Come and see what goes on behind the security fences at Air New Zealand engineering. Last summer’s Technical Operations Open Day was a huge success and Tech Ops is opening its doors again next month to our Air New Zealand colleagues, and their friends and families.
When and Where:
Auckland engineering base, Geoffrey Roberts Road, April 4, 10am to 3pm
Christchurch. Engineering base, Orchard Road, Christchurch airport, April 5, 10am to 3pm
It’s rare chance for others to see the inner workings of an aeroplane, the workshops that support them and gain an insight into the people who keep our passengers and crew safe.
Lots to see and do!
• Climb aboard a Boeing 747 and see the interiors Tech Ops engineers installed
• How big is jet engine? Stand cheek by cowl with one and find out
• Climb aboard the skyjack to see the hangar from the height of an aircraft tail
• See fire rescue trucks in action
• Bouncy castles, face painting, bubble blowers, a colouring in competition free stickers, a sausage sizzle and much more!
You can even take a flight in a historic Douglas DC3 Dakota in either Christchurch or Auckland. Follow these links for more information and bookings. Auckland Dakota, Christchurch Dakota
A feature of this year’s open day is an invitation to community organisations looking after people with special needs. These organisations have been invited to take their people, families and their supporters to the bases before the event is opened to Air New Zealanders and their families.
Opening Hours
• FOR AIR NEW ZEALANDERS AND GUESTS: 10AM TO 3PMM
Free Tickets!
Get your FREE tickets online HERE
• How many friends and family can I bring? Only as many as you can safely look after. Remember it’s a working engineering facility with dangerous equipment at every turn.
• Minimum age? Normally children 15 and under are not permitted airside, but we have a special dispensation for the open day. It's up to you to take care of your young ones.
It’s all for charity but note that tickets are free but donation boxes will be placed around the base and all money collected will be donated to supported charities.
Food and Beverages
• Korucare staff will be running a sausage sizzle throughout the day and they will be asking for a gold coin donation. All proceeds will go to Korucare in return for their hard work.
• No alcohol is permitted on the base but soft drinks, ice creams and coffee will be available. Coffee and ice cream vans will also be donating a portion of proceeds to the supported charities.
• Water stations around the base will also be clearly marked on the event map.
Parking
Parking will be clearly signposted in staff carparks and other vacant land alongside the base. Parking wardens will be there to assist
Work station displays
Areas like composites, gas turbines, mechanical accessories, safety shop and engine displays will offer an interesting insight into the mechanics involved in aviation engineering.
Explore the inner workings of an aircraft, manned by staff or volunteers to answer questions and show some of the gear in action.
AKL/CHC Tech Ops Open Day 2009
25 posts
• Page 1 of 2 • 1, 2
by travnz » Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:36 pm
Right not everybody has access to Korunet
You will find that this is for Air NZ employees and their friends/families
You will find that this is for Air NZ employees and their friends/families
Last edited by travnz on Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by ZK-KAG » Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:48 pm
Yep no good for non Air-NZ employees.
"ZK-KAG"
"We who fly do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
Check out all the multiplayer action @ ARNZX "FNF"
"We who fly do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
Check out all the multiplayer action @ ARNZX "FNF"
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by HardCorePawn » Thu Apr 02, 2009 2:41 pm
hoooahhh... membership has its privileges 
the missus has us all booked in... i'll make her take her flash fancy pants DSLR and snap lots of shots...
the missus has us all booked in... i'll make her take her flash fancy pants DSLR and snap lots of shots...
"Son, we are about the break the surly bonds of gravity, and punch the face of God." -- Homer Simpson
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by BigBird » Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:44 pm
I spent a day with the Auckland techs when I was at college. We had to go to a place as as part of a work experience day (About 18 years ago now). The big chief of ANZ at the time picked me up from home that morning and on the way out there passed on a whole lot of useful info. Out there I got to see heaps, including a walkaround and through a 747 in the hangar. Walking out on the wing was amazing. Man those wings flex!
Also got to put a few fastener in an RNZAF C130 engine cover. The C130 was in for a major overhaul at the time. An Air Nauru 737 was also in for major work.
Now I work as a graphic artist, so something when awol with my plans to work in the aviation industry
Anyway, I'd highly recommend going on such a tour.
Also got to put a few fastener in an RNZAF C130 engine cover. The C130 was in for a major overhaul at the time. An Air Nauru 737 was also in for major work.
