Mitsubishi MU2

This Mitsubishi MU-2B-60, ZK-PSR, arrived and departed Wellington on Saturday. This aircraft is operated as an air ambulance, by Search and Rescue Services Ltd of a Tāupo address.

These are interesting aircraft, but with a chequered history, at least until the FAA began mandating a specific type rating for the aircraft. Lots of details in here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_MU-2. One interesting snippet I had forgotten was that the RNZAF acquired four of these aircraft, for use as ground instructional airframes.

Mitsubishi MU-2B-60, ZK-PSR, operated by Search and Rescue Services Ltd

 

 

[Also, a reminder that as at the date on publishing this - 25 January 2023 - there are only 11 months left to Christmas! 😃]

Mitsubishi MU2B-60 Air Ambulance

Today's interesting visitor was the recently arrived Mitsubishi MU2B-60, ZK-PSR.

This aircrat is operated by Search and Rescue Services of a Taupo address and has been registered to them since import in June 2016.

Mitsubishi MU2B-60, ZK-PSR, operated by Search and Rescue Services

Mitsubishi MU-2B-30

Today's visitor was this rare [one-of-type on the NZ aircraft register] Mitsubishi MU-2B-30, ZK-KOH. This aircraft is operated as an air ambulance by Search and Rescue Services of a Taupo address. Despite being "one of type", three other MU-2B's were flown to New Zealand a few years ago for the RNZAF to use as non-flying instructional airframes.

This type has a fairly interesting history documented in Wikipedia... well worth the read.

Mitsubishi MU-2B-30, ZK-KOH, operated by Search and Rescue Services of a Taupo address

Mitsubishi MU-2B-30, ZK-KOH, operated by Search and Rescue Services of a Taupo address

Mitsubishi MU-2B-30, ZK-KOH, operated by Search and Rescue Services of a Taupo address

Mitsubishi MU-2B-30 departs and Life Flight Open Day tomorrow!

I arrived at the Aero Club on a warm and not-too-windy day just in time to New Zealand's on Mitsubishi MU-2B-30, ZK-KOH, depart for Wellington.

This aircraft is operated by Search and Rescue Services of a Taupo address and so I presume it was operating as an air ambulance.

In other, semi-related news, the local Life Flight rescue and air ambulance service has their open day tomorrow, Sunday 22 March. Present will be the fixed wing and helicopter aircraft, other emergency services, food and drink and plenty to do for the kids. Even if the weather is a bit dodgy, they have a couple of big hangers and you'll be able to look inside their aircraft.

Click here for the official website: Life Flight Open Day.

Do take a look and support them if you are able. They are located next to the Aero Club, so are very easy to find!

Hamilton and back on Air NZ

This past week I have been working in the Waikato - in several towns and the main city of Hamilton. The plan was to fly up on Monday and back on Friday using Air NZ [Air Nelson & Mount Cook] in both directions. I'm not a fan of early morning starts, but with my flight departing at 7:05am, I was never going to get a sleep in...

The weather in Wellington that morning was pretty much cruddy. So much so, that it seemed that no aircraft were able to land. It was just as well our Bombardier DHC-8-311 had overnighted at Wellington. There was a short delay to allow others to try an land [they all missed and diverted] before we [a colleague and I] got going.

The arrival into Hamilton was nice. The skies were fairly clear, no fog, but starting to get warm. The rest of the week was hot and muggy - not much fun, but such is life.

We finished early enough late Friday morning and so after lunch, headed out to Hamilton Airport [ICAO code: NZHN] about 3 hours early for our flight. We weren't able to change to the earlier flight [the boss won't buy flexi tickets], so we got comfortable for a long wait. About 45 minutes later we were paged, and due to fog being forecast at Wellington, we were shifted onto the earlier flight after all! The only real difference being that we would have another Air Nelson DHC-8 flight back home [instead on a Mount Cook ATR72]. Nice!

Anyway, we headed home and landed about 30 minutes before the fog hit. Yay!

In short, a couple of nice flights, good work by Air NZ in getting us there and back and for shifting us to the earlier flight. After a week away though, I'm kinda happy to have my own bed again :-)

Anyway, pictures. These are all from Hamilton this afternoon. Top to bottom are:

Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEZ [my ride home] & ZK-NEQ [off to Christcurch] of Air Nelson. Air NZ
Piper PA31, ZK-MJF, registered to the Taranaki Air Ambulance Trust
Mitsubishi MU-2B-30, ZK-KOH, registered to Search and Rescue Services of Taupo

Wellington Aero Club Open Day 2010 #11: Mitsubishi Zero!!!!

Well, it would hardly be an open day without a couple of surprises, and WOW! What a surprise we got!

No one was expecting this, yet in the middle of the day we all got a big surprise when a Pacific Aerospace 750XL, ZK-XLE did an approach and overshoot. Yeah OK, unexpected and a nice surprise, but not quite earth-shattering. What followed a few seconds later however, was a HUGE surprise! An extremely rare Mitsubishi A6M Zero came screaming down the runway! What a highlight!

The Zero was one of the most feared Japanese aircraft in World War 2. It was generally acknowledged as the best carrier fighter in the Pacific Theatre at the start of those hostilities.

This aircraft, registration N712Z [NX712Z on the fuselage], was shipped over in a container for the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow this coming Easter weekend. There was no hint given of this fly-by, and the publicly reported plans [click here] does not even mention Wellington.

The 750XL? It's a support aircraft accompanying the Zero on it's travels.

Awesome!!! Enjoy the pictures!

Rice Rocket arrival

These are pictures of a Mitsubishi MU-2B-30 [Rice Rocket] after landing at Wellington. This aircraft is registered to Helicopter Services (BOP) Ltd in Taupo, and was being operated on an air ambulance flight.

ZK-KOH is a beautiful looking aircraft, apparently very fast, and is the only of type on the New Zealand register.