Piper Turbo Arrow

Today's picture is a Piper PA28RT-201T Turbo Arrow, ZK-TFD, from Christchurch.

I've never flown a Turbo Arrow, and it has been many years [probably 17 years or so] since I flew any type of Arrow.

Wellington Aero Club Open Day 2010 #18: This is the Club

After all is said and done, this was an aero club open day. We had great fun, and a great day [great weather also!]! Many thanks of course to those who supported the day by bringing and operating aircraft and by providing support during the day, and of course our visitors!

To finish off, here are some of photos of club aircraft. First are two Piper PA38-112 Tomahawks which were conducting trial flights throughout the day [ZK-JFE and ZK-WAC]. Next is Piper PA28R-201 Arrow ZK-EIF, then an elevated view including Cessna 172N ZK-ETK.

If you've ever thought of learning to fly, now's a good time to have a quick chat with your local aero club. If you're in the Wellington region, give Wellington Aero Club a call on 04-3888333 or visit us on Coutts St, Wellington [Kilbernie side of the airport]. Website is http://www.flywellington.co.nz/. Flying NZ is another great place to start. Tell them you heard about them here!

Piper Turbo Arrow IV at Wellington

Here are a couple of pictures of a Piper PA28-RT201T Turbo Arrow IV which visited the Aero Club this afternoon. ZK-EZM is registered to a Nelson address and is easy to distinguish from other Arrows by the T-tail and the 3-bladed prop.

Omaka for lunch: Aug 2009: #1

Lazing around at the Aero Club on Saturday, and waiting for the Club's annual spit roast and quiz evening [more on this later], I was invited to go to Omaka aerodrome for lunch! Not being one to often sit on the ground if the other option is to sit in a plane, I said yes and off we went.

For those that follow this blog, Omaka is the home of the awesome Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre that contains a range of original aircraft along with flying reproductions [not mere replicas!] and memorabilia - including the cross out of Manfred von Richthofen's aircraft [apparently souvenired by some Australian troops after he crashed and died]!! I'll always recommend a visit for anyone who is interested in aviation - it is well worth while!

As you'll see from the photos on the trip over there, the weather was fantastic, and we enjoyed the trip very much. Many thanks to Brian for taking Pete and myself over!

The photos below included a picture of Woodbourne aerodrome, then Omaka [Omaka is contained within the Woodbourne control zone], and Piper PA28R-201 Arrow, ZK-EIF - the aircraft for our flight, and finally, ZK-EIF's instrument panel on-route.

A few circuits yesterday

The weather has not been great in the last few days, although I did get up as a passenger for a few circuits yesterday. The aircraft was a Piper PA28R-200 Arrow, ZK-EIF.

In the back with me was an anonymous Club instructor [photo below]. Incidently, this same chap had his birthday today :-)

Anyway, to the photos:

Two Club PA38's - ZK-FML and ZK-JFE
A view of Wellington City harbour area
An anonymous Club instructor [Happy Birthday!]

Young Eagles and visiting aircraft

It was another good winter's day in Wellington... waiting for the weather to go bad :-). Earlier this week I was asked to take some Young Eagles for a flight. As it turned out, I only had to take one up - well worth it though as the young fella had never been in a light aircraft before. As [almost] always, I took the Piper PA28-181 Archer, ZK-TDJ up; he managed to spot his house from the air and he enjoyed the flight.

Visitors spotted today include a Piper PA28R-200 Arrow, registered to Rick Lucas Helicopters, ZK-EKR. The Cessna 172M, ZK-DRM is registered to Waitomo Aero Club in Te Kuiti. Tucked in behind the Cessna is a Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk from Marlborough Aero Club.

Finally you'll see a few pictures of a Morane-Saulnier MS 893E, ZK-FOX. I don't know anything much about this type, but apparently they a good little performers. Note in the last picture I have highlighted the leading-edge slats in their deployed position.

A nice flight and some different visitors

It has been a good weekend for flying, so when my parents decided to come and visit, I was able to take them for a quick flight out from Wellington, across Cook Strait, to the Marlborough Sounds, then back again. All done in only 0.8 hrs.

For those who do not live anywhere near here, the Marlborough Sounds would have to be one of the most scenic environments you could fly through. The Sounds are [pretty much by definition I suppose] a series of inlets "constrained" by steep sides hills and islands. A fantastic scenic place to fly through! Although I did not get any pictures of my own, click here for a Google images search of photos others have taken.

In other "news", here are pictures of some visitors to the Wellington International Airport western apron today [Sunday]. Top to bottom we have:

Piper PA28R-20o Arrow II, ZK-DUY, Canterbury Aero Club

Piper PA28-161, ZK-MND, Aircraft Rentals of Rangiora

Cessna 172P, ZK-SBK, Canterbury Aero Club

Cessna 172N, ZK-EOS, Hawera Aero Club

2 x Fairchild SA227-AC Metroliner, ZK-POB, Airwork Flight Operations of Auckland

The Metroliner was here on an aero-medical flight, the others appeared to be just passing through in various directions.

