And then there were three..........

ZK-NBT made its final flight today NZ time with the less than 1 hour flight from Los Angeles to Goodyear, Arizona.  http://www.mrcaviation.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/so-long-zk-nbt.html

This leaves three 747-400's in Air NZ's care with ZK-NBU set to depart for the same fate as ZK-NBT.
All three were at the Air NZ Jet Base 10 May.

MRC photos

Global Formation

Two Global Express business jets arrived at Napier within 5 minutes of each other this evening, 09 May.

N90EW and N488CH, the latter using callsign "Twylight 8", arrived from Melbourne/Tullamarine.  Both aircraft arrived at Sydney from Kailua-Kona on 03 May and flew to Melbourne 05 May.

RAAF Hercs

Two Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed C130J Hercules, A97-441 and A97-467,  arrived at Christchurch from Hobart 08 May and after clearing formalities continued to Woodbourne.  The two Hercs had arrived at Hobart the previous evening from Richmond and East Sale.  With this pattern of flying we can expect to see them around New Zealand on navigational exercises in the coming days.

Thanks to Craig C for providing the following photos

So Long ZK-NBT

After 21.5 years of sterling service, Air New Zealand said farewell to Boeing 747-419 ZK-NBT (c/n 24855 line number 815) on the evening of 08 May 2012 as the "four holer" departed the airline's home port of Auckland for Los Angeles and later onto Goodyear where sadly this Queen of the skies will be broken up.

ZK-NBT, christened "Kaikoura", first flew back on 28 September 1990 as N6018N and was delivered to Air New Zealand on 31 October 1990 arriving at Auckland on 02 November 1990.  It entered service on 06 November 1990 flying from Auckland to Sydney.  Interestingly, ZK-NBT was the second -400 series to be delivered to Air New Zealand but the first to enter service as ZK-NBS, delivered in December 1989, was dry-leased to Cathay Pacific due to industrial relations issues at Air New Zealand and it did not return to the carrier until February 1991 by which time ZK-NBT had entered service.

ZK-NBT flew her final commercial flight in February this year and on touch down at Auckland on 12 February as NZ7 from San Francisco the -419 had accumulated almost 94800 hours and 11203 cycles.

The departure of ZK-NBT sees the fleet of 400's dwindle to three aircraft, however this will drop by yet another unit in a few days time when ZK-NBU departs Auckland leaving just ZK-NBV and ZK-SUH in service primarily operating between Auckland and San Francisco. 

Auckland 26 March 1994, MRC photo

Above three photos at Auckland 11 November 2011, MRC photos

Awaiting her fate, Auckland 15 March 2012, MRC photo

Tasman Travellers

The last few days have been busy with a mixture of corporate jet movements made up of folks on vacation and medical activity.

Falcon 2000 D-BFFB arrived at Queenstown 01 May from Melbourne as "Bavarian 2FB".  It had arrived at Ayres Rock from Siem Reap and Darwin on 24 April and flew to Kingscote 26 April before heading to Melbourne 29 April.  It left Queenstown for Sydney 07 May.

D-BFFB preparing for departure, photo supplied.

Falcon 50 VH-FOL arrived at Queenstown 05 May from Brisbane and returned to Brisbane 07 May.

Learjet 36 VH-CMS arrived at Auckland on a medivac flight from Singapore via Darwin and Coolangatta 07 May and departed on the same day back to Coolangatta.

Arriving Auckland 07 May, Colin H photo

Learjet 36 VH-JCX arrived at Auckland on a medivac flight from Melbourne/Essendon late 07 May and departed in the first hour of 08 May for Melbourne/Tullamarine.

Westwind II ZK-RML visited Invercargill overnight 07 May arriving from Auckland.  It departed the following morning for Dunedin.

Also in the south was Citation Mustang ZK-LCA.  It overnighted at Timaru 07 May having arrived from Hastings, Auckland and Christchurch.  The next morning it departed Timaru for Christchurch and Hastings.

Global Express N2T, as previously blogged, departed Wellington 08 May for Suva.

Challenger 600 VH-JPQ visited Queenstown 08 May arriving from Melbourne/Essendon and departing for Brisbane.

Global Express N2T

Arriving at Wellington mid afternoon 06 May from Lihue on the island of Kauai, Hawaii was N2T Inc Global Express N2T.  One of the more spectacular schemes to be worn by a corporate, N2T has been a   visitor to Wellington on a number of occasions with its last stopover in January 2011.

The following awesome shots thanks to Michael L

Farewell Qantas Widebodies

In February this year Qantas signaled their intention to terminate services between Auckland and Los Angeles and the final flight northbound departed Auckland as QF26 on Saturday 05 May.  The final flight southbound arrived at Auckland on the morning of Monday 07 May with Airbus A330-200 VH-EBH flying the final QF25.  This aircraft then operated QF141 from Auckland to Sydney thus heralding the final scheduled widebody Qantas passenger service in/out of New Zealand.

Air New Zealand will ramp up services over the city pairing from 12 flights per week 

Qantas will continue to operate Boeing 767-300 freighter VH-EFR on a daily basis across the Tasman and once a week a Boeing 747-400 freighter adorned in Atlas Air colours will visit Auckland using a Qantas flight number.

Qantas offshoot Jetstar operate Airbus A330-200 aircraft between Singapore and Auckland three times per week.

