24-27 Sept 08 - UPDATED

24-Sept-08
Operating into and out of Woodbourne after dark was an unidentified RNZAF C130 Hercules.

25-Sept-08
Another RNZAF C130 Hercules was noted operating in the Woodbourne control zone before heading for the west coast, during the morning.

An RNZAF UH-1H Iroquoi was noted operating overhead Woodbourne during the morning.

During the afternoon Life Flight Trust BK117 B-2 ZK-HLF was noted doing training in and around Woodbourne and the control zone.

26-Sept-08
The first note of the day was an RNZAF King Air NZ1885 which arrived at 1000. It departed half an hour later for Ohakea.

Noted on the ground at Woodbourne this afternoon was Air Freight New Zealand Convair ZK-KFL. It appears this has been in at Safe Air since its arrival on 10-Sept-08. The pilots for this were noted arriving on NZ2473 from Wellington. KFL departed for Auckland shortly before 1600 as AFN694.

Also noted were two Airwork/Airpost Fokker F27 Frienship's ZK-POH and ZK-PAX. This is unusual as normally only one F27 day stops at Woodbourne.

It also seems that Air New Zealand travel from Blenheim may finally be being dragged into the 21st century, with the noting of two automatic ticket readers being installed at the gates inside the terminal. This will hopefully mean an end to the old dot matrix printed boarding passes, and the hand checking of passenger tickets/mainfest as they board the aircraft. This should hopefully make things easier for the few Blenheim passengers who choose to use online check in as well.

Arriving around 1440 VFR from WLG was Cessna C525 Citation Mustang ZK-MUS


Also arriving around 1450 was RNZAF airtrainer NZ1996

24-Sept-2008

The day started with a Beech 1900D operating NZ2300 from Timaru to Wellington stopping into Woodbourne. It arrived around 0830 before continuing onto Wellington around 0845/0850. NZ2300 TIU-BHE-WLG

Today Marlborough laid to rest one of its rugby greats with the Tangi & Funeral of Jim Joesph. Jim was part of the great Red Devils team of the eary 70s when Marlborough won the Ranfurley Shield. Jim's son Jamie also a great rugby palyer emulated his fathers feats when he coached Wellington to last weekends 27-0 demolition of Auckland. Today the Wellington Lion's honored Jim by bringing the shield to the funeral. The team and shield arrived at lunchtime on Vincent Aviation Dash 8-102 ZK-VAC operating as VAL810. VAC then returned to Wellington also as VAL810. It then arrived back into Woodbourne around 2030 also as VAL810.

Also noted was a 1900D operating Wellington to Woodbourne as NZ2901

Battle of Britain

Sunday September 14 2008 marked the annual rememberance services for the Battle of Britain. In Blenheim this was, as most war rememberances are, held in front of the memorial clock tower in Seymour Sqaure, central Blenheim. A flyover was staged at 11am to commence the service. This was carried out by dH82A Tiger Moth ZK-BER c/n844 owned by a local Omaka based syndicate.

Convair's & Poll

On the subject of Convair's there are only 5 on the Australian register all with Pionair, 3 are Convair 340/580s and 2 are 440/580s.

New Zealand has a large population of Convairs operated by Air Freight New Zealand and Air Chathams. There are 3x 340/580s, 1x 340/5800, and 5x 440/580s. Air Chathams operate 4 of the 440/580s while AFNZ operate the rest.

POLL TIME
Air Freight New Zealand is progressivly repainting its fleet of Convairs into its slightly modified colour scheme. This involves removing the red and blue cheat lines, and slightly tweaking the look of the titles and the logo on the tail. The old scheme is seen below on ZK-KFH with the new scheme seen on ZK-KFL. I personally think the new scheme is too dull and boring - what are the thoughts of others out there, please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on the change.

ZK-KFH in old c/s

ZK-KFL in new c/s

11-Sept-08 Another Convair

Arriving during the afternoon from Christchurch was Pionair Convair 580 VH-PAL. This Convair had been on the NZ register as ZK-PAL until 18-August-08 when it moved to the Australian register. Pionair Austalia now have 5 convairs in their fleet, with VH-PAL, PDL, PDV, PDW & PDX

More diversions and a Convair

Today it was Christchurch's turn to spend the early part of the day closed, due to fog. The following diversions and repositioning flights were noted around the country, as a result.

• NZ6842 an A320 repositioning CHC-WLG to operate an afternoon International departure
• NZ6846 another A320 repositioning from CHC to ZQN to operate later in the afternoon to Melbourne
• NZ6832 a 733 operating from WLG-AKL
• NZ2912 a 1900D arriving into Woodbourne from Hokitika
• NZ6734 another 733 operating from CHC-AKL

Also noted today were:

• Airwork Fairchild Metroliner III ZK-POE operating WLG-DUD
• RNZAF Airtrainer NZ1989 arriving into Woodbourne from Ohakea as Trainer Eight Nine
• And arriving into Woodbourne at 1130 was Air Freight New Zealand Convair 580 ZK-KFL from AKL as AFN699

Diversion Central

Low cloud in Nelson caused a slew of diversions into Woodbourne.

