Divert to Christchurch

The storms that lashed the Auckland region 07 December saw the airport bought to a standstill as refuelling ceased with the risk of lightning strikes.  Fuelling was stopped from around 1215 and oddly continued through until 1730 as authorities deemed there to be lightning detected within a certain radius of the airport.

 

As a result airline activity ground to a halt even though aircraft continued to arrive until the airport reached saturation point with no parking left and forcing several Air NZ flights (domestic and international) to alight passengers off arriving aircraft at their jet base facility and bussing them back to the respective terminal building!  Other flights ended up diverting away from Auckland including Air NZ flight 136 from Brisbane operated by Boeing 777-200ER ZK-OKF as seen here on its departure from Christchurch.

 

Dozens of flights were cancelled, diverted and obviously delayed and Cathay Pacific's CX198 service to Hong Kong was replanned to operate via Manila to faciliate a crew change.

Falcon 900 N910JW

SC Johnson & Son's Falcon 900 N910JW (c/n 31) arrived at Auckland 05 December from Sydney and is seen here on its arrival under damp conditions.  It departed the following afternoon for Apia under every wetter conditions.

Bizjet Movements

04 December saw Global Express N121RS arrive at Napier from Auckland.  It departed Napier 05 December for Papeete and Austin, TX.

Also departing Auckland 04 December was Gulfstream 550 N501ZK.  It headed to Yogyokarta, Indonesia.

Arriving at Auckland 05 December from Sydney was SC Johnson and Sons Falcon 900 N910JW.

Global 5000 N103ZZ

Making its way north from Queenstown to Auckland 03 December was Tag Jet Asia's Global 5000 N103ZZ, callsign TBJ29.  Also departing Queenstown 03 December was Warner Bros Gulfstream 550 N79RP with it crossing the Tasman to Melbourne/Tullamarine.

Hobbits in the Cooks!

Thanks to our resident man on the ground in Rarotonga we can share this iconic shot of Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKP arriving at the Cook Islands international gateway on 02 December local date.  The visit of a 777-300 to Rarotonga is rare enough, so it was great that ZK-OKP could be showcased to the local community.

C-130H retirement flypast over Canberra (fast forward to 2 mins).

Firefighting!!

For those who like to watch aerial firefighting, check out the following link for a great video:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/48642618

Busy start to summer at Queenstown

01 December "down under" is the start of summer - not that temperatures across the country are anything to rave about!

 

But the cold snap which saw snow flurries on the mountains for the last day of spring has not dettered corporate jet visitors to Queenstown.

 

As previously covered, Falcon 50 VH-FOL arrived at Queenstown late 28 November from Brisbane, Gulfstream 550 N501ZK arrived at Queenstown from Papeete 29 November and Global 5000 N103ZZ arrived at Queenstown this morning, 01 December, from Hong Kong via a techstop at Melbourne/Tullamarine as TBJ29. 

 

Gulfstream 550 N79RP arrived at Queenstown from Wellington mid afternoon 01 December replacing N501ZK on the ramp which departed for Auckland.   It was followed by Falcon 50 VH-FOL departing Queenstown for Brisbane.
 

 

DC3 Revisted

As covered extensively on this blog site last month, Douglas DC3 N451ZS arrived in NZ from the UK and has been resting at Te Anau.

On 28 November the DC3 made its way from Te Anau to Rangiora, a small but very active airfield to the northwest of Christchurch. 

Resting at Rangiora 30 November, Bluebus photo

Corporate Round Up - Updated 30 Nov.

In addition to Wellington's resident Gulfstream 550 ZK-KFB which is closely associated with the Hobbit movie makers, another Gulfstream 550 joined the hangar space with N79RP from Warner Bros arriving at the Capital from Burbank and Honolulu on 27 November.  N79RP flew from Wellington to Auckland and back on the afternoon of 29 November while ZK-KFB departed Wellington late the same direct heading to Tokyo. 

Above and below, N79RP departing Wellington

 

N79RP arriving at Auckland

Gulfstream 4 VH-DBT had arrived at Queenstown from Essendon 24 November and departed on the morning of 28 November for Essendon and later the same day headed to Sydney.  It was joined on the tarmac at Queenstown on 27 November by Marcplan's Embraer E135 Legacy VH-VLT when it arrived mid afternoon from Auckland where it been overnight having arrived from Essendon the previous day.  The Legacy departed Queenstown for Essendon 29 November. 

