Mysteries, Chemtrails, Aerosols :: Mysterious NZ

[Hector]

Here's something I have been looking at recently. It's a listing of airline passenger (ie not freight) flights that are possibly at contrailing altitude as they pass over central New Zealand. These are necessarily flights between Christchurch and Auckland or Rotorua or Palmerston North.

Saturday 26 May 2007            


Christchurch to Auckland - northbound            


NZ500  dep CHRISTCHURCH   05:40   arr AUCKLAND        07:00


QF4104 dep CHRISTCHURCH   06:25   arr AUCKLAND        07:45


NZ504  dep CHRISTCHURCH   06:55   arr AUCKLAND        08:15


NZ5030 dep CHRISTCHURCH   07:10   arr ROTORUA         08?50


NZ512  dep CHRISTCHURCH   08:05   arr AUCKLAND        09:25


NZ8702 dep CHRISTCHURCH   08:45   arr PALMERSTON_NTH  09?55


NZ514  dep CHRISTCHURCH   09:50   arr AUCKLAND        11:10


NZ5376 dep CHRISTCHURCH   10:15   arr ROTORUA         11?55


NZ8714 dep CHRISTCHURCH   11:20   arr PALMERSTON_NTH  12?30


NZ516  dep CHRISTCHURCH   11:50   arr AUCKLAND        13:05


QF4180 dep CHRISTCHURCH   11:50   arr ROTORUA         13?30


QF4118 dep CHRISTCHURCH   12:00   arr AUCKLAND        13:20


NZ5058 dep CHRISTCHURCH   12:20   arr PALMERSTON_NTH  13?30


NZ8168 dep CHRISTCHURCH   13:30   arr ROTORUA         15?10


NZ524  dep CHRISTCHURCH   13:35   arr AUCKLAND        14:55


NZ520  dep CHRISTCHURCH   15:00   arr AUCKLAND        16:20


NZ8716 dep CHRISTCHURCH   16:20   arr PALMERSTON_NTH  17?30


NZ532  dep CHRISTCHURCH   16:30   arr AUCKLAND        17:50


NZ542  dep CHRISTCHURCH   17?50   arr AUCKLAND        19:10


QF4152 dep CHRISTCHURCH   18:10   arr AUCKLAND        19:30


QF4136 dep CHRISTCHURCH   19:40   arr AUCKLAND        21?00


NZ548  dep CHRISTCHURCH   18?50   arr AUCKLAND        20:10


            


