To the Tron* and back, where Eagles go to die [or at least be exported]

Last few days I have been in the quaint* village of Cambridge, relaxing with relatives. Fun times! I flew up and back with Air Nelson with nice comfortable rides in both directions.

Hamilton is the maintenance base for Eagle Airways [another part of the Air NZ group], although perhaps not for long as the Raytheon B1900D's are slowly being withdrawn and exported and Eagle Aiways shut down. On the way and while I was in Hamilton, I got a few pictures of current and withdrawn B1900's.

First up is ZK-EAG, taken at Wellington, taxying out for another flight.

Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAG, operated by Eagle Airways/ Air NZ

 Next up is ZK-EAB, getting ready to leave from Hamilton to Auckland. This is a route which will be abandoned when Eagle Airways is closed down later this year.

Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAB, operated by Eagle Airways/ Air NZ

Last up are a couple of withdrawn B1900's, ZK-EAR and ZK-EAJ, which are parked up with the Air NZ livery [mostly] removed. I presume these are being readied for export. There was a third B1900D over there, but I didn't photograph it for some reason... from the heat haze, you can see it was another hot day in the Tron!

Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAR & ZK-EAJ, operated by Eagle Airways/ Air NZ

Last up is my ride home. This an a Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEQ, operated by Air Nelson/ Air NZ.

Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEQ, operated by Air Nelson/ Air NZ

* the Tron. I'm not explaining. You either know this one or you don't!
* quaint: I'm not explaining this either, except that it's an inside joke :-)

Close to rarity

As most of you will know, Air New Zealand is in the process of shutting down a subsidiary, Eagle Airways, and disposing of it's fleet of Raytheon B1900D aircraft.

Over the next year, these B1900D's will become a rarity [and I expect followed by extinction] on the New Zealand aircraft register. This will of course be pre-dated by Air NZ ridding itself of all Boeing 737's in it's fleet, with the last B737 passenger flight to take place later this month.

Anyway, here are photos of two B1900D's - ZK-EAC and ZK-EAN.

Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAC, operated by Eagle Airways/ Air NZ

Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAC, operated by Eagle Airways/ Air NZ

A weekday at Wellington Airport

I have taken Monday - Thursday off work this week, so I went to Wellington airport for an hour or so. I didn't expect to see anything particularly new, and I didn't, but it was a lot quieter than I had expected. If it wasn't for the wind, I suspect that today would have been a great day for some flying with little or no delays...

Anyway, it was very windy so I got to see more of the undersides of aircraft than the sides... for those that know Wellington, look at the last photo of the Zephyrometer [click here for details and click here for video of the lightening strike] - it leaned a lot further over than that...

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXF, operated by Air New Zealand

Airbus A320-232, VH-VFF, operated by Jetstar Airways

Raytheon B200 King Air, NZ7121, operated by the RNZAF

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR, operated by Air NZ

The Wellington Zephyrometer

Today's photoshoot

Ok, "photoshoot" might be overstating it somewhat, and even if it was one, they were not particularly good looking models... but I was asked to take a few photos of two Aero Club Piper PA38-112 Tomahawks today.

They were mostly exterior photos of ZK-WAC, but some interior panel photos of another aircraft were also taken. These are/ will be used by the Aero Club as part of their training materials.

There's just one to publish for now. ZK-WAC was repainted last year and it's still looking fresh. I was just about to take a close-up when I saw Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAI, operated by Eagle Airways departing in the background. A quick zoom out, and I managed to capture it at exactly the right time.

Piper PA38-112, ZK-WAC of Wellington Aero Club and Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAI of Eagle Airways

At the end of a dreary day...

... there is not much to do except to share a couple of pictures and an old war movie.

The pictures are of two types which are rapidly disappearing from NZ skies - the Boeing 737-300 and the Raytheon B1900 - which Air NZ are in the process of withdrawing from their fleets.

