More photos from last Sunday

Here are a few more photos from last Sunday. This time they are four Air Nelson / Air NZ aircraft.

First up are the two Air Nelson-operated Bombardier DHC-8-311's, ZK-NEG and ZK-NFI. ZK-NEG is still in the old Air NZ livery which still looks quite nice - I wonder how long until they are all painted in the new livery?

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

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

Next up are two Air NZ-operated Airbus A320-232's, ZK-OXD and ZK-OJR.

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

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

In case you are interested, these photos, and those on the previous post, were all taken from spotting location A [from my spotting locations page].

Today's random pics

Here are a selection of pictures from today. Nothing particularly flash, although I do like the first picture of the Virgin Australia-operated Boeing 737-8FE, VH-YIZ, as it was passing through a brightly lit area while most of the rest of the photo is in shadow.

Boeing 737-8FE, VH-YIZ, operated by Virgin Australia International Airlines

Next up is the Westpac Rescue helicopter, a Kawasaki BK117 B2, ZK-HLF, which is operated by Helilink.

Kawasaki BK117 B2, ZK-HLF, operated by Helilink as the Westpac Rescue helicopter

Third up is an Air New Zealand-operated Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR, just prior to touchdown.

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

Last up is a Mount Cook Airline-operated ATR-GIE ATR72-600, ZK-MVD.

ATR-GIE ATR72-600, ZK-MVD, operated by Mount Cook Airline/ 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 Airbus' and a Boeing

Before, during and after the first lot of rain there were a small number of movements. Unfortunately, Wellington is usually fairly quiet on the weekends... and I have to work during the week. Mind you, there's not such a large range of aircraft at any time that I can't see each type over a few weekend hours... :-)

So, here we have a few of the Airbus and Boeing aircraft that came through today.

Airbus A320-232, VH-VQF, operated by Jetstar Airways, leaving late morning

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

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG, operated by Air New Zealand. Clearly it's raining now...

... ZK-OXG just getting airborne

Airbus A320-232, VH-VQF, landing 3 hrs 15 minutes later, mid afternoon

Boeing 737-838, ZK-ZQD, operated by Jetconnect/ Qantas

Airbus' and trophies

Today's weather was rubbish [which is quite normal for this time of the year, I suppose!], but to finish it off, we did have the Wellington Aero Club's annual Christmas dinner and prize giving. For the first time, the event was held at the local Spruce Goose cafe - good food and great views over the Southern 

More details of prizes and a few photos will be on the Club's Facebook page, but here are three photos from the day.

First up is an Air NZ operated Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR departing, then a Jetstar Airbus A320-232, VH-VFJ arriving, then finally a table full of trophies.

So much for the wind...

It was supposed to get very windy earlier today, but it looks like the wind is only just kicking in now. Oh well... I did have a flight booked, but I'll get it done another time.

I did get a couple of photos today. The first, a Virgin Australia Boeing 737-8FE, ZK-PBA, was taken from outside the Spruce Goose cafe, The second is an Air NZ Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR, with the photo taken from the Aero Club.

Finally... I got to go flying again!

After about 6 or 7 weeks of no flying, I finally got to go up again today in the Aero Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT. It was a fairly quick flight to the north [over Petone], around the coast and back in around the south coast. The flight finished with some circuits to maintain competency.

The weather was pretty much perfect... virtually no turbulence apart from a little when I flew between a couple of hills which funnelled the gentle winds and provided a few lumps and bumps... nothing much though.

Anyway, here are some pictures. The first is the C172 [being flown by another Club pilot], then:

Diamond DA42, ZK-CTL, registered to CTC Aviation Training in Hamilton
Kawasaki BK117 B2, ZK-IME, registered to Helicopters Otago
Boeing 737-3K2, ZK-NGM, registered to Air New Zealand
Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR, registered to Air New Zealand

Changed Pacific Blue/ Virgin Australia Airlines livery

Today being a Monday I would not normally go out to the airport. Today was a bit different for reason that will come clear in my next post.

For this post though, I got a bit of an unexpected surprise. Pacific Blue is rebranding as Virgin Australia Airlines. I'm not sure how far this will go in terms of repainting the fleet, although I suspect that what I saw this evening is temporary until a full repaint of the Pacific Blue fleet.

A couple of things to note are the new "Airline of Virgin Blue" titles on the fuselage, and the original Pacific Blue branding elsewhere. Anyway, this aircraft is Boeing 737-8BK, VH-VOX. You can see the original livery by clicking here...

Other photos are of an Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR, registered to Air New Zealand and a Kawasaki BK117 B-2, ZK-IME from Helicopters Otago.

Enjoy!

Today's larger aircraft

In the post are a few of the larger aircraft I spotted today. First and foremost is the latest Air NZ Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR, which like ZK-OAB is in the All Blacks paint scheme. Nice!

For comparison is another Air NZ A320-232, ZK-OJG.

Other aircraft are Qantas/ Jetconnect Boeing 737-838, ZK-ZQE, Virgin Australia Airlines/ Pacific Blue Boeing 737-8FE, ZK-PBI, and finally Vincent Aviation-operated British Aerospace BAe 146 Series 200, ZK-ECO.

Enjoy!