Classic Italian

I'm sorting some photos out from my camera... this was a desperation photo of Douglas DC-3 I-LEON at Turin Airport in Italy on 21 July 2024...

Magnificence

A massive thanks to Terry Hodges who captured these magnificent photos of the Airscapade Affairs' Douglas DC-3 ZK-JGB at Nelson on 22 November 2024. 

 

Yet another freighter...

A couple of shots of Airwork's Boeing 737-400 ZK-JTQ being towed to the hangar at Auckland on 19 November 2024... This jet is no stranger to Auckland having previously being operated by Qantas' Jetconnect subsidiary on passenger services https://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.com/2024/11/qantas-and-its-jetconnect-subsidiary.html

 

Jetstreaming into Tauranga

Thanks to Scott Lockhart who sent in this photo of Originar's British Aerospace Jetstream 31 ZK-JSH that he captured at Tauranga on 20 November 2024.

Scott writes,  I saw an Originair BAE Jetstream 31 at Tauranga Airport, until now I've never seen a BAE Jetstream 31 up close before. I'm a big fan of aviation.

The J31 did a couple of Palmerston North-Tauranga returns yesterday. Interesting to see that it also went into Westport on Wednesday... a glimpse of things to come.

Northerner Down South

I received a number of emails on Monday alerting me to the fact that Island Aviation's BN Islander ZK-SFK had flown Ardmore-Whanganui-Timaru-Invercagill.

Yesterday the Islander did a local flight from Invercargill.

This afternoon it operated Invercargill to Oban (Stewart Island) as RKU5. Stewart Island Flights use the callsign Rakiura, the Māori name for Stewart Island.

If anyone get some pics of SFK down south I'd much appreciate it... Steve, westland831@gmail.com

Night freighter

Getting ready for night freight operations at Auckland on 8 November was Texel Air's Boeing 737-800 ZK-TXE... a desperation shot with poor light 

 

Fishy Business

It was one of those days at Wellington that I didn't expect to photograph anything in the brief time I was there and then came two freighters carrying kai moana...

Air Chathams Saab 340A ZK-CIW arriving from the Chatham Islands at Wellington on 14 November 2024

Merlin Labs'  Cessna 208B Cargomaster ZK-MLO arriving from Kaikoura at Wellington on 14 November 2024

 

Further Airwork Shrinkage

 

Yet another Airwork Boeing 737 has been withdrawn from the register.

Boeing 737-36E (c/n 25264) ZK-FXJ first flew at the Boeing plant in Seattle on 5 January 1992. It was placed on the Spanish register as EC-FLG on 15 April 1992 flying for VivaAir and Air Europa. On 2 March 2000 it was placed on the American register as N316FL sseeing service with Denver-based Frontier Airlines. In September 2004 it was converted to freighter configuration and found a new home in Iceland as TF-BBF being registered and leased to Bluebird Nordic Cargo (later rebranded as Bluebird Cargo) on 12 November 2004. It was withdrawn from use on 30 June 2019 and placed in storage at Bacau, Romania.

On 23 August 2019 it arrived at Auckland on completion of the ferry flight and was registered to Airwork Flight Operations Limited on 28 August 2019. It entered service on 25 September 2019 flying Auckland to Christchurch as "Airpak 71" and the return flight APK74.

The Boeing saw service until 21 May 2024 with it final four revenue sectors being operated that day as follows: Sydney-Brisbane (TXF41), Brisbane-Cairns (TFX52), Cairns-Darwin (TFX53) and Darwin-Brisbane (TFX51). On 22 July 2024 it positioned from Brisbane to Auckland and on to Hamilton (AWK995).

ZK-FXJ's registration was cancelled as withdrawn on 13 November 2024

Airwork's Boeing 737-300 ZK-FXJ was at Auckland on 6 June 2020

Sunair Returning to Whakatāne

 

The number of airlines operating regular services from Whakatāne Airport will double in January, when Sunair Aviation debuts its new weekday service to three regions. Dubbed “the big little airline”, Sunair flies across the regional North Island and expects to offer direct flights from Whakatāne to Gisborne, Napier and Hamilton from January 13. Sunair owner Dan Power said the company was working to expand on air travel services provided between regions in the North Island, and the plan had always been to include Whakatāne... The schedule includes flights departing Whakatāne for Hamilton in the morning and Gisborne and Napier in the afternoon. Flights will arrive in Whakatāne in the morning from Gisborne and Napier, and in the afternoon from Hamilton. The Sunair fleet is comprised of six-seater twin engine Piper Aztecs and four-seater Cessna 172 aircraft. Flights range in price from $280 to $390, depending on destination. 

The full article may be found here :

 https://easternbayapp.co.nz/news/articles/6732ce16ffa0a200e4a9e4f2 

Air Chathams' Airliners

Two Air Chathams' airliners were in action at Auckland on 4 November 2024

ATR 72-500 ZK-MCU

Saab 340A ZK-CIY

Busy Day...

 Air Chathams' ATR 72-500 ZK-MCO has had a busy day today... check it out on Flightradar24

Thanks to Donald who caught it at Tauranga on 11 November 2024

A superb spotting day at Kerikeri

A late need for a meeting meant a flying trip to Kerikeri on 8 November 2024... and even better it was an airport meeting. So there was a lot of time to plane spot before and after the meeting and in between my Barrier Air flights while doing other work as well but all in all making it my best ever day of plane spotting at Kerikeri

Northland Coastguard's Cessna 182 ZK-CGD

Bay of Islands Aero Club Aeroprakt A-32 Vixxen ZK-CHE

The worst photo of the day, Inflite's Bell 427 ZK-IRP is very hard to photograph given its black scheme and bright sky behind

Salt Air's Robinson R44 ZK-IWT made a quick visit

Tandem Skydiving's Cessna 208B Grand Caravan ZK-JMP did a jump flight

Salt Air's Gippsland GA-8 Airvan ZK-MAB left for Cape Reinga just after I arrived and then arrived back just before I departed

I was delighted to get Merlin Labs' Cessna 206 ZK-MLP at last

Air New Zealand had a couple of Bombardier Q300 flights in and out during the afternoon operated by ZK-NEA...

(Given the Q300s recent reputation of being out of the air a lot lately...)

...and ZK-NEK

Another good score was Beech 58 Baron ZK-OSL

Locally based Tecnam P2008 ZK-RJN

And operating both my Barrier Air flights was Cessna 208B Grand Caravan ZK-SDD