Maltese visitor

Making its way from Hong Kong to Wellington on the evening of 29 April was Comlux Malta's Global Express 9H-BGL.
http://www.comluxaviation.com/en/17-malta.html

Michael L photo

TBM850 N889JG

Departing Auckland on the morning of 29 April was visiting TBM850 N889JG.  The high performance single engine machine made the short flight to Norfolk Island and has since flown onto Brisbane and Cairns on its return to its Singapore home.

N889JG arrived at Auckland from Bankstown and Lord Howe Island on 31 March and visited Rotorua, Christchurch, Milford Sound, Queenstown, back to Christchurch and then lastly Wellington before arriving at Auckland again on 13 April where it was subsequently hangered.

at Christchurch in early April

At Auckland 28 April, Wayne G photo

RAAF Herc at Christchurch

Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed C130H Hercules A97-002 arrived at Christchurch mid afternoon 27 April from its Richmond, Sydney base as "Ausy 492".

Craig C photos

Pipstrel trip concludes

As blogged during February and March this year, NZ played host to global flyer Pipstrel S5-SEZ.

http://www.worldgreenflight.com/

This little machine and its intrepid pilot have safely returned home to Slovenia having amassed some incredible numbers:

Distance flown : 91003km/49138nm

Distance flown over water: 33100km/17873nm

Total hours flown:369

Average fuel consumption:18.1 litres per hour

Average ground speed: 246km/h or 133 kts

Highest altitude reached: 8965m/29413 feet in the vicinity of Mt Everest

Congratulations!

At Auckland 01 March, MRC photo

German Lear departs

As previously mentioned, Hamilton hosted FAI Learjet 60 D-CSLT overnight 23 April with the aircraft arriving from Adelaide and Auckland.  It departed just after 0400 local time 24 April on its medivac journey home to Europe with first stop being Sydney, then to Alice Springs, Broome and Singapore/Changi using the callsign "Blue Angel 2202".

arriving at Auckland 23 April, Noel J photo

German Learjet 60

FAI Airservices Learjet 60 D-CSLT arrived at Hamilton on the afternoon of 23 April from Adelaide and Auckland.

This particular airframe has visited NZ previously when it was registered to Execujet Middle East as

A6-EJA and made several visits to Auckland during 2003.

Arriving at Hamilton, Sean W photos

Skyhawk heads west

RNZAF TA4K Skyhawk NZ6255 arrived by road at Christchurch from Woodbourne during the week and was uplifted by RAAF C17 Globemaster III A41-206 on Friday 20 April and flown to Nowra for static display
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Albatross_(air_station)
http://a4skyhawk.org/2e/newzealand/rnzaf2/rnzaf-2.htm

Craig C photos

Another Brazilian!

Hot on the heels of the recent NZ tour by Embraer's Phenom 300 PT-TRT, another Brazilian registered aircraft arrived down under in the shape of Cessna 680 Sovereign PP-BST.  This 2008 model was noted flying from Bali to Port Moresby 17 April and flew south to Auckland 18 April.

VJ photo

Another NZ bizjet departs

Still registered to Wellington's Acernus Ltd, Citation 510 Mustang ZK-MOT departed Hastings for Auckland 10 April where it overnighted before continuing to Lord Howe Island and Longreach 11 April and to Darwin and Bali 12 April on its way to Orlando, Florida.   On 17 April it was noted departing Cairo for Corfu and later Zurich.

As has been previously mentioned this aircraft has been pretty much idle at Ardmore awaiting sale.  This airframe arrived at Wellington from Maroochydore via Lord Howe Island 12 February 2008 as N1749L and was later registered ZK-MUS/1 making its first recorded flight under its new ZK marks on 01 July that year flying from Wellington to Dunedin.  During the early part of 2010 it underwent a registration change to ZK-MOT allowing the ZK-MUS marks to be taken up by a brand new Mustang.  It was first observed flying as ZK-MOT on 13 March 2010 from Wellington to Rotorua and on 25 March 2010 it departed Wellington for Auckland, Lord Howe Island, Brisbane and Maroochydore for maintenance and potential sale.  It made a few local flights over the coming months and was on location at the Avalon Air Show in 2011.  On 15 March 2011, just shy of a year since its departure, the Mustang returned to NZ and arrived at Ardmore from Lord Howe Island and Auckland.  It remained hangered with Dennis Thompson International and flew only a couple of times until 22 March 2012 when it positioned to Hastings where it is seen in the accompanying photos.

Arriving at Wellington 22 April 2008, MRC collection

At Hastings, Graeme C photos

Falcon 20 VH-PNY visits Hamilton

Adding to its NZ stopovers, Falcon 20 VH-PNY made an appearance at Hamilton 10 April, arriving from and returning to Napier.  It left the country from Napier heading direct back to Sydney and Bankstown on 11 April.

Sean W photos

Belgium Falcon departs

Falcon 7X OO-EJA arrived at Auckland on 01 April and departed for Napier 09 April.  It then departed the following afternoon for Sydney and Parkes and has since made its way to Nadi via an overnight at Sydney.

