More Crew training

Dropping in to Tauranga on Monday on a wet and dull day was Fairchild SA-227 Metro ZK-POF operated by Airwork Flight Operations .It carried out a couple of miss approaches before landing and parking up for only 15 minutes before departing .

Recent visitors into Tauranga in May.

Here is a selection of visitors into Tauranga with some in for maintenance and pleasure during May.

ZK-EAK B.1900 landing from a scheduled service from Auckland.

ZK-EJO C.172 departs back to Te Awamutu 

ZK-EDF ThorpT-18 is based at Whenuapai.

ZK-JKL departs back to its base at Taihape.

Arriving from Whakatane was ZK-HDV of Frontier Helicopters

Departing back to Silverdale Airstrip was Paul Hoppers ZK-EZY Cli-mate 100

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ZK-STO Slepcev Storch

Departing Tauranga on the 20th May this week after maintenance acceptance from Solo Wings was this very strike looking Slepcev Storch U/L ZK-STO owned by Mr AP Robson and is to be based at the nearby airfield of Matamata in the Waikato district .It is painted in WWII North African campaign in the Axis Forces colour scheme of the Luftwaffe Afrika Corp.

Courtesy of Peter Mole , he captured the aircraft departing Tauranga on delivery to Matamata and thanks to the pilot for a dramatic steep-take-off.

ZK-STO Slepcev Storch U/L  c/n 157

New Tecnams on NZ Register

Noted outside Solo Wings at Tauranga on the 15th were 2 newly registered Tecnams .ZK-DDE and ZK-RGA.

ZK-RGA is a Tecnam P92 Echo Classic (c/n 1485 ) recently imported into NZ back in April 2014 was was registered to the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club based in Rangiora down in South Island.

Departing Tauranga on the 15th May  for delivery to  new owners in Rangiora.

The second new registered Tecnam from Solo Wings was ZK-DDE pictured out of their hangar at Tauranga awaiting final acceptance to future owner Mr W.L Hopcroft from Balfour.

DDE is a Tecnam P92 Eaglet U/L and arrived at Solo Wings in April .

ZK-DDE  c/n 1479

Metroliner ZK-CIC Visits Tauranga

A pleasant surprise on the 14th may was the arrival and very brief  ,was Chathams Airlines SA.227 AC Metroliner ZK-CIC which apparently was carrying out crew training and landed here via Hamilton.Luckily it just escaped the wet front hitting Tauranga as can be see on the picture in the background.

Departing Tauranga just before the heavens open up

Arriving in pleasant BOP weather

Beech B200 ZK-MAN

On the 13th Beech B200 Super King Air landed at Tauranga for around an hour before departed for Christchuch .Owned by Tasman helicopters Above and Beyond Ltd from Nelson it first arrived in New Zealand back in September 2007 as VH-IMP and up to now it had 2 previous owners before finishing up at Nelson.

RNZAF Hercules pops into Tauranga

RNZAF Hercules C.130H NZ7001 carried out 4 touch and go,s into Tauranga today as pilot training which seems to be a pattern for the RNZAF as per the visit of the Orion last week.

RNZAF C.130H NZ7001  c/n 4052

NZ4204 night circuits into Tauranga

RNZAF PC-3 Orion NZ4204 was carrying out night time circuit training approaches into Tauranga this evening doing at least 6 approaches before departing  back to Whenuapai.

Library picture of NZ4204 PC-3 Orion

VH-UCL AW119.

Noted at Tauranga at Aero Pacific Coatings on the 6th May was this lovely Augusta AW119 VH-UCL being stripped down ready for a full strip and re-paint.Owned by AVIATION UTILITIES PTY LTD ,it was first registered in September 2012 to Silver Rook Company based in the IOM before departing to Camden Australia and used mainly for fire fighting duties and agricultural work before being shipped finally to New Zealand and finally end up here at Tauranga.

