Bizjets of 31 May

Following what seemed like a drought of bizjet activity, 31 May has been punctuated with a flurry of activity from locals and visitors.

Starting the ball rolling was Citation Sovereign ZK-JTH departing Auckland for Wellington and it continued onto Queenstown and later back to Auckland.  Departing Queenstown a short time after the Sovereign was Mustang ZK-PGA.  The other local jet out today was Ultra ZK-AWK which conducted an IFR sortie from/to Auckland.

Canadair CRJ (Challenger 850) VH-LEF departed Auckland for Essendon mid afternoon.

Wayne Grant photo

Gulfstream 550 N712KT was moved to a layover area having arrived at Auckland on the evening of 30 May from Tokyo/Haneda.

Wayne Grant photo

French Navy Falcon 20G Gardian "65" arrived at Auckland from Noumea just after midday.

Boeing 737-200 VP-CBA arrived at Auckland late afternoon from Port Moresby and no doubt Japan prior to that.

And arriving later in the was Global Express N616DC from Hobart and Sydney.

Arriving at Auckland 24 May 2011, Wayne Grant photo

Boeing 737-300 ZK-TLE heads west

Airwork Flight Operations Boeing 737-3S1 ZK-TLE departed Auckland 29 May for Brisbane at the conclusion of its induction to the fleet and final application of Toll titles.  It was delivered to Auckland on 17 April arriving as N919GF and joins ZK-TLA, TLC and TLD on the Toll freight contract in Australia.  It is the first 737 to receive the revised Toll livery.

Arriving at Brisbane, Lloyd Fox photo

Piper PA46 Malibu N957JK

Piper PA46-310P Malibu N957JK arrived at Auckland on the evening of 27 May from Lord Howe Island on its delivery flight to Tauranga.

Centennial of US Naval Aviation - USS Midway Museum

During 2009 the team from MRC Aviation were fortunate enough to visit Southern California and a trip to this part of the world would not be complete without a time spent at the USS Midway moored at San Diego.

The following is but a small selection of shots taken on board this floating museum.

Couple from Auckland 27 May

VJ kindly supplies the following:

Boeing 737-300 freighter ZK-TLE in the revised livery, soon to be delivered to Australia?

Luft Aviation of Essendon flew Global Express N360LA to Auckland 26 May.

Centennial of US Naval Aviation

The post  http://hnlrarebirds.blogspot.com/2011/05/usn-aviation-centennial.html prompted MRC Aviation to also dedicate a post to this special occasion that is being celebrated across the United States this year at numerous events.

The following link is well worth watching for those with high speed internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fz_FXE5cPY

The following are a selection of images from recent US Naval visitors to our shores (includes Navy, Marine and Coast Guard). 

Above and below, 166048 at Auckland 29 March 2009, Mike Condon photos



Above and below, 163919 at Christchurch in October 2009 as RAZZ87, Torin Wilson photo.



RAZZ87 at Christchurch again, photo supplied.

165094 at Auckland 29 September 2009 on a very brief visit, Wayne Grant photo

165161 arriving at Auckland 07 March 2005.  165350 arrived sometime later.  Wayne Grant photo

166375 at Taupo in April 2009, Mike Davidson photo

166376 at Wellington 01 February 2010, Phil Craig photo

USCG 01 at Auckland 16 July 2009, Mike Condon photos

Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 shuffle

The Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 fleet are being shuffled around at present with the two aircraft that had been in storage at Christchurch returned north to Auckland. ZK-NBV arrived 26 April from Auckland and departed 18May and ZK-NBW arrived 19 April from Los Angeles and departed 19 May.)

Today, 23 May, the national carrier positioned Boeing 747-400 ZK-SUH to Christchurch from Auckland for a period of storage.

Arriving Christchurch, Graham Weatherby photo

King Air N90NZ

Check out http://galonghaulnews.blogspot.com/2011/05/king-air-n90nz.html

Fleeting Visit

MJets of Bangkok Citation X HS-KCS spent just under 19 hours at Queenstown arriving at 1700 on 20 May from Melbourne and departing at 1150 on 21 May to Adelaide and onwards to Broome.
The X seems to sprinting all over the place having arrived at Brisbane in the early hours of 17 May from Bangkok and Darwin then flying to Maroochydore, Gladstone and Townsville 18 May.  To Sydney and Melbourne 19 May.

http://www.mjets.com/

At Queenstown 21 May 2011, photo supplied

Airwork Boeing 737-200QC ZK-NQC

With the introduction of Airwork's Boeing 737-300 freighter ZK-FXT to the twice nightly Airpost contract flights between Auckland and Christchurch, Boeing 737-200QC ZK-NQC has seldom flown and most recently was contracted to move a Boeing 737-300 engine for Air New Zealand from Christchurch to Hamilton in support of ZK-NGD earlier this month.

