From the "what the ...?" file

20-August-08
Beech Duke N60TE continued on its journey south heading to Dunedin.

30-August-08
From the what the...? file comes the following two aircraft noted this morning. Something wasn't quite right with the destionations they were showing!

• Cessna 152 ZK-FGU of Rick Lucas Helicopters was noted operating over the top of the sounds while apparently tracking to ESOL (Storvik-Lemstanas, Sweden) a rather long flight for a little plane.
  
• Piper PA-28-181 ZK-FJT of Canterbury Aero Club was noted operating off the south coast of Wellington and appeantly tracking to FEAR, was the student that bad and the instructor wrorried?
  

Tuesday 19-Aug-08

2 points of interest today

RNZAF Boeing 757-2K2 NZ7571 (cn 26633/519) arrived into Woodbourne mid afternoon on its nationwide tour showing off the modifications it has recently had.

Arriving into Woodbourne from Tauranga at dusk was Beech B60 Duke N60TE. (cn P361) It arrived into the country last month and has spent most of its time at Ardmore.

NSN WX Diversions

Woodbourne was the diversion point this afternoon with two Air Nelson Q300 flights diverting here due to weather at their intended destination of Nelson.

• ZK-NES operating NZ8131 WLG-NSN was the first to arrive at around 1713, it then positioned back to WLG as NZ8950 at 1755

• ZK-NEH operaring NZ8367 AKL-NSN was the second diversion arriving at 1730, it then positioned back to AKL as NZ8952 at 1820

Friday 08-August-08

An Air Nelson Q300 operated a charter flight into and out of Woodbourne today. It arrived just after 1100 as NZ8905 before repositioning to Auckland as NZ8988. It later positioned back to Woodbourne as NZ8987 before operating the return leg of the charter NZ8906 back to Auckland at 1700.
It is believed the charter was connected to the opening of a new multi millon dollar winery here in Marlborough.

With the morning arrival of the Q300 and a delay to the scheduled NZ8018 Woodbourne witnessed the rare occurance of 2 Q300s on the ground together, albeit only briefly as NZ8018 departed shortly after the arrival of NZ8905

Also arriving into Woodbourne mid afternoon was an RNZAF Hercules operating under the call sign Kiwi 175

NOTED

• Lakeland Helicopter Ltd Cessna 425 Conquest ZK-LAL operating Taupo-Hokitika

• air2there.com Cessna 208B Grand Caravan ZK-MYH returning to Paraparaumu from Hamilton

Runway Damage.

Delays and disruptions occured at Woodbourne on Monday 04-August-08 between 1000 and 1500 due to weather related runway damage.

An inspection crew checking reports of a dead bird on the runway discovered that a patch of tarmac had broken up. An Air New Zealand pilot also reported the damaged tarmac to the control tower. A series of palm-sized chunks of tarmac had come loose in a less than one metre square section of the runway. The cracking was believed to be caused by last week's flooding.

Contractors resealed a 2m by 3.7m section of the runway.

A local Eagle Air pilot commented...

I was at Woodbourne yesterday when the hole was discovered. The tarmac was cracked and broken a couple of feet out from the centre line of the runway. It felt like cake icing as we were able to crack off the inch thick runway surface and expose the gravel base underneath.

The delay was more of a nuisance than anything as crews and passengers were either delayed or roaded across to Nelson.

Marlborough Express story on this

Wind, Rain, cancellations - a wild week

Its been a wild week with strong wind, heavy rain and flooding all over the country. This has heavily effected the flight schedules in Marlborough this week.

One notible change on Friday 1-Aug-08 was the cancellation of NZ2123/124 BHE-CHE-BHE due to the aircraft being stuck in Wellington. It positioned into Blenheim as NZ2915 at 0910. NZ8960 itself a positioning flight from CHC-NSN was cancelled and instead NZ8962 operated CHC-BHE-NSN arriving at 1020, to clear the passengers stranded in CHC.

Also noted operating during daylight hours was Airwork (NZ) Ltd - AirPost Fokker F27 ZK-PAX operating under its usual BHE-WLG-AKL Post20 call sign operating several flights to WLG, AKL and CHC to move mail around that was stranded due to the closure of SH1, and other weather related roading problems.

To show how much rain fell in Marlborough on Weds 30-July-08 the below photo shows the stream at the end of runway 24 at Woodbourne. In the 20 odd years I've been in Marlborough I only remember seeing water in it maybe twice and never ever this much - to show its strength the bridge shown is usually paralell to the road next to the road bridge not several meters down stream facing the same way as the stream!

(Gavin Conroy photo - www.capphotography.photopic.net)