And then there were 4

As previously mentioned, Air NZ's Boeing 747-400 ZK-NBW departed Auckland just after midnight 31 October heading for Los Angeles and ultimately Tel Aviv on export.

http://mrcaviation.blogspot.com/2011/10/another-747-400-prepares-to-leave-air.html

The departure of ZK-NBW leaves the Air NZ Jumbo fleet made up of ZK-NBT, NBU, NBV and SUH.

Air NZ's 4th Boeing 777-300 flies

Air New Zealand's fourth Boeing 777-319ER ZK-OKP made its first flight 29 Oct NZ time when it departed from Paine Field, Seattle for Grant County Intl, Moses Lake and then back to Paine Field as "Boeing 054". 

Thanks to http://boeing-test-flights.blogspot.com/

L/N 972 C/N 39041 B777-319ER ZK-OKP AIR NEW ZEALAND
Dep PAE 13:58 PDT Arr PAE 16:37 PDT via MWH
Call Sign BOE054 Hex Code C81E05 Sel-Cal DJ-HR

ZK-OKP, in standard Air NZ livery, is set to arrive at Auckland during the second week of November direct from Paine as NZ6391.

As mentioned in media circles, the 5th Boeing 777-319ER ZK-OKQ, set for delivery January 2012, will feature the All Black colour scheme as worn on domestic Airbus A320's ZK-OAB and soon to be delivered ZK-OJR.

Farewell Royal Brunei

Royal Brunei operated their final service through Auckland this morning, 29 October, with Boeing 777-200 V8-BLC touching down on runway 05R at 0220 operating the RBA75 from Brunei.  It departed as RBA76 back to Brunei, lifting off without fanfare at 0421.

Royal Brunei announced in June this year their withdrawal from Auckland, along with terminating services to Perth, and Brisbane leaving only services to Melbourne, these services only commenced in March this year.

Auckland was added to the SE Asian airlines route network on 31 October 2003 using Boeing 767-300 equipment and flying from Brunei via Brisbane.  A variation on this triangulated operation with some flights operating via Brisbane and some direct to Brunei until the introduction of Boeing 777-200’s in 2010 when all flights became direct.

V8-BLF arrives at Auckland 09 September 2011, MRC photo

Boeing Dreamliners..............

Bargeld01 kindly provides these great shots of ANA's two Boeing 787's parked at Tokyo/Narita Terminal 1 28 October.  As covered in the media, the first commercial flight of the type took place earlier this week between Tokyo and Hong Kong. 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10762060

New Zealand will get to see its first Boeing 787 when it visits Auckland 12-14 November.

Galaxy Departure

The Lockheed C5 Galaxy 69-0010, callsign "Reach 6E5", departed Christchurch at 1515 28 October on its way to Hickam, Honolulu, it however made a technical stop at Pago Pago enroute.

Thanks to Wayne G for the static shots and Craig C for the departure shots.

Another Herc Arrival

USAF Lockheed LC130 Hercules 76-3302 arrived at Christchurch late afternoon 26 October from Pago Pago as "Skier 74".  It joined 83-0490, 83-0493, 93-1096, C17 08-8192 and C5 69-0010 on the Deep Freeze Apron.

Craig C photo

Heavy Weight Arrival

Lockheed C5A Galaxy 69-0010 operated by the Tennessee Air National Guard, Memphis, arrived at Christchurch shortly after 0130 this morning, 26 October, from Hickam AFB, Honolulu as Reach 6E5.

This particular example last visited Christchurch in February 1994, thanks to Tony M for this historical info.

Interesting Helo’s

Carrying out a maintenance test flight from Oceania’s Ardmore facility 26 October was this Bell 212 N151H c/n 31151.  This helicopter is registered to Vertol Systems Company of Oregon and it was first observed at Ardmore in November 2010.

The Royal NZ Air Force deployed two of their recently acquired Agusta A109’s from Ohakea to Whenuapai.  The helicopters arrived on Tuesday and today one has embarked to the HMNZS “Canterbury” for trials while the second, NZ3402 “MAKO 02” (pictured) departed for a low level eastern coastal flight to the Papakura Army Camp where it is seen arriving under gloomy skies.  Far superior shots of NZ3402 taken in Italy can be found here:http://www.airforce.mil.nz/gallery/photo-gallery/aircraft-and-shows/a109-rnzaf-colours/default.htm

And then there was one..............

Following the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup on Sunday night, pretty much all visiting corporate jets either departed around midnight or during the course of Monday.

Challenger 300 M-NOEL made a techstop at Auckland 25 October enroute from Kerikeri to Suva.

MRC photo

Challenger 601 N86 of the US FAA departed Christchurch for Pago Pago early afternoon 25 October.

The departure of these two aircraft leaves just Global 5000 9H-AFR left in the country parked at Auckland!

Ski Season Ramping Up

The 2011/2012 Antarctic season is ramping up with the trickle of Lockheed LC130 Hercules making their way to Christchurch for the push south to the frozen continent along with frequent Boeing C17 Globemaster III flights being operated by 08-8195 but swapped to 08-8192 from this past weekend.

83-0490 arrived at Christchurch 24 October from Pago Pago, note the added art work on the forward fuselage.  Craig C, who kindly provides this photo, thinks it may well be a Kiwi wearing a helmet on skis......

