BNE-AKL-WLG-BHE - return to the COLD

[nzom_pilot]

Introduction

 

This was the return leg of the two week trip to Brisbane in preparation for the shift next month. The first leg can be found [ame=http://theaussieaviator.net/showthread.php?t=25232]HERE[/ame].

 

General Flight Overview

 

Airline: Air New Zealand (NZ)

 

Flight number: NZ136

 

Origin: Brisbane International Airport (BNE)

 

Destination: Auckland International Airport (AKL)

 

Distance: 2296 kms

 

Scheduled departure time: 11:25 local

 

Scheduled Arrival Time: 17:35 local

 

Scheduled flight time: 3 hours 10 minutes

 

Actual departure time: 11:35

 

Actual arrival time: 17:14

 

Class of Travel: Economy Class

 

Seat: 54A

 

Aircraft: B772ER

 

Registration: ZK-OKA

 

Statistics: 2nd flight on type, 1st on OKA

 

DepartureAirport

 

Brisbane International is better now than it was when I flew out in October 08. The internal renovation work on the airside departure level is all but complete with the only remaining work confined to a small out of the way corner.

 

I took some time to walk down both “piers” of the terminal and was impressed by the improvements and extensions to the “northern pier”, which is home to gates 74-79.

 

In the “southern pier” the gates held some treasures for a Kiwi spotter. Two OzJet B732s, VH-OZX and the Norfolk Air branded VH-OZD. Also present was VH-OJC which had arrived from LAX and was about to relocate to SYD. Next to it was VH-OEJ Wunala Dreaming which had positioned up from SYD to operate to LAX.

 

Parked on the “terminal” gates was 9V-SRH which was parked up with its return to SIN canceled. Next to it was VH-QPH which would later operate QF51 to SIN. Arriving shortly afterwards to park next to this was Cathay Pacific A333 B-HLR from HKG via DRW.

 

The ‘northern pier’ held the NZ based aircraft with 4x Pacific Blue B738s incl. ZK-PBB, and ZK-PBK, a Jetconnect B734 ZK-JTQ and then my NZ B772ER. The new couches in the gate areas may not be enough seating for a full flight, but they are comfortable and a nice place to sit and read the paper, while waiting for your flight.

 

Aircraft

 

My aircraft for this flight was ZK-OKA c/n29404 the 1st of the 772ERs delivered to Air New Zealand. It was registered on 28-October-2005. This aircraft was showing some signs of its age, with the furnishings looking like they had been used, but still nicer than some aircraft that I’ve flown. The PTVs in the 772 are still the older non-touch screen type and this was a bit off putting after the touch screens on the A320 on my previous Tasman flight.

 

Flight

 

 

Boarding was roughly on time at around 1055-1100. Boarding was swift and I was greeted at the door by the Inflight Service Coordinator who glanced at my boarding pass and greeted me be name, before directing me to the right and down the back. The Flight Service Manager stationed just inside the door also welcomed me onboard. I headed down the aisle and had to wait of another passenger who was taking up the aisle while talking to one of the crew members.

 

I quickly found row 54 and the window seat A. Row 54 is the second row in the rear economy section just behind door 3L. It is also the first row that is back to 3 seats, with row 53 only having 2 due to the toilets in the centre and the exit at door 3L. We were boarded reasonably quickly and CPT Stuart Hawker came on to welcome us aboard and he told us he hoped we would be off on time but were still waiting for the cargo door to be closed. The front door was closed and I had the row to myself J. We pushed back slightly early at 1118. Our taxi path was from the international ramp via B9 – A – A1 to runway 19.

 

Passing the domestic ramps it was nice to see two special livery birds with JQ’s seaworld jet VH-VQQ and Qantas’s Yananyi Dreaming VH-VXB.

 

 

We waited for a QF 763 to roll ahead and then a QF 763 VH-ZXF loomed out of the low cloud and mist less than 200ft above the runway and landed ahead.

 

 

We then turned onto the runway and were off. We were well into the cloud by the end of the runway and stayed in it until 2700m (about 8800ft).

 

 

There was some light chop at 10500ft but otherwise it was fine and dandy and a lovely flight above the clouds. Our cruising altitude was 12496m or just under 41000ft. At one stage I noticed the ground speed was recorded as 1040km/h or 561.5kts, obviously a nice little tail wind courtesy of cyclone Hamish.

