USAF Boeing C40B arrives Auckland

United States Air Force Boeing 737-7FD BBJ (C40B Clipper) 02-0042 arrived at Auckland 09 April from Jakarta as SPAR76.  This aircraft is operated by the 76th Airlift Squadron "Special Air Mission Europe"/86th Airlift Wing based at Ramstein, Germany.

02-0042 has visited NZ in the past.  In August 2008 it spent a couple of nights in Wellington and it was back at Wellington on 11 April 2010 just for a night stop.

MRC photos

All Black over Wanaka

As briefly mentioned in a previous post, Air New Zealand's Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKQ made an appearance at the Warbirds over Wanaka airshow on Sunday 08 April arriving from a brief visit to Wellington and departing the area on its return to Auckland.

Bargeld01 provides these brilliant shots of the big bird over Central Otago:

Cessna Demonstrator Departs

Cessna 208 Grand Caravan N341GC departed Ardmore 08 April for Kerikeri and Norfolk Island on its way to Australia.  The Caravan arrived at Kerikeri from Pago Pago on 28 March.

Departing Ardmore 03 April, Wayne G photo

Visiting jets at Wanaka

Bargeld01 reports in from Wanaka today, 08 April, and advises in addition to NZ based Mustang's ZK-MUS and ZK-LCA both visiting Wanaka, Citationjet CJ3 N91GT and Falcon 20F VH-PNY were both on location today.

Citationjet CJ3 N91GT is based at Melbourne/Essendon with EC Menzies and it arrived at Wanaka from Essendon and Queenstown 05 April.

Falcon 20F VH-PNY featured on this blog a couple of days ago when it arrived at Napier from Sydney.  It made a day trip to Wanaka which included a scenic around the Mt Cook National Park followed by a couple of flybys at Wanaka prior to landing.

There is a video on youtube of the Falcon departing Majuro on its delivery flight to Australia earlier this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ccO0hVh9uaU&feature=endscreen

Across the hill at Queenstown Citationjet CJ3 ZK-TBM and Mustang ZK-PGA were parked along with Falcon 2000 N700LF which arrived 06 April from Pago Pago and Challenger 600 VH-JPQ was in and out briefly this afternoon arriving from and returning to Brisbane.

All Black 777-300 visits Wellington!

Air New Zealand’s All Black Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKQ made a brief visit to Wellington 08 April 2012 for a promotional visit.   The big black jet arrived to a perfect Wellington day from Auckland and spent around an hour on the ground before departing on its next mission, participation at the Warbirds over Wanaka airshow!  At the conclusion of three passes at Wanaka the 777 returned to Auckland.

Thanks to Michael L for these memorable shots!

New Link Added

For those who follow the Twin Otter family of aircraft, I've just added a new link down the sidebar of the blog taking you to http://twinotterspotter.blogspot.co.nz/

Life Flight Wellington baton passed.......

01 April 2012 saw the baton of operating the Life Flight fixed wing air ambulance operation at Wellington change from Airwork Flight Operations to Vincent Aviation.  

Airwork has held the contract for a number of years and provided Metroliner III equipment for this vital service with ZK-LFT (AC-582) being specifically registered for the purpose back in June 2001.  This airframe had previously flown on behalf of Pacific Air Ambulance and was aptly registered ZK-PAA from September 1997 until June 2001. 

The contract renewal was one by Vincent Aviation who now provide at least Jetstream 31 ZK-JSH for air ambulance work.  The operations noted on this blog of Burley Air's Piper PA42 Cheyenne VH-BUR on calibration duties for the Airways Corporation an indicator that ZK-JSH is no longer used for this purpose.

Interestingly the Life Flight newsletter of February 2012 makes no mention of the pending change:
http://www.lifeflight.org.nz/files/Life_Flight_Newsletter_Feb_2012.pdf

ZK-LFT positioned from Wellington to Auckland on the morning of 02 April 2012 for maintenance work with Airwork.  ZK-NSS, another Metroliner III, remains in service with the Lifeflight Auckland operation.

At Wellington 01 April 2012, MRC photo

At Auckland 01 September 2009, Wayne G photo.  The aircraft still wears these markings. 

Farewell ZK-SJE/ Hola XA-VIT

Boeing 737-3K2 c/n 27635 has flown the coop concluding its time in New Zealand.  Registered to Viva Aerobus of Mexico as XA-VIT, the 737 "classic" departed from Christchurch 06 April 2012 as VIV6802 for Wellington, Nadi and Majuro.  The Wellington stopover, with Capital Jet Services,  was ta result of a fuel shortage at Christchurch - but this was fortuitous as Michael L was able to get some awesome shots. 

