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Post by planecrazy on Mar 2, 2017 7:48:51 GMT 12
A few pic’s from a newspaper article from a supplement on the opening of Rongotai.    Notice the times for flights.  If you can read the text it states the Electra as "nimble on the ground" seems an unusual thing to promote? Does anyone know the flight times across the Tasman in an Electra?  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 2, 2017 7:59:35 GMT 12
They called it a new airport, but it wasn't. Rongotai had been an airport for decades. It was simply a new runway.
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Post by suthg on Mar 2, 2017 14:09:42 GMT 12
So when were the NAC ticketing and departure lounges etc built? That AND a runway define a civil Airport don't they? There was a photo here recently of inside it in the 80's.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 2, 2017 14:29:50 GMT 12
They called it a new airport, but it wasn't. Rongotai had been an airport for decades. It was simply a new runway. Not really, Dave. Rongotai Aerodrome ran more-or-less east-west adjacent to, and parallel with Lyall Bay. Where the current Wellington Airport is was partly sea and the rest was mostly houses, although some of it was the site of the 1940 Centennial Exhibition. The houses were removed including on a hill, with most of the hill being bulldozed into the sea (a remnent of the hill is still there on the western side of the northern end of the airport, with the current and soon-to-be-replaced control tower amongst the houses), and the old Centennial Exhibition site was also included in the new airport site. While there was a small overlap of the old Rongotai Aerodrome and the current Wellington Airport (including the de Havilland factory, which became the new airport's terminal building), most of what was Rongotai Aerodrome is now industrial estate to the east of the current airport, although the western end of it is residential. Wellington did get a new airport, but with a few buildings from the old aerodrome. |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 2, 2017 14:47:00 GMT 12
In this photograph, taken on 28th September 1950, you can see the old Rongotai Aerodrome running across the southern side of the isthmus. You can also see the hill covered in residential houses that was mostly removed to make room for the new airport. Moa Point is slightly to the right of centre in the photograph.  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 2, 2017 15:17:48 GMT 12
Congratulations, you just proved there was an airport there already... just as I said.
It had scheduled services there from the 1930's onwards so it was technically an airport. Yes they reclaimed some land, took away a hill, re-laid the runway and added some new buildings but it was not a new airport, it was simply an improved airport.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 2, 2017 16:55:54 GMT 12
Yes, there was an aerodrome of sorts.
But it got replaced by a new airport on a totally different orientation, with major hill removal and land reclamation from the sea.
In fact, there wasn't even an airport anywhere near there for several years during the 1950s, with the nearest airport operations being at Paraparaumu.
The equivalent of what you are claiming is that grandpa's axe is still grandpa's axe, even though it has had the handle replaced umpteen times and the head replaced umpteen times, and it has moved next door into the neighbour's shed since grandpa died and was buried, but the axe spent several years in a completely different suburb between the time grandpa died and when it moved into the late-grandpa's next door neighbour's shed.
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Post by avenger on Mar 4, 2017 10:00:12 GMT 12
A question earlier re Lockheed Electra trans tasman flight times.
These logged times, not scheduled, and chosen randomly.
Ak - SY 3 hrs 50 mins. (DC8 3.00)
SY - AK 3 35 (DC8 2.40)
WN - SY 4 15 (DC8 3.00)
SY - WN 3 35 (DC8 2.50)
The Wellington - Sydney flight appears excessive but I flew only ever one single sector on this route and this the logged time.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 4, 2017 13:34:15 GMT 12
Back during the 1970s, I flew Sydney to Wellington twice in an Air NZ DC-8 and if I recall correctly, both flights were a few minutes less than three hours. However, the landings were rather interesting as on both occasions the airliner used the entire runway to slow down (on each occasion the approach was down Evans Bay). I guess the DC-8's performance was fairly marginal for Wellington.
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Post by avenger on Mar 4, 2017 14:47:01 GMT 12
The DC 8 as certified was reasonably fitted for Wellington ops, but I recall at least in initial crew qualification there was crew training completed at Auckland for "Wellington landings." My logbook for an instructor training day at Wellington simply states "short ldgs."
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 6, 2017 12:08:34 GMT 12
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Post by suthg on Mar 8, 2017 11:59:49 GMT 12
A close-up view of the new Control Tower...  |
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Post by errolmartyn on Mar 8, 2017 14:32:57 GMT 12
A close-up view of the new Control Tower... Interesting approach to air-conditioning and open-plan offices! Errol |
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Post by TS on Mar 8, 2017 18:44:44 GMT 12
True!!! But there are at least three props that can be seen within. Count the other side to make six.....  |
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Post by isc on Mar 8, 2017 19:23:40 GMT 12
Track 1 side 2, Peter Harcourt's LP from 1969 "The Search For The Land of the Long White Shroud", the part where Clarence W. Dripdright is flying into wellington, saying that as there was no room for an airport, the locals used their imagination and sunk an aircraft carrier between two islands.