 

 

For the first time in economy I noticed the ISC was offering passengers a choice of either the Australian or the Courier Mail. I haven’t seen this before in economy, only in premium or business. One bad note was there was no KiaOra magazine in the row, so I had nothing to read, although the IFE made up for it. I ended up watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory and several episodes of Flight of the Concords.

 

Lunch was served about 35mins out, with the choice of a chicken caesar salad, or shepherds pie. I chose the salad, which was ok although the lettuce was starting to get a bit past it. This was followed by a tub of Kapiti Ice cream, todays flavour was the absolutely divine black doris plum & crème fraiche. I washed it down with a 2008 Montana Sauvignon Blanc, and followed it up with coffee.

 

 

The cabin was prepared for landing around 16:53local and we prepared for touch down. We entered the layer of cloud over Auckland at 8200ft and dropped below it around 3200ft. Landing was smooth, and a quick taxi followed thanks to the high speed exit A6 from the runway. From there we taxied via 23R – B9 – D7 and M4 around the international ramp onto gate 5.

 

 

ArrivalAirport

 

Auckland hasn’t changed since I flew in, in October there is still a long walk along the new pier until you get to go downstairs and then head for immigration. Then you continue down to the baggage reclaim hall before going through the MAF biosecurity check point and then out into the arrivals hall.

 

This was the first time I have been able to go to the domestic transfer desk, and it was a disaster. There were only two agents manning the 4 Air New Zealand desks, and there was a group of well over 30 artists who had arrived in for the WOMAD festival, plus a decent sized queue of us regular connecting passengers. Finally one of the agents shifted everyone in the WOMAD group to the right hand side to the other agent and re-routed the rest of the queue to herself.

 

Overall Impression

 

Booking & Reservation: 8.0

 

Check-in: 8.0

 

Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0

 

Boarding: 7.0

 

Seat: 8.0

 

Entertainment System: 7.0

 

Crew: 8.0

 

Food and Beverages: 8.0

 

Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A

 

Arrival: 8.0

 

On-time performance: 8.0

 

Total Score: 7.70

 

General Flight Overview

 

Airline: Air New Zealand (NZ)

 

Flight number: NZ467

 

Origin: Auckland International Airport (AKL)

 

Destination: Wellington International Airport (WLG)

 

Distance: 480 kms

 

Scheduled departure time: 19:00 local

 

Scheduled Arrival Time: 20:00 local

 

Scheduled flight time: 1 hour

 

Actual departure time: 19:07

 

Actual arrival time: 19:57

 

Class of Travel: Economy Class

 

Seat: 16A – changed to 16B

 

Aircraft: B737

 

Registration: ZK-NGO

 

Statistics: 6th flight on type, 1st on NGO

 

DepartureAirport

 

Having checked in at the International transfer desk, it was simply a case of stopping for a burger in the domestic terminal, before passing thru security before waiting at the gate.

 

Aircraft

 

NGO c/n24209 is one of the domestic fleet and is configured in the 133 seat layout with “space +” from row 1-12 and standard economy from 13-23. I had been assigned seat 16A but ended up in 16B the middle seat due to a rather large Pacific Island gent in my seat. I wasn’t about to argue with him, and since it was only an hour long sector right on dark there wasn’t much to view outside and my camera had run out of battery. (seems to be a trend for me the camera dieing during trip reports! At least I got the images from the 1st leg this time)

 

Flight

 

The captain came on shortly after boarding to say we would be on our way shortly and that the flight would be flown by the F/O Felicity Royer. This was a surprise for me as Felicity used to be my instructor at Marlborough Aero Club before she left for her airline career. Due to this I completely forgot to record the CPT’s name.

 

We pushed back two minutes early and taxied to runway 23L via B and A2. We lined up immediately and rolled pretty much straight away. The flight was packed and I could only see about 3 empty seats in the whole plane, meaning it was a very cramped flight. The flight was uneventful with the snack option either chips & hummus or a cheese platter and full bar service.

