Whisper Jet Jets In

Today's biggest surprise was the arrival of a one-of-type for the New Zealand register - a Bristish Aerospace BAe 146 series 200, ZK-ECO. This aircraft is registered to Air National Corporate, and appeared to be on a charter flight, with a couple of buses pulling up to collect the passengers.

I've flown on this type a couple of times when Ansett NZ was flying a few years ago. Pictures are from final approach to parked up for the evening.

More bad weather today...

Well, I didn't get to go flying today - more bad weather with a mixture of rain, wind and cloud. There was just one flight at the aero club today, and that was an IFR flight...

It has now been 6 weeks since I last flew, so I'm really itching to get back in to the air! Oh well, better to wait until the weather improves a little - after all, it is the middle of winter in this part of the world!

Pictures from the airport today are, top to bottom:

Jetstream J32, ZK-ECI, registered to Air National Corporate
Cessna 208, ZK-TZR, registered to Sounds Air
de Havilland Canada DHC-8-100, ZK-VAC, registered to Vincent Aviation
2 pictures of 4 Bell UH-1H Iroquois helicopters from the RNZAF [sorry, no regos]

My understanding is that the DHC-8 is back off to Australia tomorrow, and the Iroquois' are conducting exercises in the Wellington area.

Merry Christmas my friends!

With this being my final post prior to Christmas, I thought I'd just say"Merry Christmas", and thank you all very much for your support over the past year [in fact, 4 years that this blog has been running!]. It is always great to receive your comments [and corrections...].

A very special thank you to those who have taken the time to introduce themselves and say "hi" during the year.

I wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas, and if we don't meet beforehand, an awesome new year!

Oh yeah - Karl - your Russian Fudge is on your desk :-) Enjoy it before the other instructors do!

Final pre-Christmas pictures are as follows:

Cessna 172B, ZK-BZT, registered to a Christchurch address
Cessna A152, ZK-FLH, currently registered to Mainland Air, but online with Wellington Aero Club for a few months
Akrotech Giles G200, ZK-LGT, registered very recently [21 Oct 2009] to a Wellington address
Gulfstream G-IV, ZK-KFB, registered to Air National Ltd in Auckland

USCG Gulfstream G-V and Air National Gulfstream G-IV

It has been a good day for spotting aircraft at Wellington today. A recent arrival [in the last couple of days] was this United States Coast Guard [USCG] Gulfstream G-V, seen here parked on the RNZAF apron. As reported on MRC Aviation, USCG aircraft are rather infrequent visitors to New Zealand, so it was good to see this one.

As a comparison, I also saw the Air National-operated Gulfstream G-IV, ZK-KFB which departed later in the day.

WAC Open Day 2009 #10: Air National Jetstream J32

Wow! Another [small] airliner!

Air National sent one of the British Aerospace Jetstream Series 3200 Model 3201, registration ZK-ECJ. The J32 is a really good looking aircraft [IMHO!] - it looks like it was built to go fast :-)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the aircraft.

Gulfstream G-IV paint job

I noticed this Gulfstream G-IV [registered to Air National] arrive at Wellington yesterday, and depart today. While in the USA it had an awesome paint job. Here's a couple of photos from today [front, rear and during takeoff]. As a comparison, the last photo is of the previous paint scheme.

Air National BAE Jetstream 32

Here are 3 pictures of an Air National [charter airline] BAE Jetstream 32 landing at Wellington recently.

Odds and sods from Wellington

Here are a few odds and sods from Wellington International.

The first two are of a General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580 of Pionair ZK-PAL after landing at Wellington. Following that are two ex-Origin Pacific Airlines Jetstream J41's, then a closeup of a beautiful Grumman American AA-5 ZK-DLH. Lastly, a picture of an Air National Jetstream J31/32.