Perhaps they just need a bigger aircraft carrier. isc
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Post by oj on Mar 8, 2017 21:46:40 GMT 12
Yes but the most important thing in the 1950 photo is the flying boat!
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jeffref
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 74 
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Post by jeffref on Mar 13, 2017 23:27:20 GMT 12
Hamfists, I'm saying that if the runway extension goes ahead I am off the opinion that as part of the final product their needs to be either a mitigation programme via the use of EMAS, or, included in the extension of the runway, an adequate RESA..90m is not adequate and never has been for large transport category jets and is why EMAS was invented. I have no horse in the race, this is merely an opinion. Why do we need a 240 metre RESA on a 2300 metre runway when Aussie and the UK do not? Sydney has a 90 metre RESA on 6 runways. Are their jets smaller? Brisbane? Cairns? Canberra (3 of 4) Hobart? Perth? Townsville? A few others also. Melbourne is the only Aussie civil airport with 240 on all. Also people have come up with the amazing stat that 240 metre RESA's capture more overruns than 90 metre RESA. I have seen no breakdown of what the surface is. How much better Is a 240 metre grass RESA than a 90 metre sealed surface not to mention a further 60 metre safety strip? What about a rock RESA? Two choices here. An extension of 2300 metres or nothing. I happen to like the idea of 2170 metres available for landing since it gives a larger safety margin. The difference of 355 metres is better than the 150 metre increase of a 240 metre RESA. I will not fly with any airline with pilots who are too stupid to work that out. They had a crash in Canada where the pilot tried to land on a runway which had a 90 metre RESA. The aircraft required 1725 metres to land. The runway was 3000 metres long. Did the short RESA cause the crash or was it because the pilot floated for 1500 metres before landing and then forgot to engage the thrust reverse for 12 seconds? Landing distances have about 65 percent margin which means that the aircraft really only required 1200 metres. No don't worry about that. Another 150 metres RESA would have prevented the accident. Yeah right! Takeoffs are a no-brainer. You adjust your payload for the runway length available and there is plenty of safety margin provided you get your ASDA calculation correct and do not forget to takeoff with the wrong flap setting which would probably cause a crash even with a 4000 metre runway (see Barajas) No one has ever died on a runway that was too long but you cannot say the same about A320's and B737's which have crashed trying to land on 1945 or even longer runways |
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gtw
Flight Lieutenant
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Post by gtw on Mar 14, 2017 11:49:31 GMT 12
Maybe if the aircraft touched down on the runway markers instead of the 1000foot plus markers, like ag pilots on short strips do.
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Post by suthg on Mar 14, 2017 12:39:31 GMT 12
I was on a flight into CHC in about August 1980 on an AIRNZ 737 into a stiff but gusty southerly, ie wet with squalls. It was a retiring Captain's last commercial flight, and he apologised before landing about the turbulence and occasional side slip and wallow, but we finally touched down level with the ATC and on the wet runway managed to haul us in and turn on the last vestage of asphalt - only grass outside the window as we slowly turned back towards the off ramp and taxiway. In the end, he dumped her down and gave her full noise. Perhaps in hindsight, it should have been a go-around but...
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 14, 2017 13:32:41 GMT 12
I was on a flight into CHC in about August 1980 on an AIRNZ 737 into a stiff but gusty southerly, ie wet with squalls. It was a retiring Captain's last commercial flight, and he apologised before landing about the turbulence and occasional side slip and wallow, but we finally touched down level with the ATC and on the wet runway managed to haul us in and turn on the last vestage of asphalt - only grass outside the window as we slowly turned back towards the off ramp and taxiway. In the end, he dumped her down and gave her full noise. Perhaps in hindsight, it should have been a go-around but... I flew from Sydney to Wellington in Air New Zealand DC-8 airliners twice during the 1970s and on both occasions, the aircraft touched down right at the beginning of the runway and finally got slow enough to turn around at the far end of the runway. I just presumed that was normal for the DC-8s at Wellington. We've got one member at this group who flew Electras and DC-8s into Wellington as a Captain (he also flew into Evans Bay as a co-pilot on TEAL's Solent flying-boats during an earlier decade), but he is very elderly now and has only posted three times and that was a few years ago. |
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