RIP: Fokker Friendships in NZ

[kiwithrottlejockey]

It would appear the last Fokker Friendship flights have taken place in New Zealand last night.


• It's official...

Fokker Friendship services in New Zealand have finally ended.

Fokker Friendship ZK-PAX, operating as POST675 left Auckland for Christchurch at 10.00pm last night arriving at around midnight. The return flight, POST 676, left just after 2.00am this morning arriving back into at just after 4.00am.

So ends 56 years of continuous commercial service of Friendships in New Zealand skies.



And this follows on from the final Beech 1900 flight by Eagle Air last week.

[camtech]

Finally gone is that lovely Dart whine

[ZacYates]

A sad day for sure. I was too young to appreciate them in Air New Zealand service but for the time I lived in Blenheim I never needed a clock to tell me it was 7pm!

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I can still clearly remember when the drone of NAC DC-3s passing Hastings on the route between Napier and Wellington got replaced by the high-pitched whine of NAC Fokker Friendships. Steam locomotives were still hauling many trains through Hastings at the time.

I also have many fond memories of flying in both NAC and Air NZ Fokker Friendships on services out of both Napier and Gisborne to Wellington and Auckland. I also flew several times between Gisborne and Napier in Fokker Friendships. Those were the days when if one was cheeky enough to ask, one often got invited up into the cockpit during the flight. 9/11 stuffed that up!

[TS]

Yep I can remember flying to Chch in the Viscount then changed planes to the Fokker to get to Invercargill. Well as they say nothing lasts forever. Let's hope she gets a good retirement home.

[suthg]

Had a few between Wellington and CHC I think too, remember linking with a DC3 to Timaru Mt Cook Airlines possibly... about 1980...

[hamfists]

Funny I was talking to an Airwork pilot today who was saying they might train another F27 pilot to get them through to the end of ops maybe early next year..oh well..it's a movable feast

[Peter Lewis]

Back in the day the AHSNZ committee meetings were held in Wellington.
As part of their support NAC used to give committee members free subload flights to/from those meetings - but it had to be on a Saturday, as that was their quietest day.
The last direct Wellington - Auckland flight was about 7pm or so at that time.

After one meeting, when I fronted up at the traffic counter at Rongotai, they said "Sorry mate, we don't have a spare seat to get you home tonight. If you like to stay overnight, we can get you on the first flight back in the morning".
That didn't appeal much, so I asked if there were any other options.
"Well there's a Friendship flight leaving in half an hour, it's heading up the East Coast, but it'll get you there - eventually".

So I did that. I think the route was Wellington - Napier - Gisborne - Tauranga - Auckland.
Took quite a few hours, but I did get home - eventually.

On one leg, I think it was the leg into Tauranga, I was the only pax on board. The hostie came back and asked exactly where I was heading, and seemed quite surprised to find I was going all the way to Auckland.

It has stuck in my mind as one of the most pleasant airline trips I have ever done. I was able to get off at each stop, wander around the tarmac and the terminal in the dark, and then get back on.
Couldn't do that today.

A great memory.

[Dave Homewood]

My first ever flight was in an East-West Airlines Friendship from Auckland to Norfolk Island in April 1981 aged 10. A week later I had my second ever flight in a Qantas F-27 back to Auckland. Even at that age I preferred East-West. My next ever flight after that was 9th of January 1989, from Hamilton to Woodbourne on an Air New Zealand F-27 the day I joined the RNZAF. I had many more F-27 flights after that, including one in an RNZAF NATTS F-27 which the pilot let me fly! That was frigging cool.

They were a neat old aeroplane, but I prefer the modern Dash-8 and ATR airliners by far for getting from A to B, they don't have that Friendship stink for starters.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Sept 2, 2016 22:56:13 GMT 12 Peter Lewis said:

"Well there's a Friendship flight leaving in half an hour, it's heading up the East Coast, but it'll get you there - eventually".

So I did that. I think the route was Wellington - Napier - Gisborne - Tauranga - Auckland.
Took quite a few hours, but I did get home - eventually.

For many years, NAC (then Air NZ) weekday Friendship services into and out of Gisborne were...

Two Friendships overnighted in Gisborne. One flew the early morning flight to Auckland and the other flew the early morning flight to Wellington, but via Napier. Mid-morning, two more Friendship flights arrived in Gisborne, one from Auckland and the other from Wellington. After a 30 minute turnaround, the Friendship from Wellington carried on to Auckland and the one from Auckland carried on to Wellington.

Early afternoon, another two Friendships arrived at Gisborne. One was flying Wellington - Napier - Gisborne - Tauranga - Auckland and the other was flying Auckland - Tauranga - Gisborne - Napier - Wellington.

There was a late afternoon arrival from both Wellington and Auckland, followed by a late-afternoon departure to both Auckland and Wellington.

Finally, during the evening, the two overnighting Friendships arrived from Auckland and Wellington.

It's amazing to think now that there were so many services flown to and from Gisborne using 40 or 48/52 seat airliners (depending on whether the aircraft were 100 series or 500 series Friendships). Mind you, during the same era, Fieldair were operating up to nine Beavers and three DC-3s on topdressing operations out of Gisborne.

