Two shots of ATR 72-500 ZK-MCO...
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| ...at Auckland on 10 August 2015 |
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| ...and at Nelson today, 14 January 2019 |
This is no longer the best kept secret in New Zealand... Thanks Warwick, Peter and Hugh for your pics of MCO.
Apparently MCO is going to be flying Tauck Tours around New Zealand. Meanwhile flying into Wellington today was Alliance Airlines' Fokker F70 VH-NKU for Tauck Tours work over, presumably for the last time.
Note the lack of HF aerials on MCO - so it is not going to be flying to any islands other that the North or South in the immediate future. Interestingly compare the photos of the three Saabs - https://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.com/2019/01/ciy-in-service.html - I wonder what that means!
Stay tune for this unfolding story...
Excellent news for Air Chathams!
ReplyDeleteAs for no HF aerials... I suppose there could be satellite comms instead? probably not, but just a thought.
Not hard to string up a shopping line. Probably a factory SB to do this. Carry a bit more than convair with 30% more fuel, but is slower and more expensive to maintain.
ReplyDeleteMVO has HF but doesn't have the aerials.
ReplyDeleteThis is MCO and does not have HF.
DeleteIs MVO the only ATR with HF?
DeleteThe point is you don't have to have the wires for HF
DeleteCan a Saab 340 fly an economic load to Norfolk Island and back from Auckland?
ReplyDeleteThe pic raises some interesting questions. Looks like the tail is still black - there are lighter patches near the front that are probably minor damage from the removal of the NZ Trademark vinyl decal - the patches are the right shape.
ReplyDeleteThe rear fuselage has been repainted - but then the vinyl decal covered a large portion of that area so maybe the damage to the underlying paint was too great so it was necessary.
But why was the tail not repainted green aka Saabs or white aka the rest of the fleet? Air Chats have recently put a lot of effort into their green coloured branding of the fleet. The white vinyl Air Chats logo would have been extra effort and cost too.
Or perhaps this is a short term lease from Air NZ?
BTW the various flight trackers show MCO's last tracked flight using its Air NZ identity as PMR-CHC on 29 Oct 18 so it had been out of service for some time.
The tail is 100% green
DeleteThe tail is green. The declining light in this photo makes it look darker than it is. Green 100%
ReplyDeleteI would have thought a -500 would have been used instead of a -600.
ReplyDeleteIt is a -500 or to me more correct a -212A. All the -500s in the Air NZ fleet were registered -MCn. The -600s are -MVn
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