28 April 2018

Golden Bay Update



In the aftermath of ex-Cyclone Gita, Golden Bay Air had its busiest time ever as it ferried hundreds of tourists and locals to and from Nelson. It transported urgent items such as blood samples, medical supplies and test samples for Fonterra. Then, for more than four weeks, Golden Bay Air's fleet has sat on the tarmac due to recertification issues. While acknowledging the situation is less than ideal, CEO Richard Molloy says there are silver linings in the clouds. But first: why are Golden Bay Air planes not flying? The parked planes are due to Golden Bay Air missing the renewal of its five-yearly Air Operator Certificate, required by Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for all air operators in New Zealand. "The certificate looks at everything you do, your staffing, your procedures and your operation," Richard says. 'There are no safety concerns with our aircraft,' he says. "The aircraft are 100 per cent airworthy and maintained. I don't think you'll find more pampered light aircraft in the country. We have every last check completed, that's for sure." Richard and his staff were preparing the recertification in February when ex-Cyclone Gita closed the Takaka Hill. "We were giving our attention to the 100 people in the queue waiting to get out of Golden Bay,” he says, and they couldn't give the recertification their full attention. It is quite a process and the requirements have become more stringent than they have been in the past." Golden Bay Air met the initial deadline, he says, but CAA required more work in some aspects. "CAA specifies for an aircraft operator to have several senior person roles,” Richard says. “As part of the recertification, we have had to outsource some of those roles - not easy in a rural area-and have resubmitted to CAA for recertification. We thought it would not delay us by more than a couple of weeks, but it's been more than four weeks." As The GB Weekly went to print, Richard was expecting an update from CAA. The silver lining, he says, has been the people coming onboard Golden Bay Air in senior roles. "We have expanded the number of people involved. We'll be in a good position to move forward and possibly with what we offer people in the future." Meanwhile, sit back and relax, because Golden Bay Air is running its regular services by chartering other aircraft operators, such as Pelorus Air - a costly exercise but necessary to maintain goodwill. "We are doing our darnedest to get people where they need to be. We've got scheduled services to Wellington and the more people that book on those, the better for our purpose." Richard established Capital Air in Wellington in 2006 and moved here as Golden Bay Air in 2008. 


A wet day in Dunedin

It was a wet day in Dunedin on 27 April 2018 as I waited for my flight home... Highlight of my two hour wait was Milford Sound Flights' Cessna 208 Grand Caravan ZK-MSF which was doing engine checks
 

Mainland Air's Cessna 152s, ZK-FGC...
ZK-NSC...
and ZK-NSM were doing training
My ride back to Christchurch arrived, ATR 72-600 ZK-MVC
with the flight from Auckland arriving a few minutes later, Airbus 320 ZK-OXE
 

27 April 2018

Sunair Relaunches


Sunair is relaunching scheduled services on 28 May 2018 after its recent CAA grounding.

Flights offered are from Hamilton or Tauranga to Great Barrier Island or Whangarei, and from Great Barrier Island to Whitianga or Whangarei. The East Coast service is not being recommenced at this stage.

Sunair earlier this month resumed the doctors flights between Whangarei and Kaitaia.


26 April 2018

Six for Lunch

An ANZAC day drive to Raglan with visitors revealed six visitors on the strip...  a nice day for lunch at Raglan... I hope the flyers and their passengers enjoyed the day as much as my visitors

Down from Auckland was AESL Airtourer T6 ZK-CPG...
...and Cessna O-1G Bird Dog ZK-DOG
 

Robinson R44 Raven ZK-INP enjoying the Raglan sun.
Just Aircraft Highlander ZK-MCQ 
The Waikato Aero Club's Piper PA28-181 Archer ZK-UFS
And a couple of Russians... Yakovlev Yak-52s ZK-YNZ and ZK-ZAH
 

Two Super Air NZ Aerospace FU24 Fletchers were enjoying the day off... Piston powered ZK-CRY above and turbine powered ZK-JQB below 

17 April 2018

More Basler photos...

Try as I might I have not managed to get a decent photo of Basler BT-67 C-GGSU - these early morning against the light are the best I have managed to take at Port Moreseby on 16 April 2018. For more on the Basler conversion see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basler_BT-67


10 years ago I had better luck getting Kenn Borek Air's Basler BT-67 C-GJKB at Williams Field on 18 December 2008

and Kenn Borek Air's Basler BT-67 C-FMKB at Williams Field on 30 December 2008

15 April 2018

DC-3s at Port Moresby

Gate guardian at Port Moresby is Douglas DC-3 P2-ANQ. Both photos taken on 13 April 2018

A real desperation shot from my hotel room... Douglas (Basler) BT-67 Turbo-67 C-GGSU

14 April 2018

Air Albatross Repainted



Following on from my earlier post on Air Albatross (https://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2018/02/air-albatross-cook-strait-commuter.html) many thanks to Matthew for sending these photos of ZK-SWD being painted up in the spectacular Air Albatross blue colour scheme in September 1985. Matthew writes... 