Today, 21 May, ZK-NQC was photographed minus the titles it once wore, this perhaps a signal that it is a contender for an overseas deployment.  There was speculation of a 6 month contract abroad but nothing substantiated. 

Wayne Grant photo

AS365 Dauphine JA6641

Japanese registered AS365 Dauphine JA6641 was first noted at Oceania's Ardmore base in early January 2011 and was photographed undertaking engine runs on 20 April.  One month later the machine was packaged up and awaiting for transportation, presumably heading back to Japan.

Wayne Grant photo

Noel Jones photo

Gulfstream 550 N1BN

Touching down at Auckland earlier today, 18 May, was Palm Beach, Florida based Gulfstream 550 N1BN.  It arrived from Sydney where it has been parked since 10 May when it flew down from Brisbane, having arrived at Brisbane from Palm Beach via Papeete 08 May.

Wayne Grant photo

10 Years - May 2001

It is truly incredible how quickly time flies and even more so when you go hunting for something in particular and so easily end up side tracked!  

The current header photo of MRC Aviation is the photo of the first visit to NZ of an Ilyushin 86.  On 05 May 2001 RA-86125 of East Line Airlines, callsign ESL9671, arrived at Ohakea from Moscow via Dhaka and Darwin and departed the following day for Christchurch and Brisbane.  The aircraft was operated for the United Nations carrying NZ peacekeeping troops to and from East Timor.  The IL86 was back to Ohakea 08 May 2001 from Brisbane and flew to Auckland, Brisbane and Darwin 13 May 2001.  From Darwin to Brisbane and Ohakea 22 May 2001 and onward to Auckland and Brisbane the next day.

It was ten years ago on 01 May when Freedom Air started a brief foray operating domestic jet services within New Zealand following the collapse of Tasman Pacific Airlines of  NZ who operated the franchise arrangement as Qantas NZ in late April 2001.  Effective from 01 May 2001 Freedom Air International commenced domestic passenger services between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch utilising Boeing 737 aircraft.  Services on the first day of domestic operations were flown by Boeing 737-300 ZK-FDM.  Certain days of the week (Wed thru Mon) were operated using the Airwork (NZ) Ltd Boeing 737-200QC ZK-NQC complete with freedomair.com titles.  This aircraft commenced operations with Freedom Air on 2 May and effective from 31 May the airline's domestic schedule was expanded to two aircraft, ZK-NQC and ZK-FDM.  This was made possible by the introduction to international operations of Boeing 737 5W-ILF of Polynesian Airlines alongside Freedom's other 737 ZK-SJB.

Also taking place late April/early May 2001 was the visit to Wellington by Virgin Blue Airlines Boeing 737-7Q8 VH-VBA "Brizzie Lizzie".  It arrived at Wellington 29 April from Kona and Nadi and departed for Coolangatta and Brisbane 01 May.   It visit was a waving of the flag exercise for the carrier and promote its desire to enter the NZ market (which of course it did as Pacific Blue and ironically is now teamed up with Air NZ in a Tasman alliance).

On 16 May Air Nelson took delivery at Nelson of ex Kendall Saab 340A VH-LPI which later became ZK-NLG and entered service still in Ansett livery on 25 May.

Air NZ Maintenance at Auckland had a busy month with visits from Air Canada Boeing 747-433SCD C-GAGM (arrived 10May and departed 27 May), Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-443 G-VLIP (arrived 17 May for pre delivery modification direct from the factory and departed 18 June) plus another Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-443 G-VROM (arrived 31 May and departed 16 July).  G-VGAL had arrived in March. 

From let, G-VROM, G-VGAL and G-VLIP at Auckland 31 May 2001, MRC photo

Eagle Air had announce earlier in the year a fleet replacement programme for their aging Metroliner and Bandierante fleet with brand new Beech 1900D aircraft.  On 09 May 2001 a short term lease Beech 1900D, N84802, arrived at Hamilton from Noumea having flown from Wichita via Adak, Midway and Funafuti.  It flew a local flights at Hamilton 01 June and flew for a period of time as ZK-JNG on scheduled services for the Air NZ Link operator.

At Hamilton 26 May 2001, Mike Condon photo

Auckland 01 Oct 2001, Mike Condon photo

Other deliveries during this period included the arrival of Ted Smith Aerostar VH-UYU, now ZK-TSA, Cessna U206G VH-WCN, later became ZK-PJB and Fatman VH-BIF (to ZK-ESL).

Departures from NZ saw Airtrainer CT4E ZK-JMX depart on 05 May 2001 for the Royal Thai Air Force and FU24A-954 Fletcher ZK-EMK on 27 May 2001 on delivery to PNG.

New Blog Up and Running

At the prompting of one of regular readers we've set up a new blog dedicated to recording ferry flights and similar activity across the Pacific Ocean region including mainland USA to Hawaii activity.

