Aircraft ID

[boldpilot]

Hi Guy's ,Just seen a picture of a strange learjet ,it has square section pods on the underside of the wings It's letters are ZK-XVL I have two pictures of it but I don,t know how to include them with this message

[Timmo]

QUOTE(boldpilot @ Aug 4 2007, 11:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Guy's ,Just seen a picture of a strange learjet ,it has square section pods on the underside of the wings It's letters are ZK-XVL I have two pictures of it but I don,t know how to include them with this message

This one?
http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0790...next_id=0786345

Not sure why it has a NZ rego but the flag on the tail is Aussie??- In this case it is probably used for target towing for the Aussie airforce. My brother used to fly for Pel-Air doing this in Lears and Westwinds.......they basically tow a target behind the a/c and then target runs/intercepts are made on the target.

Its a common practice to sub-contract this kinda thing out to civil operators.

[Naki]

Its a Lear 35 operated by Auckland Air Charter - the boxes under the wing will be target drouges that roll out behind the a/c from the box. The Navy use for the drouges for gunnery practice. Heres a picture of it with looks like two diffrent drouges (correct me if I'm wrong) - the orange one on this side and the box thing you describe on the other side which is just visible. Haha you bet me to it Timmo!

[Timmo]

hehe- just edited my post...

[Naki]

haha - posts croossed - wealth of information everybody has here - maybe the Lear does target towing for both Navies but the Lear is owned by an Auckland Jet Charter at Ardmore - check out the CAA register (although it guess it could still be based in Aussie).

[FlyingKiwi]

It's usually hangared at Ardmore. Nice looking plane. Not too often you see a Learjet with hardpoints either!

[ardypilot]

Is this the one that does target practice with the NZ Navy also?

[creator2003]

but we dont have jets anymore ? so hows that look with a herc up its butt or a sh2 /huey in its back wash ,or do we just point a little rifle at it ?
i would like to know why would we need such a aircraft for taget practise if like we have nothing outside of a hanger in new zealand to shot it down ?
think it would make more sence having trainee pilots in a 152 instead ,,at lest it wouldnt cost so much with avgas

[kiwiflyboy]

They use it for target practice for the Navy frigates etc..... so they point their 1 sorta biggish gun at it......

[jastheace]

yup my brother was in the navy, the used the lear and a hunter for quite some time for target practice, ever since our strike wing was scrapped the basically use any fast jet that is willing to "get" shot at(well not really shot at, but you know what i mean). apparently it is not the same as the old skyhawks and aremachiis as they just fly straight and true, they are not allowed to do any aerobatics to make it hard, although i was told that the hawker hunter put on quite a challenge for them, unofficially of course

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE(jastheace @ Aug 8 2007, 10:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yup my brother was in the navy, the used the lear and a hunter for quite some time for target practice, ever since our strike wing was scrapped the basically use any fast jet that is willing to "get" shot at(well not really shot at, but you know what i mean). apparently it is not the same as the old skyhawks and aremachiis as they just fly straight and true, they are not allowed to do any aerobatics to make it hard, although i was told that the hawker hunter put on quite a challenge for them, unofficially of course

Reason your movin off shore , least your new land has a Strike force and getting it upgraded as well ! anything go's wrong here .... Govt heads down to Wanaka and ask Sir Tim if they can borrow his airforce maybe ,

[jastheace]

yeah, i want to live in a country that has, as sideshow bob put it, wizz bang jets!!!!! and some pretty cool military hardware to boot!