And those Wellington - Napier - Gisborne - Tauranga - Auckland (and vice-versa) flights date back to the DC-3 days. I flew from Napier to Tauranga via Gisborne one school holidays during the early 1960s. It was in “Skyliner Gisborne”, which I now know to have been ZK-BBJ. And many years later, I went for a few flights in ZK-BBJ during the last few weeks it was working out of Gisborne as a topdresser, flown by Bruce Thompson. He was spreading super up the Waimata Valley the day I flew with him. I traded a locomotive cab ride on passenger trains to Napier and back to Gisborne for those cockpit flights in ZK-BBJ.

[area51]

The F27 has certainly had a long and distinguished civil and military history in New Zealand.

Having lived on the West Coast there were numerous opportunities to catch the Air NZ operated F27's flying in/out of Hokitika and on a nice day flying VFR at 1500ft from there to Westport or vice versa! The F27 was capable of using the crosswind runway at Hokitika so on a clear winters day a departure off runway 13 (now runway 12) heading straight out on track to Bealey was not out of the question. And if traffic permitted straight in on runway 11 at Christchurch. Hardly a heading change required for the Alpine crossing. Most memorable F27 rides would have to be a calibration flight at Hokitika and then catching the flight deck on Air Cruising Australia's F27 VH-NLS from Hokitika to Christchurch for $1!

mrcaviation.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/final-fokker-f27-friendship-flight.html

[camtech]

One of my fondest memories is still the trip to and from Singapore ex Wigram, in 1986, For Asian Aerospace '86. Three days each way, plus 6 days in Singapore, With accommodation at Dieppe Barracks - height of luxury. Air New Zealand gave us a Volvo 360 as crew transport - managed to get most of the 8 of us in for trips to town, etc.

[madmax]

I was on Rongotai airport the day the first Friendship ZK-BXA arrived and took a couple of Kadachrome slides of it which I still have in my collection. Must have been 1960

[snaphead]

So sad to see the retirement of an old friend. I have many happy memories of her association, trips to Norfolk on the RNZAF F-27, on to Melbourne. Learning about its gliding ability, a Wise Owl at Alexander, Bob Henderson as pilot., over the Alps, throttle back and watch the VSI show a positive altitude (to do with Aspect Ratio). Travel to Oman for refresher training fo OAS ground engineers (through Air NZ). The chief pilot was a Kiwi and took me for a flight around the oil fields. Fascinating trip. Also 15 trips to Madras in India to provide type ratings for staff. That was comical. Taught a verity of different Marks and models of F-27, Mk 100, Mk 500 with rough field landing gear and centre wing fuel bags, upgraded aircon systems an d various other versions. I spent a long time setting up the NATS (as originally set up). I recall the fuss made when we set up a tent in 6 hangar as a flight line office. Another era ends.

I was ,at the time, one of the few authorized F-27 Airframe Instructors in NZ. (Big deal) Ha Ha.

[snaphead]

A correcti0n to above. It was 5 trips to Madras (Chennia), A totsl of 15 weeks.

[Dave Homewood]

My worst ever flight was in a Friendship too. Blenheim to Wellington on 29th of July 1989, it was so rough the aircraft was really being thrown about, and most of the passengers were Asian tourists who were literally all screaming and crying. When we finally landed the entire aircraft applauded the crew. One of the many reasons I don't like Wellington Airport.

[oj]

I have many fond memories of Friendship flights.
First as a Boy Entrant going home on leave Woodbourne-Wellington-Palmerston North-Hamilton and return a few times.
Then in the 1970's going to Saturday SLAET meetings for several years (flying sub-load like Peter) to Wellington and Christchurch (until replaced by B737 service).
On return from Christchurch if the loadings were light (because sub-load has no defined destinations) one could come home via Westport and/or Nelson for a scenic trip.
One one very stormy day going from Hamilton to Wellington via Palmerston North it was IMC conditions all the way, but the last few minutes into Palmerston North were down through a small hole in the clouds that the pilot took us through VFR. VERY steep (I reckon about 50 degrees nose down and probably a Beta approach (I am not a pilot, so would need advice on this as to whether it was practiced).
Much of the excitement was because in the F27 the cockpit door had to be open during take-off and landing (by regulation, it being an approved exit point) so the view down hill was quite heart-stopping.
On a couple of occasions the flights back to Hamilton were fully cubed-out so I had to use the jump seat in the luggage bay behind the cockpit; that wasn't much fun.
The nostalgic Dart whine and the smell of burnt kerosene wafting into the cabin are to be treasured into our Alzheimer's when all else is forgotten !

[ZacYates]

I also want to say that I really, really enjoyed seeing the F.27 display at Omaka last year. That was a real highlight of the show for me.

[flyinkiwi]

Sept 2, 2016 14:11:42 GMT 12 camtech said:

Finally gone is that lovely Dart whine

No my ears are still ringing.

It's certainly a unique sound that you never forget. I was fortunate enough to fly in one on a return trip from Wellington when I was 6. My only memory of that flight was feeling ripped off that it wasn't as comfy as the 737 we flew down on.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I managed one flight in a Viscount in May 1968 when I flew from Napier to Wellington (Friendship) followed by Wellington to Christchurch (Viscount).

However, if I recall correctly, the RR Dart sound was a bit more distant in the Viscount.

But with both Friendship and Viscount, I loved those HUGE oval windows. Same with the HUGE DC-8 windows.