Continuing the coverage of activity at Queenstown, Falcon 50 VH-FOL arrived from Brisbane around 2000LT on 28 November. 

VH-VLT departing Auckland

On the afternoon of 28 November United States Army Gulfstream C37A 01-0028 arrived at Wellington from Pago Pago as "SPAR35" and this was followed by Royal Australian Air Force Challenger 604 

A37-002 arriving from Canberra as "Ausy 343" before then making the short flight to Ohakea. 

01-0028 resting in the evening light of 28 November. 

A37-002 arriving at Wellington 29 November from Ohakea.

Late morning 29 November Marcplan's Gulfstream 450 VH-MBP arrived at Wellington from Melbourne/Essendon and departed a short time later for Sydney.  

VH-MBP arriving at Wellington. 

And mid afternoon 29 November Gulfstream 550 N501ZK arrived at Queenstown from Papeete while Citationjet CJ4 ZK-PGA flew Auckland-Queenstown-Auckland. 

Global Express N121RS

Arriving at Auckland 30 November from Austin, TX via a techstop at Papeete was this smart looking Global Express N121RS operated by Sunset Aviation using the callsign "Twylight 22".  

This airframe, c/n 9203, was until earlier this year registered N688MC but has replaced a Challenger 604 and taken up its markings as is common practice with US operators. 

RAAF C130H Hercules Retires

Today, 30 November 2012, signals the end of an era for the Royal Australian Air Force as their fleet of Lockheed C130H Hercules is withdrawn from service.

Since 1978, the C130H has provided tactical and strategic airlift for the Australian Defence Force across the globe and was once a spearhead of the transport arm of the RAAF. 

The Hercules legacy however will live on at RAAF base Richmond near Sydney as the latest generation C130J continues to serve with the air force and from 2015 these will be joined by 10 C27J Spartan battlefield airlifters along with the already delivered Globemaster III's.

The C130H Hercules of the RAAF has been a frequent visitor to NZ shores over its 34 years in service and frequently the skies above many smaller towns was abuzz with not one but two of them as they conducted navigation exercises the length and bredth of the nation carrying out instrument approaches and touch and goes.

The most recent visit/s by the H model was in July this year when A97-004 made a couple of visits to the country.  On 09 July 2012 it arrived at Queenstown from Richmond as "Ausy 584" and continued onto Wellington where it then overnighted and the following day headed to Norfolk Island and Richmond.  Then on 16 July the same aircraft arrived at Whenuapai from Richmond and Norfolk Island as "Ausy 587" and then headed to Papeete the next day.  On 18 July A97-004 arrived at Wellington direct from Papeete and headed off to Richmond 19 July.

A97-004 at Wellington on the occasion of the types last visit to NZ. 

The fate of the twelve C130H Hercules and in most part been decided with four of the aircraft "gifted" to the Indonesian Air Force, one is off to a museum (Point Cook?) and one will remain at Richmond as a training aid - no doubt an instructional airframe.  The remaining 6 aircraft will be
decided after a tender process.

Last Flight - article in The Australian 19 November 2012 (includes free wallpaper image).

A97-004 departing Queenstown 25 April 1995

A97-007 at Queenstown 25 April 1995

A97-004 and A97-007 at Queenstown 25 April 1995

A97-008 at Point Cook 28 February 2010

The last flight of the C130E model Hercules took place on 14 November 2000 and below are some images of the E's during NZ visits.

A97-160 at Nelson 18 October 1993

A97-167 at Nelson 30 November 1994 - Ironic date!

A97-178 at Nelson 25 November 1993

A97-189 and A97-002 at Ohakea 28 March 1983

Flyover.......

Air New Zealand's Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKP, as already well covered on this blog, was back in Hobbit mode Wednesday 28 November and overflew the red carpet celebration event leading up to "The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey" premiere showing at Wellington.

The airliner with just pilots on board was positioned from Auckland and timed to cross over the celebrations at 1000ft which it did with style right on cue at 1730!

Air New Zealand Hobbit themed 777-300 arrives in Wellington

Hobbit Fever!

Air New Zealand's Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKP has just touched down at Wellington from Auckland as NZ6691 as a key part of the lead up for tomorrow's premiere of the Hobbit movie.  It returned to Auckland after a little over 1 hour on the ground in the Capital and will carry out a flypast of the premiere event at Wellington Wednesday afternoon.

Above photo thanks to O-JET-O