At Napier 10 April, Graeme C photos

Air China Jumbo

Touching down at Christchurch 15 April from Kota Kinabalu was this Air China Boeing 747-400 B-2447 carrying Jia Qinglin, a senior Chinese politician and his entourage on a state visit.   The group have subsequently visited Queenstown and Wellington using chartered airline aircraft.  This differs from previous high ranking visits where a smaller Air China aircraft, such as a Boeing 737, has been positioned to NZ for domestic sectors as took place in 2010 when B-2447 visited Auckland and was accompanyed by 737-800 B-5342 which flew VIP's from Auckland to Wellington and back and the same 737 visited in November 2009 arriving at Christchurch in company with B-2472, a 747-400, with the smaller aircraft flying to Wellington and Auckland. 

Matt H photos

Falcon 2000 N700FL

Spending a few days at Queenstown, Falcon 2000 N700FL based out of Little Rock, departed Queenstown for Hobart on 13 April having arrived at the southern town from Pago Pago on 06 April.

Resting at Queenstown 10 April, Wayne G photo

Sovereign visits the Wairarapa

2011 edition Citation 680 Sovereign N680AB, believed to be European based, arrived at Masterton (NZMS/MRO) 13 April from Honiara and Wellington.  It then departed 16 April for Wellington and Cairns. 

Arriving at Wellington 13 April, Michael L photo

Emirates Sky Cargo at Auckland

Arriving at Auckland on the morning of 16 April from Male and Perth as ENB319 was Atlas Air's Boeing 747-400 freighter N408MC.  A visit by an Atlas aircraft to Auckland is normally nothing unusual but this occasion was the first visit by one wearing the livery of Emirates Sky Cargo.  
The callsign, ENB319, alludes to the fact this was a NZDF charter flight.

In addition to N408MC, N493MC arrived from Avalon the same day carrying V8 super cars for the upcoming series of races at Hamilton.  It subsequently flew a return trip to Brisbane.

Wayne G photo

VJ photo

Phenom 300 PT-TRT

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer recently demonstrated their Phenom 300 light business jet in New Zealand, the first time the South American company has physically bought a jet product to our shores for such a purpose.

PT-TRT, c/n 50500088, arrived at Auckland direct from Sydney 09 April (see earlier post) and flew demonstration flights over the next two days.  On 12 April the Phenom flew to Christchurch and later onto Wanaka where it subsequently overnighted.  On 13 April it departed for Queenstown and Sydney and has since flown to Brisbane, Port Moresby, Guam, Narita and today, 17 April NZ time, it is due to fly from Anchorage to Boeing Field and Van Nuys.

Matt H photo

Steven M photo

MRC photo

MRC photo

MRC photo

RNZAF Airshow - 1964 style

Yesterday I posted a link to a wartime movie about the flying boat days.  Today is a link to the same website but this time its about the 1964 airshow at RNZAF Ohakea!

http://www.ziln.co.nz/video/1088

Enjoy!

Classic..........8 hours to Sydney

For those with broadband, the following link will take you to a website and a 10 minute presentation on the days of the flying boat.

http://www.ziln.co.nz/video/3234

Check out some of the other offerings Ziln has especially in the drop down box and the Airside TV option.

Auckland Regulars

Whilst waiting for a couple of visiting aircraft to arrive it provided an opportunity to snap a few of the regular airliners arriving under mostly sunny skies on 09 April.

A330 VH-EBG arriving from Sydney as QF141. 

VH-VOX continues to fly periodically for the NZ arm of Virgin covering planned maintenance and repaint work.

ZK-OKD arriving from Sydney as a LAN charter flight. 

Pilatus PC12 VH-OOI

Registered to Cockles PTY of Western Australia, Pilatus PC12 VH-OOI appears to have been based out of Norfolk Island for the last few years and is a reasonably regular visitor to NZ, namely Kerikeri.  It arrived at Queenstown from Norfolk Island and Kerikeri on 06 April and on 09 April, flew to Dunedin and Ardmore where it is seen here on finals for runway 21.

The aircraft wears the Cockles name on the rear fuselage and South Pacific Resort Hotels on the forward section http://www.southpacresort.com.au/

MRC photos

Phenominal..............updated

Arriving at Auckland this afternoon from Sydney was Embraer's Phenom 300 business jet PT-TRT.   This example is on a demonstration tour of the region and was at Singapore during February and India the following month.  It was first noted in Australia on 29 March arriving at Perth from Bali.  It subsequently visited Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Sydney, Essendon, Narrandera and back to Sydney where it has spent the weekend.
http://www.embraerexecutivejets.com/english/content/home/

Arriving at Auckland, MRC photo

At Essendon earlier this month, Gordon R photo

Warbirds over Wanaka 2006 - The Jets

As the 2012 Warbirds over Wanaka event concludes I thought it was work looking back just a couple of shows and view the jet participants of 2006.