New Zealand Post Fokker Friendship

Here are two pictures of a New Zealand Post Fokker F27 Friendship departing Wellington. I think that this is the first time I have captured an F27 at Wellington. It was a bit of a fluke seeing this one, as I was only at the airport to see if I could see the Civil Defence warning chopper.

This is a test!

This week New Zealand is having an annual civil defence emergency awareness week. Part of this was the first public test of a highly mobile warning system, designed to provide early warning of impending disaster - particularly a tsunami. The warning system bit refers to the fact that there are a couple of big speakers involved, and the highly mobile is because it is attached to a chopper.

In this case, a Helipro Aerospatiale AS 355 F1, ZK-HYN was doing the deed. Being windy it was a bit hard to hear, but it was definitely loud! Here's the best picture of a bunch of horrible picture :-)

No jumping again today

Today's planned skydive was canned again, due to the weather. I'm likely to re-book after Labour weekend as I still want to do this.

I spent a bit of time at the Wellington Aero Club today and spotted this Hughes 369E, ZK-INM arriving from somewhere in the Malbourough Sounds. This particular aircraft is registered to Alpine Helicopters Ltd in Wanaka.

A quick word about Favicons...

Most visitors to this site should notice that instead of the normal "B"logger icon in the address bar [and tab title], I now have my very own FAVICON, in this case, a light aircraft that I drew myself :-) I know, I'm soooo artistic [not!!].

If any of you are interested in doing this for your own blog, draw yourself a quick picture and go to http://www.iconj.com/generator.php. Easy :-)

No jump today, maybe tomorrow

I think that the title kinda summarises things quite well. It's far far far too windy to contemplate a jump today, so it has been put off until tomorrow [the weather is supposed to improve tomorrow].

In the meantime, here's a link to an interesting page/video sent by a good friend up at North Shore Aero Club [hello Mother Goose!], showing a simulation of 24 hours of world-wide commercial air traffic. While I obviously can't vouch for accuracy, it's still a very interesting view of things.

Click here to view: http://gizmodo.com/5055160/24-hour-air-traffic-around-the-world-blows-minds-eyeballs

What's next?

Hmmm, well, this weekend I am booked in for my first ever [tandam] parachute jump this coming Saturday. I'm shaking already :-). I'll let you know how it goes. Here's hoping for a storm on Saturday???

A Fantastic day!

What an awesome day! After yesterday's gusty crosswinds, today was fantastic! I took a Piper Archer PA28-181, ZK-TDJ, up for a flight today. I went out to our local training area in the Southern Wairarapa via the most direct route of Mount Matthews [find that on your VNC some day]. The surface wind was only 200 deg, 5 knots [runway 16] with 50km visibility. Awesome!

A quick session of turns, stalls, FLWOP and low flying and I'm back via Mount Matthews again to land. All of this with no ATC/traffic delays meant an easy 0.9 hrs for the flight. Nice!

Anyway, visiting aircraft today were this Alpha R2160, ZK-CTX, from CTC in Hamilton and a Hughes 369E, ZK-INZ, from Amalgamated Helicopters in Masterton about to touch down. Anyway, enjoy the pictures [Oh, and did I mention how perfect the day was for flying??? :-)]

Not much today... but maybe tomorrow...?

There's not too much happening today at the Aero Club [something to do with the weather...], just a couple of photos. The first is a General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580 registered to Air Chathams. The other photo is the www.air2there.com Piper PA31... it was a windy day, hence it's already well airborne by the time it passed the Aero Club.

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow - I'm booked in for a flight tomorrow afternoon :-)

Aerospatiale visitor

I was out at the Aero Club this afternoon, and this Aerospatiale AS 350BA from Skyline Aviation in Hastings turned up. It appeared to be crewed for an aeromedical mission, but I don't have any details. ZK-HGB is a good looking aircraft [for a chopper that is :-)], and the black paint just finishes it off nicely.

The pictures are arriving, parked up and departing.

Learjet 35A visits Wellington

Here are pictures of a Learjet 35A parked outside of the Wellington Aero Club earlier today. ZK-XVL is an immaculate looking example, and is registered to Auckland Air Charter at an Auckland address [and I believe it is based at Ardmore Airfield].