Corporate Jet Overview 23 October

Lets revisit what is/was where for tonights big Rugby World Cup final game at Auckland.  For the record I will include residents as well as visitors:

Falcon 900: VH-PPD, G-WABB (Departed for Honolulu at 2349), 3A-MGA (departed for Darwin at 2325), N146EX
Falcon 2000: VH-CRW (arrived from Taupo today)
Falcon 7X: VP-BZE (departed for Honolulu at 0002/24th)
Global 5000: VH-LEP, 9H-AFR
Global Express: N18WZ, VH-VGX, VH-LAW, G-SANL, HB-JII, OY-MSI (arrived from Woodbourne today)
Gulfstream 450: VH-MBP
Gulfstream 5: N991LF
Gulfstream 550: VH-LAL (departed for Napier and Melbourne at 0007/24th), ZK-KFB
Gulfstream 200: ZK-RGB
Boeing BBJ: A6-DAS (departed for Brisbane at 2337), A6-DFR
Citation Sovereign: ZK-JTH, VH-EXQ
Citation Mustang: ZK-PGA
Westwind: ZK-RML
Fokker 100: VH-FWI (arrived from Brisbane today)
Pilatus PC12: VH-OOI (arrived from and returned to Norfolk Island today)

This leaves Challenger 601 N86 at Christchurch and Challenger 300 M-NOEL at Kerikeri!

22 October Overview

Starting the ball rolling for movements 22 October was the arrival at Auckland of Falcon 7X VP-BZE from Hong Kong at 0330.  

Global Express VH-VGX made its way from Christchurch to Auckland mid morning and at the same time Gulfstream 550 VH-LAL flew the short sector from Napier to Rotorua and returned over the reverse route late afternoon.

Global Express VH-TGG flew Queenstown-Auckland then to Essendon.

Vincent Aviation's BAe 146-200 ZK-ECO had a hectic day flying from Wellington to Hamilton four times, no doubt in support of "The Hobbit" movie.  Prior to the fourth rotation to Hamilton the 146 flew to Queenstown and back!
 In addition to its flights, Gulfstream 550 ZK-KFB also flew from Wellington to Hamilton and continued to Auckland adding to the collection of jets already located on the airport.

Citation Mustang ZK-MUS arrived at Wanaka from Wellington and Beech King Air 350 ZK-MMM flew from Nelson to Queenstown.

Joining fellow Royal Jet Boeing BBJ A6-DAS at Auckland was A6-DFR.  It arrived from Bali as "Royal Jet 06".

Wayne Grant photos

Making a repeat visit to Auckland was exotically registered Falcon 900EX 3A-MGA.  It returned from a few days at Nadi.

Challenger 300 M-NOEL arrived at Kerikeri from Taupo.

At Taupo, Mike BD photo

Another Busy Bizjet Day

Starting off the multiple bizjet movements on 21 October was the arrival at Auckland of Global 5000 9H-AFR from Biak, Indonesia as MLM017.

Gulfstream 550 ZK-KFB arrived at Auckland from Hong Kong and quickly moved onto Wellington.

Citation Mustang ZK-PGA flew Queenstown-Auckland-Napier-Auckland while Sovereign ZK-JTH flew Wellington-Rotorua-Auckland.

Global Express VH-LAW arrived at Auckland from Sydney and over the same route flew Gulfstream 450 VH-MBP and Gulfstream 5 N991LF. 

Global Express HB-JII departed Napier on its return to Auckland and it was replaced at Napier by Gulfstream 550 VH-LAL arriving direct from Melbourne.

Citation Sovereign VH-EXQ arrived at Auckland from Canberra and Essendon.

FAA Challenger 601 N86 returned to Christchurch from its Antarctic sojourn.

Also arriving at Christchurch 21 October, Global Express VH-VGX made its way from Melbourne.

This leaves Global Express VH-TGG at Queenstown, Global Express OY-MSI at Woodbourne, Challenger 300 M-NOEL and Falcon 2000 VH-CRW at Taupo and Falcon 900's VH-PPD and G-WABB, Boeing BBJ A6-DAS, Global Express G-SANL and Global 5000 VH-LEP at Auckland.

All photos thanks to Wayne Grant

Another 747-400 prepares to leave the Air NZ Fleet

Air New Zealand's Boeing 747-419 ZK-NBW carried out a pre delivery flight from Auckland 19 October alighting from Auckland's damp runway 23 just after 3pm and returning some two hours later following out a flight that took it over Tauranga then to the north-northeast before heading back to Auckland for an instrument approach, missed approach and subsequent landing.  It is set to depart Auckland on 31 October for Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.

ZK-NBW was delivered to Air NZ on 09 September 1999 when it arrived at Auckland direct from Paine Field, Seattle as ANZ6399. It entered service on the 20th of the same month as NZ121/122 Auckland-Melbourne-Auckland.   Its final revenue flight for the airline was flown on 16 September 2011 as NZ137/138 Auckland-Brisbane-Auckland at which time it had accumulated around 5800 landings and 53700 hours.

A big thanks to VJ for sticking it out in inclement weather to catch ZK-NBW departing on its 19 October flight.

Fresh in Queenstown

As has already been mentioned, there have been a number of visiting bizjets at Queenstown.
The majority departed 19 October with a couple leaving today.

All photos taken on the 19th after fresh snow fall the previous day and overnight!

Thanks to Mike S for these shots.

Busy time at Taupo

Three bizjet movements at Taupo 19 October.  First up was Falcon 2000EX VH-CRW from Napier followed by Challenger 300 M-NOEL from Queenstown then a brief visit from Citationjet CJ3+ ZK-TBM from Auckland and Rotorua before heading to Kerikeri.

Global Express G-SANL

Registered to Sanctuary Aviation LLP, London, Global Express G-SANL made its way to Wellington 19 October from Queenstown where it had arrived 17 October from Auckland.

Global 5000 VH-LEP

Global 5000 VH-LEP, registered to Linfox Global Charter and based of Melbourne/Essendon, flew from Queenstown to Palmerston North and Tauranga 19 October.  It had arrived at Queenstown direct from its home base 17 October.

Thanks to Daniel Talbot for these great shots of it landing runway 07 and departing runway 25 at Palmerston North.