Joyflight to Auckland and Wellington

[Anthony]

Hey guys

This Wednesday just been (19th August) I took a joyflight from Rotorua to Auckland and back. A while back, I got some extremely cheap Grab a Seat fares for these flights - only $6 each way. It was a pretty miserable day at Rotorua when I flew out; wet, cloudy and very grey. 8 degrees I think.

ATR



Beech 1900D



Beech again. You have to love people's reactions when they see the Beech - "hooley dooley", "it's so small", and "is this a toy plane?" seemed to be quite common.



Onboard Beech 1900D ZK EAF, my ride to Auckland. Weather looks almost nice above the cloud layer.



Fortunately, when I arrived in Auckland the weather was a fair bit nicer. It wasn't raining, but it was a still a bit overcast.
I didn't get to take many pictures up in AKL as a I pretty much had to run to catch my next flight. Thanks to some contacts at Air NZ, I was generously given a completely free flight in the jumpseat to Wellington and back, flying on the 737. Thank you so much to those who were involved in organising those flights.

Heading into Wellington aboard Boeing 737 ZK NGI - we have the runway in sight



On the ground at Wellington. Unfortunately due to the time of day and orientation of the terminal building, the sun was bright and it was facing the wrong way. This made the photography from the terminal pretty bad.




Again I didn't have long, as I pretty much had to turn around and board the same aircraft back to Auckland. There was a crew swap though: Ben and Felicity (thanks guys) who flew me down were replaced by John and a very nice lady whose name escapes me (thanks again).



Coming into Auckland



At about this point, the SD card in my camera conveniently ran out of space . How I managed that I have no idea, but there you go.

Coming back into Rotorua it was pretty bumpy during the approach. I had a nervous flyer in the seat next to me who was as pale as anything and gripping the armrests as tight as she could. I felt quite sorry for her - especially after the look on her face once the flaps came out. It probably didn't help that the pilots chose that moment to shut the cockpit doors after they had been open all flight.

All in all a pretty awesome trip - especially scoring the free flights. Thanks to the people at Air NZ who were involved in organising those, and thanks to the flight deck crew who were happy to have me up front with them. Definitely highly recommended - all my flight crews were really friendly, plus it's pretty sweet being up the front anyway.

Cheers
Anthony

[krispilot]

You lucky boy Anthony. Im jelious but anyways sweet pics.

[AirNewZealandA320]

I had this experience too. It is awesome.
Except yours was in the daylight, and u actually got to land there. lol

[Ian Warren]

Anthony you said it ' Joyflight ' .... the photos may not come out how you like em ... 1985 , a very good friend got me on board a cargo Dak ... CHCH-WN-CH ... i forgot the weather like you ..... .. JOYFLIGHT .

[happytraveller]

try re-formatting your memory card, so that you can get back all the space that you should have on it. Deleteing photos does not always release the space back for use.

smooth landings.

[Kelburn]

Lucky!
You have no idea how distressing this is to me! My current short term dream would be for a flight in a 737 jumpseat (being my favourite aircraft and all!)
Any idea how I could go about doing that next time I go for a flight?

Anyway, great photos.

[creator2003]

Ah i love flying in the crappy weather ,makes it a cool ride for sure if you like the bumps and so on like me ,thanks for sharing

[AlisterC]

Nice photos! Lucky you!

[ardypilot]

QUOTE (Anthony @ Aug 21 2009, 09:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It probably didn't help that the pilots chose that moment to shut the cockpit doors after they had been open all flight.

Since when did b1900's have cockpit doors?

Cool shots though- particularly the third one down- thanks for sharing. Must have been great flying up there at FL3000 above all that weather!

[benwynn]

QUOTE

Since when did b1900's have cockpit doors?[/quote]

They've always had them just they aren't closed most of the time.

[Anthony]

Cheers guys. It was a really great day out. Beats school for sure.

Thanks happytraveller - I'll give that a go.
Kelburn and Trolly - check your PMs.

Kelburn is right - the Beech has always had cockpit doors, but they rarely close them. They're little sliding things. Must have been a bit disconcerting for the less frequent flyers or the nervous flyers to see the doors get closed all of a sudden.

[benwynn]

Awesome shots mate, I am extremely jealous, always wanted to jumpseat, let alone in a bloody 737! I too would like to know how I could have a chance at doing this, im sure its slim, but it certainly would be worth a shot!

Thanks for sharing Anthony!

[shotgun]

Nice pics

[spongebob206]

Awesome opportunity and Pics.

Thanks for sharing.
I didn't know the 1900 had doors either. Learn something every day.