Microflite Helicopter Services’ fleet of Eurocopters, with their bright red and tasteful gold livery, is simultaneously obvious and distinctive, yet contradictingly subtle. As Rob Neil discovered, they have become Melbourne landmarks almost as familiar as Flinders Street Station, Federation Square or the Crown Casino, opposite which Microflite has an exclusive downtown river helipad. Two and a half years ago, Microflite’s current ...

In the mid-1960s, New Zealand's National Airways Corporation (NAC) was looking for a replacement for its Vickers Viscounts on its main trunk domestic routes. The jet age had arrived and, as the company's report stated, its aim was: "To select a modern long-life aircraft which is best suited to the route structure in New Zealand with the best economic performance ...

It was at midnight in France on the 19th of September that a new era in Australian aviation began when VH-OQA—the first of the 20 A380s ordered by Qantas—departed Toulouse for its new home on the other side of the world. Twenty-five hours later, the white and red “green” giant touched down gently, exactly on time at 9:00 a.m. in ...

Chris Barry, Marketing and Sales Manager for Flightline Aviation recently hosted a New Zealand tour of the Cessna 400. Graeme Mollison and Geoff Cooper both got the opportunity to fly the latest piston engined thoroughbred from the Cessna stable. Graeme Mollison: While it may have Cessna emblazoned proudly on the side, the Cessna 400 bears little resemblance to any of the other ...

In last month’s Pacific Wings, Dave Homewood told the story of the first three decades of the Red Checkers - the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s longest serving aerobatic display team. In Part 2 of his article, Dave brings the Red Checkers story up to date. In 1977, the RNZAF retired its Harvards and replaced them with New Zealand designed and ...

The Red Checkers are the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s longest serving aerobatic display team. Their performances have thrilled audiences around New Zealand and they have built up a reputation for precision flying that is second to none. Currently, they are into their 41st year as the Red Checkers, but the team’s origins stem back much further. Red Checkers pilots have ...

Safety is the number one priority for all good pilots, right? So what happens when the supposed quest for safety impinges on a pilot’s normally accepted rights and privileges? Leigh Neil reports on a recent court case in Hamilton that highlights some potentially serious issues with New Zealand’s aviation safety investigation structure and its application. Before I get into a difficult, ...

For ploughing a field, one would choose a Clydesdale horse; for racing, a thoroughbred racehorse. For affordable, economical, practical, speedy flight for up to six people over short distances, one would choose a Mustang. When the first Citation Mustang was delivered in 2006, it became the smallest in the family that Cessna appropriately calls its “Sensible Citations”. The family now extends ...

“Real airplanes have round engines,” says a popular pilots’ bumper sticker. Anyone with aviation in the blood knows that it is radials the sticker is referring to and not jet engines (and any aero-Philistine who tries to suggest that jets are also round is likely to be stoned or pilloried). Radial engines epitomise the “golden age” of romantic aviation—an ...

I recently spent time in New Zealand with a group of Hong Kong Helicopter Club members and their families. We all very much enjoyed our seven-day stay from 16–23 March, most of which we spent at Wanaka in the South Island of New Zealand. Wanaka is a truly unbeatable location for cross-country and real mountain flying training, with Mount Aspiring and ...