Check it out :  http://galonghaulnews.blogspot.com/

Regards
MRC Aviation

Garden City Gulfstream

Honeywell's Gulfstream 550 N933H jetted into Christchurch just after 7am on 10 May from Wuhan, China, a long haul journey!

Interestingly, Wuhan became a Sister City of Christchurch on 04 April 2006.

Add caption

Brand Spanking.................

Brand new Emirates Boeing 777-31H(ER) A6-EGB (38985) flew to Auckland 09 May on the EK434/435 services, just three days after it was delivered to Dubai direct from Paine Field.

Wayne Grant photo

Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus A340-300 LV-CEK

Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus A340-312 LV-CEK (094) arrived at Auckland just on dusk 08 May from Buenos Aires as AR1082 on a ferry flight that will take it onwards to Manila on 12 May.  The aircraft was inducted to the South American carrier's fleet in May of last year so perhaps it is nearing the end of a very short term lease arrangement.  Can anyone shed any light on the subject?

Rugby Competition

Qantas this week lept on the Rugby World Cup band wagon by placing decals on their Jetconnect operated Boeing 737-800 ZK-ZQF during a three day visit to Sydney.  It is seen here with Air NZ's "All Black" Airbus A320 at Auckland on Friday 06 May with Colin Hunter being in the right place at the right time to get both aircraft in the same shot! 

Air Services Australia

Calibration of aeronautical navigation equipment was once carried out by the then Department of Civil aviation  who provided such equipment, the maintenance thereof and subsequent checking along with the provision of Air Traffic Control services. 

During the mid 80's, the NZ Government went about privatising a number of functions managed by the state and a result of this was the creation in 1987 of the Airways Corporation of New Zealand.  The Airways Corporation took on the responsibility of providing air traffic control, flight information and flight planning functions once managed by the NZCAA and also became responsible for the navigational equipment across the country and in the Pacific at Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands.

The Department of Civil Aviation, based out of Paraparaumu, operated a fleet of aircraft for the purposes of providing calibration flight testing and for the transportation of staff around the nation.  This was accomplished by the use of  three F27 Friendships, ZK-DCA, DCB and DCG, with these aircraft on occasion also employed for VIP duties including the carriage of HM The Queen.  They also operated Cessna 421 Golden Eagle ZK-DCN and a number of PA34 Seneca's and Cessna 182's.

With the demise of the flight operation following privitisation, the Airways Corporation put up for tender the provision of a calibration function and Air Services Australia were successful in their application to provide such services using another Fokker type, the F28 Fellowship along with the smaller Aero Commander 695.

The first aircraft visits associated with the contract to calibrate our airways from across the Tasman took place in May 1991.  The contract remained until around 1997 when Air National took over the operation using an Auckland based MU2, see http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.com/2011/03/au-revoir-air-national-1-early-turbo.html.

Check out the following link for some interesting history behind the Air Services Australia fleet:
http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/departmental%20aircraft%20menu.HTM

Data thanks to AHSNZ Aerolog Volume 6 Number 3 June 1991 collated by M J Richardson.

Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship VH-ATG
08/05/91 Essendon-Wellington
09/05/91 Wellington-Dunedin
11/05/91 Dunedin-Invercargill-Alexandra-Christchurch
12/05/91 Calibration at Christchurch
13/05/91 Christchurch-Hokitika-Christchurch
14/05/91 Callibration at Christchurch
15/05/91 Christchurch-Chatham Islands-Wellington
16/05/91 Calibration at Wellington
17/05/91 Wellington-Woodbourne-Nelson-Wellington
18/05/91 Layover at Wellington
19/05/91 Wellington-Paraparaumu-Palmerston North-Ohakea
20/05/91 Ohakea-New Plymouth
22/05/91 New Plymouth-Hamilton-Tauranga-Whakatane-Rotorua
23/05/91 Rotorua-Whenuapai-Auckland
24/05/91 Auckland-Norfolk Island

Nelson 17 May 1991

Nelson 03 November 1993 - contract must have paid well with this new livery recently applied

Aero Commander 695 VH-LTM
22/05/91 Essendon-Christchurch
23/05/91 Christchurch-Oamaru-Timaru-Christchurch
24/05/91 Christchurch-Westport-Hokitika-Christchurch
25/05/91 Christchurch
26/05/91 Christchurch-Woodbourne-Palmerston North
27/05/91 Palmerston North-Paraparaumu-Napier-Taupo
29/05/91 Taupo-Gisborne-Whakatane
30/05/91 Whakatane-Tauranga-Whenuapai-Auckland
31/05/91 Auckland-Sydney

Nelson 04 April 1997

VH-ATD at Nelson 09 October 1995.

L-O-N-G way from home!

I have been sent this photo of Cessna 150L ZK-DSN parked at Northam, a strip approximately 100km east of Perth, Western Australia).  Apparently it arrived, by air, about a month ago but has not flown since.

Did it fly across the Tasman and if so when and via ???