• The first was last nights Q300 operating NZ8369 from AKL. It departed this morning to Wellington as NZ8952

• The first diversion this morning was an Eagle Air 1900D operating HLZ-NSN{BHE} as NZ2181. It continued later on to PMR as NZ2928

• The second arrival of the morning was a Q300 operating CHC-NSN{BHE} as NZ8250 it returned to CHC as NZ8965

• Next in was another Q300 operating AKL-NSN{BHE} as NZ8373 it then returned to Auckland as NZ8966

• The last arrival of the morning was also a Q300 from AKL operating as NZ8375 before returning to AKL as NZ8972

It wasn't only Nelson effected by weather with a couple of Qantas diversions noted nationally.

Yesterday B737-376 ZK-JNC operating QF2782 CHC-ROT diverted to AKL before positioning back to CHC as QF6171.
Today B737-476 ZK-JTQ operating QF2791 AKL-ZQN diverted to IVC and then repositioned back to AKL as QF6172.

NZ8369

Air Nelson flight NZ8369 AKL-NSN diverted into Woodbourne arriving about 2115.

N2243W

A brief ray of brightness in an otherwise dull, grey, wet, wintery, horrible day here in Blenheim, was the arrival around 1130am of C510 Citation Mustang N2243W


Also on the ground was Nelson based Flight Corporation Limited Piper PA-34-200T ZK-TSD operating a medical flight. It departed shortly before midday to Nelson as FCP06

05-Sept-08

This mornings Air Nelson Q300 service AKL-BHE-AKL NZ8019/018 was cancelled.
Also noted this morning was Vincent Aviation Dash-8-102 ZK-VAC which operated WLG-BHE-WLG as NZ8963/964. Possibly with displaced passengers from the cancelled service that were re-routed through WLG.

A few long flights

A few long flights were noted this afternoon

• air2there.com Piper PA-31 ZK-WHW arrived into Woodbourne around 1630 after having flown from Invercargill.
• air2there.com Piper PA-31-350 ZK-MYS was alson noted flying from Invercargill this time back to Wellington
• also making a long flight from Invercargill was Lifeflight Trust/Airwork air ambulance Metroliner III ZK-NSS, this was noted operating back to base in Auckland
  
• noted making a long over water flight was Vincent Aviation Beech 1900C ZK-VAE flying internationally from Auckland to Norfolk Island
• also noted a long way from home in the Norfolk Island area was Cessna 206H VH-UTQ of UTS Geophysics from Belmont in Western Australia

On a shorter flight but also noteable was an A320 operating in the CHC area as NZ6313 CHC-CHC. This was a test flight of the first A320 to have the new space+ and IFE fitted ZK-OJN, which was supposed to have been completed in August.

03-Sept-08

A few movements noticed during the early afternoon

• Airwork (NZ) Ltd Metroliner III ZK-POB operating CHC-AKL
• Air National Corporate IAI 1124A Westwind ZK-RML operating AKL-CHC
• Airwork/Lifeflight Trust Metroliner III ZK-LFT operating WLG-HLZ

Also noted was Qantas/Jetconnect Boeing 737-376 ZK-JNB which was on the scheduled QF2791 AKL-ZQN. This flight diverted to Invercargill with the return leg (QF2792 ZQN-AKL) cancelled. JNB then operated IVC-AKL as QF6172.

ZK-CPT lives agaian

As mentioned in previous blogs the only remaining Safe Air Bristol B170 Freighter in Marlborough ZK-CPT (seen above) has been given a new lease of life. For several months the spearhead of the project, Al Marshall has been fighting with a very reluctant and seized starboard engine. Over the weekend he finally got that problem fixed and the engine is now running smoothly. This enabled both engines to be run together on Sunday evening. CPT is now the only running Bristol Freighter in the world.

More details on this remarkable project can be found on the following forum

CPT is planned to display taxiiing under her own power at Classic Fighters Airshow at Omaka at Easter 2009. futher plans for her according to Al are

Friends of the Bristol plan on public running events every two months until Easter. There are a few of us that are also keen for a night run that should show off the effect of 28 short straight exhausts. The cowls for a good metre or so behind the exhausts are steel so I imagine the flames should be quite impressive. There is a certain rpm that the Hercules have a very distinctive note that is quite unexpected from a twin row radial. It is almost a brrrrp, brrrrp, brrrrp type sound that that almost sounds comical when they are both doing it together. I will try and quantify the cost of a ground run so that they might happen on demand from interested groups. The AHC has the odd tourbus load go through the museum and if enough interest is shown by those visitors, they can have a fully 'interactive' visit to Omaka.