Farewell to the RNZAF P3K2

[reynoldsno1]

An era passes
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131050736/farewell-flypast-by-venerable-air-force-orions

[sandiego89]

55 or so years of service. A good run. Imagine we will see P-3's with other forces for some years to come. Some of the airframes have been extensively refurbished, some not so much, but by operators that tend to run MPA for years after primary operators that have since moved on.

[Big Pistons Forever]

And Canada with a huge 3 Ocean coastline doesn’t even have a plan to replace the RCAF P3’s :ugh:

[RatherBeFlying]

And how long did Canada run the Argus?

They had to beg refineries to do special batches of 115/145.

[Not Long Here]

Nice flyover of Defence House and The Beehive yesterday and some images release by the RNZAF on twitter.


https://twitter.com/NZAirForce/status/1617996001268334592


and some moving pictures

https://twitter.com/auc_nz/status/1617726866370203649

https://twitter.com/terrycox777/status/1617812556864978946

[tartare]

Flew once with 5 Squadron on a sunny morning a lifetime ago.
Vivid memories of standing on the flight-deck and holding onto the frame of the co-pilot's seat, looking over his shoulder as we pulled hard Gs in turns low over the Waitemata - much more so than I ever would have thought possible in a P-3; what an aircraft.
And how they slammed the aircraft down on that bumpy Whenuapai runway - then full beta pitch to stop (?).
It was a hell of a ride.
Farewell P-3K.

[Flugzeug A]

What will happen to them?
Will they be scrapped or do they have some life left in them & can they be sold on?
Buffalo Joe might want some if the tail can be put back to standard & the price is right!

[Commander Taco]

Hey! Just like Trudeau bought Australia’s old F-18’s to keep ours flying, we can now buy New Zealand’s P3’s to get another 20 years out of ours. The man’s a genius.

[Not Long Here]

Hey! Just like Trudeau bought Australia’s old F-18’s to keep ours flying, we can now buy New Zealand’s P3’s to get another 20 years out of ours. The man’s a genius.

You have only had the Auroras for 40 years so that sounds about right :)

[Shackman]

When they were new -

Here's a nice bright shiny NZ P-3 :)

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1493/nz_p3_f665671e8c896a48bacc583e765aa3c670862521.jpg
US Naval Station Sangley Point (Philippines)1970

[RatherBeFlying]

Caveat I'm not totally sure of the base airframe, there's a bunch that seem to have been converted to firefighting air tankers here in Canada.

[kiwi grey]

According to Radio NZ (a usually factually accurate organisation) this morning, the P-3K2s are going out of service five months earlier than scheduled because the RNZAF has run out of aircrew. :ooh:

Apparently enough flight deck and/or Tacrail crew have quit that it's no longer viable to maintain the P-3K2s in an operational state, and because they were going out of service (in Q3?) soon, it's not worth training replacements.
Somewhat astonishing

[Not Long Here]

According to Radio NZ (a usually factually accurate organisation) this morning, the P-3K2s are going out of service five months earlier than scheduled because the RNZAF has run out of aircrew. :ooh:

Apparently enough flight deck and/or Tacrail crew have quit that it's no longer viable to maintain the P-3K2s in an operational state, and because they were going out of service (in Q3?) soon, it's not worth training replacements.
Somewhat astonishing

This puts the post above into context.

Radio New Zealand Story (https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/482635/pacific-rescue-fitting-end-to-six-decades-of-orion-operations)

[India Four Two]

Caveat I'm not totally sure of the base airframe, there's a bunch that seem to have been converted to firefighting air tankers here in Canada.

I've only seen converted Electras.

[chopper2004]

And Canada with a huge 3 Ocean coastline doesn’t even have a plan to replace the RCAF P3’s :ugh:

Last I looked they were looking for replacing the Aurora with the Boeing P-8 being offered?

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/06/boeing-set-to-offer-p-8a-poseidon-to-canadas-multi-mission-aircraft-project/

https://www.boeing.ca/resources/en_ca/Boeing-plane-over-Ice-1110x345.jpg

Last time I saw CP-140 was back in August lifting off from Mildenhall for the Little Gransden Air Show display

https://scontent-lcy1-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/327711451_537069611726479_5257941426950838313_n.jpg?stp=cp6_ dst-jpg&_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=J-R4mPJ1D60AX8fScNU&tn=kedkKBqdR4lrlENg&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-2.xx&oh=00_AfCZ0PNuaENFnpKAUwhH0pEUUY9kVlrsOju4TIbRi6CyKw&oe=63D96EE9


https://scontent-lcy1-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/327739452_1254795165385413_8738272480970153180_n.jpg?stp=cp6 _dst-jpg&_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=VXar2-GmhoIAX8gm7S7&_nc_oc=AQneiLG8MNgEV0HcDRDcOnQmvse6s_u6RXaYJURi01tp4YopxGEdj gi6p73qP00YOs8&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-2.xx&oh=00_AfB1abbm5RdN2OoCm2h08rYV27w771ZU5v_CvzwiWxU6Ng&oe=63D96BE1

cheers

[India Four Two]

Kiwi humour:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1350x1278/screenshot_2023_02_03_at_08_03_48_c9e372ec9e0f1a5e8aaa8d50a9 514444156f417a.png

[Compass Call]

Could they fit one in MOTAT?

[fergineer]

Think one is going to the Airforce Museum