Auckland to Christchurch - southbound            


NZ501  dep AUCKLAND       06:50   arr CHRISTCHURCH    08:10


NZ8161 dep PALMERSTON_NTH 07?10   arr CHRISTCHURCH    08:20


QF4103 dep AUCKLAND       07:05   arr CHRISTCHURCH    08:25


NZ513  dep AUCKLAND       07:50   arr CHRISTCHURCH    09:10


NZ509  dep AUCKLAND       09:00   arr CHRISTCHURCH    10:20


NZ5001 dep ROTORUA        09?20   arr CHRISTCHURCH    11:00


NZ515  dep AUCKLAND       10:00   arr CHRISTCHURCH    11:20


QF4115 dep AUCKLAND       10:00   arr CHRISTCHURCH    11:20


NZ8703 dep PALMERSTON_NTH 10?25   arr CHRISTCHURCH    11:35


NZ517  dep AUCKLAND       11:45   arr CHRISTCHURCH    13:05


NZ5377 dep ROTORUA        12?35   arr CHRISTCHURCH    14:15


NZ527  dep AUCKLAND       13:00   arr CHRISTCHURCH    14:20


NZ5073 dep PALMERSTON_NTH 13?10   arr CHRISTCHURCH    14:20


QF4183 dep ROTORUA        13?15   arr CHRISTCHURCH    14:55


NZ535  dep AUCKLAND       14:00   arr CHRISTCHURCH    15:20


NZ539  dep AUCKLAND       16:00   arr CHRISTCHURCH    17?20


NZ543  dep AUCKLAND       17:30   arr CHRISTCHURCH    18?50


QF4147 dep AUCKLAND       17:30   arr CHRISTCHURCH    18:50


NZ557  dep AUCKLAND       18:30   arr CHRISTCHURCH    19?50


NZ553  dep AUCKLAND       19:30   arr CHRISTCHURCH    20?50


QF4153 dep AUCKLAND       20:00   arr CHRISTCHURCH    21:20


QF4161 dep AUCKLAND       22?10   arr CHRISTCHURCH    23:20

These lists will assist in identifying flights as they pass over or west of Wellington. For instance, the northbound contrail seen over Wellington at about 12:25pm on Saturday 26 May was probably QANTAS Christchurch-Auckland QF4118.

The lists are compiled from the airport flight schedules published on the web sites:
http://www.auckland-airport.co.nz/flight_info.php for Auckland and
http://www.christchurch-airport.co.nz/airport/Realtime/ for Christchurch.
The program I have written gets the lists from the web sites and matches up departures from one with arrivals at the other. Flights from Rotorua and Palmerston North are included as arrivals in Christchurch or destinations from Christchurch.

Where the arrival or departure times at Rotorua or Palmerston North are not known, they are estimated from a standard flight duration deduced from the Air New Zealand online flight booking site. The same goes for cases where a flight arriving (departing) Auckland is not listed as departing (arriving) Christchurch. It happens sometimes. Anyway, these estimated times are indicated by a '?' as a separator between hours and minutes, instead of the conventional ':'.

I am assuming that the QANTAS use B737, and Air New Zealand use B737 or A320 for the Christchurch-Rotorua direct flights, but the flight duration is 1:40. This seems odd because Chrischurch-Auckland flights have duration 1:20 and the distance is longer. So, do they use twin jets for that route, or another slower type? Perhaps someone with aircraft type and route information could clarify this little conundrum.

[info4]

[info4]

[info4]

Here is a better screen dump

[Hector]

Thanks for your comments, info4.

OK, the Air New Zealand ATR72 flights between Rotorua and Christchurch are of no interest to us, and that airfraft type explains the relatively long flight duration time). The QANTAS B737 flight duration for that route is 1:15min both ways, according to their online booking page.
I'll remove the arrivals at Christchurch of Air New Zealand flights originating at Rotorua (ATR7), and I will change the flight duration for the remaining QANTAS B737 flights to 1:15min.

Yes, I can obtain these listings more or less live. I can do a run for today's flights (which will give recent, and the rest of the day's flights), or I can do a run for tomorrow's date (say, the evening before) and get the full day's movements. Christchurch lists several days in advance, but Auckland only lists today and tomorrow.

I'm only looking at the Auckland and Christchurch domestic arrivals and departure pages at present. The program could be set up for any web site and any list of "arrival from" or "departure to" locations. The web pages at the Auckland and Christchurch are subtly different so I have to have a different data parsing function for each, and that would apply to any new page (airport flight movements listing).

The program is designed to be independant of airline. It selects only on the basis of origin or destination location. The program is written in Python, and will run under any Python version after 2.4. I would be happy to send you my Python script if you are interested. Many recent Windoze OS have an early version of Python already installed (2.1 or so), so you will need to get and install the newer vesion if you don't have it already. If you understand a few basic things about computer language programs you can probably follow what's being done in a fairly simple Python script. A mailto link is right there (in the post end separator), or you can PM me.

The next enhancement (for me) is to work out the time that a flight is abeam Wellington and sort on that basis rather than departure time. I make no appologies for being Wellington focussed, because, as John Anderson mentions, this is a good place for domestic flight contrail spotting.

Here is tomorrow's listing (after removing the ATR flights, and correcting the other flight duration time.)

