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.