If you look hard at the pictures, you'll see a little extra under the wings. This aircraft has a hardpoint under each wing. This is apparently very helpful when providing simulated attack services to the Royal New Zealand Navy... more details someone?

The other visitor today is a Robinson R22 ZK-HRJ, registered to SCN Helicopters in Porirua.

Welcome to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre!

I really enjoyed the trip to Omaka, and the highlight of the trip was certainly the visit to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.

This place is amazing! It is full of real [and some replica] aircraft from the early age of aviation - mainly from the World War One era. What is most amazing is that many of the aircraft are in flyable condition. I have seen several of the aircraft in the air over the past couple of years. In addition to an extensive array of vintage aircraft there is a sizable selection of genuine memorabilia, including uniforms of famous aviators, medals and videos including original footage.

If you are at all interested in vintage aircraft, this has to be on your list of places to visit! The centre staff are very friendly and very happy for you to take your camera, although the displays are designed to be looked at and photography is a little difficult due to the reduced lighting levels.

Anyway, to the photos. These are a very small selection of the aircraft on display. The photos don't really do justice to the displays, so rock up and see it for yourself!

- The welcome sign
- Replica Hawker Hurricane outside the centre
- Fokker DR.1 'Dreidecker' Triplane
- Pfalz D.III
- Nieuport 24
- De Havilland DH-5

Across the ditch - next stop Omaka!

After the disappointments of the past few weeks, with aircraft [un]availability and weather problems, it was sooooooo good to get up and see some fine weather! After getting to the Aero Club at about 9am and checking the aviation weather, it was looking good for the entire day. Yippee!

I was able to get our transport for the day [Piper PA28-181 Archer, ZK-TDJ] preflighted and passengers called and relaxed for a short time. We left a little later than expected [we were gone around 10:30], but there had been delays for other flights with a maritime disaster exercise in Wellington harbour [hence the picture of the Helipro BK-117 ZK-HYI].

The trip across Cook Strait was uneventful and with fantastic views in all directions. Approaching the Woodbourne Control Zone, I contacted the tower and was cleared for the Ponds Arrival procedure to Omaka. Omaka is probably unique in New Zealand [someone correct me if I'm wrong] in that it is an uncontrolled aerodrome within a control zone, thus requiring a clearance for all operations... confused? Basically, you get a clearance to do something and are then pretty much left to it [for example, circuits]. The only other requirement is to report on the ground once complete.

Omaka appears to have positioned itself as a centre for aviation heritage [more in my next post], and despite being right next to Blenheim, it has a wonderful relaxed country aerodrome feel to it.

Anyway, here are pictures the Helipro BK-117 at Wellington and of some of the aircraft we spotted at Omaka. Hover over the pictures for brief details of each aircraft. More details on this Bristol Freighter can be found here.

Nanchang visitor

I arrived at the Aero Club early today, expecting a good day to go flying, and I wasn't at all disappointed. On arrival I saw something very interesting - a Nanchang CJ-6! Warbird aircraft don't visit Wellington often, so it was good to see.

ZK-JQS is registered to the Omaka Real Flying Club, based [not surprisingly] at Omaka airfield at Blenheim. The first three pictures were taken at Wellington. The last two? Guess where I got to today.... Omaka :-)

Enjoy!

Other odds and sods from today

Further to my last post regarding the CTC Diamond DA20 Katana, here are a few pictures of other aircraft. First is a Piper PA38 Tomahawk ZK-ESG, followed by King Air ZK-PLK [operated by Skyline Aviation visiting on an aeromedical mission from its Hastings base], then an Air New Zealand B737 taking off.

Fantastic weather and a Diamond Katana

After yesterday's issues with the weather, today was [as forecast] very very nice. I had no flying planned, so I just sat it out and admired the blue skies and gentle winds while others did the aviating.

I was on my way out to one of my photography spots when I noticed an unfamiliar aircraft about to land. I headed back to the airport to see a Diamond Katana from CTC in Hamilton taxying up. The two pilots [both CTC trainees] had come down from Hamilton, and after a quick walk over to the main terminal for a feed, they headed back to Hamilton.

Having never managed to get up close to a Katana before, I took the chance to get some photos. I think that these turned out quite nice.