Apart from a brief tow-out, it has seemingly remained there as a hangar queen ever since.
Am I missing something here? Is it incredibly active during the hours of darkness and returns for a polish each day? Or is there some more serious work being carried out?
I am aware that there was some reworking of the radio systems that was required by CAA, but surely that would not take this long.
It arrived into AKL 15Dec08 as C-GRNX and after extensive post delivery flight work finally flew as ZK-ECO 17Feb09 making a trip to Palmy and back for the NZCAA. It then flew two details from/to AKL 20Feb09 before doing its first charter to Napier, Woodbourne, Nelson and back to Auckland all on 24Feb. It visited a number of places 27/28Feb such as Gisborne, Palmerston North, Rotorua, Queenstown in conjunction with a large religious group before making a trip to Woodbourne for an overnight stop 06Mar. On 21Mar it flew two flights from/to AKL carrying 80+ goldfish in their individual bowls as a flying work of art - I know............ say no more! This was obviously very traumatic for the aircraft as to the best of my knowledge it has not flown since! It was meant to fly over Easter Weekend from Tauranga to Norfolk Island but this was canned following a number of brick walls being encountered.
ReplyDeleteCan somebody tell me the delivery route that C-GRNX took for coming to NZ?
ReplyDeleteC-GRNX
ReplyDeleteDates are all NZ local
12DEC08 Calgary-Prince George-Anchorage
13DEC08 Anchorage-Adak-Midway-Honolulu
15DEC08
Honolulu-Christmas Island-Apia-Tonga-Auckland
Thanks a lot for all that info Mike.
ReplyDeleteRadios being reworked for Oceanic HF CAA approval. Also scheduled anti-corrosion work been carried out as part of manufacturer's requirements.
ReplyDeleteCAA approvals were not given in time for the Easter charter.