Now I work as a graphic artist, so something when awol with my plans to work in the aviation industry
Anyway, I'd highly recommend going on such a tour.
Last edited by BigBird on Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Ian Warren » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:12 pm
QUOTE
work as a graphic artist,[/quote]
Whats a Graphic Artist
not sure i could get a job doing that , maybe a plug 
Whats a Graphic Artist
not sure i could get a job doing that , maybe a plug 
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by ardypilot » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:19 pm
Got given a big MET assignment at the last minute and decided not to go, however I got up early to finish it, and made it down for the last hour- just in time to see the EK A380 landing which was neat.
Got a few snaps on my point-and-shoot, pretty lame quality but I was in a rush. Was good to see Andrew and Geoff down there with the Warbirds and have a chat too.
ZK-EAA:
OKH's panel. Was queuing up to have a nosey in the cockpit of the 772 with an ANZ pilot who'd just landed another one of these after a 13 hour flight!
One of the 744's for sale has had it's engines removed 'to prevent moisture damage from outside storage'
Tried to make this one a bit arty cos' the shot was cr@p
Even the airforce turned up!
Have never seen this Tiger before, and it's actually painted like a Tiger too. Brilliant!
Andrew, daughter and DAK:
Nice little RC Fletcher- saw something similar doing aerobatics beneath us on approach to Ardmore the other day. Took me a few seconds to figure out what it was and why it was so small, these things seem have have incredible spreed and range for their size!
Got a few snaps on my point-and-shoot, pretty lame quality but I was in a rush. Was good to see Andrew and Geoff down there with the Warbirds and have a chat too.
ZK-EAA:
OKH's panel. Was queuing up to have a nosey in the cockpit of the 772 with an ANZ pilot who'd just landed another one of these after a 13 hour flight!
One of the 744's for sale has had it's engines removed 'to prevent moisture damage from outside storage'
Tried to make this one a bit arty cos' the shot was cr@p
Even the airforce turned up!
Have never seen this Tiger before, and it's actually painted like a Tiger too. Brilliant!
Andrew, daughter and DAK:
Nice little RC Fletcher- saw something similar doing aerobatics beneath us on approach to Ardmore the other day. Took me a few seconds to figure out what it was and why it was so small, these things seem have have incredible spreed and range for their size!
Last edited by ardypilot on Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by HardCorePawn » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:40 pm
It was such a great day... photo's and report coming shortly...
"Son, we are about the break the surly bonds of gravity, and punch the face of God." -- Homer Simpson
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by HardCorePawn » Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:21 pm
You can see the original version over at my blog...
NOTE: Click the pics for fullsize versions
Air New Zealand Technical Operations held an open day out at Auckland International for staff and family today... and jade (knowing how much of a 'Tech Geek' I am) was more than happy to take me along. She also invited her sister Pearl, a naturally 'inquisitive' person
and Pearl's husband Greg, who is an engineer by trade and, like myself, a bit of a 'Tech Geek'...
I suggested we get there as early as possible, which turned out to be the best decision of the day, as we finished looking at the last of the things to see pretty much right on finishing time.
The various trades amongst TechOps had setup various displays in their departments and we wandered around looking at some pretty cool stuff... and talking to some very interesting characters who were, in general, pretty eager to talk about their world.
We started with the calibration unit, which tests and calibrates a lot of the equipment used by the various TechOps departments. One of the highlights of which was completely unrelated to their actual function... They had a little laptop connected to a projector and webcam which was using motion tracking as you walked past the webcam to pan the view on the projector[1]
They other highlight was the little 'pads' they use to weigh aircraft. A group of kids were trying to get the scales to read 747... as the info sign said a 747 weighed something like 178,000Kg's... They were happy that such a big guy as myself showed up[2]... and not just because I helped them cheat by changing the display to pounds!
Following this, we made our way to the main hangar and apron area where they had several aircraft on display like a 777-200, a couple of 747's, an RNZAF Hercules, a 737, an old jetstream j32, the warbirds DC-3, an old tiger-moth and the little Cri-Cri...
First up we had a nosey around and in the 777-200. It is a truly impressive piece of kit... the sheer size of everything just blows you away. I'm sure the wheel wells are bigger than our old apartment and the tyres themselves are almost 5ft in diameter! This one was in the shop having an internal refit to put in more premium economy seats.
Plenty of room under a 777-200
Jade thought it was quite amusing that the tyres had Boeing Part numbers on them... mind you, she also thought the person dressed as B1 (from Bananas in Pajamas) was amusing too...
need a spare? just calling Boeing and order one!
