Prince Willaim's flight diverts...

[dwshimoda]

... apologies if already covered. From the BBC:

William's plane aborts landings

Prince William has travelled around New Zealand during his brief visit
Dense fog and two aborted landings have prevented Prince William from visiting a school during his New Zealand tour.
The prince and his aides were among 65 passengers on an Air New Zealand flight to the southern city of Invercargill when it hit bad weather.

The pilot told passengers that he "wouldn't have seen the runway until we were about to hit it" as he changed route northwards to Christchurch.

The prince was said to be "completely relaxed" and was never in danger.

Pilot Jeff Lynton told the passengers from the cockpit: "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, sorry about that.

He knew the plane was in good hands

Prince William's spokesman

"We made two approaches. We did the best we could."

William was seated at the back of the plane with his friend Thomas van Straubezee.

Mr Lynton said afterwards: "I wanted to get the boy down.

"He's got things to do. I've only had this once before and I've been flying for five years. It was an absolute oncer."

With fog and cloud at 300ft, Mr Lynton had descended to just over 400ft before deciding to ascend again.

The prince had to cancel plans to visit Arrowtown School, where more than 300 pupils had decorated the windows with union jack bunting and were waiting excitedly for him to start a rugby match.

The prince's spokesman said: "He's very sorry he couldn't be at the school.

"As far as the aircraft was concerned he was completely relaxed. He knew the plane was in good hands."

[Tom the Tenor]

That place sounds just like Cork!? CATII or CATIII? Hope the bus trip back was not too long!

Perhaps the Prince should have got his ol' fella to do the landing! :D

[Hunter58]

And what are the published Minimas? SOmething tells me it is 'just over 400ft'.

[Barry Cuda]

If his "old fella" can land a plane then he'll have no probs with the ladies....!!!!!!!:O :ok: :yuk:

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Why the excitement? Wx diversion - so what?

[dwshimoda]

Wasn't aware there was any excitement - merely pointing peoples attention to what some consider an interesting aviation related happening - that's all! No comments, no judgements, just the facts - go and pick holes elsewhere.

[Avman]

Was my reaction too Heathrow Director ! But these days any little mundane aviation occurence is going to make the headlines - especially with our future King (?). :rolleyes: :zzz:

[normal_nigel]

HR

I'm with you.

Yawn

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Avman - guess you're right. Sorry if I upset anyone out there.. I get a bit blase having "talked" to Royal Flights many times. Always found it amusing that Northolt used to "close" for about 15 mins either side of a Royal Flight from Heathrow whilst we used to treat them like any other. I actually put HMQ in the Bovingdon hold once - no wonder I missed out on an OBE!

[nurjio]

...there are queens in the Bovingdon hold every day!

[Max Angle]

Reminds me of the allegedly true story that still does the rounds at our company. Happened back in the 80's sometime so they say.


LHR - BD Midland xx take up the hold at LAM, 10 minutes

LHR - BA Speedbird xx take up the hold at LAM, 10 minutes.

BA - LHR Ok, 10 minutes, but are you aware we have royalty
on board today?

LHR - BA Speedbird xx leave LAM heading 270 blah blah.

BD - LHR Oh, I presume no holding for us either then.

LHR - BD Sorry Midland, unless you've got royalty on board
it's still 10 minutes.

BD - LHR I've got a couple of right queens down the back, does
that count?.

[MOR]

For those actually interested in, you know, aviation...

Invercargill has VOR, VOR/DME, NDB and NDB/DME approaches to both runways (04/22). There is no ILS.

The lowest minima is on the 22 NDB/DME, and is 430 (425)-1500.

Guess he would be busting minima at 400 feet, but that reported altitude is almost certainly wrong anyway.

The bit I don't get is the skipper having only been flying for five years. Now that's career progression for you! :p

[Lindstrim]

Umm wasnt he going to Queenstown today???

[outofsynch]

Good ol NZ hasnt heard of Cat II/III yet.... expected sometime later this century!

[dwshimoda]

Thanks MOR,

That's the kind of info I was hoping someone would post - Invercargill's website doesn't list it's navaids, just details of a runway extension. I'd guessed they didn't have CAT III, but wasn't aware they didn't have ILS at all.

DW

[RevMan2]

OK, here's the lowdown (from www.stuff.co.nz)

Prince William's travel plans hit by fog
06 July 2005

Scores of unsuspecting teenage school children came within a hair's breath of seeing Prince William at Invercargill Airport this morning, but low cloud prevented his plane from landing.

The pupils were at the airport to farewell exchange students and were completely oblivious to the fact the future king was on the Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch.

Prince William was scheduled to visit Arrowtown Primary School.

Fog at Queenstown Airport caused a rethink of his travel plans and it was decided to fly him to Invercargill.

However, after making two attempts to land in murky conditions, the aircraft returned to Christchurch, forcing him to cancel his trip to Arrowtown.

Invercargill Airport operations manager Eric Forsyth said the fog was only a problem for a short time and if the plane with Prince William on board had been 20 minutes later it would have been able to land.

Arrowtown is close to Queenstown.
Invercargill is within spitting distance of the South Pole.
Why anyone in their right mind would want to go to Invercargill in July, I have no idea. It's bad enough in summer...)