I flew for Origin Pacific based in New Plymouth so I have an interest in smaller airlines. Anyway, I have a photo you might like to use of an Air Albatross Metro I was involved with painting down in Nelson, it was when vinyl lettering had just started to come out and we changed things around a bit!!








12 April 2018

Mount Hagen Departure

I was wrapped to get a second Pacific Aerospace 750XL while at Mount Hagen, Central Aviation's P2-BWF on 12 April 2018

Cessna 182 P2-FBC

Hevilift's DHC Twin Otter P2-KSB returns to Mount Hagen

Arriving at the Missionary Aviation Fellowship's terminal was Cessna Caravan P2-MAG

A couple of De Havilland Canada Dash 8, PNG Air's P2-MCL

...and OK Tedi Mining's P2-NAT

Australian registered Cessna Caravan VH-FLL

My ride back to Port Moresby, Air Niugini Fokker 70 P2-ANU

10 April 2018

Air Chathams International?





AIR CHATHAMS VISIT
Friday, March 23, 2018

Privately owned Air Chathams, established in 1984 is based on Chatham Island, New Zealand. They have specialised in transportation of freight, charters and passengers within New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific. A management team from Air Chathams plan to visit Norfolk Island 26-28 March and meet with relevant industry stakeholders. This is a due diligence exercise to decide if the airline could provide a service from Auckland to Norfolk Island. The team will be arriving on a Commander 690A – which is owned by the company. Air Chathams have a diverse fleet of aircraft available for group charter with the Convair 580 being the most suitable for Norfolk Island. The Convair 580 was designed when passenger comfort was a priority, with very generous seat pitch and leg room and large viewing windows. It is the fastest multi-engine turbo-prop aircraft in operation in NZ. This aircraft is extremely versatile with an excellent payload range, meaning you can carry more passengers/freight further and to more isolated destinations Air Chathams has three Convair 580’s, one with full freight and combination freight and passenger ability, and the other two are a 50 seat passenger configuration with large cargo holds for passenger luggage and freight. All aircraft have toilets on board, and a flight galley for preparing food and beverage service to meet customer requirements. We will keep the community informed of the outcome of the visit and are confident you will make them feel welcome during their brief stay.

Lotta Jackson
GENERAL MANAGER
23 March 2018

Source : http://www.norfolkonlinenews.com/ni-regional-council/air-chathams-visit

More from Mount Hagen

Hevilift P2-HCI at Mount Hagen on 6 April 2018

Hevilift DHC Twin Otters P2-KSB...

P2-KST...

and P2-KSY

A real plus - Pacific Aerospace 750XL P2-TNT... ex ZK-JNG.

09 April 2018

Saab Enters Service



Air Chathams Saab 340B ZK-CIZ entered service on Saturday the 7th of April 2018. Its first flights were on Air Chathams flight 3C 702 from Auckland to Whanganui and the return flight 3C 711.


Air Chathams moved from using the CV prefix to its flights to the IATA code 3C on the 24th of October 2017.

Golden Bay Glitch



A Takaka-based airline which links Golden Bay to Wellington is chartering services from rival airlines after it lost the ability to carry passengers. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the air operator certificate of Golden Bay Air had "lapsed". Initially, a spokeswoman said the regulator had undertaken an audit but would not give details. "We're working with them to have it re-issued." Shortly after a story on the situation was published, CAA clarified that its recent contact with Golden Bay Air included a special purpose audit, which can be initiated "as a result of information received". According to documents on the CAA website, this type of audit is undertaken "to establish the cause of poor safety performance, or to identify a particular problem within an organisation". The CAA would not discuss what issues prompted the audit. "We can't comment on details of the issues we're currently working through with the company." Initially based in Wellington and called Capital Air, the airline changed its name to Golden Bay Air and relocated to Takaka in 2009. It operates two single-engine and one-twin engine Piper aircraft, with services from Takaka to Wellington, Nelson and Karamea, as well as scenic and charter flights. Golden Bay Air director, Richard Molloy, said the air certificate lapsed on March 20. "In this case we haven't finished fulfilling the requirements of that recertification process," director Richard Molloy said. Where customers had made bookings, the airlines had chartered flights from other airlines, including Picton-based Pelorus Air. "We're not operating any flights ourselves. What we're doing is that people that we've got booked, we are chartering other operators to do our work for," Molloy said. "We're working our way through it with the CAA at the moment and hope to be operating ourselves again soon." He was not aware of anyone raising concerns around safety or maintenance. The process which led to the licence lapsing was "routine", Molloy said. "This is a five-yearly event that every operator goes through. It's a routine five-yearly recertification event."

More from Port Moresby

A desperation shot of Air Niugini De Havilland Canada DHC-8-311 Dash 8 P2-ANO at Port Moresby on 6 April 2018

Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 P2-PXE at Port Moresby on 6 April 2018

Air Niugini Boeing 767-300 P2-PXV at Port Moresby on 6 April 2018