Then we 'queued' our way up the stairs for a peek inside... not much to see as they had walled off the main cabin due to the refit, but at least we got to visit the flightdeck.
Made it... LHS of a heavy
They had some engines in various states of repair on display and had set one up for photo ops. To give you some sense of scale, I am 6' 3".
Yeah, they're pretty big...
We wandered outside to have a peek at the RNZAF C-130 Hercules, as I was hoping to get some flightdeck shots. While we were climbing up the ramp they towed another 747 onto the apron area and jade got all artistic...
The world famous Koru... from the belly of a C-130
As is usually the case, we queued... and queued... This led to jade getting a little bored and, being part of the AirNZ Safety and Employment Wellbeing team, she started taking some very random 'safety related' pics...
Safety first...
In case you didn't pay attention...
Surprisingly comfortable
We finally made it to the front, only by the time we got there, the guys keeping an eye on things must have decided they needed a bit of a rest and had pulled the ladder out and taped the flightdeck off, so all we could do was poke our heads up into the flightdeck area for a nosy
So, we headed off to what jade likes to call 'A Real Aeroplane'™... otherwise known as a 747. After an enormously long wait[3], we finally made it onto the upper level and onto the flightdeck...
Let's take this puppy for a spin!
jade getting artistic again...
A nice bit of tail
We wandered around the 'hobby' section, where various TechOps guys had their 'toys' on display... everything from model RC aircraft, drag bikes, blo-karts, a hovercraft, a Ford 429 Cobra, a simply stunning Mini Cooper, a tiger moth and the Cri-Cri, to a 'world famous' brewer displaying some of his wares (here's hoping I win the raffle for 4 bottles of his limited edition India Pale Ale!
We then headed off to some of the quieter sections... like the 'Safety' section, which was all about fire fighting equipment and life rafts... The staff member on hand was really friendly and seemed thrilled that we were interested in something as 'boring' as life rafts... but when you find out they can inflate a liferaft the size of my double garage in less than 6 seconds, well I find that kind of thing pretty cool! What actually surprised me the most, was they way they actually inflate. I always thought they were like the lifejackets and they had gas stored in a little canister and this is used to inflate the raft.
However, the gas canisters are not used directly to inflate them as they are actually only about the size of normal scuba diving tank (although they're made of aluminium and carbon fibre and pressurised to 3,000 PSI), so they don't hold anywhere near enough gas to inflate the huge liferafts... What they do is feed the gas into an 'aspirator' (basically a large venturi tube arrangement) which creates a huge vacuum and basically sucks in all the air required... quite ingenious really.
We also found out that as the material the liferafts are made out of had a limited lifespan, they don't just keep rolls of it on the shelf waiting for you to order a US$85,000 liferaft for your 767. Nope, they make the material when you place your order, which results in a lead time of some 120 days to get a new liferaft! So, if you want one for christmas, you'd better order now
Pearl testing out a liferaft...
Following this we went to Air New Zealand Gas Turbines... who, ironically, don't actually service the gas turbine engines for aircraft... but for ships and oil-rigs!!! We ran into a really nice guy who, when he figured out I was actually genuinely interested[4], gave us a personal mini-tour and answered all of our questions. He quoted some very impressive numbers... 25,000 hours between overhaul for the engines... 10,000RPM when running near maximum... each blade on the turbine is worth about USD$7,000 and just the turbine component of the engine was worth around USD$1.85million... they had a unit on display with about 4 or 5 blades that had huge chunks taken out of them... "Most probably a nut went through the engine"... yikes!
Then he showed us a unit they had recently finished overhauling and were packaging up ready to ship out. Apparently, they don't come in quite as clean as this
General Electric LM2500 - Ready for export
We wandered through the composites section and had a look at various bits and pieces of carbon fibre, fibreglass, honeycomb and the way repairs are made etc... It never ceases to amaze me how something so thin and light can be so strong! We headed back to the main hanger to see if the queue for the scissor lift had got any shorter, as jade was keen for a ride, but if anything the queue was even longer, so we decided to give it a miss and call it a day.
On the way out stopped off to have a look at the 'Simulator Simulator'... I'm not sure what the purpose of this unit is exactly, but I get the feeling it is used to let crew familiarise themselves with the layout of the instrument panel.
I think this gauge is faulty...
All in all, a very fun and informative day out...
[1] I really am a geek...
