Saturday's aircraft

Here are the pictures I took yesterday from the Aero Club of various regular and visiting aircraft to Wellington.

Of particular interest to me is a Piper PA31 ZK-VIP, registered to Air West Coast Ltd. I have seen this aircraft several times in the past, although last time it looked extremely tired. Amazing what a flash new paint job will do!

Top to bottom these aircraft are:

Piper PA31, ZK-VIP, Air West Coast Ltd
Cessna C172N, ZK-EFF, Motueka Aero Club
Partenavia P68C, ZK-MIR, Canterbury Aero Club
Diamond DA20-C1, ZK-SFI, CTC Aviation Training Ltd
Cessna C172S, ZK-WKT, CTC Aviation Training Ltd
Nanchang CJ6, ZK-MAO, Wellington Aero Club
Aerospatiale Alenia ATR72-212A, ZK-MCP, Mount Cook Airline Ltd

Another Partenavia

Here's another picture of a Partenavia P68C visiting Wellington, ZK-TZZ. Like ZK-MIR from a few weeks ago, this one is also from the Canterbury Aero Club, which is based at Christchurch International Airport.

ZK-TZZ is interesting because unlike many P68C's, this one has a crew door on the right-hand side, making it substantially easier for the flight crew to enter and exit the aircraft. This would be a particular bonus when being operated on ATOs [Air Transport Operations], as without the crew door, the flight crew would either have to enter before the passengers, or push their way past them.

Busy days...

Ahhhh - I like holidays! I get to spend a lot of time relaxing and siting around at the aero club [maybe I don't have a social life?? :-) !].

This morning I was privileged to go up as a safety pilot for a club member doing some simulated i/f [instrument flying]. It's good to just sit, keep a really good eye out for traffic, terrain and enjoy the view. It was not a good day for photos, so nothing to show.

Later in the afternoon I snapped a couple of arrivals at the club. The first is a Maule M5 registered to a Martinborough [north east of Wellington] address, the second a Partenavia P68C from Canterbury Aero Club.