Australasia's first Gulfstream 650 visits Melbourne

Australasia's first Gulfstream 650 made the type's inaugural visit to Essendon, the heartland of corporate aviation activity for Melbourne.  Execujet New Zealand's ZK-KFB arrived early afternoon 30 October after a short flight from Sydney.

The Gulfstream 650 demonstration visit during February/March this year with N650PH visited Melbourne/Tullamarine and Avalon during its time "down under". 

Thanks to Transair for these great shots of her arrival. 

Check out that wingspan!  30.36m, just a few inches shy of 100 feet! 

New Zealand's Eleventh Airvan?

What may well be New Zealand's eleventh Gippsland GA8 Airvan, VH-ARZ,  arrived at Kerikeri

29 October from Norfolk Island and was photographed departing Ardmore 30 October for Wanganui and later spotted around Ashburton, then Timaru and Dunedin. 

VH-ARZ, c/n GA8-13-196, was first registered on 25 September this year and departed from the Gold Coast for Lord Howe Island 25 October then to Norfolk Island 28 October. 

Colin Hunter photo

LOWEST 737 LANDING EVER! @ Skiathos, the second St Maarten | Air Italy 7...

Grayson, our resident "wow" reporter, has stumbled across this little YouTube beauty!

WOW!

Standing Room Only..........

Its a busy time for Christchurch International Airport with the myriad of movements associated with the 2013/2014 Antarctic programme (as outlined earlier), and the hum of activity on the Deep Freeze ramp has been added to with the arrival late 28 October of Uzbekistan Airways Boeing 767-300 VP-BUE from Tashkent via Kuala Lumpur as UZB3511.  It is the first of two visits in the coming days transferring fishermen.

File photo

And this morning Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 ZK-SUH dropped into Christchurch from Auckland as ANZ6074 before later carrying out touch and goes for crew training.  It has subsequently tied down for the night and will apparently conduct similar exercises over the coming days.  Quite a rare sight to see a Jumbo in the circuit!

File photo of ZK-SUH departing Christchurch during December 2012. 

Coverage of the first Boeing 787 commercial flight to NZ

This morning we feature extensive coverage of yesterday's first commercial flight by a Boeing 787 to New Zealand.

As posted yesterday, China Southern introduced the type on their daily Guangzhou-Auckland-Guangzhou service and the first visit, flown by B-2727, touched down on runway 23L at 1558 local time and blocked at gate 2 a few minutes later.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11147599

Thanks to agairnz, zkngj, Nicholas and Dazza who provided these outstanding photos, and video.

First Boeing 787 Scheduled Flight to NZ

The first scheduled Boeing 787-8 flight to New Zealand touched down at Auckland on the afternoon of 

28 October with China Southern Airlines introducing the type on their daily Guangzhou-Auckland-Guangzhou services (CZ305/306) replacing Airbus A330-200's.

Delivered to the massive Chinese carrier earlier this month, B-2727 had the honours of being the first to fly the route.  It is one of 9 of the type ordered by China Southern, and the 5th aircraft to be delivered.  Interestingly, B-2727 flew for the first time on 12 October 2012 but wasn't delivered until 10 October 2013!

For more on the July press release, click here 

The last China Southern Airbus A330 service through Auckland was flown by B-6515.

As seen from Cairns!  Thanks to Far North Queensland Skies. 

Locally sourced photos will be added later tonight.

ZK-KFB heads west

Execujet New Zealand's Gulfstream 650 ZK-KFB departed from Wellington late morning 28 October for a mach .92 sprint across the Tasman to Sydney marking its first visit to Australia and only its second flight from Wellington since being delivered just over three weeks ago.

Arriving at Wellington earlier this month. 

Antarctica 2013/2014 - Update Two

We reported earlier the diversion to Auckland 26 October of Boeing C17 Globemaster III 10-0218 having turned around on its way from Hickam to Christchurch as "Reach 5E5" due to high winds at its destination. It eventually departed from Auckland around 1900 for Christchurch.  It headed back to Hickam from Christchurch 27 October.

