Aero Club Working Bee

The Aero Club had its annual pre-Christmas working bee today. Apart from the "normal" activities of giving the club house and surrounds a good scrub and clean, we were also able to almost finish the hanger door project.

Today's activities included putting on the door handles [a seemingly small task that makes a big difference!] and replacing the surface of the front of the hanger either side of the doors. Once that was done, the Club's yellow panels with the logo were reattached. It's starting to look a lot smarter now!

Here's a couple of pictures., The first is a little after the work was done, and the second at the end of the day. After this, we all retired to the bar for a drink and BBQ. What an awesome day!

RNZAF C130 Hercules

These are pictures of an RNZAF C130 Hercules that came into and out of Wellington today. Apparently this particular aircraft made at least a couple of visits today, this time coming in VFR [Visual Flight Rules]. The first two pictures are on arrival and the second two on departure a few minutes later.

Are your reaction times any good?

Here's a fun site that allows you to test your reaction times. It's based in Adobe Flash, so you'll need a plugin for this [most browsers have this anyway].

Unfortunately, it's quite addictive!

Sheep Reaction

Leave a comment with your best reaction times!

Cirrus SR22

An Ardmore-based Cirrus SR22 visited Wellington today as part of a trip around much of New Zealand.

Wikipedia has a reasonable rundown on the aircraft which is starting to become popular in New Zealand, along with its close cousin the SR20.

Air Force UH-1 Iroquois

A Royal New Zealand Air Force [RNZAF] UH-1 Iroquois helicopter visited Wellington today. While here [for barely 5 minutes] it picked up Matt Ferris who is an RNZAF C130 Hercules pilot who is cycling the length of New Zealand by himself raising money for prostrate cancer research ["Movember"].

For those not familiar with New Zealand, there's a chunk of water between the North and South Islands... hence the Iroquois ride. For details of this sponsored ride, you can go to Matt's Facebook page [Facebook login required]. Far out, you could even follow the instructions on that page and cough up some cash or something for a worthy cause :-)

Here are two of the best pictures I got at the Iroquois flew past the Aero Club on its departure.

Polynesian Blue

Here's a picture of a Polynesian Blue [aka Virgin Blue] B737-800 taking off at Wellington today.

Welcome Pacific Blue!

Just in the last week or so, Pacific Blue [local outpost of Australia's Virgin Blue] has started flying New Zealand's rather lucrative main trunk [Auckland / Wellington / Christchurch] routes. Pacific Blue have been flying trans-Tasman [to/from Australia for those of you outside of the Pacific region] for some time, and so it was only a matter of time I guess before they decided to enter the domestic market.

If nothing else, it has provided a temporary shakeup, with plenty of $39 one way fares. While fares will undoubtedly rise in the future, this arrival of competent domestic competition has seen the two other main operators [Air New Zealand and Qantas] respond in ways that can only be good for the consumer.

The only issue is that historically, New Zealand only really has room for a couple of domestic main trunk operators. It will be interesting to see how things lie in a couple of years. Pacific Blue/Virgin Blue is a tough competitor, and I doubt that they will give up easily.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures.

Thomson from the UK or Air New Zealand?

What a surprise when I saw this aircraft landing at Wellington today! It's a UK registered B737 in the colours of Thomson [thomsonfly.com]. Given that even the mere hint that an airline is considering starting services in New Zealand makes the "front page" [and nothing has been said], I was surprised indeed.

Turns out that this aircraft is being operated by Air New Zealand. I'm not sure of all of the details [can someone fill us all in???], especially as it still hs a UK registration.

In any case, it is always good to see new and interesting liveries flying around [some local operators could learn from this :-)].

Vans RV-6 amateur build airplane

Earlier today an awesome looking [though for Wellington, unusual] visitor popped in for a short time. It's a Vans RV-6 which had flown direct to Wellington from Queenstown in about 2.5 hours.

This particular model cruises at about 140 kts on 160hp with a fixed-pitch wooden propeller, which is quite good for a two seater, but nothing too unusual for many of the better amateur built aircraft.

[As an aside; notice the weather? Fantastic!]

More of the Southern DC3

As mentioned in my previous post, Wellington had the pleasure of a DC3 arrival last week. The aircraft is still here, and earlier today I saw a bunch of hard working engineers removing the right hand engine.

I also had the pleasure of a quick look inside the aircraft which was really neat. The cockpit is clearly from another age [just look at those control wheels!] but it's still a beautiful aircraft! Another thing that struck me was just how large the engine looks when sitting on the trailer. Hopefully it will be back in the air shortly where it belongs.

The following are some of the pictures I got of the aircraft at various times during the day. Top to bottom:

DC3 engine still being worked on

Engine off

That huge engine closeup

DC3 cockpit

Southern DC3 at Wellington

Here are some pictures of the Southern DC3 Dakota [or C47 for my American viewers] parked up at Wellington just outside of the Aero Club. ZK-AMY has [like any DC3] a long history, more details of which are available on the Southern DC3 Trust website.

Apparently, ZK-AMY was not actually heading for Wellington, but had an issue with an engine, and so diverted here, along with the requisite "fuss" accorded to any aircraft reporting an in-flight problem.

Lime Green Boeing

I was sitting in the lounge at Wellington Aero Club earlier today when a lime-green Air New Zealand B737 landed. An ugly colour, but sure to attract attention. It seesm that Air New Zealand have decided to advertise their ability to organise holiday packages, and what better than on an aircraft?

This particular aircraft is ZK-FRE. ZK-FRE was one of the original Freedom Air aircraft [from when that airline was set up by Air New Zealand to crush their new-found competition in Kiwi Travel International Airlines]. This is at least the 3rd paint scheme from that time, the original being Freedom's bright yellow colour, the next Air New Zealand's white with blue tail, and now this one.

An Australian Registered PA28-181 at Wellington

This picture is of an Australian registered [note the "VH" start to the registration?] Piper PA28-181. This aircraft was ferried across the Tasman recently, and is awaiting the appropriate checks so that it can be transferred to the New Zealand register. I understand that the plan is to have this put on line at Wellington Aero Club [yippee!].

B737 takeoff

The weather has improved considerably today [not sure that it will last too long...], and I managed to get some good shots of aircraft landing and taking off. Here are two of a B737 during takeoff.

Air New Zealand A320 going around

Here's a video of an Air New Zealand A320 going around from short final approach. The weather has been a bit dodgy all day, although looking at other aircraft today, it appears to have calmed a little from a couple of hours ago.

Enjoy!