Visitors head home

The corporate jet visitors that have been spotted around New Zealand are now spreading their wings and heading for their respective home countries.

As at today we are left with only having Falcon 900 N311JA hangared at Auckland and Citation X VH-RCA at Queenstown having arrived from Wellington 27 February and Global Express N616DC at Taupo where it arrived 26 February from Queenstown. 

Falcon 2000 VH-CRW has departed Nelson today for Brisbane and Challenger 604 N401NK has headed for Pago Pago and Honolulu.  Challenger 604 M-ADEL departed 27 February for Nadi.

Gulfstream G650 sets 4 new city pair records

http://www.bizjetblogger.com reports that recent NZ visitor, Gulfstream 650 N650PH, has conducted the following:

Gulfstream’s new flagship G650 has set 4 new city pair speed records in less than a week, with the publicity coming as a welcome break from the airframers growing issues with delivering new aircraft.

msn 6103 / N650PH set off from Dulles on Jan 23rd on the 11,992 km (6,475 nm) journey to Doha Qatar, where having flown at an average speed of 970 km/h (603mph), it arrived 11 hours and 40 mins later.

Following on from a demonstration to Qatar Airways Executive, the aircraft left Doha on Jan 25th for the flight to Teterboro, making the 11,301 km (6,102 nm) crossing in 13 hours, 3 minutes, whilst achieving an average speed of 864 km/h (537 mph)

The day after arriving back from the desert climate in Doha the G650 departed for the somewhat chillier weather of Moscow. With an average speed of 996 km/h (619 mph), N650PH made the 7,760 km (4,190 nm) flight from Teterboro to Vnukovo in just 7 hours and 47 minutes.

After a day of showing off the aircraft to the Russian press the aircraft departed back to the airframers Savannah home, making the 8,841 km (4,774nm) journey in 9 hours, 33 minutes.

Gulfstream have sent the data from the flights to the U.S. National Aeronautic Association for verification, and will then send the data to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale who keep the world speed records.

Since making the record-breaking flights the aircraft has been kept busy flying to various destinations in the Continental US. However over the weekend N650PH flew first to Honolulu, before stopping in Auckland and Wellington New Zealand on its way to the Australian International Air Show, held at Avalon Airport Melbourne.

Australian International Airshow 2013 preview

The Australian International Airshow 2013 and its associated aviation exposition is well underway at Avalon located to the south of Melbourne.  

A large number of visiting aircraft are on location including an armada of corporate visitors as various manufacturers promote their products during the trade days.

Gordon R has kindly provided the following taken on 26 February:

Above and below - just a couple of the US military aircraft visiting for the event. 

Gulfstream's middle range G280 N280GD arrived 25 February from Pago Pago via Melbourne. 

Perth based Global Express N185GX arriving from its WA base. 

Bombardier have provided Global 6000 N381GX. 

Eclipse 500 N580WC has been a part of the Australian aviation scene for a number of years and is based in Queensland. 

Piper PA44-180 Seminole ZK-NAH (c/n 44-96327) on static display and yet to be delivered to Motueka based Nelson Aviation College. 

RAAF King Air 350 A32-346

Royal Australian Air Force Beech 350 King Air A32-346 arrived at Dunedin early on the afternoon of 26 February from Hobart as "Ausy 178" and continued onto Whenuapai later the same day.

At Dunedin, Bluebus photo

The Bear Essentials of Safety #airnzbear

Air New Zealand have debuted their latest in-flight safety video today featuring British adventurer Bear Grylls.

Check out http://www.airnzsafety.com/

Ice Flights Still On Going

The 2012/2013 Antarctic season air support programme is still on going with the Royal New Zealand Air Force operating Boeing 757-200 NZ7572 from Christchurch to Pegasus and return on 24 February as Kiwi 393 and again 26 February as Kiwi 406.

NZ7572 arriving at Pegasus, file photo

The United States Air Force Boeing C17 Globemaster III 09-9209 has flown south as Ice 40 on 24 February,  25 February as Ice 41 and 26 February as Ice 42 while 95-0103 arrived at Christchurch 21 February from Hickam and departed back to Hickam via Pago Pago on 23 February.