Augusta AW119 MkII VH-UCL c/n 14710

An Era comes to an end in KSA

After 15 years living and working in Riyadh ,Saudi Arabia for BAe Systems i finally departed Riyadh (OERK) on board Emirates flight EK818 Boeing 777 A6-EMQ on Wednesday 30th April bound for a 10 hour stay over in Dubai (DXB) before jumping on Emirates flight EK406 on A.380 A6-EDA their oldest in the fleet and flying to Melbourne for possibly to be only for 2 hours!!!!
However owing to a fuel devise problem we departed 2 hours later and headed off to Auckland (AKL) on my final flight destination landing on the 2nd May and to start my new life and career in New Zealand. So i would like to thank everyone who took time to look at my posts from Saudi Arabia and I thank you for your interest in a country where taking pictures is hard at the best of times but i wanted to portray that aviation in Saudi is increasing and if any one does visit Saudi Arabia,i fully recommend visiting Jeddah and Riyadh Airports as both are increasing in aircraft traffic .

So now all my blog posts will be focused on Tauranga and the surrounding areas of the Bay of Plenty airfields in the East side of North Island so please take a look at what New Zealand can pleasantly offer in the aviation world.,especially in war-bird restoration.

My final flight from Dubai to Auckland on board Emirates Airbus A.380-800 A6-EDA

PC-9 and Mushak at KFAA

The main training aircraft operated by RSAF are the basic Mushak Trainer from Pakistan and the PC-9 built by Pilatus in Switzerland..Both aircraft are being replaced within  2 years in total by the order of 55 PC-21 to replace the PC-9 and 25 Cirrus SR22T which have already been delivered and will eventually phase out all the Pakistan AF Mushak,s of which 20 are in operation.
To determin the new scheme for the PC-21,yours truly was tasked to re-paint 2 PC-9,s into first a overall deep Blue scheme with various stripes in 3 colours and a Light Green in the same scheme.After various flight sorties and inspections by senior RSAF Officers ,the blue was excepted as the future colour scheme for the new PC-21.The first 3 are arriving in early June followed by 3 every month over a 2 year period.

PC-9 918 was painted in a Light Green experimental scheme to decide which will be selected for the future PC-21 fleet

PC-9 911 painted in a deep blue scheme and was the eventual winner

The current colour scheme for the RSAF PC-9 fleet .Colbolt Blue,Signal red and White.

The Pakistani built Mushak painted the same as the PC-9 but are maintained by personnel of the Pakistan Air Force.

Rare Iranian jet visits Riyadh

On the 20th April a very rare sight to land at Riyadh was Qesham Air Fokker 100 EP-FQG which i pictured approaching 15R.Considering the frosty relationship between both capitals as late.I don't believe it was a scheduled flight but with the slight laps of sanctions on aircraft parts,there have been more Iranian traffic over flying Riyadh airways to Jeddah.Maybe we might see more Iranian Airlines fly into Riyadh.I Hope so.

EP-FQG  Fokker F.100  c/n 11444

New RSAF Beech 350,S

Recently,Riyadh Air Base has been receiving brand new Beech 350,s over the past few months and are been operated in a VIP role as 50 Sqn based in Riyadh and as of the 19th Arpril,7 have been delivered in a semi-matt colour scheme as identical to the RSAF Typhoons at Taif.50 sqn are expecting another 3 more deliveries making it 10 overall.Here is the fleet details so far.

5001  c/n FL-863
5002  c/n FL-865
5003  c/n FL-866
5004  c/n FL-868
5005  c/n FL-869
5006  c/n FL-872
5007  c/n FL-873

More Indian AF Antonovs nightstop in Riyadh

The early evening of 15th April I managed to witness 2 more AN-32 ,s nigh-stop at Riyadh (OERK) and parking up on the private ramp at the Private Aviation area at Riyadh.I am not sure whether they are outbound from Kiev or en-route for a major overall.Time will tell.For some reason both were using the same callsign of "AZA0909".The 2 aircraft mentioned were K2693 and K2762.