ZK-SJE had been with the Air NZ Group since October 2001.  As brief history of her time in NZ:

Registered PH-TSZ, it arrived at Christchurch from Honolulu and Apia as NZ6691 on 10 October 2001.

The following day it was placed on the NZ register as ZK-SJE with Freedom Air..

It entered service with Freedom Air on 09 November 2001 flying Christchurch-Wellington-Auckland as SJ90/SJ92. 

On 13 November 2001 ZK-SJE flew Freedom's inaugural service from Auckland to Coolangatta and back as SJ901/902 and two days later flew the briefly operated Auckland-Newcastle-Auckland route as SJ801/802.

It flew on behalf of Royal Tongan Airlines 21 December 2001 from Auckland to Tonga and back as HRH7272/7271 and to Niue and back on 23 December 2001 as HRH7522/7523. 

Its final services with Freedom Air were flown on 07 August 2005 as SJ903/904 Auckland-Coolangatta-Auckalnd as SJ903/904 and it then ferried to Christchurch for repaint and C check as SJ7223.

It flew a post maintenance acceptance flight as NZ6500 on 18 September 2005 and the following day entered service with Air NZ as NZ410 from Christchurch to Wellington and Auckland. 

Departing Wellington December 2010, MRC photo

Its final service for Air NZ was flown on 13 December 2011 as NZ359 from Wellington to Christchurch and it underwent an extensive maintenance visit before a test flight on 16 March 2012 as NZ6500 and a customer acceptance flight the following day as NZ6502.   It was cancelled from the NZ register 28 March 2012 to become XA-VIT. 

Again, thanks to Michael L for these photos:

RAAF Wedgetail

The RAAF deployed one of their Boeing 737-700 Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft to Ohakea to be on static display at the recent RNZAF 75th anniversary airshow.

http://www.airforce.gov.au/aircraft/wedgetail.aspx

A30-004 arrived at Ohakea from Williamtown on the afternoon of 30 March and was proudly placed on static display however unlike other aircraft was not opened for public viewing.

This was the second known visit by one of these unique aircraft to NZ, the first taking place in 2010 with 
A30-005 arriving on 07 October and departing 08 October for Williamtown.

Above and below, Wayne G photos

 

Remainder of images MRC photos

VH'ers here and there

There have been a few Australian visitors over recent days including some regulars, infrequent visitors and a first time visitor!

The regulars were made up of Gulfstream 550 VH-LAL spending a few days in Queenstown and Falcon 2000 VH-CRW hopping from Napier to Taupo 04 April.

Also making its way around and about was the Citation Mustang demonstrator VH-PWX.  It departed Auckland for Lord Howe Island and Bankstown 04 April concluding its NZ visit.  The other VH demo machine in the country, PC12NG VH-FMM, flew from Wellington to Auckland and Wanaka 05 April. 

Piper Aerostar VH-EDO was noted parked at Queenstown 04 April and Piper Aerostar VH-YRD was around the Mount Cook region 05 April. 

The infrequent visit was by Citation III VH-SSZ.  It arrived at Auckland 02 April from Wagga Wagga and Sydney and returned to Sydney the following day.  Its last recorded visit to NZ was in December 2008.

Noel J photo

And the first time visitor was by a "classic" corporate, a 1976 Falcon 20F-5 VH-PNY.  This aircraft is registered to Business Aviation Solutions of NSW and arrived at its Bankstown base back on 24 January concluding its delivery flight from the States via Hawaii, Midway, Koror, Townsville and Coffs Harbour. 

Its first known flights since its delivery in January was the hop from Bankstown to Sydney 04 April and then the Tasman crossing from Sydney to Napier 05 April where it is seen here arriving under very grey skies.

Graeme C photo

TBM850 N889JG

MRC Aviation has been provided with this brilliant shot of visiting TBM850 N889JG resting at Christchurch 04 April following a flight from Rotorua.  It was reported this machine was in the country for demonstration purposes but this is incorrect, it is merely visiting!

A few more of All Black One

Bargeld01 has kindly provided these photos of Air NZ Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKQ at Ohakea 31 March:

RNZAF Boeing 757

Always a crowd pleaser, the RNZAF Boeing 757 display was well received and NZ7571 thankfully returned ex overseas just in time to carry out its duties as display ship with the special markings as seen in these photos and in a previous post.  The Boeing was also employed in moving staff to Wellington and Whenuapai.