Post by flyjoe180 on Jun 26, 2008 12:11:57 GMT 12
The Bay of Islands airport at Kerikeri is now recognised as an international airport for aircraft carrying 12 or less persons and Far North Holdings hopes to reduce restrictions to allow larger craft.
Chairman Tony Norman says there are currently restrictions relating to weight – less than 22,000kg – and fuel but the company is applying for accreditation to remove the fuel dependency restriction.
"This will then only leave the weight restriction to allow larger craft in such as G5s", he says.
Customs criteria for the service level sought requires capital improvements to be made to the airport terminal to provide for security cameras, isolation rooms and automatic locking doors etc.
"We are working with them to rationalise these requirements to be more in line with the numbers to be cleared for any one aircraft, carrying 12 or less persons," says Mr Norman.
The company would like to get to the stage of catering for jetstream type aircraft and to do that the performance of the runway has to be improved, Mr Norman says.
The long running problem of runway ‘bubbling’ which proved a problem for many years has now been resolved and Far North Holdings is now in a position to start building runway strength with additional layers, he says.
New South Wales based pilot Jim Hazelton has been active in trying to get Kerikeri airport as an arrival and departure airport for customs purposes.
Jim has been a ferry pilot for years and travels the world picking up and delivering small aircraft.
He is a frequent visitor to New Zealand and always leaves via Kerikeri, where he takes on fuel before heading off to Lord How Island and then Australia.
Jim, a well known aviation enthusiast, celebrated his 77 birthday this week.
His diary reads like that of a man decades younger.
Jim flew a single engine Piper Comanche from Las Angeles last week via Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, entered at Auckland airport and then delivered the plane to a client in Taupo, says Kerikeri friend Dave Perry.
"He then caught a commercial flight to Dunedin and stayed overnight.
"In the morning he went to Dunedin airport to collect the plane shown in the photograph but it has been left outside overnight and the wings and fuselage were all iced up so they took it in to the hangar and turned on a gas heater to melt the ice off so he could fly it," says Mr Perry
"It took him five hours to get to Hamilton into a head wind," he says.
Jim is taking this plane to his own airstrip at Kempsey, NSW, and his client will collect it from there and fly it to Tasmania.
He then has one more project to undertake before he retires and that is to collect a Catalina flying boat from Portugal and deliver it to Australia where it will go into the Australian Air Force Museum.
Jim backs Far North Holdings efforts for the Bay of Islands airport, predicting that when Kerikeri is recognised as a proper international arrivals and depature point, the Far North will really open up for tourism with people able to fly into the Bay of Islands and head south.
"It will be a great thing for the area if they do succeed in becoming an exit and entry point.
"As things stand we have to get authority from Auckland and then customs meets us here."
Jim will be back in New Zealand in a week or so to pick up another small plane from Ardmore to deliver it to Fiji.
Again he will depart from Kerikeri airport.
IN TRANSIT: Australian pilot Jim Hazelton in Hamilton on his way to Kerikeri this week to deliver a crop duster plane to Australia.
www.stuff.co.nz/northland/4596214a1927.html
Chairman Tony Norman says there are currently restrictions relating to weight – less than 22,000kg – and fuel but the company is applying for accreditation to remove the fuel dependency restriction.
"This will then only leave the weight restriction to allow larger craft in such as G5s", he says.
Customs criteria for the service level sought requires capital improvements to be made to the airport terminal to provide for security cameras, isolation rooms and automatic locking doors etc.
"We are working with them to rationalise these requirements to be more in line with the numbers to be cleared for any one aircraft, carrying 12 or less persons," says Mr Norman.
The company would like to get to the stage of catering for jetstream type aircraft and to do that the performance of the runway has to be improved, Mr Norman says.
The long running problem of runway ‘bubbling’ which proved a problem for many years has now been resolved and Far North Holdings is now in a position to start building runway strength with additional layers, he says.
New South Wales based pilot Jim Hazelton has been active in trying to get Kerikeri airport as an arrival and departure airport for customs purposes.
Jim has been a ferry pilot for years and travels the world picking up and delivering small aircraft.
He is a frequent visitor to New Zealand and always leaves via Kerikeri, where he takes on fuel before heading off to Lord How Island and then Australia.
Jim, a well known aviation enthusiast, celebrated his 77 birthday this week.
His diary reads like that of a man decades younger.
Jim flew a single engine Piper Comanche from Las Angeles last week via Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, entered at Auckland airport and then delivered the plane to a client in Taupo, says Kerikeri friend Dave Perry.
"He then caught a commercial flight to Dunedin and stayed overnight.
"In the morning he went to Dunedin airport to collect the plane shown in the photograph but it has been left outside overnight and the wings and fuselage were all iced up so they took it in to the hangar and turned on a gas heater to melt the ice off so he could fly it," says Mr Perry
"It took him five hours to get to Hamilton into a head wind," he says.
Jim is taking this plane to his own airstrip at Kempsey, NSW, and his client will collect it from there and fly it to Tasmania.
He then has one more project to undertake before he retires and that is to collect a Catalina flying boat from Portugal and deliver it to Australia where it will go into the Australian Air Force Museum.
Jim backs Far North Holdings efforts for the Bay of Islands airport, predicting that when Kerikeri is recognised as a proper international arrivals and depature point, the Far North will really open up for tourism with people able to fly into the Bay of Islands and head south.
"It will be a great thing for the area if they do succeed in becoming an exit and entry point.
"As things stand we have to get authority from Auckland and then customs meets us here."
Jim will be back in New Zealand in a week or so to pick up another small plane from Ardmore to deliver it to Fiji.
Again he will depart from Kerikeri airport.
IN TRANSIT: Australian pilot Jim Hazelton in Hamilton on his way to Kerikeri this week to deliver a crop duster plane to Australia.
www.stuff.co.nz/northland/4596214a1927.html
