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Old Apr 7, 2014, 1:20 am
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OT Royal Visit

I saw pictures of the Royals arriving in Wellington. I was not aware that the NZ Air Force had VIP 757s... Or were they specially outfitted from other missions.

Hope the 757 did not pick them up in London ;-)
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Old Apr 7, 2014, 2:03 am
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Originally Posted by Braniff
I saw pictures of the Royals arriving in Wellington. I was not aware that the NZ Air Force had VIP 757s... Or were they specially outfitted from other missions.

Hope the 757 did not pick them up in London ;-)
The RNZAF have two 757's.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge & Prince George arrived in SYD from LHR on a scheduled QF flight then flew to WLG on the RNZAF 757.
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Old Apr 7, 2014, 2:49 am
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John Key uses them too.
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Old Apr 7, 2014, 3:39 am
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Thanks to Thai Kiwi many FTers enjoyed an inspection of one of the two RNZAF 757 during a Kiwi Do.
The 757 have a conversion with a forward portside cargo door to allow cargo pallets on the main deck. The seats are on pallets that can be configured for a mix of passenger/cargo, all cargo, all passenger. Also we sat in a configuration that had US style First Class seats, 2x2, with Economy seats, 3x3, further back. There are galleys, with cabin crew seats as well. IIRC the overhead bins and passenger service units (PSU) are fixed.
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Old Apr 7, 2014, 3:41 am
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Flew on the old RNZAF 727's once (before they were replaced by the 757's).

All the seats were facing rear-wards. Apparently this is safer in case of a crash(?).
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Old Apr 7, 2014, 9:12 pm
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Originally Posted by DanielW
John Key uses them too.
yesterday JK nearly missed his moment with the royals. He was on NZ415 and we missed the first go at landing due to flog/low cloud in WLG, but got through on the second. If we missed that we were to head back to AKL.
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Old Apr 7, 2014, 10:58 pm
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Originally Posted by jeffrocowboy
yesterday JK nearly missed his moment with the royals. He was on NZ415 and we missed the first go at landing due to flog/low cloud in WLG, but got through on the second. If we missed that we were to head back to AKL.
I was on 415 as well yesterday (sitting right behind Judith Collins). The first attempt to land was a bit of a fun. Actually, my colleague was sitting directly in front of JK and heard them tell him that they couldn't land in PMR because it was a 322 - if it had been a 733, that would have been an option.

I was pretty sure we weren't going to make a second landing, but we did, thankfully.

A 90min AKL-WLG flight, after nearly an hour delay in AKL, wasn't a great way to start the day, though.
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Old Apr 8, 2014, 12:40 am
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I was on 415 too, sat a couple of rows behind the PM. Never expected so many other people here to be onboard!

My other half was watching the first approach on flightradar24.com which showed us getting down to 200 feet before the landing was aborted. It certainly looked pretty low from the glimpse I got of the sea.
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Old Apr 8, 2014, 2:06 am
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Originally Posted by Trumpkin
I was on 415 too, sat a couple of rows behind the PM. Never expected so many other people here to be onboard!

My other half was watching the first approach on flightradar24.com which showed us getting down to 200 feet before the landing was aborted. It certainly looked pretty low from the glimpse I got of the sea.
Were you in 4A? Because I also had colleagues in 4B, 4C, 4E and I was in 4F. I also had a colleague who was supposed to be in 4D but he got stuck on the motorway (2hrs!), and they wouldn't let him on the flight as it had closed by the time he got there (even though the plane was still sitting on the tarmac with the door open).

And we did get very close to the sea on that first attempt.
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Old Apr 8, 2014, 3:31 am
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Yes, 4A and I had a good chat with 4B and 4C as I was getting updates about planes aborting landings in WLG quicker than the pilot was announcing them.

I thought 4D was for Stephen Joyce who also missed the flight, with that announcement getting a few laughs from the various politicians.
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Old Apr 8, 2014, 3:46 am
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Originally Posted by Trumpkin
Yes, 4A and I had a good chat with 4B and 4C as I was getting updates about planes aborting landings in WLG quicker than the pilot was announcing them.
I was relaying my flightradar info to 4E as well on what the various planes were doing at WLG while we were waiting at AKL. I think those two JQs that turned around both landed back at AKL before we had even taken off.
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Old Apr 8, 2014, 5:10 pm
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Originally Posted by DanielW
Flew on the old RNZAF 727's once (before they were replaced by the 757's).

All the seats were facing rear-wards. Apparently this is safer in case of a crash(?).
The RNZAF 727 always had standard forward facing seats.

The RNZAF Andover did have rear facing seats as delivered by RAF and per RAF 'standard' of th70s - 90s.

Cheers, TK

Source. Flown on the RNZAF 727 many times.
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Old Apr 8, 2014, 5:20 pm
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Originally Posted by Trumpkin
I was on 415 too, sat a couple of rows behind the PM. Never expected so many other people here to be onboard!

My other half was watching the first approach on flightradar24.com which showed us getting down to 200 feet before the landing was aborted. It certainly looked pretty low from the glimpse I got of the sea.
FR24 is not too bad, but not completely accurate. The minimum height above the ground (runway threshold) for the Wellington ILS 16 is 259 feet, and for ILS 34 is 406 feet. Of course, there is always a chance of some 'pilot induced lag' at the decision altitude prior to continuing visually to land, or conducting a 'missed approach' by going around.

Note that the pilot will operate to the bold altitude - 300 ft for ILS16, as the elevation of the runway threshold is 41 ft (giving a height above the threshold of 259 ft).

Details here for the curious http://www.aip.net.nz/pdf/NZWN_41.1_41.2.pdf

Cheers, TK
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Old Apr 8, 2014, 11:37 pm
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Originally Posted by Thai-Kiwi
The RNZAF 727 always had standard forward facing seats.

The RNZAF Andover did have rear facing seats as delivered by RAF and per RAF 'standard' of th70s - 90s.

Cheers, TK

Source. Flown on the RNZAF 727 many times.
Yes, my apologies, it was the RNZAF Andovers we had to fly 'backwards' in. And sideways in the C-130's (with mandatory earplugs).
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Old Apr 12, 2014, 6:19 pm
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Originally Posted by Thai-Kiwi
FR24 is not too bad, but not completely accurate. The minimum height above the ground (runway threshold) for the Wellington ILS 16 is 259 feet, and for ILS 34 is 406 feet. Of course, there is always a chance of some 'pilot induced lag' at the decision altitude prior to continuing visually to land, or conducting a 'missed approach' by going around.

Note that the pilot will operate to the bold altitude - 300 ft for ILS16, as the elevation of the runway threshold is 41 ft (giving a height above the threshold of 259 ft).

Details here for the curious http://www.aip.net.nz/pdf/NZWN_41.1_41.2.pdf

Cheers, TK
FWIW I was on 401 that day. We had two attempts with an interim period of stooging around and then returned to Auckland. On both attempts the first thing I saw out of my port side window was the ship that is moored by the Miramar cut. Not as exciting as some of the gale go rounds last year but still...
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