I was sitting at the airport today listening to the scanner and hearing aircraft being sent to various reporting points including WETTA and Ohura. When I got home I set about finding out where these points are. The CAA web site provided the answer in purely numeric form, so I took it one step (in fact lots of steps) further and plotted them on Google Earth.

You can take a look for yourself by downloading the KML file and opening it in Google Earth. You can also import directly into “My Maps” on Google Maps, however the display on Google Maps does not automatically show the labels (the reporting point names) and there are a LOT of points.

I noted several interesting layouts of the points. There is a series of points on a 40nm radius circle around Christchurch International Airport. Another circle around Auckland International Airport sits at 200nm. Then there is the ‘Tasman wall’ – a near-vertical line of points in the Tasman sea, and the stepping stone line of points down to Antarctica. There are also many points out in the Pacific Ocean, up to 2390nm away.

Screen capture of data from Google Earth (click picture to download)

I’m an avid follower of Rodney’s Aviation Ramblings – a blog run by Wellington Aero Club member Rodney Maas. Rodney follows this blog too and as we inhabit the same stamping ground it was inevitable that we end up covering similar subjects and complementing each other’s knowledge through blog comments.

When Rodney recently requested recommendations for a new camera, I confess I sent him a small book on my Pentax gear and general lessons I have learned. I offered to meet up with him some time to let him have a play with my camera. Well, long story short, we managed to meet today at the Aero Club.

Rodney gave me a tour of the club rooms (some great viewing to be had from there!) and then took me across the apron to their hangar. Now, I have been through these places before but only when crammed full of people for one of the regular open days. To be allowed through on a quiet day like today was a nice privilege.

Of course I took the opportunity to take a few photos. Local Nanchang ZK-JNA was sitting in the rather dark hangar. My flash shots weren’t coming out very well so I held my breath and did a 1/3″ exposure. It actually over exposed because I still had +1.0ev for outside set on the camera! I’m amazed it’s sharp!

Then Rodney assisted a Capital Air pilot in getting Cessna 172 ZK-FLT out of the hangar, presumably in preparation for a flight.

So thanks Rodney for the hospitality on my short visit. There are a few other photos on the stream.

So please check out ZKNZ – shooting flying Kiwis!

Well, unreal actually.  Check out what has made top spot in the last 24 hours over at Airliners.net.

Dear, oh dear, oh dear!  Apparently the screeners see no reason to remove this shot, claiming it meets the (very) high standards of Airliners.net.

Apart from the first-glance-obvious issues, check out the reflection in the nose!  Left hand down a bit?

Qantas plane forced to turn back

A Qantas jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Adelaide airport last night after a door opened during a flight to Melbourne.

Wow!  This sounded very serious and this hot on the heels of the incident a few days ago where some of the aircraft skin had peeled off a Qantas 747.

So I read on:

The incident came just three days after a hole was blasted in the fuselage of a Qantas 747 during an international flight to Melbourne, forcing it to land in Manila.

The Melbourne-bound Boeing 737-800 departed Adelaide at 6.08pm yesterday and returned 37 minutes later, News Ltd reported today.

Passengers said a door had opened and caused “chaos” in the cabin.

Rocco Russo told the ABC he heard a rattling noise about 10 minutes after take-off.

He says the pilot told passengers there was a problem with a door closing above the plane’s wheel.

“He then continued to fly and said that he was going to contact the engineers and then a few minutes after that came back on and said the engineers had gotten back to him and the advice was to return to Adelaide,” he said.

Qantas sources said a door had not closed properly over a wheel bay and the aircraft turned back near Murray Bridge, south-east of Adelaide.

The jet remained in Adelaide while passengers were transferred to another flight.

The incident follows the naming of Jetstar boss Alan Joyce yesterday as the new chief executive of parent company Qantas.

Mr Joyce takes over from Geoff Dixon on November 28.

Huh?  Or rather, WTF?  (Excuse my language but this really gets me going!)

As I read it, an undercarriage door failed to close fully so they turned around and went back to Adelaide.  How exactly did this cause “chaos in the cabin”?  Was the drinks service cut short?  Did someone spill their peanuts?

C’mon journos!  This is sensationalist and downright sloppy reporting.

I know some pilots read this blog – can you see anything there that could indicate a passenger danger or discomfort any more than a vibration?  Granted it is a pretty serious maintenance issue, but really!

I came across Aaron‘s comment regarding ZK-POF never having been in Origin Pacific service.  Not one to believe someone had gone to the hard work of painting the aircraft in a relatively complex scheme, especially given others in the Airwork fleet are plain white, I did some searching.

First, Aaron is correct in terms of ownership of ‘POF.  The CAA web site shows ‘POF coming onto the register in 1999 with Airpost and then changing to Airwork in 1999 (and, oddly, again in 2003).

However, nothing is as simple as it appears.  As evidenced on Airliners.net, ‘POF did indeed serve with Origin Pacific – at the very least on January 3rd, 2000.  Looking a bit futher, Wikipedia suggests that Origin Pacific “subleased from other carriers to operate adhoc Origin Charters and RPT operations” including a Metroliner.  (RPT = Regular Passenger Transport.)

Aaron, it’s not that I doubted you – just that I have seen Airwork’s propensity for the downright boring when it comes to colouring their aircraft.  It just seemed out of character for them to have this – although it is still significantly different in that the underbelly of the aircraft, at least, must have been repainted anyway.