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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 2, 2020 16:16:17 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 2, 2020 17:18:38 GMT 12
How many are still parked up? I assume most are back in service now?
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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 2, 2020 18:09:42 GMT 12
All but one. NEJ is still in the hangar. It's got a heap of work and is missing engine cowls and assorted bits and pieces we've robbed from it.
At the time I took those photos there were 20 Dashes and four ATRs at Nelson.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 2, 2020 18:30:26 GMT 12
Should have put the comfy seats back in them that they used to have.  |
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Post by planecrazy on Nov 2, 2020 18:40:38 GMT 12
Wow great photos, the weather conditions add to the atmosphere of the situation, found a couple of pic's of NEC when she came through, pretty sure she was going to Oz for a re-paint some years ago now.   |
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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 4, 2020 19:17:53 GMT 12
Wow great photos, the weather conditions add to the atmosphere of the situation, found a couple of pic's of NEC when she came through, pretty sure she was going to Oz for a re-paint some years ago now. Nice pictures, it looks good in that setting. Natural territory. For some reason when the fleet was being repainted in the black livery they sent a few over to Townsville for repaint. They did a good job too, putting an erosion proof coating on the aircraft. Only a few were done there, most were done in Christchurch, but there are still a few blue tail Dashes around as they didn't finish the fleet. Dunno why, there was a rumour that they were gonna sell some of them once the ATR 600s appeared in larger numbers, but it turns out that Dashes are actually cheaper to run than ATRs. They can also land at shorter strips and handle rough conditions better. |
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Post by planewriting on Nov 4, 2020 20:55:47 GMT 12
All but one. NEJ is still in the hangar. It's got a heap of work and is missing engine cowls and assorted bits and pieces we've robbed from it. At the time I took those photos there were 20 Dashes and four ATRs at Nelson. That's interesting. I've just looked at my notes and see I have recorded seeing NEJ at Tauranga Airport on 12 July. Is there a chance that it did return to service but has more recently (since 12 July) been laid up in Nelson? |
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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 17, 2020 11:44:02 GMT 12
I dunno, I don't keep track of every aircraft movement and I'm not there everyday. You'd need to contact flight ops to verify that. Let's put it this way. NEJ has been in the hangar for a few months now. In that time I've worked on it a few times.
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Post by delticman on Nov 17, 2020 16:55:21 GMT 12
I dunno, I don't keep track of every aircraft movement and I'm not there everyday. You'd need to contact flight ops to verify that. Let's put it this way. NEJ has been in the hangar for a few months now. In that time I've worked on it a few times. I just have a cheap account with Flight Radar and it does not show up. Pay something and you get a history of Flight numbers and registrations. Sometimes Flight Aware has the last flight recorded and ZK-NEJ shows as such, Auckland to Nelson 26Jul20. |
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Post by planewriting on Nov 17, 2020 19:04:53 GMT 12
Interesting but I wonder why it seems to have been out of action for so long. It certainly seemed okay last time I flew in it. Just as well, as my eldest grandson was with me on only his second flight.
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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 17, 2020 19:12:15 GMT 12
Interesting but I wonder why it seems to have been out of action for so long. It certainly seemed okay last time I flew in it. Just as well, as my eldest grandson was with me on only his second flight. It was out of action because the powers that be decided to keep a couple of Dashes under lockdown conditions for awhile after the rest of the fleet was brought back operationally, Juliet and Kilo remained on the ground clogging up our parking slots for no other reason than "Covid-19". It wasn't maintenance issues, that's for sure. We were still doing the routine stuff on them as per normal. The realities of the fact that pax numbers picked up pretty quickly after lockdown seemed to have missed these two aircraft out. Kilo went back into service a couple of months ago. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 17, 2020 22:20:11 GMT 12
Could it be because they no longer have the crews to fulfil the rosters to keep the entire fleet operational?
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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 18, 2020 11:14:16 GMT 12
Could it be because they no longer have the crews to fulfil the rosters to keep the entire fleet operational? Not certain of that, simply because the regional aircrew weren't so badly affected by the cutbacks that afflicted International aircrew. Going on the way they handled the International cuts, they ended up re-employing some of the pilots they laid off owing to freight needs, based on the way the airline is choosing to do things, anything is possible these days... |
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Post by planewriting on Nov 18, 2020 12:42:05 GMT 12
Another suggestion as to why these two aircraft (Juliet and Kilo) were selected is that both are in the blue scheme rather than the latter B & W one. Air NZ no doubts wants all the fleet in B & W and this is one way o help achieve that though I realise Kilo has been reactivated.
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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 19, 2020 15:02:26 GMT 12
Another suggestion as to why these two aircraft (Juliet and Kilo) were selected is that both are in the blue scheme rather than the latter B & W one. Air NZ no doubts wants all the fleet in B & W and this is one way o help achieve that though I realise Kilo has been reactivated. Who knows. As you know, not all the Dashes were painted in the black and white. There was an idea floated at one stage that a few were gonna be sold a few years back, as far as the rumour mill goes anyway, but the economic and practical reality of operating the Dashes has meant the whole fleet is still in service - bar a lack of parts, of course. Dashes can operate out of the smaller airstrips and are more flexible in terms of ground operation. ATRs aren't pushbacked - something to do with using the Lecktro-tugs I think, whereas we use them on the Dashes to get them in and out of the smaller hangar, former RNZAF Hangar Two at Nelson. The Dashes are cheaper to maintain as well, which offsets the economics of the cheaper to run ATR. Dashes are more cost effective in the long run. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 19, 2020 16:12:03 GMT 12
I heard that Bombardier has stopped producing aeroplanes now. Does that mean no more new spares?
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Post by nuuumannn on Nov 20, 2020 9:06:26 GMT 12
I heard that Bombardier has stopped producing aeroplanes now. Does that mean no more new spares? No, support for the fleet is still guaranteed by other companies and spares can be bought from normal suppliers within the industry. I think Viking has now got the Dash side of things and of course the Q400 is still being built. The 50 seat Q300 stopped production in the mid 2000s and ours were among the last built. The production line was reopened for our order; the company was owned by Boeing at the time. Apart from the ATR42, no company is building 40 to 50 seat airliners at the moment, although I notice that Embraer is looking into doing so. It would be good to provide something on the market that isn't an ATR, particularly if you don't wanna buy into the Airbus/ATR ethos. |
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Post by lindstrim on Nov 21, 2020 20:56:57 GMT 12
ATR’s are pushed back in AKL and WLG, but not using the smaller Lectro but rather a larger one as the tug driver couldn’t see behind them when pushing.
There are more restrictions in terms of wind but it is done regularly.
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Post by planewriting on Nov 29, 2020 22:10:57 GMT 12
I dunno, I don't keep track of every aircraft movement and I'm not there everyday. You'd need to contact flight ops to verify that. Let's put it this way. NEJ has been in the hangar for a few months now. In that time I've worked on it a few times. I just have a cheap account with Flight Radar and it does not show up. Pay something and you get a history of Flight numbers and registrations. Sometimes Flight Aware has the last flight recorded and ZK-NEJ shows as such, Auckland to Nelson 26Jul20. I see on Flight Radar 24 that ZK-NEJ is due back in service on 1 December with a first flight from Nelson to Christchurch. www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/zk-nej |
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Post by planewriting on Mar 17, 2021 14:41:19 GMT 12
Referring back to Q300s NEJ and NEK not being in service for quite some time, I now see that NEG and NEH (again both in the blue scheme) are out of service, particularly NEG. Is this still to do with Coved 19 surpluses or is it something else I wonder. Nuuumannn - what is your understanding?
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