NZFF

http://www.voxy.co.nz/business/gulf-air-a3...airport/5/30007


Wow an A340 landing in Wellington! Absolutely unbelievable....it must have used up the entire runway aye! It would have dwarfed all the ATR-72's, Beech 1900D's and the Q300's! Also the 737's!!

Anyone living in Wellington that would like to share what they saw, or does anyone have any pics? Would love to see them!

Regards,
Smiggles

Smiggles wrote:

QUOTE (Smiggles @ Nov 12 2009, 06:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

http://www.voxy.co.nz/business/gulf-air-a3...airport/5/30007


Wow an A340 landing in Wellington! Absolutely unbelievable....it must have used up the entire runway aye! It would have dwarfed all the ATR-72's, Beech 1900D's and the Q300's! Also the 737's!!

Anyone living in Wellington that would like to share what they saw, or does anyone have any pics? Would love to see them!

Regards,
Smiggles

Went down and watched it land at around 5:30 today. Didn't get any pics as I wanted to see it for real instead of through a camera viewfinder
Was pretty impressive, bounced a bit so wasn't firmly on the ground until the Air Force building (using Rwy 34) but with hard reverse thrust and braking managed to stop before then end. Don't know how well the landing would have gone without the strong headwind they had!

It's parked at the moment at one of the gates Pacific Blue use. The Fire Service tried to do a water cannon salute but the spray didn't even reach the fuselage due to the A340's long wings and the very strong northerly.

Bloody hell and I thought the 747SP would be the biggest thing to land in Welly.

Today , the types , landing weights , aircraft size is literary controlled by airport facilities , the taxi / tarmac and were to park ... I would have loved to see the faces off the pilots , i'm sure they would have enjoyed that challenge .... a 340 .. 200 series i guess .. but just great for ya Welly plane spoters

Peppermint wrote:

QUOTE (Peppermint @ Nov 12 2009, 08:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bloody hell and I thought the 747SP would be the biggest thing to land in Welly.

Pre that was the BA 777 .. queeny visit

Ian Warren wrote:

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Nov 12 2009, 08:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Today , the types , landing weights , aircraft size is literary controlled by airport facilities , the taxi / tarmac and were to park ... I would have loved to see the faces off the pilots , i'm sure they would have enjoyed that challenge .... a 340 .. 200 series i guess .. but just great for ya Welly plane spoters



Pre that was the BA 777 .. queeny visit

Try a 747-200. Air New Zealand did fly one in years back to prove that it could operate into Wellington in an emergency. No passengers on the flight, but I believe they landed at a weight as if they did. I went through Welly airport this evening and wondered what the A340 was doing there. Bigger than the rest for sure, but did not look overly dominant or imposing.

deaneb wrote:

QUOTE (deaneb @ Nov 12 2009, 08:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try a 747-200. Air New Zealand did fly one in years back to prove that it could operate into Wellington in an emergency. No passengers on the flight, but I believe they landed at a weight as if they did. I went through Welly airport this evening and wondered what the A340 was doing there. Bigger than the rest for sure, but did not look overly dominant or imposing.

I sure with loaded with people its not a worry with weights , as ya well no Deane , if any 747 driver could get a SP in their , ive done it with a 400 todays biggy's are ........... push this button STOP

Didn't a UAL 744 make an emergency landing in Wellington a few years back?

Yeah in 1991 (both NZAA and NZCH were fogged in -- not too sure why it didnt land at Ohakea) took off again too with load of pax (I think?)

Just saw it fly out this morning. Not hard to miss a massive four engined beast like that over the capital

victor_alpha_charlie wrote:

QUOTE (victor_alpha_charlie @ Nov 12 2009, 06:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Went down and watched it land at around 5:30 today. Didn't get any pics as I wanted to see it for real instead of through a camera viewfinder
Was pretty impressive, bounced a bit so wasn't firmly on the ground until the Air Force building (using Rwy 34) but with hard reverse thrust and braking managed to stop before then end. Don't know how well the landing would have gone without the strong headwind they had!

It was very windy wasn't it! The way I saw it, it touched down just before the "touchdown zone" markings, though it may not have settled on it's gear till latter. I love the reverse thrust buckets it uses (the four door clamshell). From what I saw it looked quite straight forward landing.

Ian Warren wrote:

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Nov 12 2009, 08:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Today , the types , landing weights , aircraft size is literary controlled by airport facilities , the taxi / tarmac and were to park ... I would have loved to see the faces off the pilots , i'm sure they would have enjoyed that challenge .... a 340 .. 200 series i guess .. but just great for ya Welly plane spoters

It was an A340-300. From what I heard the captain came across a few days before the flight to check the airport out, apparently he commented about how short the runway is.


Here are some pictures I got when it landed, I'll post some of it on the stand and taking off latter.

Airtrainer These are GREAT photos , When i get RealNZ Wellington installed i must try this

Cheers for those photos! Amazing to see such a big bird in Wellington!

Now quite a few videos it it on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer..._type=&aq=f

Didn't use a lot of runway getting airborne did it! Incidentally, Gulf Air have a really spectacular livery - pity most airlines these days are happy with plain white.

I'll post soon, but I was lucky to get some taking off shots. Thought I'd pop to the airport before work (I went to the soccer the night before). Saw a crowd and to my great timing, saw the brute take off getting some fairly decent shots considering the rushed timing!

Well here they are. I had about 30s to set up my camera.

Cool shots mate, that first one really puts its size into perspective against WLG.

I know. I wsa soooo lucky to be there at the right time too. Just as it was turing onto the runway. You could see it flying over for miles! Even turning towards Sydney (this was about 20km at least in the distance)