I would have thought so too but it was hard to see why they were there. Their orbits were irregular and didn't seem to have a pattern to them. And we did have a commercial aircraft orbit over us a couple of years back that had some issues but can't remember of what nature.
I would suggest If they were burning fuel for a aircraft related issue, the orbit would have most like been more regular, so on a easy to follow path incase bad stuff happens...
A Reddit user says it was a funeral flyby:
Thanks. I knew that the Wing Co had died, when you posted his name, but wouldn't have put the two together. I am part of a social media group that are informed of former and current RNZAF personnel dying.
Horses for courses. If I wanted something to escort night bombers & hunt enemy nightfighters, for example, it'd be a Mosquito every time. If I wanted something to do anti-shipping strike, it'd be the Beau, no hesitation.
Definitely on both counts. The RAF used the Mossie NF against the Luftwaffe nightfighters with great success. The RAAF used the Beau with great success against the Japanese in both the anti-ship and ground attack role.
I too had some in my younger days. Spitfire, F-4U, Boston - Havoc, Mossie, Beau, P-51, P-40, FW190 etc. Now I collect them in my flight sims.
Me too. Apparently there was more than one Orion in Darwin last week, as well as a B757. Maybe they've sent two Orions up, plus support tech crew and goodly supply of spares on the B757.
www.janes.com
Presumably, this will save a few pennies be reducing the need for airframe usage for training pilots and keeping them current.
Janes is somewhat behind the times. Sure this was announced a whiles back. I saw another post of theirs last night with Friday's date on the release and the news was about two weeks old.RNZAF receives CAE flight simulator for NH90 helicopters
Canadian company CAE announced on 19 October that it has handed over a flight simulator ordered by the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in August 2018 to help train...
Presumably, this will save a few pennies be reducing the need for airframe usage for training pilots and keeping them current.
While the P8 technologically is a massive improvement on the P3 if the RNZAF is to continue supporting the UN it mean only 3 other aircraft been available.
not sure what that has to do with my post... we all know vessels, airframes, vehicles etc can't be in two places at once...???
1 of the other 3 can be in the "other" place though...I think you may be over-estimating the availability rate of the current 60's era tech or under-estimating how many p8 hours the sims and medium range patrol craft will free up.
The airframes yah 60's era of tech... the rest not so much ;-)
Point being you need the 60s era tech to house, power and move the rest. We actually need 6 P3s just to have 3 flying at the moment which has become more and more of a feat as the years go on. There are valid reasons why we are finally replacing the frames rather than yet another "upgrade" otherwise we could just do this indefinately until they literally fall out of the sky. You can put on fresh socks, new laces and polish an old boot but you still end up with an old boot at the end of the day.
I am unsure why this is being said... over and over we know, we all know this... not sure why this is being repeated ...
Well actually, I replied to A4, you replied to me, remember, it's right there a couple of posts up. Is what inside a P3 not a repeat?
It depends on how good that boot was to start with. My dad has some Church's Chelsea boots he bought in the 60's, he's sent them back to the UK for a refurb a couple of times, the come back re-lasted, new liners, new soles and damn near as good as new.
www.airbus.com
