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Thursday, March 5, 2015

Texans conclude delivery flight

The Royal New Zealand Air Force latest batch of Beechcraft T-6C Texan II's have arrived at RNZAF base Ohakea concluding their long delivery flight.

N2763B/NZ1408 touched down at 1900 from the Gold Coast via Norfolk Island as "Classic 177" following six minutes later by N2770B/NZ1409 using the callsign "Classic 143".

The delivery of these two aircraft commenced in late January and they were observed arriving at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland from Iqaluit, Canada on 31 January. The following day they made their way via Keflavik, Iceland to Birmingham and then flew onto Bournemouth 03 February. The duo then headed to Roma Ciampino 04 February and were not noted again until their arrival at Broome 13 February from Bali. 
They then made the journey to Alice Springs 14 February and onto Melbourne/Essendon 15 February. The short hop to Avalon was made on 22 February where the aircraft were on static display at the Australian International Air Show. It was from there that they embarked on the flight north to the Gold Coast. 

As a side note, the retired Pacific Aerospace CT4E Airtrainers in storage at Hamilton have been placed on the NZ civil register returning to their previous identities. Our records show the following as at 03 March 2015:
ZK-PTA c/n 200 ex NZ1985
ZK-PTB c/n 201 ex NZ1986
ZK-PTC c/n 202 ex NZ1987
ZK-PTD c/n 203 ex NZ1988
ZK-PTG c/n 206 ex NZ1991 - noted flying 03 March 2015
ZK-PTH c/n 207 ex NZ1992
ZK-PTI c/n 208 ex NZ1993
ZK-PTJ c/n 209 ex NZ1994 - noted flying 03 March 2015
ZK-PTK c/n 210 ex NZ1995 - noted flying 03 March 2015
ZK-PTL c/n 211 ex NZ1996
ZK-PTM c/n 212 ex NZ1997
ZK-PTV c/n 204 ex NZ1989 (prior RNZAF service was registered ZK-PTE but these markings now worn by a Yak 52)
NZ1990 was tragically lost in a fatal accident 14 January 2010

And still with NZ Defense Force news, the first of the batch of 8 "new" Kaman SH2G (I) Seasprite helicopters for 6 Squadron has flown from RNZAF base Whenuapai. From the online photos, it appears the helicopter wears the number "12" so presumably this makes it NZ3612. The Facebook page indicates official handover from Kaman Aerospace to the RNZAF will take place this coming Friday. 



Arriving at Ohakea 04 March 2015, Pieter Jansen photos
Useful military resource website - http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/
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