[2] We made it to 747 too!
[3] At least they had plenty of seats
[4] I do after all have to study Basic Gas Turbine theory at some point... oh and I am a geek
NOTE: Click the pics for fullsize versions
Air New Zealand Technical Operations held an open day out at Auckland International for staff and family today... and jade (knowing how much of a 'Tech Geek' I am) was more than happy to take me along. She also invited her sister Pearl, a naturally 'inquisitive' person
and Pearl's husband Greg, who is an engineer by trade and, like myself, a bit of a 'Tech Geek'...I suggested we get there as early as possible, which turned out to be the best decision of the day, as we finished looking at the last of the things to see pretty much right on finishing time.
The various trades amongst TechOps had setup various displays in their departments and we wandered around looking at some pretty cool stuff... and talking to some very interesting characters who were, in general, pretty eager to talk about their world.
We started with the calibration unit, which tests and calibrates a lot of the equipment used by the various TechOps departments. One of the highlights of which was completely unrelated to their actual function... They had a little laptop connected to a projector and webcam which was using motion tracking as you walked past the webcam to pan the view on the projector[1]
They other highlight was the little 'pads' they use to weigh aircraft. A group of kids were trying to get the scales to read 747... as the info sign said a 747 weighed something like 178,000Kg's... They were happy that such a big guy as myself showed up[2]... and not just because I helped them cheat by changing the display to pounds!
Following this, we made our way to the main hangar and apron area where they had several aircraft on display like a 777-200, a couple of 747's, an RNZAF Hercules, a 737, an old jetstream j32, the warbirds DC-3, an old tiger-moth and the little Cri-Cri...
First up we had a nosey around and in the 777-200. It is a truly impressive piece of kit... the sheer size of everything just blows you away. I'm sure the wheel wells are bigger than our old apartment and the tyres themselves are almost 5ft in diameter! This one was in the shop having an internal refit to put in more premium economy seats.
Plenty of room under a 777-200
Jade thought it was quite amusing that the tyres had Boeing Part numbers on them... mind you, she also thought the person dressed as B1 (from Bananas in Pajamas) was amusing too...
need a spare? just calling Boeing and order one!
Then we 'queued' our way up the stairs for a peek inside... not much to see as they had walled off the main cabin due to the refit, but at least we got to visit the flightdeck.
Made it... LHS of a heavy
They had some engines in various states of repair on display and had set one up for photo ops. To give you some sense of scale, I am 6' 3".
Yeah, they're pretty big...
We wandered outside to have a peek at the RNZAF C-130 Hercules, as I was hoping to get some flightdeck shots. While we were climbing up the ramp they towed another 747 onto the apron area and jade got all artistic...
The world famous Koru... from the belly of a C-130
As is usually the case, we queued... and queued... This led to jade getting a little bored and, being part of the AirNZ Safety and Employment Wellbeing team, she started taking some very random 'safety related' pics...
Safety first...
In case you didn't pay attention...
Surprisingly comfortable
We finally made it to the front, only by the time we got there, the guys keeping an eye on things must have decided they needed a bit of a rest and had pulled the ladder out and taped the flightdeck off, so all we could do was poke our heads up into the flightdeck area for a nosy
So, we headed off to what jade likes to call 'A Real Aeroplane'™... otherwise known as a 747. After an enormously long wait[3], we finally made it onto the upper level and onto the flightdeck...
Let's take this puppy for a spin!
jade getting artistic again...
A nice bit of tail
We wandered around the 'hobby' section, where various TechOps guys had their 'toys' on display... everything from model RC aircraft, drag bikes, blo-karts, a hovercraft, a Ford 429 Cobra, a simply stunning Mini Cooper, a tiger moth and the Cri-Cri, to a 'world famous' brewer displaying some of his wares (here's hoping I win the raffle for 4 bottles of his limited edition India Pale Ale!
We then headed off to some of the quieter sections... like the 'Safety' section, which was all about fire fighting equipment and life rafts... The staff member on hand was really friendly and seemed thrilled that we were interested in something as 'boring' as life rafts... but when you find out they can inflate a liferaft the size of my double garage in less than 6 seconds, well I find that kind of thing pretty cool! What actually surprised me the most, was they way they actually inflate. I always thought they were like the lifejackets and they had gas stored in a little canister and this is used to inflate the raft.
