Now that I am home,
I have the chance to catchup on a couple of things that I kinda wrote off because I was planning to be on the trail. I had an hour or two this morning to go and quickly look at one of the six, now retired, Lockheed P-3K2 Orion aircraft on display at the national air force museum here in Christchurch. I remember the farewell flight in early 2023 and its arrival by road here in Christchurch in September last year was quite a big deal. It is a shame the museum does not have a hanger big enough to store it (completely assembled) at the moment, but I am impressed they still made an effort to acquire one, and are raising the funds to build a new hanger.
Most of the fleet were purchased in 1966 and kept up to date with an avionics update in the 80’s and an airframe (wing) update later to extend their service life. Looking at the specification, they were most certainly capable for an aircraft built in the 60’s with 4 x Allison T56-A 14 engines, (4,600 shaft horsepower), maximum gross weight just under 55tons, and a maximum ferry range of 7100km. This one even landed on the ice in Antarctica in its 27 000 hour, 54 year career at the NZ Air Force. It is amazing how 1960’s aircraft engineering was still in service in 2023 due to updates, good servicing and maintenance.
After the air force museum it was off to the hill for some flying of my own. Unfortunately the weather didn’t pan out as predicted and I opted to go for a swim at Sumner beach instead. Such a lazy sunday, great company and fine weather.
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43.5323 – 172.5567
21 April 2024
FP-101