Three DHC8s at Wellington

More pictures from last Sunday, this time of three Bombardier DHC8's. The first two are from Air Nelson [Air NZ].

ZK-NEE is still in the "old" Air NZ Link livery.

Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEE, operated by Air Nelson [Air NZ]

ZK-NEA is in the new livery.

Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEA, operated by Air Nelson [Air NZ]

Lastly, a livery that will be disappearing at the end of this month, is the Jetstar livery on the Eastern Australia Airlines-operated DHC-8's. Jetstar is pulling all of it's regional routes in NZ. I expect that these aircraft will therefore return to Australia.

Bombardier DHC-8-315, VH-TQD, operated by Eastern Australia Airlines for Jetstar

Blustery conditions last Sunday

These are a couple of photos from last Sunday. The weather was a bit gusty, with crosswinds at times. It would have been nice to get some video as some of the jets were having a bit of fun...

Anyway, first up is a Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEA, which is operated by Air Nelson/ Air NZ.

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

Second up is one of Singapore Airlines' Boeing 777-212/ER, 9V-SRO.

Boeing 777-212/ER, 9V-SRO, operated by Singapore Airlines

Merry Christmas from Sunny(?) New Zealand!

Welcome to another Christmas!

The Mayans [or at least those who tried to interpret their calendar] were wrong, so we get to celebrate another Christmas. Hooray!

I guess that many of you in the northern hemisphere will be wrapping up warm and celebrating your mid-winter Christmas, whereas those of us in the southern hemisphere are in mid summer along with all that that brings [which seems to be lots of rain and some fog this year!].

Weather is very changeable for us in New Zealand. A great example was earlier today, when at 12:20 we had bright sunshine. Nek minnit [ok, less than 1.5 hours anyway!], the fog has settled in and the visibility is down to next to nothing. Still the temperature hasn't dropped - still mid 20's [Celsius].

Anyway, here are a few pictures of today's change in weather, plus a few of the aircraft at the airport. Top to bottom are:

Wellington airport taken from Mount Victoria

Wellington City, also taken from Mount Victoria

General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580, ZK-CIE, registered to Air Chathams, on the western apron just as the fog starts to roll in

General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580, ZK-CIB, registered to Air Chathams, taking off into the murk

Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEA, registered to Air Nelson, also off into the murk

The same DHC-8 a few seconds later... you might need to look close to see it

Last is a link to Hayley Westernra singing Te Harinui and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Odds and sods from today

I'm off work sick today, but I took some time to get out and get a bit of fresh air. So I headed down to the airport and got a couple of snaps from the viewing area right beside the threshold for runway 16.

Top to bottom are:

Cessna 208B, ZK-SAA, registered to Sounds Air
Cessna 172S, ZK-SAN, also registered to Sounds Air and with the Coast Guard titles under the wings
Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT, registered to Wellington Aero Club
Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEA, registered to Air Nelson
Airbus A320-232, VH-VGT, registered to Jetstar Airways

A flight and some interesting aircraft

Today was looking doubtful for a flight, with low cloud at home and around the airport. It mostly cleared up by the afternoon, and I ended up doing a dual flight up to Paraparaumu airport [NZPP], about a 30 minute flight to the north, in a Cessna 172, ZK-FLT. This was my first flight in a Cessna for over 2 months, so it was good to get back in control.

There was a big surprise waiting at Paraparaumu, with a Air Nelson Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEA parked up. Air Nelson [part of the Air New Zealand group] will start flying between Paraparaumu and Auckland in the near future. Today looked like another famil exercise for the local staff and some VIPs who go a look inside the aircraft.

Other aircraft are a Jodel D.11, ZK-ECU and Cessna 172, ZK-FLT, both at Paraparaumu. Lastly is a photo of Cessna A185F, ZK-PRM at Wellington.

In the immortal words of the great Karl Zimmerman:

"There was not much happening around Wellington today, but I did manage to get these photos" :-)

Thanks Karl - how did you know what I was going to write?

Unfortunately, he is right of course. Wellington Airport is a dead boring location on a weekend when the weather is bad - in this case, the wind and cloud was an issue, so no Club flying.

Photos are of:

Boeing B737-3U3, ZK-NGF, registered to Air New Zealand
Raytheon/ Beech 1900D, ZK-EAE, registered to Eagle Airways [part of the Air NZ group]
Boeing B737-838, ZK-ZQD, registered to Jetconnect [part of the Qantas group]
Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEA, registered to Air Nelson [part of the Air NZ group]
Cessna 208, ZK-PDM, registered to Sounds Air [looks like K-Dog is flying today?]