Coming, Going or In Transit? Bell 212 N151H

Bell 212 N151H has been at Oceania's Ardmore facility for almost a year and was snapped outside receiving attention 29 September.  The chopper is currently registered to Autorotate Inc.

Ardmore 29 September 2011, Wayne Grant photo

At Ardmore 23 November 2010, MRC photo

Pending Departure

Fiji's Island Hopper are set to take delivery of their second Pacific Aerospace 750XL with ZK-KBP snapped at Hamilton in full livery pending its delivery flight north to Nadi.

Sean W photos

27-30 September 2011 Movements

Tuesday 27 September
Royal Jet Boeing BBJ A6-RJY touched down at Wellington from Papeete as "Royal Jet 02".  It departed the following day for Nadi and on Thursday flew to Port Moresby and Brunei.

Arriving at Wellington, Michael L photo

Citation X VH-RCA made a brief stop over at Auckland on a medivac trip arriving from Coolangatta and Townsville and departing for Coolangatta.

Crisp shot of VH-RCA arriving at Auckland, Noel Jones photo

Wednesday 28 September
Challenger 601 HB-IKS departed Wellington for Port Moresby and Tokyo/Narita.

Another Australian medivac flight passed through Auckland, this time Citation Sovereign VH-VPL arriving from Rarotonga and departing for Coolangatta.

Avwest's Challenger 604 VH-VRE visited Queenstown for a time in the afternoon arriving from Sydney and departing direct to Perth.

Vistajet Global Express XRS OE-LGX arrived at Queenstown from Adelaide as VJS723.  Its stay was brief with a departure just on sunrise the next morning direct to Singapore.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denis60/5846549208/

Thursday 29 September
Aerial Mapping's Cessna 402 ZK-PVC returned to NZ after a couple of months of operation in Fiji.  It flew to Napier from Noumea via Norfolk Island and Auckland.

Citation Sovereign ZK-JTH flew Rotorua-Taupo-Auckland today.

Falcon 2000EX VH-CRW had a couple of hours on the ground at Auckland late today arriving from Brisbane and continuing to Napier arriving there just before midnight.

Friday 30 September
Global Express XRS N18WZ flew Auckland-Taupo-Auckland.

United States Air Force Boeing C17 08-8195 arrived at Christchurch from Hickam via a 1000ft flyover of the Christchurch CBD as "Reach 5E2".

Matt Hayes photo

A couple from 26 September

Execujet NZ Gulfstream 550 ZK-KFB arrived at Auckland early this afternoon from Hong Kong.  It is understood the GV-SP will head to Wellington on completion of the massive hanger on the western apron.  Since its arrival in the area, ZK-KFB has lived at Melbourne/Essendon.

W Grant photo

Emirates brand new Boeing 777-31HER A6-EGF visited Auckland today for the first time having only been delivered to the carrier on the 20th of this month!

W Grant photo

Outside the Oceania hanger at Ardmore was BK117 B-1 JA6628.   Inside the hanger was a Bell 206 variant unknown but in a military style colour with the number 30 on the side and in another bay Bell 212 N151H was being worked on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQh899HbGSE

M Condon photo

Recent Activity (updated 26/09)

Considering the Rugby World Cup event being staged across New Zealand, it has been a fairly quiet period this past few days.

The Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767-300 in Canadian Airlines livery N593HA departed Auckland just after sunset 23 September for Honolulu.  It was replaced at the Air NZ Jet base by N581HA which arrived on the morning of 22 September from Honolulu.

Learjet 35 VH-JCR spent the night at Auckland 24 September arriving from Suva and it departed the following morning for Noumea and Sydney.

Falcon 50 VH-FOL departed from Queenstown 24 September heading to Brisbane having arrived in the country the previous Saturday.

Arriving at Wellington from Sydney for its annual visit 25 September was Challenger 601 HB-IKS, sporting a new colour scheme since its last visit in 2010.

Short finals runway 16 at Wellington, Michael L photo

Also making its way to Wellington 25 September was Citation X C-FNRG.  It arrived from Kona via a tech call at Pago Pago.

Resting outside Capital Jet Serivices, Michael L photo

Two Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800's arrived at Christchurch with a few minutes of each other and both from Melbourne.  The first, VH-VOU arrived around 0635 25 September following by VH-VUW 10 minutes later.

Another late night visitor

Arriving at Auckland around 2220 on 22 September was this BK117 VH-RLI.  Registered to Helicorp Pty, the BK117 B-2 made the journey from Noumea via Norfolk Island having arrived in New Caledonia the previous day from Port Vila.

This helicopter, c/n 1018, started life as JA9940 and was imported to NZ to become ZK-HNE with Garden City Helicopters in May 1997.  It was cancelled in the June of 1998 and was exported to Australia where it was first registered VH-RLI.  It again returned to NZ and this time took up the marks of ZK-IMN with Heli-Works in March 2009.  As ZK-IMN, the BK117 was noted flying flying from Coffs Harbour to Maroochydore and Proserpine on 24 March 2009 and to Hamilton Island and Cairns the following day.  On 26 March 2009 the BK117 continued north to Port Moresby and it was cancelled from the registered to again become VH-RLI on 01 January 2010.

It has since returned to NZ on re-delivery to Garden City Helicopters of Christchurch.

Above and below at Auckland 23 Sep, W Grant photos

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Late Night Visitor

Making an unusual appearance at Christchurch late on the evening of 22 September was Air Calin's Airbus 330 F-OJSE.  As ACI900, the A330 arrived from Noumea and after about an hour on the ground returned to Noumea as ACI901.

The airline's Airbus A320 has visited Christchurch over the years on maintenance visits however I think this is the first time one of their A330's has visited the South Island city.

Thanks to Craig C for this photo

Fijian Sunset (and a Gulfstream)

Michael L has kindly provided this great shot of Gulfstream IV N669BJ resting at Nadi 20 September as the sun had well and truely dipped below the horizon but providing just enough light for great effect.

N669BJ, owned by Hutchings Automotive Products,  arrived at Nadi on 11 September from Honolulu where it arrived the previous day from San Diego/Brown Field.  The GIV was at Nadi from 02 August this year when it arrived from Van Nuys and Honolulu and departed the next day for Papeete then continued to Fort Lauderdale Executive via San Jose, Costa Rica on 04 August.

Boeing 737-800 VH-VUZ

Its busy times at the Air NZ Engineering facility at Christchurch with Virgin aircraft tick-tacking back and forth across the Tasman for maintenance.  This past week Boeing 737-800 VH-VUZ has been on site arriving from Melbourne 11 September and departing back to Melbourne 17 September, the day this photo was taken by T McFarlin.

NZ Warbirds Open Day–Ardmore 18 September 2011

To commerate the anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the NZ Warbirds Association hosted an outstanding open day at Ardmore.  Very heavy morning rain would have had organisers looking for plan B however by lunch time the clouds gave way to patchy sun which was the template for the remainder of the afternoon albeit threatened at times with adjacent heavy showers.
A reasonable crowd was on hand to watch the two periods of aerial displays, the first started at 12.45pm and the second at 2.45pm.  Handling displays were flown by a Yak duo, Miles Messenger, Pitts S12, DHC Beaver, Harvard Roaring Forties display team, P40 Kittyhawk (now with ferry tank), L39 Albatros, P51 Mustang and the two seat Spitfire back in the air again.  The Catalina and DC3 where providing joy rides.