Coming and Going

The visiting bizjet scene has seen its comings and goings recently.

Global 5000 N346L departed from Kaitaia 04 January for a techstop at Auckland and then across to Sydney.

Global Express N6VB arrived at Queenstown 04 January from Napier and departed 05 January for Papeete.

Hawker 800XP VH-VRC departed Auckland 08 January for Essendon.

Falcon 50EX N83TY arrived at Christchurch 09 January from Maui and Pago Pago.

File photo

Beech Staggerwing NC80316

Unloaded at Ardmore 09 January was 1947 edition Beechcraft G17S Staggerwing NC80316.  This aircraft is registered to Kiwi Lion Ltd who also operate Ardmore based Beech G58 Baron N254F and are also involved in the return to flight of a Hawker Tempest Mk II.

We look forward to seeing the Staggerwing return to the skies of NZ!!

Landings Wellington Airport January 2nd 2013

For those who know Wellington (NZWN) well, here is some nice footage thanks to Airsidetv of the arrivals and departures on 02 January this year where the mean wind strength from the north was 30kts but gusted to 50kts and later in the day and after dark peaked at 63kts before quickly abating after midnight....

Challenger 604 VH-VSZ

Sydney based Challenger 604 VH-VSZ made its third visit to Queenstown in as many weeks 06 January 2013, arriving from and returning to its home port.  The Challenger was delivered to Sydney on 15 September 2012 arriving from Honolulu via Apia and made its first visit to Queenstown 22 December and again on 29 December.

At Essendon 07 January 2013

U-2 Above All

We've featured videos about the U2 found on You Tube previously, and here is yet another great production about this amazing aircraft.

First time visitor - of sorts....

Sunshine Air Services Hawker 800XP VH-VRC made its first visit to NZ 05 January when it arrived at Auckland mid afternoon from its Melbourne/Essendon base.

However, its not the first time this particular airframe (C/N 258295) has visited our shores.  Since it was delivered to Australia in 1996 it has worn the marks VH-LAW, then moved to VH-LAT to make LAW available for a Falcon 900, then to VH-KEF reflecting its operator, Kefford, then to VH-EJL prior to finally becoming VH-VRC in September 2011 replacing a Citation III that had worn the same marks.......

From across the Tasman....

Yesterday saw a fire brew to the east of Melbourne and authorities called in the aerial support team stationed at Essendon.  Gordon R was man on the spot when the team were thrust into action and Bell 206 VH-BHF departed as the spotter craft for Skycrane N179AC "Elvis".

Corporate Update

As outlined in a post a few days ago there has been a large number of visiting corporate jets around New Zealand.

 

01 January saw Falcon 50 VH-FOL return to its Brisbane home from Queenstown.

 

02 January and Global 5000 N346L departed Napier for Kaitaia while replacing it on the ramp at Napier was Global Express N6VB.   And Gulfstream 550 N510QS departed Queenstown for Honolulu and Moffett Field leaving the South Island destination devoid of visiting foreign jets!

Christmas Drop

During the second week of December 2012 Pacific Airwaves reported on the movements of "Santa 42" around the northwest Pacific region.

Here is a great You Tube video outlining this great humanitarian airdrop conducted by the USAF.

Mt Cook Airline new ATR72 arrives

Christchurch based Mt Cook Airline took delivery of their second ATR72-212A (-600) when

ZK-MVB (c/n 1065) arrived from Brisbane late on the morning of 30 December.  The delivery flight was contracted to Southern Cross International and the aircraft assigned SXI1288 as its callsign for the journey from Toulouse which staged via Alexandria, Al Ain, Nagpur, Penang, Seletar, Kosrae/Kupang and Brisbane.  The first legs were flown under its delivery markings, F-WKVB as seen in the first photo below when it was captured on arrival at Brisbane.  And then for its Tasman crossing ZK-MVB replaced the F markings.

 

ZK-MVB is the first aircraft to wear the new Air NZ livery of revised titles, black tail etc with the exception of Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKP which also has the Hobbit decals therefore its change to the new livery is not as obvious!