Monday 28 May 2007


Christchurch to Auckland - northbound


NZ5070 dep CHRISTCHURCH   05:25 arr PALMERSTON_NTH 06?35


NZ500  dep CHRISTCHURCH   05:50 arr AUCKLAND       07:10


NZ504  dep CHRISTCHURCH   06:55 arr AUCKLAND       08:15


QF4104 dep CHRISTCHURCH   07:00 arr AUCKLAND       08:20


NZ506  dep CHRISTCHURCH   07:40 arr AUCKLAND       09:00


NZ5352 dep CHRISTCHURCH   08:15 arr PALMERSTON_NTH 09?25


NZ508  dep CHRISTCHURCH   08:40 arr AUCKLAND       10:00


NZ8710 dep CHRISTCHURCH   09:50 arr PALMERSTON_NTH 11?00


NZ522  dep CHRISTCHURCH   10:30 arr AUCKLAND       11:50


QF4118 dep CHRISTCHURCH   11:00 arr AUCKLAND       12:10


NZ518  dep CHRISTCHURCH   11:35 arr AUCKLAND       12:55


NZ516  dep CHRISTCHURCH   12:05 arr AUCKLAND       13:25


NZ5074 dep CHRISTCHURCH   13:30 arr PALMERSTON_NTH 14?40


NZ524  dep CHRISTCHURCH   13:35 arr AUCKLAND       14:55


NZ556  dep CHRISTCHURCH   14:15 arr AUCKLAND       15:35


NZ970  dep CHRISTCHURCH   17?30 arr AUCKLAND       18:50


QF4152 dep CHRISTCHURCH   18:10 arr AUCKLAND       19:30


QF4136 dep CHRISTCHURCH   19:40 arr AUCKLAND       21?00


QF4162 dep CHRISTCHURCH   22:00 arr AUCKLAND       23?20


NZ520  dep CHRISTCHURCH   15?10 arr AUCKLAND       16:30


NZ532  dep CHRISTCHURCH   16?30 arr AUCKLAND       17:50





Auckland to Christchurch - southbound


NZ501  dep AUCKLAND       06:50 arr CHRISTCHURCH   08:10


NZ8161 dep PALMERSTON_NTH 07?10 arr CHRISTCHURCH   08:20


QF4103 dep AUCKLAND       07:05 arr CHRISTCHURCH   08:25


NZ513  dep AUCKLAND       07:50 arr CHRISTCHURCH   09:10


QF4115 dep AUCKLAND       09:00 arr CHRISTCHURCH   10:20


NZ5357 dep PALMERSTON_NTH 09?40 arr CHRISTCHURCH   10:50


NZ515  dep AUCKLAND       10:05 arr CHRISTCHURCH   11:25


NZ525  dep AUCKLAND       11:00 arr CHRISTCHURCH   12:20


NZ517  dep AUCKLAND       12:00 arr CHRISTCHURCH   13:20


NZ527  dep AUCKLAND       13:25 arr CHRISTCHURCH   14?45


NZ535  dep AUCKLAND       14:40 arr CHRISTCHURCH   16?00


NZ539  dep AUCKLAND       15:40 arr CHRISTCHURCH   17?00


NZ547  dep AUCKLAND       17:00 arr CHRISTCHURCH   18?20


QF4147 dep AUCKLAND       17:30 arr CHRISTCHURCH   18:50


NZ557  dep AUCKLAND       18:30 arr CHRISTCHURCH   19?50


NZ553  dep AUCKLAND       19:30 arr CHRISTCHURCH   20?50


QF4155 dep AUCKLAND       20:00 arr CHRISTCHURCH   21:20


QF4161 dep AUCKLAND       22?00 arr CHRISTCHURCH   23:20

Incidentally, one can easily see (from the listing for Saturday) why people could get the idea that two contrailing jets are "racing" or flying in formation. QANTAS and Air New Zealand have flights leaving Auckland for Christchurch (southbound) at the same time at 10:00 and at 17:30, and leaving Christchurch (northbound) for Auckland (ANZ) and Rotorua (QANTAS) at 11:50. It's very likely then, that they will be in the sky close in time and space (but maintaining proper separation) over central New Zealand if they have been directed on to the same route by air traffic control. This coincidence doesn't occur in tomorrow's movements listing.