Remembering 747's at WLG

[zaphod]

I grew up overlooking Wellington airport from Melrose and can remember waking up one morning and seeing an Air NZ 747 parked at the international terminal. From what I can remember, it was a long haul flight aiming for Auckland, but both Auckland and Christchurch had been closed due to fog. It didn't have sufficient fuel for a safe trip to Oz, so the decision was made to land in Wellington.

I can still clearly remember going to school (I think I was standard 3) and telling the teacher I had seen a 747, and her telling me not to make up stories! She did have the decency to apologise the next day when there had been photos in the Evening Post. I think this would have been somewhere around 1987. Does anyone have any more accurate records or photos?

I can remember seeing an empty 747 landing at WLG as a trial on another occasion, but was this the only time a 747 with passengers landed in Wellington? I recall the trial landing braking heavily and pulling up very short on the runway - not far past the air force hangar.

Does anyone have photos of either of these landings, or know of other 747 visits to Wellington?

Lachlan

[flyjoe180]

From memory in the early 90's a United Airlines Boeing 747 diverted to Wellington after Auckland and Christchurch were fogged in. The only Air New Zealand B747 I know that landed at Wellington was the trial one which was basically empty. QANTAS of course flew the 747SP into Wellington for several years.

[Dave Homewood]

I remember reading somewhere - no idea where - years ago that Singapore Airways took the shortened version of the 747 into Wellington about once a week or so, but when I mentioned this some years back on the forum all the Wellington people poo-pooed it as being wrong.

[kiwitone]

I was on the first 747-400 with Qantas into Wellington. I was coming from Sydney and there had been some sort of hoohaa with the unions and we had to overnight in a Qantas hotel and despite a presentation on leaving, all we had were cut sandwiches and thermos coffee on the flight. the landing at Rongatai was more than exciting as there had been a runway extension and I thought were were landing in the bay.

[vs]

I am sure Qantas bought the 747SP to operate into Wellington. Air NZ operated the 747 200 in there at least twice, once in the late 80's (my father was part or the crew) and I believe maybe 1999 just before the end of 747 200 service....I think it may have been for the opening of the new terminal

[mumbles]

Joe is right, QANTAS flew 747SP's into Wellington up until 1985 when they introduced the 767 on the route. I remember quite vividly watching an SP climb out from Shelly Bay in 1982 or 83.

The last of the original ANZ 747-200's visited Wellington to mark the opening of the new terminal back in 1999 (and overflew the last All Blacks test at Athletic Park which was the same weekend).

I have pics at home, I'll put some up tonight.

[thomarse]

Did the specially-painted one that overflew The Lord Of The Rings premiere not land?

[yak2]

The QF 747SP's were originally introduced for the trans-Pacific route. From memory they were the first of type able to fly non-stop from the US against the prevailing westerlies.
Had the 'pleasure' of flying into Wellington in an ANZ DC8 in the mid 70's. Quite an experience. Return trip was QF 707 ex Christchurch. Interesting to watch RNZAF Harvards doing circuits in between the commercial traffic.

[phil82]

Qantas was the one and only operator of the 747SP out of Wellington, and that wasn't for long because the SP itself didn't last long in service and the 767 was much cheaper to operate. Singapore certainly never flew into Wellington with anything as far as I can recall.

The day of the last test at Athletic Park , [against France which we won], was also the day ANZ did the proving of the 747 into Wellington, and it flew up over the Basin Reserve, and Adelaide Road, and very low over Athletic Park. Quite a treat! As I say, it was the last test at Athletic Park, and depite an announcement not to do it, a certain member of my family had brought a trowel with her and removed a chunk of the hallowed turf!

I flew out to Sydney and Singapore with family on an ANZ DC8 in 1974.

[mumbles]

Feb 26, 2010 10:05:43 GMT 12 thomarse said:

Did the specially-painted one that overflew The Lord Of The Rings premiere not land?

Nope. Went on to Christchurch from memory, or maybe back to Auckland.

[nzav8a]

Feb 26, 2010 10:15:12 GMT 12 phil82 said:

Qantas was the one and only operator of the 747SP out of Wellington, and that wasn't for long because the SP itself didn't last long in service and the 767 was much cheaper to operate.