 

We can expect to see ZK-MVB around the Mt Cook Airline network (NZ5xxx series flight numbers) from around mid January.

B-52 Flight (2012)

Bargeld01 came across this great YouTube clip - something to get us started for the New Year! 

 If only this type of thing was a regular in our backyard!

The team at MRC Aviation would like to extend there warmest wishes to all as we slip into another year.

 

It has been a pleasure to provide this blog and to see the audience increase during 2012. 

 

We would also like to thank all those individuals who have contributed their information and photos to help create this aviation blogsite.

 

 

The highlight from a NZ aviation perspective for 2012 would likely have to be the Mosquito first flight and subsequent "outings" as it continues to grace our small corner of the world - for a few more weeks at least!

And another for me in particular was the visit in late January 2012 of the first IL96 to visit NZ.

Freighters at Christchurch

 

Christchurch has been graced by two out of the ordinary Boeing 747-400 freighters in recent weeks.

 

The first arrived in the form of N416MC with the Polar Air Cargo aircraft arriving in its hybrid DHL colour scheme from Sydney in the dark hours of 21 December using the Atlas Air callsign "Giant 8118".  After uplifting its consignment of cargo the -400 departed for Manila.

The second arrival was by MASkargo Boeing 747-400 freighter 9M-MPR on 26 December with the aircraft also arriving from Sydney as MAS6204.  It departed the following day as MAS6454 for Sydney and Manila.

Corporate Chaos!

The last couple of weeks has seen a significant rise in corporate jet movements around New Zealand with a number of visiting machines from Asia and North America plus a flotilla from Australia.  Most movements have centered around Queenstown with multiple movements on some days so to give some idea of what's been going on we'll cover it off on a day by day basis!

19 December
Falcon 50 VH-FOL Brisbane-Kerikeri

21 December
Gulfstream 5 N525AC Honolulu-Auckland
Gulfstream 550 B-8131 Christchurch-Dunedin-Bali

22 December
Gulfstream 4SP N757MC Honolulu-Pago Pago-Queenstown
Challenger 604 VH-VSZ Sydney-Queenstown-Sydney

23 December
Gulfstream 5 N525AC Auckland-Napier
Gulfstream 550 N712KT Haneda-Queenstown
Falcon 50 VH-FOL Kerikeri-Queenstown
Citation X VH-RCA Sydney-Queenstown

24 December
Gulfstream 4SP N757MC Queenstown-Nadi

25 December
Global Express HL8238 Seoul/Incheon-Rotorua-Auckland

26 December
Citationjet CJ4 ZK-PGA Auckland-Queenstown
Gulfstream 5 N525AC Napier-Queenstown
Global Express N234DB Honolulu-Queenstown
Global Express HL8238 Auckland-Seoul/Gimpo

27 December
Citation X VH-RCA Queenstown-Sydney-Hamilton Island
Global Express N234DB Queenstown-Honolulu
Gulftream 550 N712KT Queenstown-Christchurch
Gulfstream 550 B-KGP Singapore-Wellington then later the same day to Auckland and Hong Kong

Beech King Air F-OIAA Magenta-Norfolk Island-Auckland-Magenta

28 December
Citationjet CJ3+ ZK-TBM Kerikeri-Queenstown-Christchurch
Gulfstream 550 N510QS Nadi-Queenstown
Challenger 604 VH-VRE Perth-Queenstown
Challenger 600 VH-JPQ Brisbane-Queenstown-Brisbane
Global 5000 N346L Papeete-Queenstown
Gulfstream 550 VH-PFL Singapore-Sydney-Dunedin-Invercargill (no room at Queenstown!)