And arriving at Christchurch on the afternoon of 26 February was Skytraders Airbus A319CJ VH-VHD from Melbourne as "Snowbird 1".

Cargolux B747 short landing

Grayso has kindly provided the following interesting information and associated YouTube video.

LSMP/Payerne is a small military field in Swizterland that is 2858 × 39.5 m. 744F arrived 20 February to take Solar Impulse to US. Would have been really impressive if it could have flown there itself!

Payerne airfield's runway and lack of parking area for a large freighter aircraft made operating a B747F into the gateway a challenge. In order to successfully complete the project, the Cargolux aircraft ran with a limited amount of fuel to minimise the landing and take-off weight. The B747F parked on the Payerne runway during the loading process.

The Solar Impulse has a wingspan of 63.4 m and was loaded onto the B747F via its front nose cargo door. The project was executed quickly - the Cargolux freighter was loaded and turned-around in just over 5 hours.

The freighter landed in Luxembourg to take on fuel before heading on to the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Airfield, San Francisco, USA (Home of the Google corporate jets - Ed). 

From Moffett, the Solar Impulse will begin its 'Across America' mission - a coast-to-coast flight from San Francisco to Washington DC and New York City. The solar powered aircraft has already achieved five world records - including the record for the longest day and night solar powered flight set at 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds.

Solar Impulse.

Gulfstream 550 ZK-KFB

MRC Aviation has featured Wellington based Gulfstream 550 ZK-KFB on a number of occasions, however this shot of it arriving at the Capital on the evening of 24 February just has to be shared!

Gulfstream 650 at Wellington - WOW!

We can't help but share this fantastic collection of images provided by Lanzi who was on location at Wellington 25 February to capture the arrival and departure of Gulfstream Aerospace 650 N650PH as it spent a couple of hours at the NZ Capital on its way from Auckland to Melbourne and Avalon.

Gulfstream 650 departs

Gulfstream Aerospace demonstrator Gulfstream 650 N650PH departed Auckland just after 1230 today heading for Wellington then onto Melbourne.

More photos later.

Aviationshotz (c) 2013

Bizzy Skies

The skies across NZ on Sunday 24 February were abuzz with corporate flyers with arrivals and departures across the country.

Napier farewelled its three visitors with Citationjet CJ4 ZK-PGA returning to Auckland and Gulfstream 4 VH-DBT and Gulfstream 450 VH-MBP both departing direct to Sydney.

Queenstown welcomed Global Express XRS N616DC with it arriving mid afternoon direct from Maui.  This aircraft last visited NZ in May/June 2011.

And Auckland had a number of movements within just a few hours.  In addition to the Gulfstream 650 arrival, Falcon 7X N12U returned from Taupo and after a fuel uplift it departed at 1537 for Honolulu and Los Angeles.  

 Arriving just a few minutes after the 650 was Challenger 605 M-ADEL with this Manx registered aircraft arriving from Sydney.  It is operated by Blue Nightingale Trading of South Africa.

As the Challenger arrived Air Tiger 1's Gulfstream 5 N50KC was being prepared for departure with the owners Eurocopter EC130 ZK-IKC arriving from the north.  The Gulfstream subsequently departed at 1535 direct to Los Angeles.

Gulfstream 650 "Down Under"

Arriving at Auckland mid afternoon 24 February was the first down under visit by Gulfstream Aerospace's flagship corporate jet, the Gulfstream 650.  Registered N650PH, this particular aircraft is operated by Gulfstream 650 LLC out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and is currently used as a demonstrator aircraft on behalf of the manufacturer.  

The Gulfstream 650 project began in 2005 with a public debut three years later and it first flew on 25 November 2009.  With a top speed of M0.92 and a range of nearly 13000km it is no surprise that the aircraft has received a number of orders with deliveries commencing in the last quarter of 2012.  

N650PH arrived at Auckland after a flight from Honolulu having arrived in Hawaii the previous day from Long Beach via Van Nuys and it is ultimately destined for the Avalon Airshow joining a Gulfstream G280 N280GD on static display for the trade days.