QANTAS operated the 747SP for 21 years, 1981-2002

[vs]

I will ask my father where they flew on the first flight into there. To my knowledge, Air NZ have never had a 747 400 fly into Wellington. The Lord of the Rings aircraft was a 400. United have diverted there a while ago

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I can personally remember the Air NZ 747-200 at Wellington Airport.

I was travelling from Gisborne to a NZ Locomotive Engineers' Union executive council meeting (I was on the union's executive council at the time) in the late-1980s and Auckland Airport had been closed by fog that morning as had plenty of other airports at the top half of the North Island, as well as at several other locations around the country. When I arrived at Gisborne Airport to check in, there was an Air NZ 737 there that had diverted from somewhere, as well as a number of F27 Friendships. Instead of flying directly to Wellington, our flight (a F27) was diverted into Napier to pick up some stranded passengers, then we carried on to Wellington where the 747-200 was parked on the tarmac. It had been an incoming flight from North America that was diverted south when both Auckland and Ohakea had been closed by fog that morning and Christchurch was also marginal. There was a massive backlog of domestic passengers at Wellington due to all the airport closures around the country. They were just boarding the 747 for a domestic service to Auckland to clear part of the passenger backlog as I was disembarking from the Friendship, so I hung around to watch it takeoff. I expected it to use the entire runway, but it lifted off about a third of the way down the runway and away it went. I imagine it would only have been carrying a minimum fuel load, so would have been quite light in spite of every seat being filled with domestic passengers.

I cannot however remember which year it was, but it was definitely the late-1980s.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Feb 26, 2010 10:12:41 GMT 12 yak2 said:

Had the 'pleasure' of flying into Wellington in an ANZ DC8 in the mid 70's.

Ditto....I flew from Sydney to Wellington in an Air NZ DC-8 in December 1974. Most of the passengers on the flight were Aussies and I got the impression many of them were on their first trip to Wellington as they were astounded at looking up at houses above the aeroplane while approaching above Evans Bay. I can recall the landing took up virtually the entire length of the runway.

One of my friends in Wellington is the son of the pilot (Captain Geoff White) who flew the first Air NZ DC-8 into Wellington for the initial trials, then flew the first commercial DC-8 service out of Wellington bound for Sydney. A couple of deacdes earlier, Geoff was the co-pilot (with Captain Cliff le Couter) on the last Short Solent flight from Sydney to Wellington (in 1954). Geoff once told me that they got their hands smacked for carrying out a low flight over downtown Wellington, right along Bunny Street (the then equivalent of today's CAA had their offices in Bunny Street right across the road from the Railway Station) before landing in Evans Bay. Not the sort of thing you'd get away with today with an airliner full of fare-paying passengers.

Geoff White retired to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland where he still lives today, apart from occasional visits to NZ.

[vs]

I have found out from one of the crew that it was a proving flight...NO passengers. Ohakea became avaliable as an alternate which we all use now (chances of going to Ohakea slim as Auckland now Cat 3) Will be able to find out date of flight soon.....that is why it would have had a short take off run. I remember watching it on the news as a young chap

[b10m]

Yep, I was a guest of Qantas on that first 767 flight out of Wellington to Sydney.
Not all that special really, as my next seat neighbour was a Sydney taxi driver who knew someone.

I posted some photos up in an ealier post, of that 767 at Wellington Airport as it was departing on a Scenic over the North Island

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Feb 26, 2010 15:44:18 GMT 12 vs said:

I have found out from one of the crew that it was a proving flight...NO passengers. Ohakea became avaliable as an alternate which we all use now (chances of going to Ohakea slim as Auckland now Cat 3) Will be able to find out date of flight soon.....that is why it would have had a short take off run. I remember watching it on the news as a young chap

The Air NZ B747-200 I saw on the tarmac at Wellington Airport in the late-1980s and then watched it takeoff definitely wasn't a proving flight. They were loading passengers via external airstairs directly off the tarmac. The line of passengers going up those stairs went on and on and on and on for quite some time before they got them all aboard and headed off for Auckland.

[thomarse]

A 73 at Gizzy?

Far out, has one ever been back?

[vs]

I would say they were showing people through it. I can find out tomorrow

[angelsonefive]

I am pretty sure I saw a Japan Airlines 747SP at WN.
Cannot recall whether it was a one-off visit or a regular caller.