Boeing 737-319, ZK-NGI, operated by Air NZ, but not for much longer

Raytheon B1900, ZK-EAR, operated by Eagle Airways/ Air NZ, but also not for much longer

The video is an old one called "The Final Countdown", Be warned that the plot is rubbish, the acting worse and the script... well... never mind. It does however have lots of footage of Tomcats, Corsairs, Zeros [actually I think they might be North American Harvards painted up to look like Zeros...], some helos, an aircraft carrier and what might be some historic footage. Great if you have about 1.5 hours of your life to waste! Enjoy [if that is possible!! :-)]!

  

Homeward bound

Last up on my trip home to Wellington was another flight in an Eagle Airways operated Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAE. Like the trip north to Taupo, there were only about 5 passengers on board for the flight home. Unlike the trip north, the views were somewhat more impressive.

Three simple photos here. Firstly, the aircraft, send and third are two views of the eastern side of Mount Ruapehu as we headed south. The photos of Ruapehu are black and white - they seemed to look better that way.

My first visit to Invercargill!

At Invercargill
I had the privilege of spending last week working at a couple of my employer's more remote worksites. This trip saw me fly firstly into Invercargill and then up to Taupo.

I had never been to Invercargill before, so I was interested to see what the airport was like. The terminal itself was pretty basic, but mostly functional. It is also undergoing a major revamp, to the extent that the baggage collection point is currently in a marque outside the main terminal.

The following pictures are from Invercargill airport [ICAO code: NZNV] on the day of my departure. Top to bottom are the terminal, the baggage claim area and the control tower.

In additional to some local light aircraft, there were two commercial flights that came and went. The first is an Air Nelson Bombardier DHC8-311, ZK-NFB and the second is the aircraft that would take me to Christchurch, an ATR-GIE ATR72-212A, ZK-MCU, operated by Mount Cook Airline:

Flights to Taupo
The flights to Taupo [Invercargill - Christchurch - Wellington - Taupo] were reasonably eventful.

We were flying abeam Christchurch when the ATR72 was struck be lightening. I did not see anything, but it was one very loud bang. One of the flight attendants just about jumped out of her skin... hardly surprising!

The flight from Christchurch to Wellington was in a Boeing 737, and we got "moved around' a wee bit. Nothing frightening at all, actually, just a bit of fun.

Wellington to Taupo in a Raytheon B1900D was less eventful, although we did get to land, and de-plane in a fair amount of rain. Fun times!

I only have a couple of photos from this part of the trip - the first is looking out at the clouds below us in the cruise towards Taupo and the second is the inside of the mostly empty plane. More pictures from Taupo will be in my next post.

More from windy Wellington

Next up from today's "sightseeing" are some of the smaller aircraft [in fact, I think these were the very smallest aircraft] I saw operating today. Not surprising really!

Top to bottom are:

Beech B200 King Air, ZK-MYM, operated by Air2There.com. This was operating an Air Ambulance service while the Wellington-based Lifeflight operation gets sorted after Vincent Aviation folded recently. Hopefully some good news on that front in the next week or two.
Beech B200 Super King Air, NZ7121, operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force [RNZAF]. The two photos show the departure and a later arrival back into Wellington. Odd that the RNZAF is flying around on a Sunday [not unheard of, just a little unusual].
Raytheon [originally Beech] 1900D, ZK-EAP, operated by Eagle Airways [Air NZ].
Cessna 208B, ZK-SAY, operated by Sounds Air.
The slightly smaller Cessna 208, ZK-PDM, also operated by Sounds Air.

Strip flying... the wrap up

Well, that's it for the strip flying course.

What an awesome weekend! Did I mention that any other time?

Now for a couple of "administrative" things. With the weather the way it is this time of the year, we made the sensible suggestion to fly between Wellington and Blenheim on Sounds Air. It turned out to be a great day both sides of Cooks Strait, but I reckon this was still the best way to go. It's quick, cheap [cheaper than I have seen on Air NZ], relaxing and meant we could have a beer at the end of the day :-) The pilots are friendly and the windows large.

