Early Morning Blenheim

[ZK-MAT]

I flew out from Blenheim at 7am this morning (after Friday PM's flight was cancelled). It was frustrating hearing what I could tell was Beech 1900's coming in yesterday afternoon but they weren't flying out!

My digital is very low quality and I didn't want to use the flash (in order to get the colouring) so excuse the blurryness. I thought the scene was serene

[leow5263]

WOW

[ardypilot]

Great pics Matt- thanks for sharing. What were you doing down in Marlborough then?

QUOTE

(after Friday PM's flight was cancelled). It was frustrating hearing what I could tell was Beech 1900's coming in yesterday afternoon but they weren't flying out![/quote]
And far enough too- Tropical Cyclone Innis was moving down the east of the country yesterday. (Red in the morning, Sheppard Warning!) Not sure where it made landfall, but vis at Ardmore was down to about 1500 feet, and I felt sorry for the chap from Greymouth who caught an afternoon flight down to Hokitika. via Christchurch with ANZ- doubt the ride over the Alps would have been the smoothest of flights if it was ever cleared to take off!

Last edited by ardypilot on Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[d3fai13r]

What are light conditions! Thanks very much for photos! I just love them

[ZK-MAT]

Thanks for the comments

I was helping out our Blenheim office as they have been struggling to catch up after the storms last year. Basically handled all the new claims so the guys could sit in the office and do paperwork lol. I got to see a fair bit of Picton and the Sounds. Travelled the Kenepuru Road three times in all, lovely twisties, wish I had my bike!

I got there last Sunday and due to fly out Friday PM. The weather really was lousy Thurs night but cleared by midday. I checked the Air NZ website at work 2 hours before my flight to NZAA and it was cancelled. The flights before and after weren't ... so I rang the airport and they said it was due to the weather, while I was on the phone re-scheduling I could hear planes flying overhead to the airport and it was clearing up. Was not a happy chappie! There was a later flight but that was full so I had to wait till this morning. I reckon they didn't get enough punters for the flight to be honest.

What really irked me was they did not contact me to tell me, so I could have rocked on up to the airport and be left high and dry. As it was I had to extend the car rental and motel, and miss an important engagement Friday night. Today's flight featured a 2.5 hour stop in Wgtn, meant to be an hour .... thankfully the terminal has free internet to keep me amused for a while.

[Vegetableman]

It's most likely the flight in was canned, I'm guessing you were on the 1650 Q300?
The Q300 got stuck (due to weather) elsewhere so they canceled the flight. That meant they had 40 people to get onto the beeches going out (4 more flights out after that) I guess they couldn't quite fit everyone on. The check in girls (and guy) at BHE are really good and they always do their best to get you to your destination.

Nice photo's by the way, I have some nice ones of the 3 Beeches at 6am with the sun just coming up (I do bags part time at BHE) unfortunately my camera didn't like the low light very much so they're a bit grainy.

[Gavin Conroy]

Thats a nice sunrise, I was out cycling and watched the sky change and it was quite dramatic.

I fly quite a bit with work etc and have seen some very low numbers in some of the aeroplanes and from what my pilot friends tell me the planes still have to fly regardless of how many people are on them.

In the last week I was on a 737 with around 30 people on it and a 1900D with 4 people and that aircraft was running from Blenheim to CHCH so not a cheap flight for Air NZ.

[Alex]

Awesome shots Matt, the sunrise looks spectacular.

Alex

[ZK-MAT]

QUOTE (Vegetableman @ Feb 21 2009, 10:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's most likely the flight in was canned, I'm guessing you were on the 1650

That makes sense that the plane didn't make it in rather than too little numbers to get out, thanks

[FlyingKiwi]

Those are some beautiful photos.

[Ian Warren]

Matt , be an ideal SIM versus REAL screenie .. now who is up for that ! .. ya have the 1900D , the RealNZ scenery , and just the right time to get a perfect FS copy

[AlisterC]

Great pics Matt, and an interesting story Glad you made it home eventually!

[benwynn]

Fantastic Matt, that red sky looks superb.

[Ace]

Eh looks similar to the sky we had the other morning when the first Air NZ flight from Masterton took off. (The above photo was taken long before it looked like your pics though).

The 1900Ds look good against the pink

[ZK-MAT]

QUOTE (Ace @ Feb 22 2009, 05:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Eh looks similar to the sky we had the other morning when the first Air NZ flight from Masterton took off. (The above photo was taken long before it looked like your pics though).

The 1900Ds look good against the pink

Now that looks cool!!!! I agree the 1900's look neat against the pink red skies

[NZ255]

Josh, have you got a bigger version of that pic?

[Ace]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ Feb 22 2009, 11:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Josh, have you got a bigger version of that pic?

Sure, Ill send it through with those other pics you asked for, which I should have all ready for tomorrow.

[Ace]

It seems I told a lie, the pic was taken at sunset the night before, not to worry, it looked much the same in the morning, just the other direction

Had a few requests for a larger version of the above image, so I just uploaded the whole set. Take your pick, and please use these images for personal use only

Also apologize for the clarity of the photos, only had an old camera on me at the time.

Click to enlarge:

[NZ255]

QUOTE (Ace @ Feb 23 2009, 03:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sure, Ill send it through with those other pics you asked for, which I should have all ready for tomorrow.

Great!

That second shot looks awesome

[Yak52aholic]

Wow, those are some real beauties there. I haven't got any photos like that at all only one of the tarmac, F27 etc in the "morning atmosphere".