However, the gas canisters are not used directly to inflate them as they are actually only about the size of normal scuba diving tank (although they're made of aluminium and carbon fibre and pressurised to 3,000 PSI), so they don't hold anywhere near enough gas to inflate the huge liferafts... What they do is feed the gas into an 'aspirator' (basically a large venturi tube arrangement) which creates a huge vacuum and basically sucks in all the air required... quite ingenious really.
We also found out that as the material the liferafts are made out of had a limited lifespan, they don't just keep rolls of it on the shelf waiting for you to order a US$85,000 liferaft for your 767. Nope, they make the material when you place your order, which results in a lead time of some 120 days to get a new liferaft! So, if you want one for christmas, you'd better order now
Pearl testing out a liferaft...
Following this we went to Air New Zealand Gas Turbines... who, ironically, don't actually service the gas turbine engines for aircraft... but for ships and oil-rigs!!! We ran into a really nice guy who, when he figured out I was actually genuinely interested[4], gave us a personal mini-tour and answered all of our questions. He quoted some very impressive numbers... 25,000 hours between overhaul for the engines... 10,000RPM when running near maximum... each blade on the turbine is worth about USD$7,000 and just the turbine component of the engine was worth around USD$1.85million... they had a unit on display with about 4 or 5 blades that had huge chunks taken out of them... "Most probably a nut went through the engine"... yikes!
Then he showed us a unit they had recently finished overhauling and were packaging up ready to ship out. Apparently, they don't come in quite as clean as this
General Electric LM2500 - Ready for export
We wandered through the composites section and had a look at various bits and pieces of carbon fibre, fibreglass, honeycomb and the way repairs are made etc... It never ceases to amaze me how something so thin and light can be so strong! We headed back to the main hanger to see if the queue for the scissor lift had got any shorter, as jade was keen for a ride, but if anything the queue was even longer, so we decided to give it a miss and call it a day.
On the way out stopped off to have a look at the 'Simulator Simulator'... I'm not sure what the purpose of this unit is exactly, but I get the feeling it is used to let crew familiarise themselves with the layout of the instrument panel.
I think this gauge is faulty...
All in all, a very fun and informative day out...
[1] I really am a geek...
[2] We made it to 747 too!
[3] At least they had plenty of seats
[4] I do after all have to study Basic Gas Turbine theory at some point... oh and I am a geek
Last edited by HardCorePawn on Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Son, we are about the break the surly bonds of gravity, and punch the face of God." -- Homer Simpson
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HardCorePawn - Senior Member
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by ardypilot » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:03 am
snapster wrote:QUOTE (snapster @ Apr 5 2009, 01:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>progress of the second (well third) runway
Cool shots Jarred and Alex- progress seems to be coming along quite rapidly with the new runway at Auckland ay? Are there any plan outlines avilable on the net actually showing what they are constructing and when its going to be finished?
PS- Awesome Iron Maiden sigLast edited by ardypilot on Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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ardypilot - NZFF Pro
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by NZ255 » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:08 am
http://auckland-airport.co.nz/AirportInfor...ern-runway.aspx
http://auckland-airport.co.nz/Corporate/Ne...20oct%2007.ashx
http://auckland-airport.co.nz/Corporate/Ne...20oct%2007.ashx
Nick
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NZ255 - NZFF Pro
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by NZ255 » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:24 am
You can chuck that into GE and you get:
So whos going to make it in FS then?
The runway is only 32m wide, only enough for a 1900D.....whats the point, would've make it accommodate all the "Link" aircraft at least. Correct me if I'm wrong.
So whos going to make it in FS then?
The runway is only 32m wide, only enough for a 1900D.....whats the point, would've make it accommodate all the "Link" aircraft at least. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Nick
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NZ255 - NZFF Pro
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by d3fai13r » Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:37 pm
NZ255 wrote:QUOTE (NZ255 @ Apr 5 2009, 11:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The runway is only 32m wide, only enough for a 1900D.....whats the point, would've make it accommodate all the "Link" aircraft at least. Correct me if I'm wrong.
at stage1, of 3 i think, second is all link(no reason to build atr/737 runway until new domestic terminal will be build), third stage is "737" runway
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by d3fai13r » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:08 pm
few photos form there
Also cabins of 777 747 737 and gear of 777 are there(sorry can not not dynamics url into img tag)
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=316
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=315
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=314
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=331
Also cabins of 777 747 737 and gear of 777 are there(sorry can not not dynamics url into img tag)
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=316
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=315
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=314
http://forum.spotters.net.ua/download/file.php?id=331
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