wellington, we performed a 16 Sinclair Departure [leaving to the south-west], around the western coastline, past by Mana Island, then to Paramata and an Eastbourne Arrival [arriving from the north-east].

The second flight was the same route with some other friends.

In both cases, it was as smooth as can be. Visibility was around the 30-40 km range. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, which, apart from a safe and legal flight, is most important.

One comment that cropped up from both flights [and comes up in many flights] is just how different things look from the air. I guess that perhaps us pilots can sometimes take this for granted so it's good to get a reminder every now and then.

Unfortunately there were no photos from the flights [the passengers on the first flight forgot while admiring the scenery - that speaks volumes by itself I guess! The photos from the second didn't turn out well enough].

I did get a few snaps of other aircraft though. The first is a Cessna C172M of Taupo Air Services, ZK-DHU. I understand that the pilot was here on a training flight. The second is a Piper PA28-236 Dakota, ZK-EQQ, registered to Air Hawkes Bay. The last is a another [from a 30 November post] picture of ZK-DGI a Piper PA28-140 of a Nelson address.

Cross country passenger

I went out to the Aero Club this morning and ended up getting invited along for a cross-country flight as a passenger [Yippee!]. The plan for the flight was Wellington- Paraparaumu [touch and go] -Wanganui [full stop landing]- overhead Waverley- return to Wellington.

It was a good flight, and I managed to get a few photos [of varying quality...], as follows. Top to bottom are:

- Climbing out from Wellington

- Looking towards Wellington Airport / Lyall Bay

- The Hutt Valley [north of Wellington, just north of Avalon]

- Approaching Paraparaumu Airfield

- Kapiti Island [just west of Paraparaumu]

- Approaching Wanganui

- Wanganui Airport apron

- The old Wanganui Control Tower [has not been manned for many years]

- Piper Archer PA28-181 from Air Hawkes Bay visiting Wanganui

Enjoy [I did!]!