NZFF

Had Aunty Helen and Uncle Winston caught some strange disease while overseas?

Well not quite but a couple of weeks back when Auckland Airport was closed due to fog and Wgtn wasn't much better.

RNZAF Ohakea was the next choice so the skies over the lower North island got a tad busy.

Here's one of the images from the day.

Why do I feel that apron wasn't designed for aircraft of that size?

Great photo!! Did you take it yourself Bandit, or was it from a passenger in another landing aircraft?

Also, why did they not go to NZCH, are there any baggege reclaim or customs facilitys at Ohakea? They should have just diverted to Palmerston North, just a few miles away...

Plus where are all the smaller aircraft? It appears all the really heavy aircraft landed there, no 767's or 737's...

Hey Trolly,

No I didn't take it myself. I have a couple of good friends based at Ohakea who supplied this and a few other photos.

I chose to post this one as it gave a good view of the base as well. I might post some others later. I suspect they were taken from one of the Hueys as the Flight School and 3 Sqdn are based here. We are getting some of the Whenuapai Sqdns I think next year also when they relocate.

Ohakea does have some facilities but certainly not enough to handle this many people (the picture doesn't show the aircraft waiting out of shot). Around 2000 people from memory. They don't normally handle civilian flights so in this case all the passengers had to stay on board. I'll try to locate an article from the local paper with the details.

We have Linton Camp (RNZIR) near Palmy Nth so they use it for departures for deployments O/Seas so Customs and MAF do provide some cover.

Palmy currently can't handle aircraft of this size. It is going through the process of extending but is still in the planning phase I think. There was talk of Ohakea expanding to take Civvy big metal but nothing has come of it as far as I know.

Trolly wrote: Great photo!! Did you take it yourself Bandit, or was it from a passenger in another landing aircraft?

Also, why did they not go to NZCH, are there any baggege reclaim or customs facilitys at Ohakea? They should have just diverted to Palmerston North, just a few miles away...

Plus where are all the smaller aircraft? It appears all the really heavy aircraft landed there, no 767's or 737's...

They have quite a small terminal and most baggage claims and stuff is done in hangars with international flights. (It would take quite a while with that many aircraft)

Bandit wrote: Ohakea does have some facilities but certainly not enough to handle this many people (the picture doesn't show the aircraft waiting out of shot). Around 2000 people from memory. They don't normally handle civilian flights so in this case all the passengers had to stay on board. I'll try to locate an article from the local paper with the details.

and boy did those people whine about it. as if anyone can do anything about the weather? both NZCH and NZAA we closed, and none of those aircraft can land in wellington.

This topic heavily disappoints me. I thought the government were bringing jets back to the RNZAF!