A visit to Christchurch

In what was my first commercial flight in over a year, I had a trip to Christchurch earlier today. The occasion was a Flying NZ executive team meeting [our first face-to-face meeting since the conference last year].

After the meeting a couple of us ended up in the Koru Lounge for a bite to eat and a quick drink. It was fairly quiet but the food was nice enough. This was about the first time I have taken my DSLR camera out of its bag in several months also. Both flights were with Air NZ on their ATR72's. 

I'm glad they were booked on Air NZ instead of Jetstar, if only because Air NZ is still requiring vaccination passes, while Jetstar does not seem to be routinely checking for vaccination passes. I'd rather fly knowing the person sitting next to me is vaccinated, than not being sure... The statement from Jetstar's webpage [https://www.jetstar.com/nz/en/travel-alerts#Fly%20Well%20Program, as at 22 January 2022]:

Excuse me while I grab a pinch of salt to read that with...

Anyway, here are some photos from the Koru Lounge.

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

Airbus A321-271NX, ZK-NND, operated by Air NZ

Airbus A321-271NX, ZK-NND, operated by Air NZ

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

Wet and windy today

Today was [as forecast] wet and windy, so no club flying. It did make for a few interesting photos, the first of which are these four photos of Jetstar departures.

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

Bombardier DHC-8-315, VH-TQK, operated by Eastern Australia Airlines [on behalf of Jetstar Airways]

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

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

Airbus A320's from last weekend

Airbus A320's are a staple of the domestic, trans-Tasman and trans-Pacific traffic. Here are a couple of them:

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJO, registered to Air New Zealand

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

Heavier metal at Wellington

For a while, it was looking like a typically quiet weekend at Wellington, so I took some photos of some of the larger aircraft to regularly use Wellington.

First are two pictures of an Air New Zealand Boeing 737-300, ZK-NGH taking off. Following this are two photos of a Jetstar Airbus A320, VH-VQE.

As it turned out some visitors did arrive a little later in the day, but that can wait until the next post :-)

Enjoy the photos!

Windy Wellington

I love windy, stormy, days, except perhaps when I want to go flying :-)

This weekend has been a windy one. As you'll see in this series of photos of a Jetstar Airbus A320 landing at Wellington, there was a strong westerly component [it was a north-westerly "breeze"], which made it fun for those landing on an [almost] north-south orientated runway [runway 34 is in use].

What's the clue in these photos? Well, if you orientate yourself to the pilot's view, I am standing to the LEFT of the aircraft, but I can only see the RIGHT hand side in the initial photos. The second photo is the same as the first one, except that I've enlarged it to show the detail better. In the third image, the aircraft is still pointing at the aero club. As always, click on the images for a better look.