29 December
Challenger 604 VH-VRE Queenstown-Sydney
Challenger 604 VH-VSZ Sydney-Queenstown-Sydney
Hawker 850XP VH-MEP Sydney-Queentown-Essendon
Gulfstream 5 N525AC Queenstown-Sydney-Hamilton Island
Gulfstream 550 VH-PFL Invercargill-Subang (now that IS a first!)
Global Express HL8238 Seoul/Gimpo-Auckland-Seoul/Gimpo (just under two hours at Auckland).
Gulfstream 550 N712KT Christchurch-Rotorua

30 December
Citationjet CJ4 ZK-PGA Queenstown-Auckland
Global Express N6VB Honolulu-Auckland

31 December
Gulfstream 550 N712KT Rotorua-Auckland
Global 5000 N346L Queenstown-Napier

MERRY CHRISTMAS - AND OFF AIR.......

MRC Aviation would like to take this opportunity to wish all its followers a happy and safe festive season.  We thank you for the support shown through 2012 and look forward to providing an informed blog again next year. 

As is common place across much of "down under", 

MRC Aviation is taking a break and is off air from now until around 30 December.

Cyclone Evan

These past few days has seen the island nations of Western Samoa, American Samoa and Fiji battered by Tropical Cyclone Evan with torrential rain, hurricane force winds and sea surges causing massive amounts of damage and for Western Samoa a number of lives lost with some still missing.  

Media reports have clearly shown the damage caused at Nadi Airport, the main gateway to Fiji, with a number of light aircraft significantly damaged by the fierce weather that was unleashed with sustained winds of 65kts on Friday gusting to 90kts as the system slid down the western side of the island.

Photos show Cessna 150M's DQ-BBT and DQ-CCT completed demolished with the latter intertwined with Cessna 172RG DQ-AAT.  DHC Beaver DQ-GWW is resting against a building in a tail up position, obviously severely damaged and parachute jumpship Cessna 182 VH-DQQ is also significantly damaged.
Cessna 208 DQ-DHG has had a winglet modification and Cessna 172N DQ-YYT has been flipped. 

A link to a photos can be found here at Pprune.

Herky Bird

The United States Air Force operation to Antarctica based out of Christchurch has a slightly different tempo as the season reaches its warmest temperature phase.  The regular C17 flights between Christchurch and the frozen continent have been temporarily stopped with 08-8195 flying its final Christchurch-Pegasus-Christchurch run on 30 November as "ICE 33" and departing Christchurch for Honolulu 01 December as "Reach 5E4".  

The supply runs for the program are now utilising the LC130 fleet and Patrick W has caught 83-0490 arriving in nice lighting conditions at Christchurch 19 December as "Skier 83".  In the opposite direction on the same day was 92-1095 as "Skier 82". 

Snowbirds

Patrick W from Christchurch has sent in these shots of two snowbirds at the Garden City 19 December.

The first is Airwork's all white Boeing 737-300 freighter ZK-FXT making the first of its three return trips from Auckland hauling mail and general NZ post freight.  It usually only sees itself flying at night but with the festive season just around the corner it has had an extra rotation added to its normal routine.

The second snowbird is Skytrader's Airbus A319LR VH-VHD, callsign "Snowbird 1".  It returned to Christchurch from Melbourne 17 December and departed Christchurch at 2312 local time 19 December for Pegasus in Antarctica and is as this blog post goes to air well on its way back to Christchurch.   This aircraft has been very busily employed on operations on behalf of the Australian Government in recent weeks with it regularly seen at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, a few trips to Sri Lanka and across to Nauru.  

Skytrader's are in the process of taking delivery of a second A319-132LR, VH-VCJ c/n 1880 with the aircraft already on its delivery flight to Melbourne from Shannon, Ireland.

 

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Inside & Out! (Teaser)

A Youtube clip of something a little different.......

750XL movements

Pacific Aerospace 750XL ZK-SWA, registered to Gisborne based Kiwi Air, has been living overseas for roughly five years and it was nice to see it return home on 16 December with it crossing the Tasman from Port Macquarie to Lord Howe Island and Auckland.

Heading in the opposite direction 19 December was Pacific Aerospace 750XL ZK-KCE.  With construction number 185 it was registered to Pacific Aerospace of Hamilton in August this year and departed this morning in its parachute ship configuration for Lord Howe Island.