It’s quite the impressive aircraft up close!

You can see more photos from the visit, plus a few of other aircraft (including one of the black A320s) on Flickr.

A little unusual is Mount Cook Airline ATR-72, ZK-MCP, has a completely white rudder where normally it would contain a continuation of the koru and the blue/green colours.

I’ve been catching some nice angles on Jetstar Airbus A320s lately, such as this early morning sunlit shot of VH-VGV departing RWY34.

By a stroke of luck I also caught the other black Air New Zealand A320, ZK-OJR (having only caught ZK-OAB recently).

And finally, a regular visitor but in new clothes, formerly Polynesian Blue, now Virgin Samoa Boeing 737-800, ZK-PBF.

Check out the rest of my recent photos on Flickr.

Most might consider plane spotting to be a pastime conducted at airports, though that need not be the case. As I write this, I note the wind has turned to the south and so most aircraft on the RWY16 ILS approach to NZWN pass almost directly over my house. I’ll often take a glance out a window or door on the off chance that something interesting is going over. Certainly I am attuned to most of the regular aircraft’s sounds so will definitely look if I hear something unusual.

But that’s not the point of this post. I’ve been working from home today (hoping for a delivery which never arrived) and for some of the time I had the FlightRadar24 application running on my personal computer so I could glance across every now and then and see what was in the air. Initially I was looking just at New Zealand skies, but after a while I zoomed out to include the east coast of Australia.

For the most part, I see Qantas (QFA), Air New Zealand (ANZ), and JetStar (JST) aircraft traversing New Zealand and the Tasman sea. Christchurch attracts (for now, at least) Air Asia X (XAX) and Auckland has quite the variety of airlines including Lan Chile (LAN), China Southern Airlines (CSA), Singapore Airlines (SIA), Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and more. But they’re all airlines (and thus airliners). I can spot, most evenings, Airwork‘s 737 doing the postal run from Auckland to Christchurch under the PST code. And that seemed to be the extent of it.

Until recently. I first saw this aircraft about a week ago and have seen it several times since, including today.

This is not my photo and I don’t believe I’ve ever actually seen this Robinson R44. Click the photo to go to the photographer’s page on Flickr.

Where I did see ZK-INC was on my FlightRadar24 app. Yes, this may be the only R44 in New Zealand (heck, even the only helicopter) which sports ADS-B equipment, thus making it visible on FlightRadar24.

Each time I have seen this craft it has been in the vicinity of Auckland’s North Shore, as shown here.

Looking over to Australia this afternoon I was rewarded with two more types of non-airline craft.

Yes, I realise the aircraft symbology isn’t right for these aircraft. Not much I can do about that. This Royal Flying Doctor Service Beech Super King Air was heading south over Maryborough towards Brisbane. I spotted a couple of other similar aircraft in other areas too.

Keeping with the same family of aircraft, we switch to another “airline”…

Yup! The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) were up and around today. This Super King Air, call sign “Dingo 07″, heading towards Townsville. The track feature of FlightRadar24 showed me he had been up around the Port Douglas area.

While flight “Dingo 48″ had been from Sydney to Melbourne and was commencing the return leg.

But the next aircraft was perhaps the most interesting. An RAAF aircraft based on an airliner…

Airbus KC-30A Multi-role Tanker, Transport (MRTT) serial A39-004 was flying under the call sign “Dragon 08″.

Again, this photo is not mine. Click on the image to visit the source.

And just what sort of track would you expect to see for a tanker?

Looks like quite a bit of loitering and orbiting went on!!

So that was my entertainment/distraction this afternoon and I have to say it was a lot of fun plane spotting from my study while I was working. Honestly, I was.

All of the map shots were taken as screen captures on my iPad using FlightRadar24, then scaled to 2/3rds size and cropped to the area of interest.

Yes, I finally managed to catch one of Air New Zealand’s black-painted aircraft with my camera. I see them all the time over my house and over Wellington harbour, but I just never managed to catch them at the airport until now.

The fact I caught ZK-OAB was due in part to the excellent FlightRadar24 app on my iPhone. When I first arrived at the airport I noted it had just departed Auckland for Wellington so I was able to go and get my shopping done and then pick it up ‘on radar’ abeam Palmerston North when I returned.

While at the airport I also caught some nice angles on Jetstar A320 VH-VGT.

You can check out the rest of the photos on Flickr.

I’ve uploaded 9 photos from the visit, a taster of which is included here.

Piper PA-31 Navajo, ZK-MJF here illustrates that not all gear retraction goes the same way, as the nose gear is fully stowed by the time the main gear begins.

Shooting between fence palings above the pedestrian subway entrance affords a more frontal view of aircraft departing on RWY34. Here are two such studies, featuring Qantas 737-800 ZK-ZQC and Jetstar A320, VH-VQE.

This interesting visitor is the first biz jet I’ve seen parked outside the brand new Execujet hangar. It’s IAI Gulfstream G200 Galaxy, N533GA seems to be a private aircraft and has been seen around New Zealand before.

And finally, Wellington Aero Club stalwart, Cessna 172 ZK-FLT gleams in the sun with it’s ‘snow job’ paint scheme.

Don’t forget to check out all 9 photos on Flickr.

Of course this means it is time for a roundup of favourites from my aviation photos again. 2011 didn’t produce many photos, but there was the Classic Fighters show down in Omaka over Easter and, predictably, a fair number of the dozen photos I selected came from that.

2012 also brings with it a new site design. I spent some time with Rodney earlier this month and we talked about lots of things aviation related including photography. During that discussion I decided it was probably time to spruce up the site a bit. The previous design owed a lot to the then default WordPress theme and looked a little, well, basic.