[Jerricho]

wouldn't have seen the runway until we were about to hit it

Am I the only one who is questioning is this really what the pilot said :rolleyes:

[kaikohe76]

Tell you what folks, Prince William has gone down a hell of a lot better in New Zealand than Alastair Campbell & his sleezy PR!!! He has been open, welcoming & diplomatic just like his late Mother.
Pity for the youngsters in Arrowtown though, possibly Mr Campbell might care to take the Prince's place & make the visit himself.

[Gearupandorrf]

Hey Outofsynch-
The irony of your post just cracks me up!
As an Aussie, I'll jump to my Antipodean mates' rescue on this one.

Before you go poking fun at other Nations, which you perceive to be "behind the times", take a long hard look at your own Country first, especially if you haven't experienced the privilege of living and working in another Country (so that you are able to make some kind of meaningful comparison).

Before making those kind of ignorant comments I think that you need to know that Australia and New Zealand are 15- 20 years ahead of the UK in many ways. Englands' Banking system is pre- historic and when I temporarily relocated here from Melbourne two years ago, I couldn't beleive that Chip and Pin was just being introduced. Why? Because I've been using it at home for close to 20 years. I just naively assumed that the rest of the modern World would be using it too.

The same applies to our Public Health system. The guys at work can't beleive how simple, cheap, efficient and effective our Public Health System is compared to the UK's. The basic systems in place here are extremely outdated. Let's not even mention Englands' fithy Hospitals. My Wife needs an Operation soon, so we're spending the 1500 quid to go home and get it done. Haven't heard of MRSA at home.

The same applies to your Roads and Public Transport system. Totally outdated and the whole system is creaking under the strain. I see so many streets that are only wide enough for a Horse and Carriage. By comparison, the same systems in Australia and New Zealand are ultra modern. In fact- so that Melbourne holds onto its "Worlds' Most Liveable City" title, our Urban Planners are currently designing plans for Melbourne for 2030. Some places that I've seen in the UK make the think that Mr. Squiggle has done the planning. In addition, there's no real point in owning a really nice Car in England because of the poor quality of the roads themselves (in general) .

The Immigration system is a favourite of mine. "Quick, quick- we need a new system! I know, let's adopt the one that Australia's been using for 30 years"!

Compared to home, I find that the British mentality is very retrospect. Let's face it, there are too many shows on TV re: what old crap is in your Attic. Aussies and Kiwis are very progressive. We had Microwave Ovens, the Internet and Mobile Phones way before you did.

If you can sense there's a bit of venom in my post, it's because I'm getting utterly sick and tired of the many ignorant Brits who are of the opinion that the "Colonies" are way behind. I encounter this attitude on almost a daily basis. Many of these self professed "experts" have never travelled 50 miles from their birthplace. They simply don't realise that, for the last 40 years, the UK has not progressed as fast as other First World Countries, because they are ignorant. Was your comment borne from ignorance?

If your comment was made out of jealousy, we understand as we are natives of Countries that offer amongst the best quality of living in the World. I watch the BBC news headlines after Work and thank God for my Aussie Passport.

To finish off, let me balance this up by saying that Oz/ New Zealand is not perfect by any means. Also, there are aspects of the UK that I do appreciate. I've met loads of Brits who are great people and am fortunate enough to call some of them friends. These tend to be the ones that have travelled extensively and have a good knowledge of how things are done elsewhere. The ones that I can't stand tend to spout the sort of comments that you have.

Now you know why I'm amused at the irony of your comment.

Have a good day now,
Yours Respectfully,
Gearup.

[fmgc]

Good to see that Sky News have reported things as sensationally as usual:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13381699,00.html

[RevMan2]

Jericho

The "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" bit is proof that it's a genuine quote

[Jordan D]

Heathrow Director - nothing special, except the future Monarch was on board and thus it is news.

Jordan

[reynoldsno1]

Good ol NZ hasnt heard of Cat II/III yet.... expected sometime later this century!
The weather factor @ Invercargill could never justify installing ILS.
We don't need Cat II/III, the weather never gets that bad.....
NZ has its 1st RNP & baro-VNAV approaches in use already. It has had GPS approaches for more than 11 years. How many in the UK again?
Air NZ will have the first RNP0.3 certificated Airbuses in the world.....(see latest Flight)
Queenstown is surrounded by mountains (procedure start altitude 10000ft) - something you won't see a lot of around UK airfields...
Airways NZ has just installed an ILS at Subic Bay - even the FAA said it couldn't be done....
...and I concur with gearup's comments, though all bets are off when the Bledisloe Cup comes up ......

[ZK-NSJ]

if he had of been in a atr-72 instead of the 737 they could have gone into wanaka, just over the hill from arrowtown, or why not dunedin, its just as close to queenstown as invercargill is, given the things invercargill has been called over the years by visiting poms "a nuclear ground zero by a touring lions team, and the arsehole of the world by the rolling stones, maybe the prince could have added something

[HZ123]

How lucky they are to have him visiting there country. What with that Tony Blair the Olympics and all, we in the UK are on the up. I trust there was a suitable car for the Prince.

[Mark Noble]

Have to say by the end of Oct I will have spent over a month of 2005 in NZ and there is very little that you could claim was backward about the place.

Ireland is probably a much richer country than NZ and their roads put us to shame.