 

Wellington had turned on one of its infamous winds and we rocked about quite a bit as we descended to land. After the flight as everyone was disembarking I stopped at the front door and told the CSM that the F/O used to be my instructor and asked if I could say hi. She popped into the flight deck and asked then reappeared and waved me in. Felicity was happy to see me and said she wished she had known I was on board as she would’ve jump seated me. The CPT got out of his seat and went to stretch his legs and suggested I should sit in his seat, which I did without hesitation. Unfortunately the flight deck visit would be short lived as they only had a 30min turn around before they were heading back to AKL. As Felicity walked with me up the jetway my flight to Blenheim was called for boarding, so I walked straight to the gate and out to the plane.

 

ArrivalAirport

 

Didn’t see much of it as we arrived on gate 16 and my next flight departed from Gate 14, so only saw the little bit between the two gates.

 

Overall Impression

 

Booking & Reservation: 8.0

 

Check-in: 5.0

 

Airline Airport Facilities: 6.0

 

Boarding: 7.0

 

Seat: 5.0

 

Entertainment System: N/A

 

Crew: 6.0

 

Food and Beverages: 7.0

 

Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A

 

Arrival: 8.0

 

On-time performance: 7.0

 

Total Score: 6.55

 

General Flight Overview

 

Airline: Air New Zealand Link – Eagle Air (NZ)

 

Flight number: NZ2459

 

Origin: Wellington International Airport (WLG)

 

Destination: Blenheim - Woodbourne Airport (BHE)

 

Distance: 80 kms

 

Scheduled departure time: 20:25 local

 

Scheduled Arrival Time: 20:50 local

 

Scheduled flight time: 25 minutes

 

Actual departure time: 20:23

 

Actual arrival time: 20:38

 

Class of Travel: Economy Class

 

Seat: 8F

 

Aircraft: B1900D

 

Registration: ZK-EAK

 

Statistics: 10th flight on type, 2nd on EAK

 

DepartureAirport

 

As stated previously not much seen in the short walk from one plane to another – other than the fact the walk across the ramp from the gate to the aircraft was VERY cold and was hard to stand up in the gale force breeze.

 

Aircraft

 

EAK was the 11th 1900D, delivered to Eagle Air in June 2006, and is well maintained.

 

Flight

 

Another uneventful but full flight, with only 2 spare seats. We taxied from gate 14 via Z to A then the main taxiway to 2 before lining up on 16. We had a short take off roll due to the wind and climbed quickly. There was very little noticeable effect from the wind on climb out and we raced across Cook Straight and straight in over town to land very early on 24.

 

ArrivalAirport

 

Blenheim seemed very small and dark at this time of night, with 2 other 1900Ds and air2there’s PA-31-350 parked at the other gates. The airwork/airpost F27 was loading ready for its departure to WLG and AKL. Inside the terminal it seemed dark with all the rental car booths closed for the night. Outside it was freezing, the temp was only 8 deg celsius, a far cry from the morning, when I left Brisbane and was shivering in 23 deg, this was COLD.

 

Overall Impression

 

Booking & Reservation: 8.0

 

Check-in: 5.0

 

Airline Airport Facilities: 6.0

 

Boarding: 8.0

 

Seat: 7.0

 

Entertainment System: N/A

 

Crew: 7.0

 

Food and Beverages: N/A

 

Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A

 

Arrival: 8.0

 

On-time performance: 9.0

 

Total Score: 7.25

 

Wrap Up

 

A reasonable trans tasman flight, shockingly cramped domestic jet leg, only made good by the flight deck visit at the end, and a solid quick domestic prop flight. Combined these flights by NZ were solid but average, unfortunately nothing exceptional to write home about.

 

NZ136 + NZ467 + NZ2459

 

7.70 + 6.55 + 7.25 = 15.43/2 = 7.16 total score

 

 

[Robbo]

awesome report mate

 

 

[.matt]

Nice report their mate, and good choice with watching a few episodes of Flight of the concords! Top show that :D

 

 

[Guest Dean747]

Top report very comprehensive. Like the wine choice with the meal too.:biggrin:

 

 

[nzom_pilot]

Glad everyone like the report. I'm pleased I was able to include *some* pics with this one. I aim to make them informative as well as enjoyable, and not just boring drudgery.

 

.matt, Flight of the Concords are brilliant :biggrin: good American made Kiwi comedy.

 

Dean747, I had the same wine on the flight over and didn't enjoy it, but it was nice on this trip.