VH-EBH arriving at Auckland 11/11/2011.  MRC photos. 

Classics!

John Rankin has kindly provided the following classics that are well worth sharing!  Thanks John!

Douglas DC6 ZK-BGC at Wellington early 1960's

Electra VH-ECD at Manila December 1960

Fokker F27 ZK-BXC at Paraparaumu circa 1961

Douglas DC3 ZK-BYE at Christchurch circa 1960

Electra ZK-TEC at Christchurch circa 1960

NAC Viscount ZK-BRF at Christchurch circa 1960

Fokker F27 ZK-BXB at Christchurch winter 1960

Fleeting visit by Triple Charlie

Melbourne based Crown Casinos flight operations host three Gulfstream aircraft; GIV VH-CGF and GV VH-CCC and VH-CRQ.

VH-CCC made a brief visit to Wellington 05 May on its way from Papeete to Sydney and Melbourne.

Michael L was on hand to record its visit.

Airbus A320 ZK-OJK arrives back in NZ

Airbus A320 ZK-OJK has arrived back in New Zealand following a 6 year stint flying in Brazil with TAM registered PR-MBJ. 

Some historical data on ZK-OJK:

Freedom Air entered a new era on June 04 2005 with the first of four Airbus A320’s arriving at Auckland. Resplendent in the carrier’s bright canary yellow scheme with blue tail and engines, ZK-OJK touched down just before 1700 at the conclusion of its ferry flight from Toulouse via Gander, Denver, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Apia. As “Freedom 6390”, the Airbus was flown by Freedom Air pilots Trevor Ancell and Lincoln Parkinson with Air NZ’s Manager of Technical Support Ian Varcoe. The Airbus was hangered at Auckland and departed for Hamilton on June 06 as “Freedom 7221” with the aircraft carrying Air NZ and Freedom Air staff on a brief scenic flight of the Coromandel Peninsular.

ZK-OJK entered service with Freedom Air on June 08 flying as flight 732 to Nadi from Hamilton, then to Wellington, back to Nadi and home to Hamilton.

Its last flight with Freedom was conducted 12 April 2006 when it arrived at Christchurch from Coolangatta as SJ966. It then ferried to Auckland 28 April 2006 as SJ7124 and conducted an acceptance flight two days later. Its departure was then somewhat protracted and it finally left on 09 July registered as PR-MBJ and flown by Southern Cross Aviation as SXA617 departing Auckland for Papeete, Easter Island, Lima and Macapa, Brazil.

At the conclusion of operations with TAM, the Airbus A320 was ferried to Singapore/Seletar by its owners where it was then registered EI-EWD to Brookdell Ltd.  During the latter part of April the aircraft flew an acceptance flight at Seletar, still on the EI register before becoming ZK-OJK on 03 May 2012.  

It ferried as NZ6390 from Seletar to Cairns on 03 May and onto Christchurch 04 May where it will receive additional attention with Air NZ which will include the installation of inflight entertainment and a 168 seat configuration.

A photo of ZK-OJK at Cairns can be found here:

http://fnqskies.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/air-nz-zk-ojk-heads-across-tasman.html

At Christchurch 05 May 2012, Tony M photo

Uzbekistan Airways

Uzbekistan Airways have paid two visits to Christchurch recently transferring fishermen to/from the airline's home port of Tashkent via Kuala Lumpur.  

Boeing 767-300 VP-BUF arrived at Christchurch 27 April and departed 29 April while Boeing 767-300 VP-BUE arrived 01 May and departed 03 May.

File photos

Our Company Vehicle and friends

A couple of photos from today, 03 May.

Global Expresses 9H-BGL and VH-OCV, both XRS variants, resting at Auckland.

VH-OCV (Our Company Vehicle) arrived from Sydney 02 May and its the first visit the aircraft has made to NZ since December 2010.  The previous operator has significant ties with NZ and the markings VH-OCV have been worn by three aircraft, firstly a Learjet 60, followed by a Challenger 604 and now the Global Express, all of which had been frequent visitors to NZ until the Global moved to a new operator.

MRC photo

MRC photo

United States Coast Guard Gulftream 5 02 departed Wellington late morning for Canberra concluding its brief visit to NZ carrying the US Secretary for Homeland Security. 

Michael L photos

Darwin based Citation VII VH-LYM arrived at Auckland just prior to sunset from Sydney.

At Auckland in August 2008, MRC photo

US Coast Guard Gulfstream

Adding to the corporate jet visitors to Wellington these past few days was the arrival on the evening of 01 May of United States Coast Guard Gulfstream 5 "02".  Flying direct from Oahu's John Rogers Field, formerly known as Barbers Point Naval Air Station, this is the first visit of this particular example.  "01" has visited NZ previously with stops at Auckland and Wellington during July 2009. 

Thanks to Michael L for braving the cold southerly conditions at Wellington today!

Michael L photos

Wellington goes Global

Comlux Malta Global Express XRS 9H-BGL departed Wellington on the evening of 30 April and headed north to Auckland.

Sydney based Global Express N889CP made a brief appearance at Wellington 01 May when it arrived from and returned to Papeete.  N889CP is a fairly rare visitor to NZ and to the best of my knowledge has not visited Wellington before.  It last visited this country on 10 November 2011 on a techstop through Christchurch enroute from Essendon to Argentina.

Michael L photos

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