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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Volga-Dnepr Ilyushin 76 RA-76503 - UPDATED

The visit to NZ by Ilyushin 76TD-90VD RA-76503 was short and sweet with the heavy lift freighter departing Auckland around 1630 10 August destined for Honolulu as "Volga 4953". It is understood the IL76 delivered a General Electric GE90 engine.

Thanks to "anon's" for the provision of these shots of our exotic visitor:










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The second exotic four-holer to reach New Zealand in less than 24 hours touched down at Auckland in the highly unsociable early hours of 10 August. Volga-Dnepr Ilyushin IL76TD-90VD RA-76503 arrived as "Volga 4952" from Denpasar/Bali.

The arrival of RA-76503 marks the first time this particular new engine variant has been to New Zealand and by far the youngest of its type to visit being built in 2011!

We stand to be corrected, but after quickly looking through records it would seem it is 17 years since the last IL76 found its way to Auckland, and ironically it was in August of 1999 when RA-76369 as JSC940 arrived at Auckland on the 7th from Darwin and departed the next day for Brisbane as JSC941.

A chance discussion reminded me of the visit of an IL76 into Christchurch when Gazpromavia example, RA-76445, spent time in the Garden City
http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/00s/russians/ilyushin.html

RA-76503 has been to Australia, just the one. It arrived in Perth 3 July 2016 from Jakarta/Halim and departed 12 July for Tianjin, China.

Volga-Dnepr operate 12 IL76, of which 5 are the 90VD model.



Below a couple of snaps of it exiting at A3 after landing runway 05R at 0249LT
- my first and I think final attempt at night photography!



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