Repainted aircraft at Wellington

Here are some pictures of aircraft that are back online at the Club. The first [ZK-FHQ] is a PA28-181 Archer that I featured a while ago. I thought that I would just get some better pictures of it. I'm still very impressed with the paint job.

The second is of ZK-EIF, a PA28-201R Arrow III, that has recently been completely stripped, painted and the inside [excluding the panel] refurbished, plus a new engine, constant speed propeller, vortex generators on the wing and under the elevator. It's pretty much a new aircraft. The outside is very still shiny and new. Awesome!

Training flights into Wellington

Continuing from my last post, here are pictures of some training flights on approach into Wellington.

One of the very good points about Wellington International Airport is that we still have two GA training organisations resident on the field. This is the Wellington Aero Club and another private training organisation. It is a real benefit being able to train in class C airspace, and getting used to Air Traffic Control [ATC - the "Tower"] and operating with a range of other aircraft types [given that I did my training at Ardmore, there are also benefits in training at a very busy unattended field!].

The first two pictures are of a Beech Skipper. Personally, the second image is not a sight I would like to see from the cockpit! Thankfully in this case it's an optical illusion given that the aircraft has passed well over the top of the wires and concrete wall! The third picture is of a Piper Arrow III from the Wellington Aero Club.

Enjoy!

Piper Archer III

There was a PA28 Piper Archer III parked up at Wellington today. From the outside it looks similar to a Piper Arrow [PA28-201R -ZK-EIF is the Wellington Aero Club's Arrow as a comparison]. There are however a few good things about this Archer III.

Firstly, inside are a couple of Garmin 1000 screens, with pretty much just some standby instruments. This makes for a pretty neat cockpit!

Secondly, it's new. It's good to see both Cessna and Piper continuing to build GA single engined aircraft after the well publicised hiatus some years back. It's even better that there is some competition in this space [including competition from a range of other manufacturers, such as Cirrus and Alpha].

The one thing I don't like about it is that for some reason Piper have chosen to reduce the size of all of the windows. I'm not sure how obvious this is from the photos, but have a look at them "for real" and you'll see that the Archer III has considerably smaller windows all round.

Does Piper really think that we're all flying their aircraft IFR, or that we don't want to watch the scenery go by? I don't know. Just a shame, as it starts to take the gloss off what has historically been a very capable, and fun, cross country machine.

Anyway, enjoy the photos. First is ZK-LJC from Canterbury Aero Club, and the second ZK-EIF from Wellington Aero Club as a comparison.

[Many thanks to John Macilree who advised a couple of errors in my original text to this post. Somehow I wrote down ZK-EIF as ZK-FHQ, a similar but not quite the same, aircraft]

Light stuff at Wellington

My digital camera is back from the repair shop. Strangely, although they say that it was tested and they found nothing wrong with it, it is now working better than ever. Awesome....?!!

Anyway, here are four pictures of some lighter types at Wellington. Top to bottom are:

ZK-HKP - Robinson R44 Raven on a private trip back to Taupo
ZK-TSD - Piper Seneca II on an air ambulance flight
ZK-EIF - Piper Arrow III just back from a private flight
ZK-JNE - Piper Tomahawk - one of the Wellington Aero Club basic trainer fleet

Enjoy!

Auckland Aero Club

Here's a few pictures from Auckland Aero Club [AAC]. This is where I spent the past few years flying [prior to moving to Wellington]. As you can see, the weather was perfect! I was also the Club Captain at AAC for 3 years from Dec 2002 - Dec 2005.

Top to bottom, the photos are:

Auckland Aero Club clubhouse and apron
C172N ZK-JAZ in which I did most of my flying on my last visit
Grumman AA1C basic trainers - the core of the AAC fleet
PA28-140 Warrior ZK-CNI
PA28-200R Arrow II ZK-EBE [135kt cruise, retractable gear and CSU]

Wellington Aero Club

Just got back from some circuits at Wellington. This time I went up and got checked out by the Chief Flying Instructor [CFI] in a Piper Arrow III before doing some solo circuits... I'm current on type again. Yippie! The Arrow is a really nice one to fly, what's more, everything in it seems to work [unlike another Arrow I have flown...].

Anyway, you're not here just to read my [irrelevant] ramblings, so here's some pictures. In order, they are a view of the Wellington International Airport terminal [domestic and international, from across the runway at the aero club], the PA38-112 [Piper Tomahawk] and PA28-201R [Piper Arrow III].

As always, if you want the original hires, just ask :-)