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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 19, 2018 0:12:50 GMT 12
This is a rather good documentary about aviation in New Zealand that aired last night on Prime TV. It glosses over many important parts such as the Air Force in WWII, and agricultural aviation doesn't get a mention, but overall it's pretty good. www.primetv.co.nz/making-new-zealand-catchup
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Post by mumbles on Feb 19, 2018 10:09:50 GMT 12
It was obvious though that it was partly sponsored by Air New Zealand, with one domestic airline not being mentioned at all. . . Also the usual footage not matching the narrative and annoying but fashionable animation of still images, but the interviews were good.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 19, 2018 18:02:14 GMT 12
Do you mean Air Chathams?
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Post by mumbles on Feb 19, 2018 22:10:20 GMT 12
Do you mean Air Chathams? Ansett New Zealand
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 19, 2018 22:43:39 GMT 12
They kind of made out at the end that Air NZ is a private company, but isn't it 50% owned by the Government of NZ?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 19, 2018 22:57:01 GMT 12
Do you mean Air Chathams? Ansett New Zealand Ansett New Zealand lasted just 13 years, and flew into limited airports. Not really a huge player, was it? Meanwhile SPANZ only lasted six years and got a mention, and the two year Kiwi International Airways disaster got its own whole section. But Air Chathams has been operating for 34 years, Sounds Air has been operating for 32 years, Sunair has been operating for 37 years, Eagle Airways lasted 47 years, and Vincent Aviation lasted 22 years, but they never seem to get a mention in these anthology histories. Is it because they don't/didn't fly into Auckland much? I'm sure there are many others overlooked too.
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Post by tbf25o4 on Feb 20, 2018 9:43:47 GMT 12
The irony is that one of the commentators actually worked for ANSETT! during its operations in NZ
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 20, 2018 11:37:29 GMT 12
But given the series is called Making New Zealand and is about he people and companies that created all the infrastructure and services we have today, Ansett is pretty much irrelevant, isn't it? It flew a few routes to a few airports already covered by the national airline, so was not groundbreaking in any way.
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Post by baronbeeza on Feb 20, 2018 11:52:47 GMT 12
Ansett changed the way Air New Zealand domestic did business, big time. The customer had been treated pretty shabbily until the mid-1980's. The travelling public had it much better in the late 80's and early 90's and I suspect even better than today in many respects. I was with Ansett back in the day and did notice the impact, it was great working for a dynamic aviation company also..... it doesn't seem to happen too often.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 20, 2018 12:21:23 GMT 12
Odd, everyone seems to talk like the Boeing 737/Viscount/Friendship era of the 1960's and 1970's as the golden era. Rose tinted nostalgia?
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 21, 2018 15:08:57 GMT 12
Odd, everyone seems to talk like the Boeing 737/Viscount/Friendship era of the 1960's and 1970's as the golden era. Rose tinted nostalgia? Airfares were expensive back then, but you got LEG-ROOM in spades. And when the Boeing 737-219 airliners first went into service with NAC, the seating was 3+2 instead of today's 3+3, so you got WIDTH as well. Plus those huge windows in the Fokker Friendships and the even bigger windows in the Viscounts meant you could sit there and watch the panorama passing by below, even from the aisle seat. And I always kind-of liked walking across the tarmac to jetliners, including to DC-8s and 707s on trans-Tasman services (no passport required crossing The Ditch back then, you just purchased a ticket and boarded). Today's airbridges feel too sterile in comparison. But as I already stateed, the downside was it was more expensive to fly.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 21, 2018 16:36:44 GMT 12
I for one have no issues with the modern leg room on Air New Zealand, and I don't give a monkey's about whether I need to use stairs or an air bridge. I think the windows in the modern airliners are fine too. But the seats are far more comfortable than the ones i used to ride in in the Fokker Friendships back in the day.
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Post by camtech on Feb 21, 2018 20:18:17 GMT 12
I have found some differences between the various A320's in seat pitch, but prefer them to the B737. Regarding the golden age of flying, yes the days of the early 737/Friendship/Viscount were a golden age - in those days, most people dressed for travel, not quite still the suits, tie, and hats for the ladies, but still well dressed. There was something about walking out to the aircraft, rather than the current air bridge. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but hell, at nearly 70, I'm allowed to be!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 21, 2018 20:53:02 GMT 12
I can remember flying from Gisborne to Napier on Christmas Day 1978 (a few months after Muldoon's and McLachlan's forced shot-gun marriage between NAC and Air NZ) and the Fokker Friendship had christmas decorations throughout the cabin, including a miniature xmas tree affixed to the door between the cabin and the foward freight/luggage hold; and the passengers were each served up a piece of christmas cake during the short flight. Now that is “class” compared to today. And a few years prior to that earlier in the 1970s, I can remember being fed decent meals on proper plates and with real metal cutlery on trans-Tasman flights in Air NZ DC-8s and QANTAS 707s. And, the seat rows in Air NZ's DC-8s still lined up with those big Douglas windows.
However, by 1978, the seat rows had been squeezed up in the Fokker Friendships so that the rows no longer lined up with the windows has they had done so during those halcion days of the 1960s.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 21, 2018 20:59:21 GMT 12
I don't understand why people thought merging NAC and Air New Zealand was a bad idea. Makes perfect sense to me. Just like when all the other minor national airlines owned by the same group became Air New Zealand National, that made sense too.
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Post by flyinkiwi on Jul 12, 2021 9:37:19 GMT 12
For those who may have missed it the first time round, this will be shown again on TV3 tomorrow evening at 1930hrs.
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