I'd never been to Woodbourne aerodrome before. It's combined military/ civil and I was surprised how busy it was on a Sunday evening. Aside from "our" Cessna 208 Caravan [ZK-SAA, Sounds Air], there were two Eagle Airways/ Air NZ B1900's, an Air Nelson/ Air NZ DHC8-Q311 as well as a Fokker F27 Mk 500 Friendship, ZK-POH of Airwork Freight Operations. In the back you can also see an RNZAF C130H Hercules.

Would I recommend this? Yes! I'll probably do some more some time early next year [still summer in NZ for all your Northern Hemisphere types :-)], and I'd definitely recommend it, even if you just want a quick introduction to this type of flying. You can get the MAC contact details here.

Anyway, a couple of photos from Woodbourne, plus a repeat of my landing at D'Urville Island... after all, that's what it was all about :-)

Crosswinds at Wellington

Today was fairly windy with surface winds this afternoon up to around 47 knots [about 87 km/hr], but including crosswind components in the mid-20 knots at times.

Needless to say, this made for some interesting arrivals. Although photos don't really do justice, here are a sample of the more interesting photos. I should point out that all of these landings worked out really well; none of them were as bad as the photos might suggest... all credit to the flight crew!

Top to bottom we have:

Boeing 737-8KG, VH-VUY, Virgin Australia Airlines
ATR-GIE ATR72-212A, ZK-MCY, Mount Cook Airline [Air NZ]
Raytheon [Beech] 1900D, ZK-EAO, Eagle Airways [Air NZ]
ATR-GIE ATR72-212A, ZK-MVC, Mount Cook Airline [Air NZ]

Western apron visitors at Wellington

I had a flight booked this afternoon, but it wasn't looking good when the day dawned with low cloud and a wee bit cool [but by no means "cold"]. After a lazy start to the morning I headed out to the aero club to find, as expected, all aircraft parked up in the hanger. Stink!

Oh well, while waiting for the flight, I did get to see two unusual airline visitors to this side of the airport and a GA [General Aviation] visitor who arrived soon after the weather started clearing up.

The first airline visitor was this Eagle Airways/ Air NZ Beech/ Raytheon 1900D, ZK-EAI. The aircraft parked up outside of Vincent's maintenance base. I'm not 100% sure why it was here, but I later saw it was up on jacks, so perhaps an undercarriage problem?

The second airline visitor was an Air New Zealand Boeing B737-3U3, ZK-SJC. I didn't manage to get a photo as it was mostly hidden inside the the Execujet hanger, so probably undergoing unexpected maintenance of some sort. Can anyway confirm if this is the same aircraft that turned back the other day with a cracked windscreen?

The GA visitor was a Cessna 185C, ZK-CHL, registered to a Dannevirke address. Enjoy the photos and the next post will have the details of my flight.

Airliners at Wellington today

Wellington airport is notoriously quiet during the weekends, so getting a variety of aircraft to spot can be quite hard. Having said that I am slowly working my way through the fleets of the main airlines that operate through here, so that is good.

Today's aircraft are:

Cessna 208B, ZK-MYH registered to Air2there.com
Raytheon B1900D, ZK-EAJ, registered to Eagle Airways
Boeing 737-319, ZK-NGH, registered to Air New Zealand
Boeing 737-838, ZK-ZQC, registered to Jetconnect [Qantas]
Airbus A320-232, VH-VGU, registered to Jetstar Airways

Four airliners and a rescue chopper

It was another day of fantastic weather in Wellington today... juts a pity that I could not afford to go flying, but my time will come :-). At least a number of other Club pilots got to go and commit aviation and have a lot of fun! As for me, I'm saving for a holiday, so I'm being just a wee bit careful with the expenditure, but I'm hopeful to have some photos from the other side of the world at the end of September :-)

Pictured today are the Westpac Rescue Kawasaki BK117 B2, ZK-HLF, registered to Helilink, followed by 4 airliners:

Raytheon 1900D,  ZK-EAH, registered to Eagle Airways

Boeing 737-33A, ZK-NGR, registered to Air New Zealand

Boeing 737-8FE, ZK-PBL, registered to Virgin Australia Airlines (NZ) - 2 pictures

Airbus A320-232, VH-VGQ, registered to Jetstar Airways

Enjoy!