NZFF

Hi guys,

A couple of weeks ago, I got invited to spend a couple of hours up at Auckland Tower. That ended up happening today.

I drove up there with Dad, who was gonna do some work stuff, and then take the car back down.

Got to the airport about midday, and a little later up into the tower. It was a slow lift up so plenty of time for anticipation to build up . Opened up, first thing I did was go to the loo . Then up a flight of stairs to the tower proper. Was about the same size as I imagined it would be.

There was a sink, water cooler, fridge, bench etc. Along the airport side was a bench with four control stations along it. Tower, Ground, Clearance Delivery and Flight Research. And plenty of windows all the way around.

Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad. Twenty knot winds, gusting thirty knots from heading 030, and visi was about 2000-3000. But it was nice and warm in the tower. Had a good chat to the controllers and asked a couple of questions. And learnt a whole lot more little fiddly things about the operating procs at NZAA.

All in all they seemed a very friendly, relaxed bunch, and it looked like they were having a good time. Left the tower at about half past one to catch NZ2363 (dep. time was 1:55) to Rotorua, just before I checked in they said that the flight would be delayed ten minutes, ok, no worries there.

Mucked around for 20mins before boarding and sitting there for about 10mins. Took off into a cloudy, bumpy, Auckland sky. Levelled off at 12000ft and continued. I read the Air NZ magazine, must have been really desperate .

Soon we started out descent, and then it got really bumpy. Really felt just like a roller coaster, except in a roller coaster you can go down in one instant, and then leave your stomach on the floor as you shoot upwards in the next. Finally got through the bumps for the approach into runway 18 at Rotorua.

Got down to about 3000ft and caught glimpses of the city through the cloud.

Suddenly, pitch up, throttle up, gear up, flaps up, we went around. After a suitable (2 minute) wait to build up tension, the FO came on the PA (the FO was a woman). "Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately the visibility on approach fell below minimas and we have had to divert, other nearby suitable airports have similar weather conditions so we will be returning to Auckland".

One word: .

Anyway, rode that roller coaster back up through to cruising alitude. Levelled out again. Bit of a bumpy arrival but other than that quite ordinary.

Had a nice chat to the Captain after we landed, apparently the minima is 600ft, so there must have been pretty damn near fog at NZRO. And the conditions were set to get worse so he thought there wasn't a lot of point trying it again.

Back in the terminal, feeling suitably queasy from the flight, we were told to wait by the check-in desks while they sorted something out. A while later a british Air NZ lady (had a really strong British accent) came over and told us that we would be going by road back down to Rotorua. The last thing I needed to hear after nearly an hour and a half of bumpy flight with my stomach up in arms.

Got a bit of drink and food into me and we were off on the road. Apart from the apalling weather it was a pretty boring trip back down.

All in all it was a great day though, really really enjoyed it.

Alex

Oh, and by the way, there are a few (40+) bad, low-res shots that you can see here. (They seem to have uploaded backwards though, so thats a little weird...)

What a day!

didn't know ATC used TV monitors like that.

so close, yet so far in rotorua eh? that really sucks travelling all that way then having to divert back to your departure, then having to drive down.

Yea, but overall it was a great day .

Alex

Great report and write up Alex!

I hope you found it as exciting and inspiring as my plane ride the other week.

Thanks for sharing the photos too- what a bummer having to divert back to NZAA, did you get a refund? lol

Oh well, at least you got to experience a ride inside a 1900d, I have always wanted to see the inside one of them, as I have the tower everytime I gaze up at it while planespotting

One more thing- was there an American lady there directing ATC? I always seem to hear her accent on my scanner...

Yeah...happens in my flightsim, too...
Now there's a little project in the making: some Downunder chatter - FSX anyone? B)

Trolly wrote:One more thing- was there an American lady there directing ATC? I always seem to hear her accent on my scanner...

Yes there was, Tess, from Canada (shown in a really bad likeness on a couple of my pics) she was really nice.

Also picked up a couple of anecdotes. Apparently Korean Air is infamous (or perhaps just consistently unlucky lol) for their incompetence. Its so bad that the FAA requires they have an American second officer on board if they are flying to or from the US.

Because of the continuing work upgrading the runways, one day workers were working on the southern end of runway 23R/05L. A Korean 747
was coming in on the approach to rwy 23.

Because 23 was closed they had the big 'X' lit up. The Korean headed straight for it, and the workers dived in all directions off the runway. They must have been a little scared .

Alex

Alex wrote:

Trolly wrote:One more thing- was there an American lady there directing ATC? I always seem to hear her accent on my scanner...

Yes there was, Tess, from Canada (shown in a really bad likeness on a couple of my pics) she was really nice.

Also picked up a couple of anecdotes. Apparently Korean Air is infamous (or perhaps just consistently unlucky lol) for their incompetence. Its so bad that the FAA requires they have an American second officer on board if they are flying to or from the US.

Because of the continuing work upgrading the runways, one day workers were working on the southern end of runway 23R/05L. A Korean 747
was coming in on the approach to rwy 23.

Because 23 was closed they had the big 'X' lit up. The Korean headed straight for it, and the workers dived in all directions off the runway. They must have been a little scared .

Alex

Hey Alex,
Wow that must have been really freaky for the Workers..Didn't the Korean Air Pilots see the X sign and didn't ATC confirm with them on what RUnway to land on??

Did u manage to take any pics since u were up at the Control Tower??

Well what they did and didn't do is debatable. Its not the easiest to tell from the tower which runway they are going to land on till they are only about 100ft above the ground.

See the link at the end of my post .

Alex

so the workers were fixing 23R, the korean aircraft tries to land on 23R? its not even the main runway.

reminds me of korean air 801 (747-300) which crashed in guam. the pilots were so busy trying to figure out whether the ILS was working (after the control tower specifically told them it wasn't) that they crashed into the mountains on approach, killing 228 people. (wikipedia link)

tho it can't just be Korean airlines: singapore airlines flight 6, took off on runway 5R (closed) instead of 5L in taiwan. Crash killed 83 people (747-400) (wikipedia link)

Hey Alex, Yea it's kinda hard to tell..
Oh sorry.didn't see the link there..thanks..
Nice shots from the Tower..