Kiwi Citation Mustangs - update in italics.

The NZ population of Cessna Citation Mustangs remains at three and some recent activity lead us to bring ourselves up-to-date with their status.

Hastings based Mustang ZK-LCA, registered to Air Hawkes Bay, has been domiciled in Australia since 20 January and operating out of Archerfield near Brisbane.  
It arrived at Melbourne/Essendon from Archerfield 23 February.

Another Mustang has been calling Hastings home with Acernus's ZK-MUS/2 being noted outside for a number of weeks having made the short flight from Masterton where it had been idle for an extended period.  However 19 February ZK-MUS flew to Ardmore where it was later noted at the Ardmore Flying School and then subsequently flew a training detail out to Great Barrier Island followed by instrument approaches at Whenuapai and then back to Ardmore.
ZK-MUS positioned from Ardmore to Auckland 23 February from where it then departed for Lord Howe Island and Sydney 24 February.

And rounding out news of the trio, ZK-MOT, also registered to Acernus but listed for sale and located at Sarasota, Florida, was noted 18 February outside and minus engines.  It departed NZ back in April 2012.

Mustang gathering at Bridge Pa, Hastings March 2012 G Claridge photos

ZK-MUS at Ardmore January 2011, MRC photo

Where are they now - Douglas DC8 ZK-NZE

John M has provided us with these awesome images of ex Air New Zealand Douglas DC8-52 ZK-NZE.

ZK-NZE (msn 45985) came to being in 1967 and its first flight is quoted as 11 January 1968.  It was delivered to Air NZ on 27 February 1968 and remained in service with the national carrier until divestment saw it sold to Howard Golden on the winter of 1982.  It was then to become N4292P and went through a series of ownership changes before ending up with FB Air Inc in 1987.  It moved to Ports of Call as N4292P late 1987 and sometime in 1988 it became C-FNZE.  It was then around the houses again with ownership details listed as Fiesta Holidays, Wayfarer Holidays, then repossessed by FB Air in 1991 when it became N223FB.  It was then leased out as OB-1438 to Faucett, returned to FB Air for a period then re-leased to Faucett!! Returned to FB Air 18/11/92 and subsequently placed in storage but was obviously converted to a freighter during the next two years.

It then headed off to LAC Columbia as a DC8-52F freighter registered HK-3842X in January 1994 and returned Stateside two years later where it was subsequently withdrawn from service at Miami, Florida.

http://www.aussieairliners.org/dc-8/airnz/zknze.html

Edmonton, 1988

At Miami 02 December 1995

Falcon 7X N12U

United Technologies Corporation Falcon 7X N12U spent the night at Auckland having arrived from Hartford, CT via Honolulu on the morning of 20 February and departed the next morning for Taupo.

N12U was a visit to Brisbane earlier this month arriving on the 5th and departing two days later.

Old Ice.....

Digging through an old shoe box, Ross C came across these shots taken at Pegasus a few years back in the days of the Lockheed C141 Starlifter!

Airbus A319-132 (LR) VH-VCJ - first visit

Skytrader's recently delivered Airbus A319-132 (LR) VH-VCJ (msn 1880) made its debut visit to New Zealand with a one hour visit to Christchurch early on the afternoon of 20 February arriving from and returning to Brisbane using the callsign "Snowbird 2".

VH-VCJ first flew in March 2003 and has flown with PrivatAir, Olympic Airways and most recently Aegean  Airlines.  It was withdrawn from service on 05 November 2012 and noted stored at Dubin a few days later.  

It was subsequently leased by Melbourne based Skytraders and as VH-VCJ the A319 arrived at the Victoria capital on 20 December from Colombo and Port Hedland.  It entered "service" on 06 January with a trip to Darwin and Port Hedland and has subsequently been kept busy on operations around the Top End an across the Indian Ocean.

Skytrader's other Airbus A319 VH-VHD has been a regular visitor to Christchurch on its Antarctic duties and on 19 February it flew from Hobart to Wilkins Field and back as "Snowbird 1".