New Zealand News

However, an order for a sixth Boeing 747 is tipped as a certainty, probably being announced in June and the airline is likely to plump for the extended upper deck 400 Series. The airline cancelled a sixth jumbo order last year because added capacity could riot be justified as its 767s entered service.

The Frankfurt service has been in the wind for two years, though the airline denied earlier stories. The service will depart Auckland on Friday nights, returning via the same route to be home on Monday mornings.

Ttie airline’s managing director, Mr Norman Geary, said We$t Germany was New Zealand’s biggest market in Europe for inbound tourists outside of Britain and Frankfurt is the hub for a large European catchment area. A platform for this traffic had been built by the London services and West German traffic to New Zealand had increased by 13% last year.

Lufthansa will sell the Air New Zealand seats and services, but the German airline has no imminent plans for taking up its bilateral rights into New Zealand. A major carrier of West Germans to this country is Singapore Airlines and it has had considerable friction in recent times with the New Zealand carrier over service frequencies, . Air New Zealand maintains that the Singapore route is not as much in demand as SIA reckons. However, Air New Zealand plans to replace its twice-weekly 747 direct flights to Singapore with four 767 flights.

The Dallas/Fort Worth service is a bold move to counter the hinterland hub advantages enjoyed by United and Continental. It will operate initially once a week flying via Papeete,

The airline points out that Dallas/Forth Worth is the fourth busiest US airport and the home base of Delta. A formal marketing arrangement exists with Delta, including participation in that airline’s frequent flyer programme. Another cooperative arrangement i. s in place with American Airlines.

To the ever-burgeoning Tokyo service (via Nadi) will be added a third weekly . 747 service. The capacity increase will tie matched by Japan Air Lines which has also been active in seeking further frequencies. Since the Tokyo link was opened in 1980, traffic has grown at an annual rate of 20% and the Japanese rank third in inbound tourists, behind the US and Australia.

New Zealand Warbirds Get a Venom

New Zealand Warbirds was due to add another flyable veteran to its fleet in late May with the test flight of a DH112 Venom from Whenuapai RNZAF Base The Venom was imported from Britain last year by. Warbirds president Trevor Bland and has been the subject of litigation because of damage caused by faulty packing for the sea voyage. However, the ex-Swiss Air Force machine has been repaired and brought up to good condition. There are low hours on its Ghost engine and the long nose has been reconfigured to duplicate the Venoms operated by the RNZAF’s No. 14 Squadron out of Tengah during the Malayan Emergency.

Trevor Bland, an Air New Zealand 747 captain, was a Venom jock’ with the squadron. He or John Denton, a fellow squadron pilot from the same era, were to make the first flight. The machine has been painted in 14 Squadron colours.

Rather sadder is the story of the ex-Philippines Air Force F-86F Sabre presented by the US Government and shipped to New Zealand iri March. Examination of the machine has shown a disturbing amount of deep corrosion in the aluminium and magnesium alloy airframe castings. “If it were a simple skinning job, we’d have no worries. But this calls for replacement parts which are hard to come by,” said Warbirds member, Robbie Booth.

The aircraft’s General Electric J47 engine was stored in a sealed container for eight years and is in perfect condition, with low hours. Historical information of the aircraft was not available but the serial number indicates an aircraft of Korean war vintage.

Booth says that if it is impossible to make the aircraft airworthy, it will be assembled for static display and every effort made to obtain a flyable Sabre. Booth is the owner of a Hawker Sea Fury imported from the US last year and due to make its first local flight within a few months. The aircraft awaits a spinner and the return of a fuel injection unit from calibration in the US.

New Zealand Warbirds celebrate its 10th birthday this year. It has 250 members and 14 aircraft – seven Harvards, a P-51 Mustang (the flagship), a Ryan Trainer, a Dakota, a DHC Beaver and the other aircraft mentioned.

One aircraft type the Association is pulling all strings to obtain is a Grumman Avenger, which was represented in large numbers in the wartime RNZAF and which played a historical role in developing the country’s aerial agricultural work. Some five nonflyable Avengers remain . in the country (including one in the Confederate Air Force and another in the RNZAF Museum), but the Warbirds have resorted to scanning American publications – going prices for good machines are about $US65,000.

NZ to Upoate Helicopter Operating Procedures

Mr Bernie Lewis, Civil Aviation’s flight test standards officer (helicopters) has begun a major rewriting of operational and safety requirements for helicopters. He expects the job to take at least two years.

Lewis, a former RAF and Rolls Royce test pilot says helicopter technology has advanced so rapidly in recent years that the existing requirements are badly outdated ar;id of concern. Many operational contingencies are not covered at all.

The redrafting will cover training and licensing, requirements for the PPL, CPL, and ALPL, instrument ratings, briefing notes for instructors and requirements for landing pads and heliports. Of particular urgency are operational requirements governing the growing number of powerful twin-engined machines.

Meanwhile, the absence of helicopter facilities in the Auckland urban area has prompted Lewis to form a helicopter association, comprising private and commercial users. Over the past two years the number of choppers in the city has increased enormously (one non-commercial owner has four), but apart from hospital pads and a waterfront facility 4km from the downtown centre, the area is singularly badly served with facilities. Harbour authorities have rejected a plan to use a wharf as a heliport and North Shore people are fighting a proposal to build one on reclaimed land. Plans to use a moored barge appear to have foundered. Lewis’ association aims to turn around public opposition and persuade local bodies that a city without heliports is like a town without taxis.

The ‘Last Great Air Race’ Not Over Yet!