The new look, somewhat ironically, is also based on the default WordPress theme, but in the years between starting this blog and now, the default theme has improved a LOT! I’ve done a small amount of tweaking (11 CSS rules for those in the know) to get things looking just right for me, but for the most part it’s out of the box. I’ve re-imagined the header photos for the new, large display space they now occupy. The new theme makes it a doddle to add new ones, too, so expect more to appear soon.

One of the key differences to the design is the increased width which allows me to include larger versions of my photos. I’ve updated the previous post with the 42% larger photos and you’ll also see some below.

So, back to the favourites for 2011. Rather than include all 12 photos in the blog post, I’ll whet your appetite with a few examples and you can head on over to the Flickr set to get a look at the rest.

This photo is unusual in that I was not at an airport when I took it. I was at home! Normally, a southerly wind means standard 10 mile ILS approaches are flown almost directly over our house. However some days there are either visual or shorter ILS approaches which involve tracks either side of the house. One fine January day, RNZAF Boeing 757, NZ7571 gave me this opportunity.

One of the more interesting events in Wellington in 2011 was the arrival – for show – of Air New Zealand‘s first Boeing 777-300ER. That’s quite a large aircraft for Wellington’s short runway! It should be noted that ZK-OKM was neither the first nor the last 777 to visit Wellington but it is the biggest.

Finally for this post, no air show is complete without a low, fast pass by something with one seat, a big engine and an awesome sound. It’s hard to beat The Old Stick And Rudder Company‘s FG-1D Corsair for this, and it did not disappoint at Classic Fighters 2011.

That’s all for the post. Be sure to check out the set on Flickr for the full 12 shots I have selected as my favourites of 2011.

Qantas (JetConnect) Boeing 737-800 ZK-ZQB has everything committed to stopping. Slats, flaps, spoilers, reverse thrust and, I would assume, brakes. Also visible in this shot is one of the relatively new runway/taxiway markers.

Here are a couple of studies of Air New Zealand Link (Mount Cook Airline) ATR-72 ZK-MCF. This type is currently the least numerous in Air New Zealand’s extended fleet (including the Link-branded airlines) with a fleet of 11. However, Air New Zealand has confirmed a new order for 7 more aircraft which will bring the fleet strength level with the Beechcraft 1900D fleet operated by Eagle Airways.

Another Qantas (JetConnect) Boeing 737-800 ZK-ZQC hangs it all out at the end of a flight from Melbourne. I was watching this flight, amongst others, on my iPhone using the FlightRadar24 app and it appeared to execute an orbit near the Titahi Bay beacon. It also disappeared off the map for a little, so it may just have been bad data through the system. Intriguing, nonetheless.

ZK-ZQB and ZK-ZQC present a matched pair at the International Terminal. Check out all the fins, winglets and blade aerials!

Adding to the list of heavy metal arriving, Air New Zealand Airbus A320 ZK-OJB does the stopping thing that’s always pretty intense on Wellington’s short runway.

And finally, Pacific Jets’ Cessna Citation 510 Mustang ZK-PGA makes a sprightly leap off runway 16 into the stiff southerly.

Yeah, it’s been that long. Over four months since I last posted! I blame generally rubbish weather and generally busy me. Busy with what, I’m not sure. I suppose for one month of those four my boss was away and muggins here took the all the flak. Anyway!

Herewith a selection of photos I’ve published on Flickr since last we spoke.

Being Canadian and not a Gulfstream, this Cessna Citation X, C-FNRG, is one of the rarer and therefore more interesting biz jets to visit recently – snapped at Wellington on October 2nd.

With the troubles of Air National, BAe 146 ZK-ECO is now operated by Vincent Aviation, though it still carries the former carrier’s logo.

While poking around the airport today for the first time in ages, I was invited airside by Rodney and a colleague. I took the opportunity to get some shots neither over nor through any fences including Wellington Aero Club‘s Nanchang CJ-6, ZK-MAO…

…Cirrus SR22, ZK-YUG…

…and visiting USAF C-37A (Gulfstream V) 97-0401.

You can check out all the new photos since the last post on Flickr.

Two of the most interesting aircraft included are aero-medical aircraft.

ZK-PLK is a Beechcraft B200C King Air operated by Skyline Aviation.

ZK-KBF is a Cessna 421B operated by the New Zealand Flying Doctor Service (though it appears to be owned by Garden City Helicopters).

And finally, here’s a shot of a couple of fairly ordinary aircraft for Wellington but the situation and timing demanded a caption.

OK, so today you’ll be learning about crosswind components. Do you know how a crosswind affects the aircraft?

You can find the rest of the new additions on Flickr.

Here are 5 types just as a taster.

The beautiful Focke Wulf 190 was unfortunately grounded due to some damage sustained on the Friday. At least it was there!

Two wonderful Spitfires took to the air. It is many years since I last saw a Spitfire in the sky.

The hard working Bristol Freighter. Once described as 40,000 rivets flying in close formation. This was supposed to do a taxi around the airfield but they could not get it started until after we left.

I was quite surprised to hear over the PA that the pilot of this brand new Albatros was none other than Kermit Weeks!

One of the best looking planes in the sky on the day had to be this new P-40C Tomahawk.

And finally, here’s my picture of the other big drawcard of the show. Or should that be the no-show. Supposedly there was a wet runway at Woodbourne. Pah! It’s not on active service any more! (The Hercules crew used a similar excuse.)

I was going to write more about the disappointing aspects of the show, but have decided I can’t be bothered. In short, I know at least two people who will not return in 2013. Maybe three. In the meantime, check out the rest of the photos in the set.