Another C17, 98-0057 arrived at Christchurch from Pago Pago Saturday evening as "Reach 530". Also trundling down from Pago Pago was Lockheed LC130 Hercules 83-0491 as "Skier 82".

10-0217 had made an attempt to reach the ice 24 October but returned to Christchurch.  It made a successful return trip 25 October as ICE06 and again 26 October as ICE07. 

And a fourth C17 visited Christchurch 27 October when 95-0105 arrived from Pago Pago as "Reach 781". Sadly the timing wasn't quite right to have four of the type on the ground at once, but three together plus the Hercules made for a busy ramp area!

thanks to Tony for these great shots taken Sunday 27 October.

Lockheed L100 Hercules ZS-RSC embarked from Christchurch on Saturday morning for Terra Nova Bay and returned to Christchurch in the early hours of Sunday morning.

RNZAF Lockheed C130 NZ7003 arrived back at Christchurch from the Ice Runway 25 October as Kiwi 297.

More Skier Hercs are expected to arrive later today and C17's 98-0057 and 95-0105 are due to depart tomorrow.

Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777-200 Freighter visits Auckland

The first Boeing 777-200 freighter to visit New Zealand arrived at  Auckland on the afternoon of 27 October when Emirates SkyCargo's A6-EFJ arrived as UAE4867 from Dubai via a techstop/crew change at Sydney.

The aircraft was carrying two Agusta Westland A139 helicopters, A6-OMI c/n 31044, ex I-EASJ, A6-AWA and PR-OMJ c/n 31118, ex A6-AWF.   Both helicopters have most recently been operated by Brazil's OMNI Taxi Aereo and prior to that with Abu Dhabi Aviation.

Industry sources indicate these machines will be deployed in NZ for operations on behalf of an American oil exploration project set to get underway in December.

After unloading its cargo, the 777 freighter departed Auckland for Hong Kong.

Thanks to all those providing photographic material covering this unique visitor.

John Rankin photo

Nicholas Young photo

Christchurch farewells Qantas "mainline"

The arrival and departure of Boeing 737-800 VH-XZC at Christchurch 26 October 2013 signalled the end of a long association with Qantas Australian based (mainline) aircraft flying scheduled services to the Garden City.  VH-XZC flew the final QF45/46 service from/to Sydney ending a long history of these flight numbers being used on this route.  

Can anyone supply a timeframe of how long these flight numbers have been in use?

From today, Jetconnect will operate all Qantas services in and out of Christchurch as the airline rolls out its revised schedules in conjunction with their Emirates partnership arrangement.

Cessna P210N Silver Eagle N526CH

Now an Ardmore resident, Cessna P210N Centurion "Silver Eagle" N526CH was out in the spring sunshine 26 October and departed for Kerikeri.  Colin Hunter was hand to catch it at rest, and on the move!

Boeing 757 VH-TCA

Continuing on from a post made earlier today re DHL and their involvement with the Rugby World Cup 2015, an official launch was held and the 757, VH-TCA, departed mid afternoon on its Saturday, daylight run from Auckland to Sydney.

For more details on today's launch, check out 3rd Level NZ.

Below is a photo of the jet prior to and then departing Auckland, note the addition of "Official Logistics Partner" along the fuselage from that depicted in the photo from our earlier post.

All photos thanks to John. 

Globemaster Diversion

United States Air Force Boeing C17 Globemaster III 10-0218, operating as "Reach 6E5", diverted to Auckland this afternoon while enroute from Hickam, Honolulu to Christchurch.  Gale force northwest winds were sweeping across the Canterbury Plains and the crew elected to divert from near Kaikoura back to Auckland.

This particular example was delivered to the USAF at McChord AFB, Washington State, just over one year ago.

A pleasant surprise for a sunny Saturday afternoon!

T