VP-BED ACJ.319 visiting Riyadh

On the 12th April , Airbus ACJ319-115X  VP-BED flew into Riyadh KKIA from Lanseria in South Africa and stayed overnight before departing north towards Geneva with a delegate of Saudi Businessmen on board.I just managed to arrive just as it was approaching  runway 15L .The Airbus is owned by the South African Charter firm Planair.

ACJ319-115X VP-BED  c/n 3073

VP-BED flying over the top of my apartment at 5500 ft and climbing.

RSAF.s new Elementary Trainer SR-22T

As a replacement for Cessna  elementary flight training for the RSAF ,the first of 25 Cirrus SR-22T arrived back last June flying via Greenland,Iceland,Wick in Scotland,Eglesbach in Germany Turkey ,Jordan and finally landing at Riyadh air base  (OERY).All 25 were delivered over a 3 month period and all registered under 8 SQN from 801 to 825 respectively.These are a lead in to the awaited delivery of 55 PC-21 aircraft from June this year with roughly 3 a month arriving which will replace the old PC-9 which will finally be re-tired after 2016.

806 SR-22 with Spats

803 SR-22 without spats

Indian Antonovs night stop in Riyadh

Arriving yesterday 1st April in the early evening from Ukraine via Jeddah were 3 Antonov AN-32 ,s of the Indian air Force night stopping in Riyadh after receiving an upgrade and refurbishment at the Kiev factory under an upgrade signed over 5 years ago.
They all departed on the 2nd en-route to Doha and then on to Muscat.Are they doing a Middle East tour I wonder ?

The 3 aircraft mentioned were
K2675 with cal sign of 'GABLESEN" c/n 0110
K2736 with callsign of "AZA0909"     c/n 0802
K2757 with callsign of "IFC0714"      c/n  1202

All pictures were noted at the Kiev Aircraft repair yard.

AN-32 Indian Air Force K2757

AN-32 Indian air Force K-2736

Air Force 1 Arrives into Riyadh

The expected arrival of Air Force 1 Boeing 747 VC-25A 92-9000 into Riyadh on 28th March materialized along with Boeing 757 VC-32A  98-0001 brought  President Obama for a quick state visit to the kingdom overnight before departing the following morning with a massive security presence from the local Saudi Arm Forces.The Fleet also brought with them 2 Seahawks and 3 mini Chinook helicopters for transportation and air surveillance

The press aircraft noted was Delta,s Boeing 767  N712DH which was parked up next to the VIP terminal .

Parked outside the VIP terminal is B.747 VC-25A 92-9000 Air Force 1 c/n 23825.Thanks to a Colleague for the .picture  

B.757 VC-32A 98-0001 c/n 29025

USAF Arrival at Riyadh Air Base

With the expected arrival of President Obama to Riyadh on the 28th March,the predicted transportation begun arriving a few days in advance and these C-17 Globemasters were noted approaching to land at KFAA (OERY) Air base in Riyadh and the following were noted approaching 19R Runway.

05-5142  C-17A Globemaster II 452AMW/729AS  AFRC
05-5144  C-17A Globemaster II 452AMW/729AS  AFRC
01-0188  C-17A Globemaster II 105AW/137AS     NY ANG

01-0188  C-17A Globemaster II  c/n P88

05-5144 C-17A Globemaster II c/n P144

05-5142  C-17A Globemaster II  c/n P142

RSAF Museum Rare and Vintage Aircaft

Here displayed in the museum are the very rare and vintage aircraft from the Pre-WW2 Era up to the late 50,s.

Douglas AN-26 Invader  602

Indoor, starting with the very first biplane King AbdulAziz owned, It's the British made reconnaissance / bomber Airco DH 9

Westland Wapiti 2A the British light bomber and reconnaissance biplane was the beginning of air force in the sovereign of King AbdulAziz;

Caproni CA.100, started to train the first Saudi cadets under the sovereign of King AbdulAziz inside Saudi Arabia from 1935 till 1939