Billed as the ‘last great air race’, the Singapore/Christchurch air race of March may yet spawn a classic.

The race, marking the 50th birthday of the RNZAF and Christchurch’s Harewood Airport, was completed by 24 light aircraft and a variety of heavies ranging from an SIA jumbo to an RNZAF Orion. First prize for the overall handicap winner was a recently restored Tiger Moth valued at $60,000.

The winner, announced by Prime Minister David Lange, was Sydney computer programmer Boyd Munro, flying a modified Piper Navajo Panther. But when this edition went to’press, the Tiger was still firmly rooted in Christchurch-pending a review by the High Court scheduled for the end of May.

The review was sought by Christchurch pilot Brent Ferguson, supported by three other competing pilots, Grant Biel, John Shivas and James Duncan. They argued apout the complex handicapping formula used and named as first and second defendants the Christchurch Aero Club and the city’s airport authority. The complaint is understood to centre on the use of manufacturers’ performance figures and an alleged failure to take account of periormance differences in similar aircraft some powered with normally aspirated engines an. d others with turbo supercharging.

After the dispute surfaced, Boyd telephoned Duncan’s employer, Murray Pope, the head of Sea Bee Air, one of the sponsoring airlines. Boyd suggested a rematch with the plaintiffs, a race from Christchurch to Sydney – via Honolulu, New York, London and Tokyo. Identical aircraft would be used and allocated to the crews by ballot.

Pope, an ebullient personality, was somewhat taken aback when he read in the newspapers the next morning that he had accepted the challenge. However, he told Australian Aviation that he was prepared to go ahead with the rematch. If Duncan was unable to fly (he has since left Sea Bee Goose amphibians to take up a flying job in Perth), he (Pope) would fly the race.

Pope, scathing of the handicapping system, said he had no argument with Boyd Munro. “I admire the style of the man tremendously and rather hope I can take him on. ”

And there the plan rests for the time being. Munro has suggested the race should finish in Sydney on January 2a, 1988, the 200th anniversary Of the landing of the First Fleet.

According to Pope, Mr Munro has offered to put up $80,000 to buy ·an aerobatic Pitt Special for the first prize. He suggested that if the other ·contestants put · up similar donations, the prize could be a classic such as a Harvard.

Air New Zealand Pursuing Australian Domestic Rights

Air New Zealand’s submissions on the May Committee report were to be followed by a direct application to the Australian Aviation Department for rights to operate services on the Commonwealth’s domestic trunk routes. The airline’s chief public affairs officer, Mr Bob Wallace, told Australian Aviation in mid-May that the application would most likely be soon – “a matter of weeks. ” It would detail technicalities, scheduling, aircraft, etc, but would not go down the track of commercial linkages. Despite speculation, Air New Zealand’s relationship with East West Airlines had not gone beyond the point of talks. ·

While there is no indication which way the Federal Government will jump (if it jumps at all) on the May Committee options, the airline’s managing director, Mr N·orman Geary, is on record in saying Air New Zealand could mount. Australian domestic operations in two or three months.

The main problem, according to Wallace, would be the provision of passenger terminals (ironically, the main handicap for Ansett New Zealand, which was scheduled to start services on July 1 after completing three main centre terminals in New Zealand).

Wallace said Air New Zealand did not envisage itself as a dominant force on Australian trunks but certainly considered itself capable of being a powerful catalyst in lowering fares. Noting Australian interest in the submissions, he said the airline detected a powerful undercurrent for an early abandonment of the· two airline system and for the introduction of complete deregulation.

An earlier approach to the Department of Aviation requesting information on filing for Australian services was rebuffed.

Air New Zealand’s submissions argue from the position of having been down the deregulation path. It is a cogent document dealing in particular depth with the intermediate options, Nos. 2 to 4, listed in the May review and lying part way between maintaining the two airline status quo and complete deregulation.

It questions the ability of the Independent Air Fares Committee and other regulators to ensure the same level of airline efficiencies as would be attained under a deregulated system and is scathing of the argument that the two airline system reap economies of scale – pointing to the ability of the New Zealand market to absorb competitors including Ansett.

It dwells on the May claims of insensitivity to consumer demand under the present system and maintains any option less than deregulation would artificially prolong high fares, parallel scheduling, etc. While the two airline system might appear to be a duopoly, it is in reality a monopoly with two identical operating divisions geared to predatory pricing when opposition emerges.

Much of the thrust of Air New Zealand’s argument is taken up with what it sees as a danger of Australian aviation becoming locked into an archaic system which is bypassed by world trends in competition: the integration of domestic and international carriers, outside equity in Government, founded alrlin·es, increasing cooperative and cross-ownership links.

Briefs

• Mr Frank Baldwin, the general manager of the Wellington Harbour Board, has been appointed the chief executive of the new Airways Corporation. The Corporation which came into being on April 1 is responsible for a· large part of the duties formerly handled by the Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of Transport – air traffic control, telecommunications, navigational aids and rescue fire services. Mr Baldwin, one of the chief proponents for New Zealand ports, ran his own real eslate business for 16 years. The Deputy Secretary for Transport, Mr Tim Sanger, who was interim chief executive for the corporation was not a candidate for the job.

• Japan’s second largest domestic airline, Toa, is seriously considering a service to New Zealand. It has told the Ministry of Transport it will make charter flights to Auckland and Christchurch next year, but was also considering scheduled services: Toa’s international flights planning manager, Mr Hiroshi Arai, attended government to government talks in Queenstown in April.