Beautiful Sunrise DC-10 Flight

[Aharon]

Shalom and greetings all my pals,

Presenting a nice DC-10 flight from NZAA Auckland Airport located 13 miles south of city centre of Auckland to NZCH Christchurch International Airport 12 kilometres to the northwest of the city centre of Christchruch,

After take off and heading south with nice wing view of waters of Whaingaroa Harbour leading inside north island of New Zealand shown on far left and waters of Hauraki Gulf shown below the wing's tip as well as waters of Tasman Sea under jet engine



Sunrise shine on DC-10



Passengers sitting on right side are not lucky not to be able to have nice sunrise view



Cruising



Sunrise colors are certainly strange



Don't you love sunrise view?



Day is getting brighter



Crossing waters of Cook Strait located between North and South Islands of New Zealand



Passing city of Nelson, New Zealand and its NZNS Nelson Airport located in in the suburb of Annesbrook 6 km southwest of the city



Engine view of Mount Richmond Forest Park




At 3,000 ft getting ready for approach to runway 02 where you can see in background another Air New Zealand plane on his or her final runway approach and you can see highway route number one also known as Main S Road under the plane



TOUCHDOWN using era 1970s Kodak photograph style



Front landing gear gliding down slowly in graceful manner using era 1970s Kodak photograph style



Front landing gear making ground contact



You can see how busy NZCH Christchurch airport was during Christchurch Vatsim event where you can see long line of planes taxiing to runway although I do not know how or why JAL Japan Air Line 747 took off from runway 02 using very very very short runway distance



Thank you for viewing! Stay tuned for next exciting flight.

Regards,

Aharon

[Splitpin]

Holy cow ... what a set of shots
I do like the Kodak effect.

I was lucky enough to fly on one of these many years ago, from CHC to AKL (Positioning flight)
Sadly , I believe it was the one that never came home.

[Aharon]

Splitpin,

Thanks for your very kind words.

I was lucky enough to fly on one of these many years ago, from CHC to AKL (Positioning flight)

How did NZ DC-10 wind up in NZCH? Charter flight? You flew as passenger or pilot on the DC-10 positioning flight from NZCH to NZAA?

Regards,

Aharon

[Splitpin]

As a passenger.
A friend and I were going back to AKL after some leave in CHC . The air force had booked us on a flight, but we were called to the check in desk and asked if we wanted to go on an earlier flight.
We had no idea it was a DC-10. From memory, there were only about 50 people onboard .
I remember having an entire row ...both sides, to my self, I couldn't see any other passengers.... the thing was huge inside.
My seat was over the wing, and I'll never forget the noise when the landing gear was raised and lowered.... very odd.

It's odd, I can't remember what I had for dinner last night ... but I can recall that trip
Not bad for almost 40 years ago.

[Aharon]

Splitpin,

Thanks for very interesting explanation about history of rare DC-10's flight from NZCH to NZAA!!

Regards,

Aharon

[cowpatz]

Nice shots Aharon.
Arguably the DC10 must be the most aesthetically pleasing aircraft ever built. Such a wonderful looking aircraft and one that was a joy to fly and ahead of it's time.
The DC10 regularly flew between CHC and AKL. It would fly from AKL to CHC (NZ228 I think) and fly CHC SYD CHC before returning to AKL in the late afternoon as NZ227.
Whenever possibly it would land with the centre gear retracted. This was so the landing fees would be assessed based on being a DC10-10 series aircraft (no centre gear) versus the series 30 which did.
I was lucky enough to spend 6 months in CHC as part of my ongoing aircraft engineer training (as a 19 yr old). After the DC10 arrived from AKL we would extend the centre gear so that it could depart with the centre gear down (higher weight departing than arriving). This involved freefalling the gear to the tarmac then releasing the air from the centre oleo. The gear would then be manually rolled back into the locked down position and the oleo reinflated.
I can recall that one flight had despatched and we noticed that the oxygen cart was attached to the tug instead of the nitrogen cart. A new and low experience apprentice had been tasked with extending the leg and it was assumed that he had used oxygen instead of nitrogen. A few very few tense moments for all as oil and oxygen are an explosive combination. Fortunately he had not mixed them and had topped up the crew oxygen after doing the landing gear with nitrogen.

I can recall many a time when all the staff would be out on the tarmac watching the DC10 try to land in a howling Norwester. It was unable to use 11/29. Often they went around a few times before subsequently returning or diverting to AKL. We would run a sweepstake on the outcome....as engineers are known to do from time to time.

I have had the pleasure of flying operationally with the offspring of both the First Officer and Flight engineer of the ill fated DC10 Erebus flight NZ901 ZK-NZP 28 November 1979.

[Aharon]

Cowpatz, thanks for kind words and for fantastic explanations.

Cowpatz and Splitpin, May I have your permission to quote your words without using your names, please?

Regards,

Aharon

[Splitpin]

Fine with me
Of course, I can't speak for CP.